TheNEW YORK DIVISION BULLETIN - MAY, 2011 Bulletin New York Division, Electric Railroaders’ Association Vol. 54, No. 5 May, 2011 The Bulletin TWO ANNIVERSARIES— Published by the New DYRE AVENUE AND NASSAU STREET York Division, Electric Railroaders’ Association, 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF DYRE from the same terminal five minutes later and Incorporated, PO Box 3001, New York, New AVENUE SERVICE the first revenue train followed at 11:56 AM. York 10008-3001. On May 15, 1941, IRT trains started operat- There was no midnight service when gate ing in the Bronx on the former New York, trains started running in 1941. Two-car trains Westchester & Boston Railway right-of-way. provided shuttle service until through service For general inquiries, began in 1957. Transit Authority statistics contact us at nydiv@ Northeast Bronx residents were finally able to erausa.org or by phone enjoy rapid transit that was promised, but indicate that fares were always collected at at (212) 986-4482 (voice delayed for several years. each station and by Conductors on the trains. mail available). The When the IND Concourse Line was built, It is believed that passengers deposited their Division’s website is the City expected to extend it via Burke Ave- fares in the turnstiles at the stations during www.erausa.org/ rush hours and that the Conductors collected nydiv.html. nue and Boston Road to Baychester Avenue. But the City ran out of money during the De- fares on the shuttles when riding was light. Editorial Staff: pression and the line was never built. It At first, riding remained nearly constant be- Editor-in-Chief: chose the cheaper alternative, rehabilitation cause no new housing was built during World Bernard Linder War II. The area was built up rapidly during News Editor: of the right-of-way to accommodate IRT cars. Randy Glucksman The railroad, which was still intact, was con- the postwar building boom and riding in- Contributing Editor: verted to a feeder line to the White Plains creased sharply from 1952 to 1969, after Jeffrey Erlitz Road Line at E. 180th Street. The 11,000 volt which it decreased slightly. TH a.c. power supply and the catenary were re- 80 ANNIVERSARY— Production Manager: David Ross placed by 600 volt d.c. power supply to the NASSAU STREET third rails. Also installed were signals similar The Nassau Street Line opened on May 30, to the other signals on the transit system. 1931. It was the last line built under Contract Because steel cars were not available, the #4, which was signed on March 19, 1913. In Board of Transportation decided to rehabili- 1922, BMT filed a $30 million damage suit ©2011 New York tate 20 surplus wooden gate cars that were because the City delayed building the line. Division, Electric operating on the old elevated lines. Freshly The 1930 report by the Special Master was in Railroaders’ painted 1581-7, 1589-1600, and snow plows favor of the City. A year later, the Federal Association, 107 and 1580 were assigned to the line. Thir- Court did not reach a decision on the Mas- Incorporated teen years later, March, 1954, they were re- ter’s report. placed by Hi-Vs in the 3657-3754 group. In The 4,822-foot tunnel, which cost $10 mil- In This Issue: October, 1956, Steinway cars 4025-36, 4573, lion, opened at noon without any ceremony. A History of the and 4756 were assigned to this line. They The first train was a Jamaica train and the were in service until through service began next was a Culver. A Train on May 4, 1957. At 3 PM, Mayor Walker drove a special ...Page 2 The first train, an official train with the train from Chambers Street to Broad Street Mayor and City officials on board, departed and back to Chambers Street. On board the from E. 180th Street at 11:21 AM May 15, train were BMT, Transit Commission, and 1941. A second official four-car train departed (Continued on page 6) NEXT TRIP: BALTIMORE/WASHINGTON1 WEEKEND, MAY 21-22 NEWNEW YORK YORK DIVISION DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN OCTOBER, - MAY, 2011 2000 A HISTORY OF THE A TRAIN by George Chiasson th GENESIS OF THE A TRAIN: PART ONE-THE NINTH 30 Streets was what had provided the economic incen- AVENUE ELEVATED IN MANHATTAN tive to offer the faster, traffic-free alternative that an ele- Manhattan’s First Rapid Transit Line, 1866-1875 vated railway could present. The Ninth Avenue Elevated, as originally opened un- As might be expected of such bold yet neophyte tech- der the auspices of the West Side & Yonkers Patent nology, operational problems impeded the company’s Railway Company, has the distinction of being the very ability to achieve financial success and the line sus- first rapid transit installation on the North American con- pended service on November 15 of the same year. Sub- tinent, following initial establishment of the world’s first sequently it entered bankruptcy and was sold off to subway in London, England in 1863 by just seven bondholders, thereby reorganizing as the West Side years. Even so, it had been a long financial road for the Patented Elevated Railway Company. This concern ac- inventor, Charles T. Harvey, from incorporation in July, quired a handful of diminutive steam-powered “dummy” 1866 to construction, which began in July, 1867, to the engines (steam engines with a passenger car shell) and first practical demonstration on December 7, 1867, used them to haul the three existing cars, discarding its which consisted of Mr. Harvey riding a single truck on a original cable-powered propulsion entirely. This enabled short stretch of track above the sidewalk of Greenwich two trains to be operated simultaneously, consisting of Street, being pulled along by a cable. By mid-1868 one dummy engine and one car each, when service there were two blocks of single-track elevated structure was resumed on April 20, 1871. To enable them to pass each other, sidings were installed at each end of the along Greenwich Street, from Battery Place (Bowling th Green) to Cortlandt Street in Lower Manhattan (a loca- still-single-track line at Dey and 29 Streets. Though a tion now occupied by the World Trade Center site), with step in the right direction, multiple financial entangle- one cable-powered car atop that was built by the John ments of the original franchise proved fatal and the Stephenson works of New York City. A trial run was company again reorganized as the New York Elevated made for the Board of Directors (and investors) on July Railroad in December, 1871. After this time its fortunes 3, and over the next two years the line was extended up briefly stabilized, and additional station stops were es- Greenwich Street to Ninth Avenue, then Ninth Avenue tablished in 1872, which helped to attract more riders as all the way to W. 29th Street. well as expand the “culture” of the burgeoning Manhat- When passenger service finally commenced on Feb- tan elevated railway. Each consisted of simple wooden ruary 14, 1870 it consisted of three cable-drawn cars platforms reached by perfunctory stairways and were th opened at Watts Street, about midway up the route, on shuttling between two stations (Dey Street and 29 th Street), with the cables drawn by stationary steam en- May 6 and Little W. 12 Street, where the el turned from gines at four wayside locations. From a practical stand- Greenwich Street onto Ninth Avenue, on June 17. In point, its purpose was mainly to haul suburban commut- addition the three original cable-drawn cars of the West ers between the Financial District and the terminal of Side & Yonkers Company were replaced by the first four the Hudson River Railroad (later known as the Hudson “Shadbelly” coaches, which had a low center of gravity Division of the New York Central Railroad) which was to allay fears they might wobble onto the paving blocks then on W. 30th Street just west of Ninth Avenue. As below. As more new cars were delivered over the next opened, the railroad had been required to use teams of few years, train lengths were eventually extended from horses, and not steam engines, to draw its trains north one to as many as three cars each. from the original terminal at Chambers Street to 30th Extension work to the initial segment was already un- Street, which made for a long, slow trip through the derway at the northern end, but on August 15, 1872 the West Side of Manhattan to start or end a journey that first additional piece of the existing line was placed in was potentially much longer. To put things further in per- operation by a few short blocks from Dey Street to a spective, the Hudson River terminal at 30th Street was new station at Morris Street. An intermediate station and located at what at the time could be considered an edge siding were also added at Franklin Street (between the of the city, and bore absolutely no relationship to the Dey and Watts Street stations) on January 21, 1873 and another station opened at Houston Street (between area presently in the shadow of Penn Station (a plot th that wasn’t even surveyed for such purpose until 1903), Watts and Little W. 12 Streets) on November 3, 1873. At the north end, service was pushed farther up Ninth but rather was associated with a predecessor right-of- th th way of the former West Side freight line that is being Avenue from 29 to 34 Street, where a new platform and siding were located, on July 30, 1873.