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On this day in '62 (and assorted other nostalgia)......
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 3:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A lot of activity here at West Farms Square, over 70 years ago......

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?116553

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 8:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From:

NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT BUSES" (Guy E. Martin):

".....in 1952, the management officials of Fifth Avenue Coach and the New York City Omnibus decided to buy both organizations when they were offered for sale by their parent holding company......"

".......both companies were merged under the name New York City Omnibus Corporation in 1954. Each company operated as an independent division and retained their original names on their buses....."

".......on June 1st, 1956, however, the name of the merged company was changed to Fifth Avenue Coach Lines, and, as such, those words replaced 'New York City Omnibus Corporation' below the windows....."

".......the green and cream paint, however, remained the same. The same fate as Fifth Avenue Coach bestowed New York City Omnibus, as it was eventually absorbed into the city owned MABSTOA in 1962......."

"NYO"
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This photo, snapped back in 1972 at Hudson & Bethune, has long been one of my favorite MaBSTOA "action" shots......

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?862

(courtesy: bus.nycsubway.org)
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W.B. Fishbowl



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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 9:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

But it wasn't just in NYC where we had a transportation turning point. Later in the year, the Hudson & Manhattan Railroad (H&M), which ran lines between NYC and New Jersey, ceased to exist after years languishing in bankruptcy, and its operations taken over by what was then still the Port of New York Authority under a new subsidiary, the Port Authority-Trans Hudson Corporation (PATH). In its early years, PATH was actually blocked legally from ordering new cars for its fleet, which was why their ancient cars (some dating back to the railroad's 1908 open) were still plying the tracks; it wasn't until 1965 that riders saw the first new cars since the late 1950's, with the shiny new air-conditioned (and fluorescent lit) PA-1's. (Until 1971, one of the end destination signs on these new cars read "HUD. TERM"; I wonder what initials on the sides would have read before they became 'WTC' - 'HUD'?)

Then there were also the major turning points in '62:
- John Glenn's space flight; his ticker tape parade, interestingly, fell on the same day that the TWU initiated its "death blow" strike against FACL and Surface Transit.
- The New York Mets began their first season of play in the National League; from then until 1998 WOR-TV (later WWOR-TV) ran their games, and until 1979 the announcing lineup consisted of Ralph Kiner, Bob Murphy and Lindsey Nelson. Nelson left that year, Murph would later go to the radio side, and Kiner would carry on to the '90's.
- Speaking of WOR-TV, later in the year nostalgia maven Joe Franklin moved his show there from WABC-TV where he'd been since 1950. Like the Mets games, Franklin would basically be WOR-TV well into the 1980's.
- And in the fall, Channel 13 - which had been silent since late 1961 when prior owners National Telefilm Associates which had run what under their aegis was WNTA-TV, sold it to an educational consortium - was reborn as "educational" station WNDT. After its debut telecast (hosted by former CBS News institution Edward R. Murrow), it was hit with a strike from AFTRA that would put the station into a financial hole for most of the rest of the decade, to the point that for many years it was unable to run any programming on weekends and as late as 1969 they weren't even on the air on Sundays. It converted to color first with film, slide and videotape capacity in 1967, followed by live studio color in 1968, and changed to its current WNET calls in 1970.
- Then the late 1962/early 1963 newspaper strike which began the process of bringing local TV news in New York out of its 15-minute "training wheels" into 30 minutes, leading in later years to one-hour and even two-hour news blocks; much of WABC-FM's daily schedule consisted of all-news, predating by more than two years 1010 WINS (which in 1962 was acquired by Westinghouse Broadcasting) adopting that format.

So it wasn't merely the old bus order eliminated and the 'new' MaBSTOA being ushered in where the times they were a-changin' in 1962.

And who would think that H&M today would signify something way different from what it had been prior to 1962?
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 10:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

W.B.:

OUTSTANDING "commentary"....WELL DONE!! Wink

Your's truly started school in '62, and was MORE than familiar with the "Tubes" growing up, as Journal Square was only a 15-minute bus ride away (via a southbound NHBL #1)

In 1962, the H&M/PATH service to Newark was still known as the "joint service", with the PRR in partnership since 1911.

The 1958 Class "K"/"MP-52" cars (the FIRST production model rapid transit cars to enter service) were the first new H&M cars since the Class "J" Black cars entered service in 1928.

The "joint service" trains between Hudson Terminal and Newark (which Mom and I rode too many times to count) had the MP-52's lettered "PENNSYLVANIA" (w/PRR keystones!), while the remaining cars were at first lettered "HUDSON & MANHATTAN", and, after 1962, "PATH".

The "K" cars were also the last H&M cars to have single panel doors and incandescent lighting (sadly, not one of these historic cars was saved) Sad

The "joint service" ended in 1967; prior to this, motormen had to pass a PRR rule book test, and also obey PRR position light signals (the "K" cars were retired in 1989; they could have soldiered on, IMHO; I commuted on them on the HOB-WTC line for a number of years)

Tokens were not used on the "joint service"; tickets were purchased at several PRR ticket windows, at Hudson Terminal, Journal Square, Harrison, and Newark.

Tickets would be collected by conductors upon boarding.

At PATH's 33rd St. terminal, until 1967, Newark-bound passengers would purchase a special ticket at the token booth, and then the clerk would "buzz" them through a special gate, before riding to Journal Square, where they would transfer to a "joint service" train.

In 1962, the SIRT (still operated by the B&O) suffered a serious fire at the Clifton shops, destroying several of the ME-1 cars; I can remember seeing the gutted hulks of these cars from the window of a passing SIRT train, not long after the blaze.

I've seen photos of the huge television screen erected at Grand Central, so commuters could watch John Glenn's "Friendship 7" mission (my folks and I watched at home, and I still have the tin friction "Friendship 7" capsule that Mom bought me, now proudly displayed!)

Dion's "Wanderer", with its classic 50's sax sound, seemed to be on every radio station.

The "SUNRISE FERRIES" crossing (from Bergen Point, Bayonne, to Port Richmond, Staten Island), shut down; the Tottenville-Perth Amboy crossing (which I also knew well) stopped running in late 1963.

I remember riding the Staten Island and 69th St. ferries and watching the construction of the VZ Bridge, reminding Your's Truly of a giant Erector Set!

Gloria Okan was the "weather girl" on the Con Edison-sponsered news with John Tillman; I still remember her doing "on the set" commercials for Arnold Bread!

Getting back to buses, the WASHINGTON ST. lines in Hoboken were still operating buses of the mid-late 1930's/early 40's; Mom and I took many a ride on these antiques, for the short, 14-block hop to the ERIE-LACKAWANNA terminal at Hudson Place! (there was still substantial through train service out of Hoboken, back then, with HEAVY head-end traffic!)

Right outside our apartment house windows in Union City, a steady parade of Old Looks, WHITES, and MACKS (NHBL) rolled by day and night' INTER-CITY's #97, using handsome brown-and-orange suburban Old Looks, WHITES, and ACF-BRILLS, also rumbled by.

Our bus stop was just feet from our "stoop"!

Mom and I also often rode DE CAMP's BRILLS and Old Looks on the long-defunct #22 out of JSQ, to visit my uncle, aunt, and cousins in West Orange (we'd ride as far as Verona, where my aunt would pick us up in her '58 Ford Ranch Wagon!)

Man, I feel so dang old now, but, hell, at least I have GREAT memories of that era (transit and otherwise!) Wink

"NYO"


Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:06 am; edited 2 times in total
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

W.B.:

Here are some old photos of the old H&M/PATH station, as I remember it, showing old H&M equipment.

In the first photo, the work train made up of retired "Black" cars is waiting the call to duty on what was, until 1967, an express track used by the (alternate) "joint service" trains that bypassed JSQ, heading inbound to Hudson Terminal.

Note too, the long-gone PRR catenary and the PRR keystones on the "MP-52"/"K" cars; I knew this old station like my own living room, as a kid!

Nothing recognizeable today.......

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?21749

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?21746

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?24787

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)


Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:02 pm; edited 1 time in total
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 02, 2020 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Journal Square, 1964.

Here we see the "starting point" for NHBL's #1 Local (to Nungessers) and the #5 (to the "Port-of-Authority", as locals in my area, including my family, referred to it, back then!)

Here you can clearly see some of the diversity of the NHBL fleet back then (here we have a WHITE, a MACK, and an Old Look; NHBL also operated WHITE 798's as well as other model MACKS and GM's)

For many years, until we moved to West Orange in 1971, Mom and I boarded a northbound #1 local right at this spot, for the 15-minute ride back to Union City; these were the SAME buses that infatuated me BIG TIME, stating at age six months, according to my mother.......they ran right by our apartment house on 13th St., just off Hudson (now Kennedy) Boulevard!

I love thinking of how the buses seen here would be going right past our apartment house, only minutes after this photo was snapped!Very Happy

You have no idea how prominently familiar this area was to your humble writer, as a young lad!

Note the Art-Deco bus waiting shelters, and the grand LOEWS theatre (a new Bond flick was then playing!)

Not a one of the long-established stores seen here survive today.

Look closely and you will see the entrance that connected (via passageway) to the old H&M station, on the other side of the Boulevard, from the long-defunct J. M. FIELDS store (Mom shopped here often)

Though the grand old movie house is still in use, the area occupied by the buses no longer exists (note you could then look down on the PATH/PRR trains), and is today occupied with the PATH Transportation Center, which I've hated since the day it opened.

The new facility, by taking the buses off the Square, effectively killed off the once-thriving shopping/commercial area that surrounded the H&M/PATH station.

It's all such a VASTLY different place, now.......

http://bus.nycsubway.org/perl/show?650

(courtesy: bus.nycsubway.org)
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Two nostalgic views at PATH's 33rd St. station, 1965, showing both the ancient, soon-to-be-replaced H&M "Black" cars, and new "PA's".

Note the incandescent station lighting, the classic TDI ad posters, and the sign alerting Newark-bound passengers (signs advise passengers to purchase tickets before boarding train)

Mom and I used this station many times when I was a kid (she always liked to shop at Gimbels basement, whose entrance was only feet from the turnstiles!)

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?21757

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?45898

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)


Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:29 pm; edited 2 times in total
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 12:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In this long-ago view, note the "modern" PATH emblem (placed over the old H&M insignia) flanked by classic IND and BMT signage, at one of the entrances to PATH's 33rd St. station, back in 1971.......

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?143847

(courtesy:nycsubway.org)
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 6:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Class "K" #1235 awaits the next inbound run to Hudson Terminal in the small yard just west of Penn Station, Newark.

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?21779

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

This is an interesting picture, for several reasons (first, note that #1235 is lettered for the H&M, and that the date given for the photo is 1966)

This picture clearly dates to sometime between 1958 and 1962, when the PA took over the H&M.

Too, H&M/PATH owned units were never positioned at the points of consists, as only the PRR-owned cars were equipped with cab signals.

However, after a deadly sideswipe accident with a PRR freight west of Journal Square (early 1960's) that destroyed several "joint service" cars, a few of the H&M-owned cars had cab signals installed, allowing them to lead a train.

I grew up with these cars, and also commuted on them frequently, until they were retired in 1989.

After the PRR pulled out of the partnership with PATH in early 1967, the Newark line became a 100% PATH operation.

Express service to Hudson Terminal from Newark's Penn Station was eliminated, and the "K's" (MP-52's) were reassigned to the HOBOKEN-HUDSON TERMINAL line, usually running only during the rush hours.

This procedure held true through the 1980's, although they also operated rush hour JSQ-33rd St. runs as well.

After "joint service" ended, Penn-Central continued to lease the ex-PRR MP-52's to PATH.

Also, note the coil tension springs on the car end; these were standard on all H&M cars for decades; after "joint service" ended, the "K" cars eventually lost these distinctive springs (these were also standard on CRT/CTA rapid transit cars for decades)

Back in 1991, after the old PATH Henderson St. yard/shops closed, I found a rusty coil spring in the weeds, adjacent to the yard; needless to say, this rare old spring and a wooden PATH-era "HUDSON TERMINAL" platform sign (purchased at the 1981 Hoboken Terminal Festival for $10!) are true prizes in my collection today.....ahhh, the memories!Very Happy

"NYO"
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W.B. Fishbowl



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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The front doors on those K / MP-52 cars were very reminiscent of those of 1959-63 IRT 'SMEE' cars, what with the rubber frame around where the RFW was. (May have something to do with which builder made these cars - St. Louis Car.)

I had ridden on some of those cars in their final years of service in the late '80's. By then they had become Grey/Bluebirds (in a scheme along the lines of, yet way different from, the 'Redbird' paint scheme the remaining IRT LAHT SMEE's sported till the last were retired.
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

W.B. Fishbowl wrote:
The front doors on those K / MP-52 cars were very reminiscent of those of 1959-63 IRT 'SMEE' cars, what with the rubber frame around where the RFW was. (May have something to do with which builder made these cars - St. Louis Car.)

I had ridden on some of those cars in their final years of service in the late '80's. By then they had become Grey/Bluebirds (in a scheme along the lines of, yet way different from, the 'Redbird' paint scheme the remaining IRT LAHT SMEE's sported till the last were retired.


W.B.:

The "K's" were also the last rapid transit cars in service in New York that had the old IRT-style single-panel doors, as well as being the last to use incandescent lighting.

The old "Red McAdoo's" (MP-38/Class "D") joint service cars, which entered service in 1911/1912 looked like scaled-down versions of the PRR/LIRR MP-54's (recall, too, the the PRR was a "parent" of the LIRR for many years, hence position light signals, MP-54's, etc)

Until 1961, commuter trains from Exchange Place (both MU and diesel) passed through the H&M station at Journal Square; for many years afterwards, PRR, and, later, Conrail freights also passed by PATH's JSQ station.

To this very day, some of the long-disused PRR catenary supports can still be seen west of the Journal Square station, silent reminders of a long-gone era in railroading......

"NYO"
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Photos showing Class "K" and "Red McAdoos" together are few and far between; this rare photos shows both the old and the new at Waverly Yard, just west of Penn Station, Newark, in 1958.......

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?93666

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)


Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:07 pm; edited 1 time in total
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In the late 1950's, we see an elderly "Red McAdoo" train about to enter Penn Station, to pick up another load of Hudson Terminal-bound passengers.

The trestle in the background, until 1967, carried CNJ commuter trains to the Broad St. station, which was shuttered in 1967, when the Aldene Plan went into effect (sadly, only the shell of the headhouse remains today; the large concourse, platforms, and Bush trainsheds were all torn out in the early 1980's)..........

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?75670

(courtesy: bus.nycsubway.org)
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 03, 2020 10:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Two recent views of PATH's JSQ yard, just west of the station; with the exception of the PRR catenary no longer in place, and the new rolling stock seen here, this scene looks remarkably as it did back in the 60's and 70's.......

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?103384

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?103385

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)
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