21-05-08 PHOTOS: Airport Run

Since visitors who why in tend to fly back out, a week after picking up someone from JFK airport I was involved with dropping the same individual off at JFK airport for their return flight to the west coast. With three people on hand, paying the AirTrain penalty was not particularly appealing so I suggested taking Uber to the Rockaway ferry terminal to take the scenic route to Manhattan. After dinner I proceeded back south via NJT, RiverLINE, PATCO and Amtrak. The full set of photos can be found here ( mirror ).

The Rockaway Ferry was started in 2012 as a way to connect the peninsula to downtown after Hurricane Sandy took out the A Train causeway over Jamaica Bay. With subsidized fares, a scenic route and $3 beers, the Rockaway Ferry quickly became one of the best deals in the city and since my friend had never been to New York City before I figured it would be a fun tourist activity.

Unfortunately the weather was a bit cold and grey and they weren't selling any beer on board, but we still had a great time.

Although our destination was Central Park we decided to connect with the A train at Chambers by walking down to the Battery and then up past Wall St.

The expensive PATH headhouse and Fulton TC oculus were both still a thing.

Catching an R46 A-train at Chambers with #6070 in the lead and then a video of it leaving 59th St.

19-10-11 PHOTOS: Staten Island Railway

The Staten Island Railway is an odd duck to say the least. Ostensibly still an FRA railroad, it is run more like a transit system with no connection to the national network and a variety of FRA waivers. While the equipment consists of NYCTA St. Louis Car R44's, the line is equipped with Baltimore and Ohio Color Position Lights and cab signals? This strange situation has its roots stretching back to the 19th century, but today most of my interest is centered on the B&O CPL based signaling system and to a lesser degree, the R44s. I have ridden the SIR on two other occasions, the first in 2000 when I only had a film camera, the second in 2004 when I went over to see what was up with the re-signaling project. A required secondary trip for the SIR is the related Staten Island Ferry to be prepared for the requisite photos of the Statue of Liberty and downtown when you check out the full set of photos here (mirror). In addition I went out to get pictures of remaining classic interlocking towers on the IND Fulton St line.

Kicking things off south of Baltimore early in the AM, the brutalist BWI Airport Rail Station has been rebuilt as a coffee shoppe.

 

 

Proceeding to downtown Manhattan via the PATH, I emerged from the underground at the new Fulton Transportation center and its billion dollar view of the sky.

Taking photos of the defunct Central Railroad of New Jersey Communipaw terminal is perhaps the one rail related thing one can do on the Staten Island Ferry.

The free Staten Island Ferry is the most affordable way to get photos of the Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan.

Most of the 10 tracks at the St George ferry terminal are used for mid-day car storage. The 61 R44 cars, built by St. Louis Car in 1973, make up the entirety of the fleet. #400 shown here, is not the class leader as their numbering starts with #388.

The 290 NYCTA cars were retired in 2010 due to a surprise discovery of frame cracks and corrosion. With a lighter duty schedule and different maintenance regime the SIR cars were not affected and are now approaching their 50th year in service. Here numbers 392, 450 and 446 can be seen at the railroad east end of the station platform waiting their next call to service.

TOWER B was constructed by the B&O around 1952 and housed a GRS N-X type interlocking panel to control the St. George terminal and eventually the other end of the line in Tottenville. Although the 2004 CTC project consolidated dispatching functions in a new TOWER A built on the other side of the terminal, the terminal interlocking logic inside the original tower was not replaced and TOWER B still serves as a alternate control center with a replacement panel interface.

Since forward views from the SIR cars are limited to a peephole, frequently blocked by the crews, I didn't have much to do until I arrived at my destination of Huguenot. Here we can see #400 passing by the eastbound signal at WOLF interlocking, approaching the signal at POND interlocking displaying a Clear signal indication.

13-07-05 PHOTOS: JZ HD

Two years ago I set out on a hunt to catch the R42's running on the JZ and was rewarded with a full round trip, rare for the mid-day hours. Unfortunately with old camera with its 1GB memory cards was only capable of recording 20 minutes of 480p video so when this year it was announced that the R32's were going to spend their Summer on the Jamaica line I went out with my new camera to get some full line videos in HD. I will save those videos for another post, but for now let's check out the stills and shorter videos that I gathered during the July 4th holiday week.

You can find the full set of photos here and for the record Chuchubob attended this trip with me and I would like to thank him for his participation.

We begin at Chambers Street, where a moment of inattention caused us to miss an R32 C train and have to settle for an R160 trainset instead :-(



Transferring at Fulton I was surprisingly disappointed to wind up catching one of the few remaining R42 trainsets as opposed to an R32! Only in the Summer eh? What's the difference? Build Quality!

Into the sun this was mostly a video trip, but I did catch this R32 B train at Myrtle Ave.

Staring down the single Slip switch at Broadway Junction.

Another of the R42 trainsets rounding the Cypress Hill curve.

Our outbound R42 trainset at the Jamaica Center.

Due to trackwork, outbound trains were running express from Myrtle to Broadway Junction. The initial run on this section was slow as balls, but a followup run after the workers had gone, but before the GO was lifted resulted in a rare millage express trip.

My clean windows filming platform waiting to relay at Broad St for the trip back to the Jamaica Center.
 

 Inbound J160 seen while crossing the Willy B for the third time that day. With a roll of video already in the bag i was able to go back to stills for the return trip to Broadway Junction.

Before we are even off the ramp we are passed by an inbound M160.

Our J32 continuing on to the Jamaica Center.

Outbound train of R143's on the L at Broadway Junction.

East New York Yard with R42's and R32's galore.

What a lineup!

04-08-20 CLASSIC PHOTOS: Staten Island Railroad

In mid-2024 the Staten Island Railroad re-signaling project was well under way and I figured it would be worthwhile taking a ride down to Totenville to see what photos I could get. The answer to that latter question was "not many" ( mirror ), but a good time was still had by all.

Starting things off on the Staten Island Ferry I managed to score the MV John F. Kennedy and its famed open air promenade. This vessel would remain in service until 2021 before being purchased by SNL cast members Pete Davidson and Colin Jost in 2022 for use as a floating entertainment facility.

Of course the Andrew J. Barberi was running because it always is.

Because the MTA had yet to crack down on the practice, my friend and I did the hack where we walked to the Tompkinsville station to avoid the faregates at Saint George. Of course the primary reason was to get pictures of the signaling changes along that segment of the line. In 2004 the AIR's R44 fleet was also just kinda old and not disastrously old. Here is an outbound train seen from above south of the St. George tunnel.

Built by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the SIR used mostly B&O color position light dwarf signals with a single "high" mast heading into the St. George terminal. Most of the line used single direction automatic block system rules with interlockings only around the St. George and Tottenville terminals. The new signaling, seen below with the blue plastic covers, would convert the line to bi-directional operation with cab signals and wayside signals only at interlockings. However the B&O CPL "style" of signal would be retained, even if the MTA had to purchase PRR style hardware to implement it.

It seems that quite a few people were aware of the fare hack, which is why the MTA ultimately installed faregates at Tompkinsville.

Here is an example of an automatic block B&O CPL dwarf signal installed on the line during the last re-signaling in the 1950's. Because B&O CPL dwarfs use the same signal aspects as the "high" signals, there was little risk of confusion using dwarfs where a high signal might normally be employed. A replacement CPL dwarf on a stick mount can be seen in the foreground.