TheNEW YORK DIVISION BULLETIN - FEBRUARY, 2009 Bulletin New York Division, Electric Railroaders’ Association Vol. 52, No. 2 February, 2009 The Bulletin HIGH-SPEED BROADWAY LOCAL SERVICE Published by the New BEGAN IN 1959 York Division, Electric BEGAN IN 1959 Railroaders’ Association, Fifty years ago, NYC Transit made the big- tion than the Hi-Vs they replaced, were able Incorporated, PO Box 3001, New York, New gest change in Broadway-Seventh Avenue to cut the running time so that it was practi- York 10008-3001. service since the subway opened in 1904. cally the same as the express trains, as th The 96 Street bottleneck was eliminated by shown in the following table: revising the schedule. Effective February 6, RUNNING TIME For general inquiries, 1959, trains no longer switched on the dou- contact us at nydiv@ Station Express Prior to Local Effective electricrailroaders.org ble crossover north of the station. All Broad- way trains were locals while Lenox Avenue February 6, February 6, or by phone at (212) 1959 1959 986-4482 (voice mail and Bronx trains operated on the express nd available). ERA’s track. 242 Street 0 0 website is This improved service could not be imple- 96th Street 27 25 www.electricrailroaders. org. mented until the platform extensions were Times Square 34 35½ completed and the new, faster cars were Editorial Staff: placed in service. The original platforms north Chambers Street 42 47 Editor-in-Chief: of Times Square just barely accommodated Bernard Linder Local service between 96th Street and News Editor: the 6-car locals with one HV reg (manually Randy Glucksman operated doors) at each end or 5-car locals South Ferry was increased by 92 percent. Contributing Editor: with only one HV reg car. At these stations, The operating officials finally eliminated the Jeffrey Erlitz the end door of the HV reg car was opened, congestion at the crossovers north of 96th but the center door remained closed. Street, a problem that had persisted since the Production Manager: David Ross Platform extensions at the local stations subway was opened. were nearly completed in 1958, but there An article, “The Impact of the IRT on New were problems at the express stations. At York City,” written by Clifton Hood and pub- 72nd Street, the track layout was rearranged lished in the Historic American Engineer- to make room for the extensions. The most ing Record, explains how the IRT was able th ©2009 New York difficult work was at the 96 Street station. to increase service by modifying the signal Division, Electric The only way to extend and widen the plat- system. In 1908, the company began to in- Railroaders’ forms was to move the local tracks and the stall a new signal system designed to in- Association, outside walls. A new mezzanine with stair- crease the number of express trains in ser- Incorporated rd ways to the street was built between W. 93 vice. When a train was in the station, the th st In This Issue: and W. 94 Streets. The 91 Street platforms original signal system held the next train in were not extended and the station was the block beyond the station. The system PCC Car closed on February 2, 1959. proposed by an expert, Bion Arnold, con- Research and When the new schedules went into effect sisted of several automatic speed control Development on February 6, 1959, 8-car Broadway locals devices that enabled trains to enter the sta- ...Page 2 operating on a 2-minute headway furnished tion block slowly rather than stop completely rush hour service. The R-21s and R-22s, in the next block. These time signals auto- which had higher acceleration and decelera- (Continued on page 18) NEXT TRIP: GRAND CENTRAL TERMINAL1 TOUR, FEBRUARY 21 NEWNEW YORK YORK DIVISION DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN - FEBRUARY,OCTOBER, 2000 2009 PCC CAR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT by Bernard Linder The PCCs were different from the older cars. Because ary 7, 1939, after which it was scrapped in the Avenue J they were quiet, smooth, and speedy, they provided sand pit. greater passenger comfort. A detailed description of the PCC MODEL B cars was published in the previous issue. The Committee ordered a prototype that was built by To compete with buses and automobiles, transit offi- Pullman in 1934 in accordance with the specifications cials decided to modernize their trolley fleets. In 1929, a developed by the Presidents’ Conference Committee. It group of 25 leading presidents of large street railways was in service on the Chicago Railway lines from July discussed methods of building a modern street car. At to September, 1934. At the September 24-27, 1934 the October, 1929 meeting of the Advisory Council, they American Transit Association’s Cleveland convention, agreed to develop a new type of car. Dr. C.F. Hirschfeld, 5200, 5300, Chicago’s Brill 4001, and Pullman 7001 Director of Research for the Detroit Edison Company, were exhibited. The Model B 5300 was shipped to was named President. Dr. Thomas Conway, Jr., Presi- Brooklyn by October 11, 1934, exhibited at Albee dent of the Cincinnati & Lake Erie Railroad, was in- Square on October 18, 1934, and placed in service on structed to study and report to these senior executives. Fulton Street the next day. Shortly afterwards, the car He was appointed Chairman at a meeting held in Chi- was transferred to the Flatbush Avenue Line. Subse- cago in December, 1929 at which the Presidents’ Con- quent tests revealed that the car’s braking system was ference Committee was formed. (The name “PCC” was faulty. Many years ago, your Editor-in-Chief’s supervisor derived from the initials of the committee.) Interested informed him that the car lost its brakes, which were railway companies and the manufacturers of cars and energized by 600 volts, when the pole dewired under equipment were asked to subscribe $500,000 in roughly the structure, probably at DeKalb Avenue and Broad- equal proportions. Because of the large sums spent way. The car performed just as poorly when its brakes perfecting the design, the PCC was nicknamed the Mil- were energized from the battery. Because of low battery lion Dollar Trolley Car. voltage, the lack of braking power was unable to pre- Research and development continued for several vent it from colliding with a truck that cut it off at Fulton years. Because Brooklyn & Queens Transit favored trol- and Furman Streets in 1935. The badly damaged car ley cars for heavily traveled lines, the company per- was repaired, but it never ran again. It was stored at formed most of the work. The Ninth Avenue Depot be- DeKalb Shop, dismantled there on June 16, 1938, and came the research laboratory and field tests were con- retired on November 4, 1938. ducted on Coney Island Avenue. Before ordering the After studying the prototypes’ performance B&QT or- cars, two prototypes were tested. dered 100 PCC cars, which ran well. The first car, 1001, The Edward B. Watson/Arthur J. Lonto collection is was delivered on June 1, 1936. At a tercentenary cele- our source for the following: bration parade, Progress of Surface Transportation, PCC MODEL A held in the evenings of June 5-6, 1936 on Surf Avenue, Car 5200 was built by the Twin Coach Company, a car 1001 was exhibited together with convertible 3713, bus manufacturer, in 1929. It was a Twin Coach bus a Broadway (Manhattan) stage coach, and a horse car. demonstrator mounted on standard trolley trucks. This On October 1, 1936, there was a ceremony at Park demonstrator was originally exhibited at the American Row just before the cars began revenue service on the Electric Railway Association Convention at Atlantic City Smith-Coney Island Line. Mayor LaGuardia cut the rib- in October, 1929. It arrived at DeKalb Shop on October bon in front of 1009, the first PCC to cross the Brooklyn 11, 1929, was exhibited at Borough Hall on November Bridge to Brooklyn. On the same day, 1027 was exhib- 12, 1929, and was placed in service on DeKalb Avenue ited at Albee Square. From October 1-4, PCCs were on November 13, 1929. This car, which was equipped exhibited for two days at Albee Square and two more with a passimeter (turnstile), seated 52 passengers. It days at Williamsburg Bridge Plaza. weighed 27,800 pounds and was 45 feet long and 8 Cars were delivered gradually in 1936-7 and were feet wide. It was exhibited at the Cleveland Convention placed in service on the following lines as soon as they of the American Transit Association, together with 5300, were delivered: from September 24-27, 1934, and operated on Cleve- ● Smith-Coney Island — October 1, 1936 land Railway’s lines. The car was returned to Brooklyn ● McDonald-Vanderbilt — December 14, 1936 in October, 1934. PCC trucks together with different ● Seventh Avenue — January 10, 1937 types of springs, motors, control equipment, gears, ● Erie Basin—January 18, 1937 brakes, and wheels were installed under the car, which ● Church Avenue — February 11, 1951 was operated mostly on Flatbush Avenue. Tests were The PCCs increased ridership by 33 percent. Of the discontinued in 1935 and the car was retired on Febru- (Continued on page 3) 2 NEW YORK DIVISION BULLETIN - FEBRUARY, 2009 PCC Car Research and Development ● Car bodies 1011, 1029, 1035, 1036, 1044, and 1054 were sold to the Brooklyn Day Camp in (Continued from page 2) Rockaway (Queens). They were converted to play 100 cars ordered from St. Louis Car Company on June houses and were painted bright colors. Bodies 24, 1935, one car was diverted to the Boston Elevated were transported April 18-19, 1957 Railway, where it was numbered 3001.