|
|
| Re: Shuttle of New York City (1404231) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > SubChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Re: Shuttle of New York City |
|
|
Posted by Bronx boy on Tue Aug 2 21:53:41 2016, in response to Re: Shuttle of New York City, posted by Elkeeper on Tue Aug 2 12:28:40 2016. When service ended on the 9th ave. El in 1940 Composites were sent down the 3rd Ave El around the South Ferry horn to the 9th. These cars were to be the rolling stock of the Polo Grounds Shuttle. The 159th St. Yard was filled to capacity with Gate cars and one MUDC. (Reason unknown). The rest of the Manhattan cars were placed in storage on the Jerome Middle track from out of 170th St. Station to Burnside Ave. the El structure was cut off at the Macombs Bridge at the south end of the station. The 155th St. structure was stripped down to 3 tracks. The uptown and downtown express tracks and the island platforms and the downtown express tracks remained. The downtown express track was retained to become the relay track for exit and entry to the 159th St. Yard. Work was done in the barn to convert many el cars to cottages for Camp Sanita, a rest and recreation facility for the NYC Department Of Sanitation in upstate NY. Later it was used by the Boy Scouts of America as a camp. As the Defense Department forbid scrapping of transportation equipment for WW2 the yard and the cars in storage remained. Nearing the end of the war some cars were released for scrapping. When the war ended scrapping of the entire facility began. The cars were removed and taken to Classon Point in the Bronx where the were Burned. At the same time as the cars started disappearing the large elevated steelwork was removed. As some of the cars no longer ran the extra Composites from the Shuttle were used as horses moving the cars around the yard and the Jerome line middle. Interestingly in the final days some of the Composites gave up and some gate cars were fired up and towed the composites to their doom in the yard. The work then started on the Polo Ground housing complex at the site. As the relay track in the station was no longer needed the track was removed and the station was cut back with the staircases to the Macombs bridge and trolley station plus the staircases to the street removed. The steelwork from the relay track was retained for structural strength and that is the way the station remained until it was demolished when the shuttle ended. The 159th St. Yard was the largest elevated yard ever built. Two levels with its own powerhouse and marine facilities for the HarlemRiver.The railroad, elevated trains and trolley cars and my youth were all taken away. I stood on the 167th. St. Station when I got off the last car of the last train August 31st. 1958 and silently watched the train go North. As it faded away I realized It was over. But wait, a few days later my friends and I were at Jerome Ave. and 162nd St. When we heard a train coming. We looked up and a work train was coming out of the tunnel. It was 3662 3728 3667 and flat M64. They were loaded with parts. turnstyles, gates, etc. that was the last train ever to operate on the line. 3728 was the alcohol car and 3662 went to Branford. Nate |
|
|
|