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| My railfanning in NYC yesterday (5/10/06) LONG (252213) | |||
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My railfanning in NYC yesterday (5/10/06) LONG |
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Posted by FYBklyn1959 on Thu May 11 14:30:19 2006 Warning: This post may be long and rambling :)I did travel over 2000 miles round-trip for the express purpose of riding NYC subway trains. No sacrifice is too great :) (Even getting up before 3 AM) I should mention that I was able to make the trip only because I had a credit from jetBlue from a cancelled trip from last year, that I had to use before May 25th (although I think I only had to book the trip by 5/25, not necessarily travel by then, unlike some airlines (coughAmerican A little background: As some of you know, I was born and raised in NYC and moved to L. A. when I was 17. At that time, I had ridden every line in the subway system, meaning I had seen every station (or at least passed by them on an express). Or so I thought. A few years after I moved to L. A., I discovered to my horror that I had never been to 207th St on the A. Had I realized that before I moved, I could've easily taken care of that. I made several visits to NY in the 80s and 90s, but I never had an opportunity to got to 207th. Meanwhile, the Archer Ave lines opened in 1988, and the 63rd St line opened in 1989 (partially) and was completed 13 years later, so I had more lines to cover. So when this opportunity arose, I figured I'd cover those routes, so I'd once again have been to all of the system (and the way the SAS is coming along, I may never have to do it again) :) So my goals were: A to 207th 63rd St (F) Archer Ave (both (E) and (J) ) In addition, I would try to ride the three classes of cars that had been introduced since my last visit in 1999: R-142, R-142A and R-143. I knew I would take AirTrain to and from JFK, so I decided I would start out with the Howard Beach brandh to the A, and end with the Jamaica branch coming from Sutphin/Archer. So my planned schedule was as follows: Airtrain to Howard Beach (A) to 207th (A) to 14th St (L) to Union Sq (R143) (4) or (5) to Brooklyn Bridge (R142) (6) to 33 St (R142A) Break for lunch, hopefully at the White Castle/Church's I ate at in 1999, which I thought was on 5th Av near 34th St (I would take the M34 from Park Av to 5th) Then (F) at 34 St to Continental (E) to Jamaica Center (J) to 121st St (J) back to Sutphin/Archer and Airtrain to JFK My flight was due in around 8:30 AM, my goal was to be at JFK by 5:00 for my 7:00 return flight. It was on time more or less, and I was off to Airtrain. Airtrain has to have one of the world's greatest railfan windows. The only comparable one I've been on is MetroMover in Miami, except MetroMover is 100% elevated, while AirTrain has a surface segment and a brief subway, under a runway or taxiway. I got to the n/b platform at Howard Beach at 9:24, the same time that a n/b A was due in. There was no train in the station, and no indication that I had just missed one (and nothing coming down the tracks either). Finally, around 9:33 it showed up. I was hoping for a RFW, but it was an R-44 (North motor 5206). As I got on, a s/b A arrived which was an R-32 :( Oh well, I'd have a shot at an R-32 later on. There were a few seats available on 5206, but I chose to stand (since I had been sitting for almost 3 hours on a plane). It started to fill up and by Broadway Junction we were almost at capacity. There was a C at Bway Jct which pulled out just before we did. We passed him at Rockaway, but then ran into timers (I guess) and he caught up with us at Ralph. After Utica, we dusted him though. We arrived at Jay St and after a minute or so, the C/R announced that we were being held due to a C that was down at Broadway-Nassau. At that point, I bailed and was going to take an F to West 4th and pick up the A there. After another few minutes, there was a station announcement that the A was going to run on the F to West 4th. Yay! My very own diversion! So I reboarded the A (which was slightly less crowded after several others had bailed). Shortly thereafter, we crossed over to the F and were on our way. This was a treat for me, as I hadn't been on this part of the F since 1972. I knew that switching back to the 8th Av tracks south of West 4th would commit us to the local until 59th. I was wondering if we would run express on the local, but we made all stops (probably since there was a gap in C service). However, once we arrived at 59th, I wondered if we would continue local to 125th. I know the Central Park dash isn't what it used to be, but I wasn't in the mood for all those stops. A train of Hippos on the D (north motor 2610) arrived, and I briefly considered boarding it and getting the A back at 125th, but he closed up and left before I could do so. We were off a bit later, and to my delight, we switched back to the express track. 2nd good decision I made :) To top it off, as we passed 103rd, what do I see but the Hippo making the stop there! Boy, I would've blown it if I had gotten that D. We got to 207th without further incident, and the other crew charged up and left immediately. Another A came in right away, and I took it down to 14th. Then off to the L, where I got an R-143 which apparently was only going to Myrtle/Wycoff (I think I remember hearing about a midday GO), but since I was only going to Union Square, I could care less. I had designed my plan to be flexible, so once I was on the Lexington side, a 6 arrived first and I grabbed it. I was tempted to try to stay on around the City Hall loop, but I chickened out. Interestingly, the 6 arrived back at the n/b platform at the same time that I crossed over. Shortly a 4 arrived, which I took to Grand Central. At that time, I needed a comfort break, so I left the system and used the facilities in GCT next to the main dining level. Since I was there, I looked for the transit museum store, but couldn't find it ( admittedly I didn't look that hard). I still wanted to get to the White Castle for lunch, so I went back in, took the 7 to 5th Av, then got a M2 Limited bus to 33rd & 5th. Alas, the White Castle had either closed (there was a building being renovated on the main level, maybe it had been there), or I was weong about the location. I finally settled for a Subway (appropriately enough) on 28th and 5th. (this morning, I consulted the White Castle web site and found that their only Manhattan location is on 8th Av and 36th St. Of course yesterday I didn't have benefit of the Internet, and it never occured to me to check beforehand. Oh well) After lunch, I resumed my journey by taking the M23 to 23rd & 6th, then boarding the F. There was a post recently about cops riding the trains through the tunnels instead of just manning the booths at the portal stations. Sure enough, one boarded at Lexington and entered the (unlocked) operator's cab. He stayed on at Roosevelt Island and got off at Queensbridge (presumably to return to Manhattan). At Continental, I got off to wait for the E. I was hoping I wouldn't get one of those rare R-46 Es (like the last time I rode the E in '99), but happily, an R-32 set led by 3862 soon arrived. I rode to Jamaica Center, then went downstairs for the J. I realized that this was the first time I had been on the R-42s since GOH, as I never had occasion to ride the Eastern Division since I moved from NYC (though I might have rode R-42s on the D between 1978 and 1981, don't recall if 42s were on the D back then. The original pla was to just ride to 121st St to cover the Archer segment, since I had ridden the J back in the day (all the way to 168th St), but I was ahead of schedule, so I decided to ride all the way to Broadway Junction. I crossed over to wait for the n/b J. And waited. And waited. I was still in good shape timewise for returning to JFK, but I was a bit concerned that something had happened to jack up the J. Meanwhile, L trains were coming and going (including 2 R-42 sets and the train I had ridden earlier), dumping a bunch of HS kids on the e/b J platform. Fortunately, they were well-behaved (for the most part). I decided if the J hadn't arrived by 3:30, I would go downstairs for the A to Howard Beach, and ride the Jamaica leg of AirTrain some other time. But the J did eventually arrive, but it was crowded already, and with the kids piling on, it was crush loaded (so I let it go). I heard the c/r call out a battery run (it was stopping at Alabama Av (probably more for the benefit of any ENY yard/depot employees which might be getting off there), then non stop to Cresent (flagging Cleveland St and Norwood Av, since Van Siclen is closed for rehab. The next J came quickly, and we didn't get stuck behind it due to the battery run. I also had a clear shot at the RFW (on the E, a young couple was there, so I stood back at a respectable distance). Got off at Sutphin, got the Airtrain, and was back at JFK in plenty of time for my flight back to Florida. Looking back, I am very glad I did this, not just the train riding, but being back in the city of my birth. I had not been in NYC for 6 years and 10 months (to the day), the longest time between visits since I moved away. Hopefully, it won't be another almost 7 years before my next visit (though I doubt I would be coming to ride the SAS stubway) :) For you car number buffs, here is the breakdown. Where possible, I have listed the entire consist, with the car I rode in bold Airtrain Terminal 6 to Howard Beach: 209 (A) Howard beach to 207th St: R44 N-5206/7/9/8,5310/11/13/12-S (A) 207th St to 14th St: R44 S-5474/5/7/6,5390(I think)/1/3/2-N (L) 8th Av to Union Square: R143 S-8264/3/2/1,8149/50/51/52-N (6) 14th St to Brooklyn Bridge: R142A S-7571/2/3/4/5,7640/39/38/37/36-N (4) Brooklyn Bridge to Grand Central: R142 N-7161/2/3/4/5,1121/2/3/4/5-S (7) Grand Central to 5th Av: R62A S-1681/82/83/84/85,2034,2035,2032,2055,1989,1979-N (bus) M2 Limited (run 21) 1993 Orion V 240 5th Av/42nd St to 5th Av/ 33 St (bus) M23 (run 16) 2002? New Flyer D60HF 5606 23 St/Park Av to 23 St/6 Av (F) 23 St/6 Av to Continental Av: R46 N-6014/5/7/6,5526/7/9/8-S (E) Continental Av to Parsons/Archer: R32 N-3862/3521,3514/5,3437/6,3411/10,3814/5-S (J) Parsons/Archer to Broadway Junction: R42 S-4868/9,4723/2,4642/3,4860/1-N (J) Broadway Junction to Sutphin/Archer: R42 N-4834/5,4805/4,4852/3,4842/3-S Airtrain Jamaica to Terminal 6: S-105/107-N (I assume JFK is the south terminal for Airtrain) Boy that was long...k....whew (LOL) |
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