BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here's an interesting photo taken at the Fresh Pond yards; note the brick firewalls in between the sets of streetcar tracks.

These walls were to prevent flames from spreading to adjacent tracks, in case one or more cars caught fire........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?117816

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["NASSAU"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

When this photo was snapped in 1952, streetcars had already been gone from Fresh Pond for two years.

Here we see a vast sea of elderly BMT elevated gate cars, awaiting the call to rush-hour duty; note the large number of now-redundant line poles remaining........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26439

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["BU"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

This nostalgic 1955 photo shows the Fresh Pond yards much emptier than in the previous 1952 view (obviously taken during a rush hour); note, also, the recently-retired CLARK "Bluebird"........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?75645

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["BROOKLYN RAPID TRANSIT"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

It's now 2014, and the Fresh Pond yard is now full of new NTT (New Technology Trains); interesting to note note that the row of old chock-a-block tenements adjacent to the yards still appear virtually unchanged, from the 1950's.........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?143448

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["MTA"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

In this timeless c-1948 view, we see an elderly B&QT convertible on a stub track, between the BMT's ramps adjacent to the Fresh Pond yard (note the train of elderly wooden El cars above)

Beginning in the later 1960's, this area was used to store retired NYCTA/MTA buses, awaiting scrapping.......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?117663

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["SPECIAL CAR"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

These two early 1970's views show retired NYCTA buses parked between the BMT ramps at Fresh Pond, awaiting scrapping.........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?158291

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?6781

(courtesy: nyvsubway.org)

["Q"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

By the time this 1956 photo was taken showing the Fresh Pond yards (again, obviously taken during a rush hour, when most equipment was out on the line) we see the retired BMT experimentals, the BUDD "Zephyr" and the CLARK "Bluebird", as well as a string of old elevated gate cars...............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?112945

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["BMT LINES"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

B&QT PCC #1000 (which still survives today) was unique in not only being the only CLARK-built streetcar to run in Brooklyn, but also, the only car with standee windows.

Note that, like the St. Louis PCC's, #1000 was also originally equipped with headlight "wings"...........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?7684

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?140622

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?115226

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?140831

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["44 16th & McDONALD"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

In "OLD QUEENS, NY, IN EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS" (Seyfried/Asadorian) there are a number of photos of streetcars and car houses; a number depict the 8000's series Peter Witts, as well as other types of cars.

There is also a rare 1916 trackplan for the Ridgewood depot; nearly 70 tracks were at this major facility; the large outdoor storage yard on Myrtle Avenue was the site of the old Bushwick depot, which burned down in 1923.

The brick car house on Wyckoff Avenue held nearly 30 tracks; almost every street in this general area had streetcar tracks.

This busy facility saw its last streetcars in 1930............

"NYO"

["RIDGEWOOD"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Photos depicting PCC's and El trains together on The Brooklyn Bridge are fairly rare.

This 1942 photo shows a B&QT PCC along with a BMT 1300-series convertible El car.

Just two years after this photo was snapped, the El trains across the bridge were discontinued, and the streetcars were then shifted over to the former El tracks, to make for an additional traffic lane, in either direction.

All streetcar service over the bridge ended in early 1950............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?132316

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["BMT"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Articulated lightweight trains like the BMT's "Bluebird" (CLARK) were designed to replace the BMT's antiquated wooden El cars on the network of El lines that then radiated out of Park Row.

Lightweight trains would have been ideal for crossing the Brooklyn Bridge, as all-steel equipment could not be used.

But, as Mayor LaGuardia wanted to rid the city of the old el lines (those not connected to subway lines), the fate of the old elevated lines was already sealed.

Here we see a "Bluebird" near the Sands St. complex in 1939; note the heavy girderwork for the overhead trolley wires.

By the mid-1950's, these handsome, modern trains would be retired, and, later, scrapped...........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?46908

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["BMT LINES"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Another articulated lightweight experimental BMT train was the BUDD "Zephyr"; in later years, BUDD would also build not only the R-11 (later rebuilt as the R-34) but also, the famed R-32 "Brightliners", only recently retired.

Like many "oddballs"in the fleet over the years, the "Zephyr" spent much of its service life on the Franklin Avenue shuttle, before being retired in the mid-1950's.

Interestingly, in the late 1930's, similar articulated MU train sets (also to be built by BUDD) were to have been built for the NYW&B Ry., which was abandoned in 1937.

These trains, however, would have operated via catenary, and had end portholes for the motormen, like the original NYW&B MU's......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?46947

(courtesy:nycsubway.org)

["7 FRANKLIN AVENUE"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

In the late 1950's, a group of surplus IRT Lo-V's were transferred to the BMT for shuttle service (the BMT Division was then experiencing an equipment shortage)

The narrower IRT cars were fitted with flanged "skirting" to eliminate the gap between the BMT platforms and the narrower IRT cars.

These cars ran in BMT shuttle service until 1960...........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?113309

(courtesy:nycsubway.org)

["SHUTTLE"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

These two photos show modified IRT "Lo-V's"and ex-SIRT ME-1's running on the now long-defunct Culver Shuttle........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?7996

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?6767

(courtesy:nycsubway.org)

["NINTH AVE"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

In this interesting photo from 1955, sandwiched between a rugged, veteran "Standard" and an even older elevated gate car, we see a new R-16 and a recently-retired "Bluebird" (note that the "Bluebird" is signed for "TIMES SQUARE"; when the units were retired and were laid up in the yards, "approved" fans greatly enjoyed changing the roller curtains on these trains, for photogenic purposes!)

The handsome R-16's, greatly neglected and abused in later years, ran until the 1980's (I often rode these cars for fun during my coffee breaks, out of Broad St., in the early 1980's, just for the fun of it!)

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?75521

(courtesy:nycsubway.org)

["10 CHAMBERS STREET"]