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| Re: East 180th Street (4/10/17) (1434228) | |||
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Re: East 180th Street (4/10/17) |
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Posted by JOE @ NYCMTS - NYCTMG on Tue Apr 25 15:45:28 2017, in response to Re: East 180th Street (4/10/17), posted by Elkeeper on Tue Apr 25 14:10:57 2017. Hello RandyI discussed this topic some time ago here -- documented City records indicated that the City IN FACT bought the entire section from E. 174th Street Junction, north to and past E. 180th Street Station of the NYW&B. This was part of the one plan, of a few 1940's plans, to run the proposed 2nd Ave Subway up the abandoned NYW&B 2-tracks from Harlem River via a connection from Manhattan under the Harlem River, to a Bronx exit tunnel within the NHRR Harlem yards - and up to E.180th St. Similar to what the 7 train does today within the LIRR Sunnyside Yards. However, the NHRR still needed those 2 tracks for existing Bronx freight customers use from the South Bronx main to Harlem Yards - and some regulations stipulated the IRT and NHRR could not share the same tracks for IRT passenger trains and NHRR freight trains joint operations. I don't recall now the exact details. But yes, the NYCTA owned the ex-NYW&B RR 4-track portion from E. 174th Street north to Dyre Ave. and up to the Bronx-Mt Vernon border line just above that.(Where the 2 layup tail tracks bumpers are on that line above Dyre Avenue Terminal) The City had another plan (to bypass the then-problematic NHRR route) to connect the 2nd Ave Subway to the IRT Pelham Line somewhere in South Bronx (E. 138th street IIRC ?) as that line was built to (and actually for) BMT Subway Standards and use as part of the IRT Lex Ave. Line which was also built to BMT Subway clearance and use standards. That plan, like all the others, went down the toilet ! As time went by into the late 1960's and after, under PC and AMTRAK, parts of the 2 track old S. Bronx NYW&B R-o-W between E. 149th St and vicinity, was taken over by non-railroad private construction use. And most all of the former NYW&B RR 2-tracks rail and ties from E. 174th street southward, was removed to at least E. 149th St yards area. And most of the rail-freight customers were by then gone from along the former 2 NYW&B tracks between Westchester Ave and E. 134th Street. By then, (1970) the finally then-under-construction 2nd Ave. Subway was planned to end at E. 125th Street -- whereas construction started and thus abruptly ended during the City's early 1970's financial crisis. And since then, the former NYW&B route plan thru S. Bronx was long abandoned and forgotten as a potential 2nd Avenue Line connector to Dyre Ave Line. However, if things and conditions, finances, government-mentalities, in current times (well, prior to 4 track embankment and steel trestle demolition and total removal north of E. 174th Street in 2005) were different, and AMTRAK sold to the City, the old abandoned 2-track R-o-W of the ex-NYW&B from Harlem River to E. 174th Street - it would have been very possible to rehab (or fully build new) the ex- NYW&B Stations in the S. Bronx at E.134th St, Cassanova, Hunts point and Westchester Avenue, and connect to and revert the Dyre Line back to 10' wide subway cars (as NYW&B had) and use....as it originally was built for. I can almost even visualize that ! The NHRR had limited shared-access rights (for new rail car and material-cars deliveries to (and from) the NYCTA up to a point where a sign-post was located on the ex-NYW&B steel trestle tracks, placed about a block south of E. 180th Street (about at Loretto St crossing) indicated "NHRR CREWS - STOP HERE". I took photos of that sign in 1964 -- I may have posted it here with my previous long ago write-up. regards - Joe F |
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