BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

(SEE PREVIOUS POSTS/LINKS)
(truly sad that this line has been forgotten for decades; easily potential for restored passenger operations of some sort)

Excellent photos and information.........

https://forgotten-ny.com/2000/04/long-island-railroad-rockaway-branch/

["OZONE PARK"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Also of (related) interest..........

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IND_Rockaway_Line

["A"]

["S"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Continuing...........

Today's NY POST features an interesting two-page article, "PAY UP FOR MTA MELTDOWN"

One blurb: "AILING INFRASTRUCTURE"

".....MTA officials have sounded the alarm bells in recent years about the subway system's aging, decaying, often century-old infrastructure......"

(of course, this now "beaten to death" comment from "Jan-OH!")

"........you're talking about 100-year old electrical infrastructure, using cloth-covered wires that date back to our great-grandparents' era, that nobody ever went to update. We just cannot live with this anymore......"

"......in 2020, only 60% of the substations were in a state of good repair....they are failing faster than the MTA can repair them........""

Adjacent article details the "IBX" light rail plan, basically a mostly above-ground light rail version of the "G" line.

55 BILLION DOLLARS have been earmarked.....55 BILLION.....and, here, I thought that the MTA was "cash-strapped"!!

(another high-priced spawning ground for slithering, alien serpents from another galaxy!)

WHAT A FARCE!!!!!!!!!

Better to use that money to FINALLY complete the SAS, or bring back the long-dormant LIRR Rockaway Beach line as a new subway corridor.

Oh, the INSANITY of it all!!!!!!!!

"NYO"

(DAILY NEWS carries the following article:

"HEY G TRAIN, MOVE OVER!"

"Work starting on IBX line connecting Brooklyn, Queens"

".......this is going to be the first end-yo-end rapid transit line built in the city since today's 'G' line opened in 1937. The stations will be the first built in Brooklyn since the 1950s, and the first in Queens since we got to the end of the 'E' line in the 1980s....." quote via "JAN-OH!")

Not bad at all for what only amounts to ".....a mere bag of shells.....55 BILLION!!!"

"NYO"

["NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT SYSTEM"]

[W.B. Fishbowl]

That reminds me: In the '50's the "Tee-Yay" was "cash-strapped," yet Chairman Charlie Patterson used what money was on hand to purchase thousands of new "Eye-Are-Tee" cars to replace the Gibbs to "Lo-V" units. Plus (in his lifetime, as he died in 1962) the two "Bee-Em-Tee" / "Eye-En-Dee" sets (R-16 and R-27/30/30A). As well as upgrading the IRT's signaling system away from "horse and buggy" days to the modern era.

Probably the last execs there and at the "Em-Tee-Yay" to have any kind of common sense were Robert Kiley and David Gunn. It's been Crazyville ever since.

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

Agreed; IMHO, Robert Giley and David Gunn were, indeed, the "last of the breed", regarding "higher-ups" with a decent capacity of common sense.

Interestingly, unlike the "Lo-Vs", all the "Hi-V's" (except the three which survive) were scrapped outright, with none converted into work cars.

Also, look at how many different car classes were "poichased" for the BMT/IND, between 1964 ("Brightliners") and 1977 ("R-46")

Now, over on the IRT, there was just about a 20-year gap between the last "R-36" SMEEs, and the "R-62s" (aka "Silverboids")

Would have been interesting to see what new IRT cars might have looked like, from the later 1960s and into the 1970s.........

"NYO"

["ST. LOUIS CAR COMPANY"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Postwar "unification" (from Cudahy's "UNDER THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK"(1979).........

".........although TA and LIRR operations will be more closely coordinated in the years ahead, because of common MTA guardianship, there is no current plans to merge the two....."

".......overlapping union jurisdictions as one formidable bar to this unification, as well as the fact thast a merged LIRR and NYCTA could very well be subject to the gamut of Federal railroad regulation, and this, indeed, could be costly......"

"......however, both modern LIRR and MTA rolling stock now sport what MTA wags call "family resemblances" the TA's new R-44 and R-46 units are outwardly similar to the LIRR's 'Metropolitan' M-1......."

From: Stan Fischler's "UPTOWN, DOWNTOWN" (first edition)........

".........a new line to serve southeast Queens, using the LIRR's Atlantic Branch right-of-way........"

"NYO"

["MTA"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

"ALL IN THE FAMILY" (1972)............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?7649

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

[W.B. Fishbowl]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

Oddly, not long ago, I was thinking the same thing; the LIRR/MN "M-7s"/"9s" indeed have NO "family resemblance" to the current MTA subway rolling stock.

BUT, as you say, we can at least be thankful that they (including the "R-211s") do not resemble the hideous mutated serpents and monstrous, oversized "Dustbusters" seen in so many cities oversea.

BTW: do any LIRR/MN "M-3s" remain in "soivice", or have they all been retired?

From 1997 through about 2003, I frequently road "M-1"/"M-3" types out to Ronkonkama, to visit my best buddy from work, after he retired; I rode a new "7" once, not long before my friend's health began declining); this was on a westbound train, heading back to Penn........

"NYO"

["M-1"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

"TWILIGHT AT WOODSIDE" (2003)...........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?10499

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["TRANSFER TO 7 TRAINS"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Same location, two years later (2005)..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?46806

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

Here, though the old "Ms" are still running, the iconic "Redboaids" have now been replaced by the R-62 "Silverboids".

Also, it is hard to believe that the original "M-1s" predated the premier of "All In The Family" by a few years!

"NYO"

["M"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

A "cash-strapped" transit agency with FIFTY-FIVE BILLION earmarked for a glorified light rail line..........

IMHO, this "cash-strapped" agency should instead use the funds to FINALLY complete the Second Avenue "STUBway" (I mean, the "Toid Aven-uh' El has been gone from Manhattan for SEVENTY YEARS, now)

Or, rebuild and rehab the long-dormant ex-LIRR Rockaway Beach line, and utilize it as a new subway corridor.........

"NYO"

["MTA"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Speaking of a "cash-strapped" transit agency wasting money,,,,,,,,,,,

IMHO, I saw NO reason WHY so much money had to be wasted to "upgrade" the TSQ-GC shuttle; and, of course, there is always the loss of historical "elements".

Speaking of the shuttle, I often think of "Lo-Vs" running the line near the end of their service lives, had the shuttle not been automated in the early 1960s.

Recall, "Lo-Vs" working the Bowling Green-South Ferry shuttle until 1964.

Too, I always wondered why, after the "Lo-V's" were banished from the "main lines", and relegated to the "Toid Aven-uh" El up in "da Bronx" why solid trains of the 1938 "WF" cars were not used, instead of the "mixed" train, featuring the older, railroad-roof cars.

The "WFs", also, I can picture "woikin' " the TSQ shuttle through the 1960s, until they were retired in 1969.............

"NYO"

["SHUTTLE"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Recalling "da shuttle" through da years.........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?150747

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?75936

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?3209

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93039

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?8177

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?145519

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?45874

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["I USED TO WOIK ON THE SHUTTLE FROM TIMES SQUARE TO GRAND CENTRAL!"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Sad.......

Even the iconic TSQ shuttle is no longer the "shuttle" in the "traditional" sense; like the rest of the system, historical elements were lost, for the sake of "upgrading".

Why not leave well enough alone, you may well ask........

"NYO"

["SHUTTLE TRAINS TO TIMES SQUARE"]