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| Re: 76th St area - Satellite (Re: Q About LTV Squad and 76th Street) (1029634) | |||
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Re: 76th St area - Satellite (Re: Q About LTV Squad and 76th Street) |
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Posted by Randyo on Tue Jan 25 16:22:52 2011, in response to Re: 76th St area - Satellite (Re: Q About LTV Squad and 76th Street), posted by Teddmann on Tue Jan 25 15:43:21 2011. If you pay attention to the posts, the reclamation of the Fulton El and the continuation of the line towards 76 St and beyond were supposed to coexist. Nothing was ripped up to make the connection to Grant since it was built that way from the start. With a provision to connect the 4 tracks under Pitkin to the LIRR ROW in the vicinity of Aqueduct, the present branch to the Fulton el and Grant Ave was to have been built as it exists and according to a copy of the proposed connections in the area, existing BMT signaling was to be used past the 80/Hudson St. interlocking. The model board at Euclid clearly shows both the line as far as 76 St and the Grant Av station. Prior to the start of the actual connection, the K1 and K2 tracks branching off the Fulton St subway went as far as the present north end of Grant Av station and were built at the same time as the rest of the area infrastructure. As far as what was constructed prior to the war, that is a matter of conjecture but it is known that the entire tunnel infrastructure including station shells at least as far as a point south of Euclid and the yard leads to Pitkin Yard and the yard itself were constructed before the start of WWII. The only things lacking were the station finish, tracks and signals and its associated equipment such as interlocking machines.We may assume that the subway infrastructure could have been built as far as the 76 St station and beyond (sources claim the subway actually goes as far as 79 St. The reason Euclid was used as the terminal regardless of what my or may not have been constructed past that point is because it is an express station with a nearby yard and 76 St was not intended to be set up as a terminal. What I did discover is that while as of 1948, the continuance of the subway past Euclid and its eventual connection to the LIRR ROW was what was planned, a 1950 report on new subway lines shows the connection from the IND to the LIRR ROW as coming off the reclaimed Fulton St el at what is now Liberty Junction. Apparently, something happened in the 2 years between 1948 and 1950 that caused the city to abandon any plans for continuing the subway any farther down Pitkin Av than had already been built. I had heard that surveyors encountered problems with the ground under Pitkin Av that would have made further construction either prohibitively expensive or outright impossible. It may also just have been a matter of plain economics since the elevated connection at Liberty Jct with a ramp down from the el structure would have definitely been cheaper than continuing the subway down Pitkin and constructing another portal near Aqueduct especially since the city already had title to that potion of the former LIRR ROW anyhow. A possible reason that I see for all the mystery that surrounds the alleged existence of a 76 St station is that the decision to halt construction may have been made before construction actually ceased and to cover up whatever error did take place the area in question was simply sealed up to avoid potential embarrassment on the part of any individuals or government agencies and/or officials that might have been involved. |
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