The ERA BULLETIN - OCTOBER, 2012 Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 55, No. 10 October, 2012 The Bulletin NEW YORK & QUEENS CARS QUIT 75 YEARS AGO Published by the Electric The first northern Queens surface transit depend on short-haul business instead. Railroaders’ Association, horse car line was Dutch Kills (31st Street), Deficits, which had been increasing for sev- Incorporated, PO Box 3323, New York, New which started operating in 1869. Within a few eral years, rose rapidly during and after York 10163-3323. years, several small horse car lines provided World War I because of the rising cost of la- service. They were leased and merged into bor and materials. But Mayor Hylan and the the Steinway Railway Company, which was other city officials insisted on keeping the For general inquiries, incorporated March 30, 1892. five-cent fare. contact us at bulletin@ erausa.org or by phone NY&Q’s predecessor started operating the In the early 1920s, IRT, which subsidized at (212) 986-4482 (voice Calvary Line in 1874. When the New York & NY&Q, was on the verge of bankruptcy, but mail available). ERA’s Queens County Railway Company was incor- was able to remain solvent by reducing its website is porated on September 16, 1896, it bought work force. It converted more than a thou- www.erausa.org. the Steinway Railway Company. In 1903, the sand cars to MUDC (Multiple Unit Door Con- Editorial Staff: Interborough Rapid Transit Company as- trol) and installed turnstiles in most of the Editor-in-Chief: sumed control of NY&Q by buying the majori- stations. The IRT Directors revealed that they Bernard Linder ty of its stock. The new company enjoyed a had already advanced $7 million to the trolley News Editor: virtual monopoly of surface transit in northern companies and could not afford to advance Randy Glucksman Contributing Editor: Queens, but still ran a deficit in every year additional funds. IRT allowed NY&Q to de- Jeffrey Erlitz since 1907. fault on a December 1, 1921 $5,000 interest This monopoly was short-lived; a few years payment due on a $1.5 million mortgage that Production Manager: later, railroads and rapid transit lines started NY&Q assumed when it absorbed the origi- David Ross operating in competition with NY&Q. On Sep- nal Steinway lines in 1896. The company tember 10, 1910, the Long Island Rail Road also defaulted on the next $45,000 interest started operating through service to Penn payment. A half-year later, January 15, 1923, Station. Commuters found that LIRR fur- IRT announced it could no longer subsidize nished a faster and more convenient trip than NY&Q, Long Island Electric, and New York & ©2012 Electric Railroaders’ two trolley cars and a ferry. Meanwhile, IRT Long Island Traction. The bondholders Association, was extending its subway and elevated lines promptly applied for receivership and the Incorporated into Queens. Subway trains started operating court ordered old Steinway routes separated to Vernon-Jackson Avenue on June 22, 1915 from NY&Q. and to Queens Plaza on November 5, 1916. S.W. Huff, Third Avenue’s President, and Service was extended to Astoria on February R.C. Lee, an insurance broker, were appoint- 1, 1917 and Alburtis Avenue (104th Street) on ed receivers of the Steinway Lines. They ap- In This Issue: April 21, 1917. Second Avenue elevated plied for a separate 5-cent fare, which was trains reached Astoria on July 23, 1917 and upheld by the court. All transfer privileges Development of th Alburtis Avenue (104 Street) on January 17, between the two companies’ lines were can- the Long Island 1918, BRT service was extended to Queens celled. Rail Road in the Plaza on August 1, 1920. Because the new On January 15, 1923, General Andrews Rockaways rapid transit lines operated on the same or was appointed receiver of NY&Q, which op- (Continued) parallel streets as the trolley, the latter lost erated the following lines: ...Page 2 most of its long-haul business and had to (Continued on page 4) NEXT TRIP: MTA-NYCT CONEY ISLAND1 SHOPS, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN - OCTOBER, OCTOBER, 2012 2000 THE GENESIS OF “DASHING DAN” Part One—Rapid Transit and Early Electrification on the Long Island Rail Road by George Chiasson (Continued from September, 2012 issue) THE LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD’S ATLANTIC As part of the process of restoring operations from DIVISION “RAPID TRANSIT” TRAINS Flatbush Avenue, LIRR instituted “rapid transit” train Though it was part of original terminal trackage used service as far as the Howard House, a wayside hotel by LIRR as early as 1836, the inner portion of the located at Alabama Avenue in East New York, on Au- Brooklyn & Jamaica (née “Atlantic”) main line, from the gust 13, 1877. Such trains traveled across the Atlantic “South” Ferry (located at the foot of Atlantic Avenue) to main line, on which double track was laid as far as East New York, was forcibly closed on September 30, Schenk Avenue, and shared the railroad with regularly 1861 due to a Brooklyn city ordinance (in effect but dis- scheduled passenger service to Jamaica station and puted since 1855) that prohibited the use of steam as points beyond. In November of 1878 a connecting rapid motive power inward of the East New York depot. As a transit shuttle was being offered from the Howard result all passenger trains from the Jamaica station House to “Van Wicklen’s” (a lumber yard at Linwood were diverted to a new terminal at Hunters Point in Street), and the double track then extended to this point Long Island City (previously opened on May 10, 1861), on July 26, 1879. As of August 29, 1880, the former with some schedules being maintained out of the sta- Brooklyn & Jamaica main line had been double-tracked tion at East New York for various destinations. Through all the way to Woodhaven Junction as part of the deal to this was formed the original (and surviving) LIRR “Main establish service to the Rockaways. Some rapid transit Line” from Jamaica to Long Island City by way of Wood- service was thus extended to the Woodhaven station th side. In 1877 the city of Brooklyn relented and agreed to (87 Street) until December 31 of that year, by which once again allow steam-drawn trains to run, but this time rapid transit trains to Van Wicklen’s were running time the Long Island Rail Road’s operations were termi- at intervals of as little as ten minutes in rush hours and nated at the a new surface level depot at Flatbush Ave- one hour or less all day, serving a multitude of “local” nue, while the trackage continuing to South Ferry stations en route in the grade-level median of Atlantic (including the 1844-built, stone-lined Boerum Hill tunnel Avenue. Half-hourly service to Woodhaven through the from Columbia to Boerum Streets) was not revived but day and evening was finally established on June 4, rather abandoned permanently. In addition, the 1884, then extended all the way to (old) Jamaica as of Douglass Street horse car line of the Atlantic Avenue May 9, 1887. By 1884 rush hour rapid transit service Railroad, which had succeeded the Long Island Rail between Flatbush and Van Wicklen’s was on an 8- Road on Atlantic Avenue between Fifth and Washington minute headway; by 1887 it was down to 7 minutes, Avenues when it was removed in 1861, ceded its track- and the Main Line just east of Jamaica (that shared with age back to the railroad (with which it was shared for a rapid transit service from Brooklyn) was double-tracked few years), then built its own set of tracks on the south as far as New York Avenue to handle the added traffic side of LIRR between the same two points in 1883. As burden. Station stops at that time included Flatbush Av- the St. John’s Place streetcar line, it was electrified by enue, Vanderbilt Avenue, Washington Avenue, Bedford 1896 and operated by Nassau Electric until it fell to the Avenue, Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn Avenue, Albany Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company in 1900. To enable Avenue, Schenectady Avenue, Rochester Avenue, LIRR to lay temporary tracks in the shared part of Atlan- Ralph Avenue, Rockaway Avenue, Manhattan Beach tic Avenue so its new tunnel to Flatbush Avenue could Crossing (alternatively known as East New York), How- be excavated, BRT agreed to temporarily reroute the ard House, Van Wicklen’s (Linwood Street), Cypress car line to Bergen Street in 1903. Later in time, opera- Avenue (Crescent Street), Union Course (Rockaway th tion of the 5/St. John’s Place streetcar route was as- Blvd.), Woodhaven (87 Street), Woodhaven Junction th sumed by successor BMT in 1923, then eventually by (96 Street), Clarenceville (Greenwood Avenue), Morris the city’s Board of Transportation in June, 1940, under Park (Lefferts Avenue), and Jamaica. which it was converted to bus operation in August, In a manner almost like the Ninth Avenue El in Man- 1947. It remains in 2012 as the B45 line of MTA New hattan, smaller, slower “0-4-0” engines (no pilot wheels, York City Bus, and still uses Atlantic Avenue (now four drivers, no trailing wheels, and no tank, all made by above the LIRR tunnel) from Flatbush to Washington the Baldwin Locomotive Works) were used when rapid Avenues. (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN - OCTOBER, 2012 The Genesis of “Dashing Dan” el was joined to the Rockaway Beach Branch on the upper, a separate stop created on the connecting track (Continued from page 2) and the original station at Woodhaven (87th Street) elim- transit service was first initiated, soon to be supple- inated entirely.