BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

(SEE PREVIOUS POSTS)

This narrow entrance to the IND's 181st station seems to be a unique (and handsome) combination of Art Deco and Moorish design.

In this photo, note that the original "SUBWAY" sign is still intact............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?22187

)courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["181"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Another equally-stylish entrance at the 181st Street station......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?38524

(courtesy: nycsubway.org}

["DO NOT LEAN OVER EDGE OF PLATFORM"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

In this 2017 photo, the old painted "SUBWAY" sign silently recalls the "olden days" at this storefront entrance to the "Bee-Em-Tee's" 95th Street/Fort Hamilton station........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?149923

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["RR ASTORIA"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Bainbridge/206th, 1973......

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?155172

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

Front and center, we have a (listing) batwing Fishbowl # 6704 ("stoa") on the "BX15".

In the background, note that the "Eye-En-Dee" station entrance is still displaying (as was commonplace for a number of years afterwards) its original "INDEPENDENT" sign..........

"NYO"

["Manhattan & Bronx Surface Operating Authority"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here's a couple of nostalgic "stoa" photos from the early 1980s, with the handsome "Eye-Are-Tee" headhouse at the 72nd Street station in the background.

Back then, I remember the headhouse still was using incandescent bulbs, and a classic "five bulber" fixture (w/metal shade) still shown over the entrance doors.............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?154258 * (note glimpse of loaned WAMATA bus in background)

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?153957

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["72"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here are two 1978 photos of the "Eye-Are-Tee" headhouse at 72nd Street; there are buses to be seen in both photos (Fishbowls and a "Dangerfield")..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?7875

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?7874

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["I.R.T. LINES"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

The rear of "Torpedo" #9645 dates this photo of the old "Eye-Are-Tee" 72nd Street station headhouse (photo dates to 2006)

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?54293

(courtesy: nyvsubway.org)

["RTS"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

167th Street, 1983.

Here, we have two "stoa" Fishbowls (sporting the dreaded, uninspired "Dip" scheme) slugging through the drifts of what was obviously a hefty snowfall.

Note the "Eye-En-Dee" 168th Street station entrance is now displaying new signage.........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?153993

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["M2"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here we have assorted "Tee-Yay" green Fishbowls gathering at Washington Plaza in 1972, with the BMT elevated line overhead............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?153353 ("Jetsons" only in this view)

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?153357 (this photo makes for a fine portrait of "Jetson" #524)

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

When these photos were taken, the postwar subway fleet was sporting various paint schemes from earlier days, and were beginning to be painted in the (yawwwn) "Ronan" scheme.

Train consists were, indeed, looking more and more like steel "patchwork quilts"; too, it would not be long before the graffiti blitz would be in full swing.

If the "Ronan" scheme looked less than pleasing on the postwar cars, it looked totally out of place on the prewar "Eye-En-Dee" cars still in service (thankfully, only a relatively small number were repainted into the "Ronan" paint)................

"NYO"

["40 TO PENNSYLVANIA AV"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Rockaway Parkway station, 1972...............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?154787

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?155220

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

By 1972, we began to see the old "Tee-Yay" green paint scheme for the buses being replaced by the new "Em-Tee-Yay" two-tone blue; of course, as we already know, not all of the green buses were repainted, and carried their original paint until retirement.

Note, in the background (second photo), the prewar "Eye-En-Dee" cars now sporting the "Ronan" scheme, which is already looking scruffy...........

"NYO"

["LL"] ["KK"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Back in 1971, we have "Batwing Bullet" #8103 departing the "Bee-Em-Tee's" Rockaway Parkway station.

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?154897

Indeed, #8103 contrasts sharply with the prewar "Arnines" seen in the background (recall, when those cars were new, FACCo was operating both "Queen Mary" and open-top ["Blunderbuses"] double-deckers, and TARS was still running its conduit streetcars in Manhattan...........)

["42 TO BELT PARKWAY"]

[W.B. Fishbowl]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

Indeed, the veteran "Arnines" saw tremendous changes in the "Noo Yawk" transit picture during their long and hard-working service years.

Recall, in 1932, the "Bee-Em-Tee" was still operating a network of El lines out of the cavernous Park Row terminal, and beneath this sprawling structure, the multiple loops for Brooklyn-bound streetcars.

All of the "Eye-Are-Tee's" Manhattan elevated lines then terminated at South Ferry, and, "2nd Aven-uh" el trains served Queens, via the Queensborough Bridge, and the NYW&B's big green MU's were still serving Westchester commuters.

Now, fast-forward to the late 70's (the last of the old "Arnines" were retired in 1977)

The last "Shermans" in the city had been those few operated by "The Little Red Bus That Could" ("AVENUE B"); the venerable "Pattons", had likewise vanished.

The only prewar subway cars on the rails were either work trains, or the Museum's rolling stock.

Remember, also, the old "Toid Aven-uh" El had already been gone for four years, and the old "Moit" in Brooklyn had already been closed for nearly a decade.

And, also, in 1977, the year that the "Arnines" were retired, the old Jamaica El was closed.

LIRR's familiar MP-54's had already been gone several years.

Too, remember that what remained of the once-startling "Jetson" Fishbowl fleet were then living on borrowed time.

Metrocard was still decades away, and the time-honored tokens were law of the land.

And, in 1977, it would not be long before "The Night Of The Bombers" came to the City, when the infamous GRUMMANS began to arrive.

It would not be until the early 1980s that reliable, solid buses again arrived; these, of course, were the now-iconic "Are-Tee-Es" (aka "Torpedoes")

Yup, many, many changes were then either taking place, or waiting in the wings........

"NYO"

["INDEPENDENT"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

"No-EL, No-EL" (Parsons & Jamaica, 1980)

Like brooding, silent sentinels from a past civilization, the remaining columns of the now-demolished Jamaica El watch the passing of Fishbowl #3271........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?154291

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["M"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

And, by 1974, a similar scenario was also then being played out elsewhere, as "stoa's" buses passed through the rows of now-redundant steel columns, which, until the previous year, had supported the iconic "Toid Aven-uh" El up in "da Bronx"

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?154039

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?154008

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["Bx55"]