ERA BULLETIN — SEPTEMBER, 2019 The Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 62, No. 9 September, 2019 The Bulletin JOHN E. PAPPAS, 1943-2019 Published by the Electric Railroaders’ by Alexander Ivanoff Association, Inc. P. O. Box 3323 John Emanuel Pappas, ERA First Vice itation of the two remaining Illinois Terminal Grand Central Station New York, NY 10163 President and Associate Editor of Head- PCCs that were used during a reconstruction lights magazine, died on the morning of project on the Shaker Heights Line (one of For general inquiries, or Bulletin submissions, Monday, July 29, 2019 at the age of 75. He these cars is now preserved at the Connecti- contact us at had been battling cancer for almost a year. cut Trolley Museum). At the close of the bulletin@erausa. org John was a latecomer to the Electric Rail- 1970s, John moved to Texas where he or on our website at erausa. org/contact roaders’ Association, having joined in 2000. worked for Houston METRO for almost two He quickly rose to the position of First Vice decades before returning to Ohio where he Editorial Staff: President, a title he held for 10 years until his worked for several years as head of opera- Jeffrey Erlitz death. As Associate Editor of Headlights, his tions for the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Editor-in-Chief prolific content contributions since 2006 con- Authority. Ronald Yee tinued growing until he wrote and mostly It was his role as Senior Director of Sched- Tri-State News and photographed full issues himself. He collabo- ules for the New York City Transit Authority Commuter Rail Editor rated with Sandy Campbell on the multi-year that took John to New York City. After leaving Alexander Ivanoff “Rails to Rubber to Rail” series, followed by NYC Transit, John served as an independent North American and the single-feature issues on ERA’s Japan, consultant for numerous transit systems World News Editor Poland, and Germany tours, and culminating across the United States, including Sacra- David Ross with the 2018 issue focusing on the return of mento, San Francisco, Houston, and various Production Manager PCC Streetcars to El Paso, Texas. other agencies. John also consulted for NJ Copyright © 2019 ERA John had been a railfan from an early age, Transit on the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail pro- having grown up in Los Angeles, California ject. John made no secret of his ability to during the twilight years of the Pacific Electric help any transit system with its scheduling This Month’s interurban and Los Angeles Railway. It was woes. Cover Photo: that love of trains and electric traction, espe- Despite being from Los Angeles, John con- Flatbush Avenue & Fourth Avenue from Hanson Place. cially trolley buses, that helped set him on his sidered himself a citizen of the world. He was LIRR Flatbush Avenue career path of transit management. After a a prolific traveler, having visited all 50 states, terminal on the left. Fifth stint in the United States Army in Germany, parts of Asia, and most of Europe. John’s Avenue elevated train is stopped at the Atlantic Ave- John returned to the West Coast, working in wealth of information proved valuable on nu- nue station. c.1910. Un- San Francisco for transit consulting firms. merous ERA publications and could at a mo- derhill Photographers. If you were to ask John what his greatest ment’s notice recall the most trivial of infor- accomplishment was, he would proudly mation about a given system. boast that he was instrumental in setting up Unfortunately, John’s failing health curtailed the bus systems in the cities of Iowa City, many travels he wanted to undertake, includ- In This Issue: Iowa and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Four ing the 2019 ERA Annual Convention to the The Genesis of decades after leaving, Transit Director Brian Southwest. However, he managed to find the Dashing Dan — Litchfield recognized John for his role in set- strength in July to travel to Pittsburgh on a A New Jamaica ting up the network in Chapel Hill. private rail car charter with his close friend, John then went to work in Ohio. During a ERA Treasurer Michael Glikin. and the Main brief stint at the Greater Cleveland Regional John was a man of deep faith, attending Line Complete Transit Authority, John worked on the rehabil- (Continued on page 4) …Page 2 1 NEW YORKERA BULLETIN DIVISION —BULLETIN SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, 2019 2000 THE GENESIS OF DASHING DAN — A NEW JAMAICA AND THE MAIN LINE COMPLETE by George Chiasson (Continued from August, 2019 issue) THE WOODSIDE-WINFIELD CUT-OFF elevated rapid transit line (now the 7) to Corona. While the LIRR did have a corporate expectation that In fact it was the city’s initiative which blocked pro- most, if not all of its legacy grade crossings would ulti- gress on the LIRR relocation for a period far surpassing mately be addressed within city boundaries, after the that of Penn Station’s opening, though the railroad(s) so-called Atlantic Avenue Improvements and the con- had hoped to complete it at the earliest possible date. struction of Pennsylvania Station it was disinclined to The chief culprit in this regard became the long, slow take any initiative in this regard, if not to overtly search development of Queens Boulevard in its initial form. As for guidance (and/or financial participation) from munici- with Roosevelt Avenue, this was also in part built as an pal authorities. As demonstrated above the most press- entirely new main road (on the undeveloped Thomson ing need in this area after Penn Station’s opening in Avenue survey across Sunnyside) and partly trans- September of 1910 was the Main Line’s passage formed from the existing Thomson Avenue into Wood- through the former Queens County Village of Woodside, side, which involved a good bit of property condemna- which by this time had been transformed into a bustling tion and street reconfiguration. In addition the city led all residential and commercial neighborhood and was ripe design on the elaborate new LIRR overpass projected for renewed development. While this district was in defi- for “the Queens Boulevard” and a few others as well, all nite need of the LIRR’s presence, and the rest of the of which were subject to a public review for several rea- Main Line was already being expanded or rebuilt to pro- sons (including the aesthetic, as had been the case for vide for the anticipated operational intensity associated the North Side Division overpass at Main Street in with the Pennsylvania Tunnel & Terminal project, the Flushing). This served to bog down the eventual con- railroad would stand to gain in economic and operation- struction process all the more, while the actions of both al efficiency and the neighborhood in desirability, with a the city and the railroad were continuously subject to greater likelihood of profitable, stable growth were its oversight by the state’s Public Service Commission. As twin two-track main lines to be diverted to some of its that new arterial was created by enlarging the existent (then) more peripheral reaches. Again aided by its cor- Thomson Avenue, what resulted was a 3-section span porate parent, the LIRR was taking action to mitigate with ornate steel facing suspended between Beaux-Arts the costly, difficult operating environment of its original concrete piers, each adorned with arches intended for (1861) Main Line by designing the “Woodside-Winfield pedestrian passage, including the provision of space cut-off.” This was an entirely new “pre-packaged” and through the center span for the Manhattan & Queens grade-separated right-of-way across what was at that Traction trolley line to Jamaica. For its part, another time sparsely settled land along Woodside’s northerly contributing factor was lingering uncertainty regarding perimeter. Property acquisition for this new right-of-way the elevated rapid transit line that the city sought to add was actually begun as early as 1908 as a continuation to its new access network (eventually the joint IRT/BRT of transactions related to the Sunnyside Yard project, route to Corona and later Flushing), on which final de- with some survey work undertaken during the following sign and construction could not proceed (nor that of ex- year before the potentially massive endeavor entered a tending Greenpoint Avenue into the new Roosevelt Ave- period of municipally-induced abeyance. It was finally nue) until the landmark “Dual Contracts” agreements of re-started during 1912 in concert with the City of New March, 1913 were executed. Their consummation finally York’s thoroughfare initiative, which also relieved the granted all parties a meaningful fair weather window in LIRR (and by extension the Pennsylvania Railroad) of which to work on this multi-faceted project, and (as in all political and certain financial responsibilities. The Jamaica) the creation of a combination embankment initiative was a progressive concept aimed at improving and open cut for the new LIRR alignment began at last. public mobility, forwarded under New York Mayor Wil- Early in this project a larger though temporary station liam Jay Gaynor, who was a Democratic jurist voted into called “Woodside” was established with city and PSC office in 1909 as the pick of Tammany Hall, but proved permission for both the Main Line and North Side Divi- to be too much of a reformer to maintain their support. sion, off Woodside Avenue at Schroeder Place (now Through the same impetus, the city was planning to 60th Street at Woodside Plaza). The original stop was expand or convert several local streets into a continu- thus removed from a key construction site, being reposi- ous Queens Boulevard which would reach from the new tioned to a location which also made it easier for pa- Queensborough (a/k/a Blackwell’s Island) Bridge into trons to access the Corona trolley line of the New York the central areas of the borough.