BusTalk

[B53RICH]

Found these photos on Newsday with buses in the background.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/60-years-of-blizzards-on-long-island-1.203376



Manhattan, Dec. 26, 1947: A two-day snowstorm brings traffic to a halt. The storm Dec. 26 and 27 dropped a record 26.4 inches of snow fell. It was the record until a two-day storm Feb. 11 and 12, 2006 dumped 26.9 inches, weather records indicated. Credit: AP, 1947



Feb. 10, 1969, Manhattan: There are more pedestrians than cars on on normally busy Second Avenue near 45th Street, looking north the day after a blizzard covered the city. Credit: UPI, 1969



Queens, Feb. 12, 1969. New York City Mayor John V. Lindsay sips from a container of coffee as he stands in the back of a truck on a tour of the borough for the second time in two days. Lindsay was under heavy fire from irate Queens residents for the city's failure to clear the street of its neighborhoods. The borough was one of the hardest hit areas of the city. Credit: UPI, 1969

Can anyone help me identify the location of photo #3?

[Mr. Linsky]

B53,

Here's a couple of Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens shots that you'll get a kick out of;

It's December 27th. 1947 and they're taken looking west from Union Turnpike with the Kew Gardens Hospital in the background.

Also in the background of the top image (if you look very closely) you'll see a Jamaica bound 1946 GM Model TD 4506 operating for Green Bus Line's Manhattan and Queens Bus Corporation division.

The pictures were shot only hours after the famous blizzard of 47 ended and the vehicles in the foreground of both photos had been abandoned in the height of the storm.

Top photo from unknown source.
Lower photo courtesy of Jay Rogers.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, NY

[Mr. Linsky]

"Can anyone help me identify the location of photo #3?" (seen below again) asks B53RICH;

We can certainly eliminate any thoroughfare served by a PBL what with the bat winged city 5300 in the image.

Taking a wild guess I would say either Francis Lewis Boulevard or Union Turnpike but it could be any number of streets with center medians.

Funny to see an ice truck in such a wintry scene!

A bit of New York trivia;

For years, the Welsbach Street Lighting Company was contracted to maintain the city's lamp posts, and anytime one was knocked down they would immediately replace it with a temporary pole and fixture supported by a wooden base with their trademark 'W' on each face as can be seen in the right center of the image.

Mr. 'L'

[ripta42]

[Hart Bus]

I lived through that storm, but it was on 43rd Street in Sunnyside. Up the block from us was the back enterance to Lynch's Funeral Parlor. Old man Lynch who lived in down the hall from me in a "rent contolled" building built a house on the Parlor's property for his son, daughter-in-law and 5 grandchildren. That house also used the driveway to the back of the house.

Before we were plowed, the son had to take a station wagon to pick up a deceased body. The street was barely plowed so a bunch of us dug out enough so he could back out, make a 90 degree turn and get out to Queens Blvd. The son was such an SOB, that he didn't even give a wave of his hand.
Don't worry, he got his,, when the wife found out that he was having an affair with another woman from Sunnyside. I would think that you'd do your business elsewhere to lessen the chances of getting caught.

Enough reminiscing on my part-----to the question at hand. Of course if you put up a post about what routes, the Bat-Wings ran on, you might get a clarificatiion.

My 2 cents is on Union Turnpike way out in Hollis or someplace east. Don't know if Main Street is considered eastern Queens. Note that I am only betting 2 cents in case I am wrong

[Mr. Linsky]

Here's a little something I whipped up a few years ago;

THE BLIZZARD OF ‘47’ (AS I REMEMBER IT)

They say that the blizzards of 1888 and 1996 were lollapaloozas. Unfortunately I was present for neither (I say unfortunately because I happen to love a good old fashioned snow storm). I was, however, very much in the picture for the event of 1947 with a still vivid recollection of my experiences.

We were no strangers to snow in those days and, in fact, rarely did the remnants of one storm completely disappear before the next fell. But not in our wildest dreams did we ever imagine or suspect what was about to descend upon Kew Gardens the night of December 26th. 1947.

No reflection upon the efforts of the National Weather Service but forecasting in the 1940’s was very much akin to ‘crystal ball gazing’ as compared to the accurate radar, satellite and computer generated reports that we see today.

The radio and newspapers had predicted ‘flurries’ and that’s just how the storm began. But as the evening wore on and the northeast winds began to increase you became cognizant of the fact that someone had made a disastrous mistake and by dawn of the following morning we were feeling the full wrath of a blinding snowstorm.

The ‘whiteout’ conditions continued throughout the day and finally abated in the early evening hours accumulating to what the record books claim was about 26 inches of fresh snow (this estimate being only an average).
Kew Gardens was hit with an extremely powerful punch (possibly because if its higher elevation or the ferocity of the winds whipping through the hills and gullies which are unique to the area). Whatever the reason, we were literally and virtually ‘paralyzed’ from the waste down!.

At our house we finally pushed open the front storm door and looked onto a ‘winter wonderland’. The view was incredible (a picture postcard from the Swiss Alps couldn’t hold a candle to what we were seeing). The village was covered in a thick white blanket of snow with not a thing stirring and accompanied by the eerie silence that usually follows a massive storm.

The snow on 83rd Avenue was nearly three feet deep with drifts at three times that depth. We managed to shovel a path to our curb and, in a cooperative effort, all of our neighbors helped to hand cut a narrow trail down the center of the street to Lefferts Blvd. so we could at least reach the shops for provisions.

Surprisingly, the first plow to wend its way up Lefferts into Kew Gardens was not owned by the city but by the local transit company clearing bus stops and forging a swath all the way to Austin Street where, because they felt that they could not make the steep grade ahead of them, they turned up to Onslow and then down to Kew Gardens Road. The buses used this alternate route to carry passengers to the subway station (the only form of transportation still running to Manhattan).

The Long Island Railroad was stopped ‘dead in its tracks’ for a brief period until their heavy steam locomotives pushing what could only be described as huge snow blowers managed to open the right of way between Sunnyside and Jamaica.

The city was ill prepared for a storm of this magnitude and concentrated most of what equipment they had to plowing main arteries. It was fully one week before any side streets were manicured.

As youngsters, we had a great time rolling in the snow, fielding snow balls, making snow men, climbing the drifts and sledding down Beverly Road with enough momentum to get us around Audley all the way to the foot of the Homestead Hotel at Grenfell. We must have made the round trip four hundred times before the cinder trucks put us out of business!.

I now spend my winters in sunny Southern California away from the excitement of a good ‘Northeaster’.

Oh, excuse me but I think we just felt a slight earthquake!

A. LINSKY

[Cyberider]

Great story from a firsthand witness, Mr. Linsky! I may have experienced a few of those in Cleveland but was too young to remember much. As for "SoCal," I hope the earthquakes remain slight!

[B53RICH]

For those who don't immediately recognize Mr. L.'s first photo with the Kew Gardens Hospital in the background, that is now the site of the Crossroads office building, near the Q10 and Q37 terminals .



Second photo of Austin Street pre apartment buildings and post office.

"Funny to see an ice truck in such a wintry scene!"
I too noticed that ice truck, forgot to comment on that.

I found the following info from the Welsbach website under NEWS:

31 March, 2009 EMCOR Group, Inc. Subsidiary Awarded Contract For Electrical Street Light Installations For The New York City Department Of Transportation

10 April, 2008 EMCOR Group, Inc.Subsidiary Awarded Contract For MTA New York City Transit Substation Rehabilitation


Getting back to that location in question, any of those 3 streets mentioned could still be a possiblity. Flushing Depot ran those batwing buses (8001-8040) at that time on I think all those steets mentioned.

[Mr. Linsky]

Rich says; For those who don't immediately recognize Mr. L.'s first photo with the Kew Gardens Hospital in the background, that is now the site of the Crossroads office building, near the Q10 and Q37 terminals .


I must say that the Cellular Towers on the Crossroads building are very cleverly camouflaged - great extra income too if Verizon pays anything like A T & T pays us out here!

I Googled Welsbach and I see that they are now a division of EMCOR.

There was a scandal some years ago in which Welsbach was accused of over charging the city but I guess that got smoothed over!

Is the building that appears to be right behind Crossroads actually one of the two high rises over the LIRR tracks?

Regards.

Mr. 'L'

[B53RICH]

Mr. L. wrote, "Is the building that appears to be right behind Crossroads actually one of the two high rises over the LIRR tracks?"

The building to the left, correct, which is the Park Lane South, on the Kew Gardens side of Union Tpke..

By the way, the Kew Gardens Community Center is located inside the Crossroads building, rent free I believe. I hope I'm using the correct word, it was a consension when the building was built.

[ripta42]

If I remember the NYC zoning regulation correctly, a developer can exceed the maximum floor-area ratio (i.e., the size of a building that can go on a piece of property) by providing community facilities.

[psa188]

I don't miss the snow at all. This post makes me realize how happy I am that I live in the Bay Area.

[Mr. Linsky]

Michael says; If I remember the NYC zoning regulation correctly, a developer can exceed the maximum floor-area ratio (i.e., the size of a building that can go on a piece of property) by providing community facilities.


Interesting because well known New York builder Nathan Kalikow made such a deal with the Board of Education;

He needed X amount of property on 83rd. Avenue off Queens Boulevard to build a high rise multiple dwelling.

Part of what he wanted was unimproved land behind P.S. 99 which was owned by the B of E.

In his deal for the tract, he agreed to build additional class rooms under what was the school playground.

While it may not be exactly the same as the case with Crossroads, it would be a similar trade agreement.

Mr. 'L'