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| Re: BMT Canarsie Line history question. (1548897) | |||
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Re: BMT Canarsie Line history question. |
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Posted by IRTRedbirdR33 on Wed May 27 12:17:58 2020, in response to Re: BMT Canarsie Line history question., posted by SLRT on Wed May 27 09:09:37 2020. I'm worried that there will be fewer younger people as interested in pre-NYCTA history.Every generation has its own interests and challenges. I started going to ERA meeting in the early sixties. It seemed that all the older hands there were intimately familiar with the Manhattan Els. They could tell you which els stopped at which streets off the top of their head. They recalled when there were three separate rapid transit systems in New York and they knew the different operating practices of each one. To hear the guys from Brooklyn talk you would think that there were over a million trolley cars in that borough and half of them were PCC’s. Some of the grandfathers were only 12 or 14 when the “First Subway” opened in 1904. They remembered a time when there were no subways and the els ruled supreme over the Manhattan landscape. There was no internet back in those days and unfortunately many of those old-timers took their knowledge to the grave. Many lived solitary lives and had no one to pass on their papers or photos too. We were lucky that some of them wrote articles for the Bulletin and passed on their photographs to other railfans. The defining event for my generation was the opening of the Chrystie Street Subway. That was over fifty years ago. Grown men in their thirties weren’t even alive when it happened. Now at least we can put our thoughts down on paper or post them to the internet. It’s is a lot easier to get information now then it was although sometimes it may not be correct. So you have to check several sources. (You had to do this in the 50’s and 60’s as well. The older folks back then didn’t always get it right, despite what they said.) The kids today go to school and have to worry about being shot. In my day you had to go all the way to Viet-Nam to have that worry. The generation before mine had to worry about getting polio. Now we worry about getting Covid-19. Many more people read sub-chat then actually post there. We don’t know what young person will find something of interest,do research on it and become an expert. Larry, RedbirdR33 |
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