11-05-06 VIDEOS: Let's Ride NYC Subway Episdoes 8 - J Train Westbound

Anyone who just saw my R42 trip post is already familiar with the story of how I caught an R42 leaving Manhattan in the morning and then managed to ride it all the way out to Jamaica and back. In fact you have probably seen a few of the videos from that run that I embedded in the photo essay. Well it simply wouldn't be fair to let all those other deserving videos just sit lonely on YouTube without some bit of promotion.

This post will cover the first of two "Let's Ride" episodes westbound from the Jamaica Center to Broad Street. However unlike some of my other "Let's Ride" episodes these playlists are not complete records of the entire line as the mostly local J train would be a downright bore as it trundled from local stop to local stop. So therefore the video coverage is limited to special events like interlockings and junctions as well as the tunnel sections of the line.

So here we have the entire playlist for the Westbound Episode 8



We begin leaving Jamaica Center and traveling to Stuphin Blvd. Here you can see the brightly lit 1980's tunnel and the distance between Jamaica Center and the crossover that trains terminating there used to cross tracks. Jamaica Center was not intended as the lines terminal, it just turned out that way due to funding cuts, so the interlocking wasn't intended to serve a terminal. Therefore instead of being right at the end of the platform it is a good distance down the tunnel. This is a major factor limiting tph on both the E and J/Z lines.



Here we have the nice line run from Stuphin Blvd to 121st St through the deep bore tube under the LIRR tracks. At the end I terminated the video early because we had to slow down for the trackwork at 121st St.



Here we see the east end of Broadway Junction as we depart Alabama Ave.



Now we see the west end of Broadway Junction in the eastbound direction as we travel to Chauncey St. Can anybody explain why with a straight track and no trains ahead of us this service is SO PAINFULLY SLOW??!! In Philly the MFL hits 50 mph on similar stretched of track...and that was even prior to the rebuild!!



Ah, here is the best video of the bunch. The J train switches to the express track and makes a timed meet with an inbound M train at Myrtle Ave just as the M train is switching onto the local track previously used by the J. Give it a second look, its amazing.



That money shot is followed by a second as my train hits the express run between Mrytle and Marcy Ave's. Unfortunately we get creamed by an speed restriction coming into Marcy.



In the longest video of the series we travel up and over the Williamsburg Bridge to Essex Street. At least we are traveling faster than the traffic.



In the tunnel now, Essex to Bowery through the re-signaled portion of the line.



Bowery to Canal Streets.



Canal to Chambers. This is the station where loop service would branch off to the Manny B.



Twisting and turning Chambers to Fulton.



And finally Fulton to Broad. Hope you enjoyed the trip, stay tuned for the eastbound episode tomorrow.