08-05-25 PHOTOS: NYC Subway Vanishing Railfan Windows

Its been a month or so since I last posted some photos. I'm not falling behind on the processing, that's actually accelerated, but its the writeup for this specific photo set that I have found particularly daunting so I have found a few free hours to pound it out all for my precious readers.

Having many painful regrets about when the redbirds vanished, over the past year I have done my utmost to document the various railfan window enabled lines on the NYCS before they vanish forever able become useless. Here is one of my first major trips to the city I took last June when I still had someone to stay with. My targets were such endangered species as the Brighton Beach Line, the South Ferry Loop and VALLEY interlocking.

There's going to be a lot of pictures here so hold onto your hats. The Brighton Line pics as well as all of the other stuff I took on the NYCS, LIRR and Amtrak that weekend can be located at:

http://acm.jhu.edu/~sthurmovik/Railpics/08-05-25_NYCS_VANISHING_RFW/-Thumbnails.html

I'll post up some of the VALLEY interlocking pics in a later post.

Anyway, on with the show.

On the early morning Amtrak train to NYC I caught a freight train on the Trenton Line at SHORE interlocking with its mainline doubleslip switch.

  
Here are GRUNDY and MIDWAY. interlockings with their still standing towers towers.

My primary reason for this trip was to ride a Slant up the concourse. Not much to photograph there, but I did get a pic inside one R "Slant" 40 #4343.

Riding the B all the way from the Grand Concourse to the Brighton line involved a trip across the Manny B.

Once there I encountered an inbound Slant B in the below grade portion of the line.





Here are a few videos from the trip down the Brighton starting off with a B train passing through DeKalb interlocking eastbound from the Manny B.



B at Kings Highway interlocking eastbound.  The rad flags were for a GO closing the local track between here and Brighton Beach.



At Brighton Beach interlocking Approach medium leading to a stop and proceed? What kind of wacky signaling is this o.0

View of the famous R 'Slant" 40 "Porch" at Brighton Beach.

Slants, longwise.  These are probably the best Railfan Windows ever.

Slants and normals mingling at Brighton Beach.

Coney bound R40M B trainset passing a local train of R68's on the Q.

The R68's on the Q did get to have a little fun on the express track thanks to a GO.

Wonderful early summer foliage on the Brighton.

More slants approaching Kings Highway

Nice station house makes up for the terrible Q-68.

Kings Highway interlocking northbound. with Clear signals on both the local and express tracks.

Who again was a big fan of the mini-tunnels?

Moving on to the South Ferry Loop, here's a nice view of the east end of the platform showing the hold signal for the gap fillers.

Loop with a R62 #2425 pm a (1) Train routing.

Filling the gap.

Looking back on the loop platform.  The inner track is used by short turn <5> trains and, previously, the Bowling Green Shuttle. 

 Here's a video I took of a trail departing the loop.



Ok, moving on there were lots of mixed R32/38 sets on the A, not the rust differential!

C-38's at 168th Street.

R46's on the move at Kingsbridge.

This rather unpleasant lady took issue with me taking a photo of the W 4TH ST tower.

Video from the front of an R42 on an Express A run as it runs from 145th St to 125th St. on the 8th Ave line.

 
Another video taken from the front of an R32 on the E running through the interlocking complex between Forest Hills and Union Turnpike.


Van Yard at Flatbush terminal WAS endangered, but that's to the economic crisis it should be safe for years to come :-P

Riding the Atlantic Ave line wasn't the same without M-1 cars :-( but I got some good pics of DUNTON tower.

As well as JAY.

LIRR MP15 at the Morris Park yard.

Arriving Hempstead shittle at Valley Stream.

Pair of main line trains blasting through at speed with M-7 7159 on the inbound and #7321 on the outbound.

I actually stayed overnight in the city with a friend and the next morning caught an NJT local to Metropark to catch a ride from another friend.  APL-46 #4610 was providing the power that day.

See, I said I had a lot of stuff. Whew and I even decided not to post the Valley pics. See why I am so wary about getting my content up :-) Anyway, hope you enjoyed it, questions welcome.