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| IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth? (1303957) | |
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| (1303957) | |
IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth? |
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Posted by Express Rider on Fri Jul 25 05:22:17 2014 I was on a fan trip years ago, and someone was talking about the pre-war IRT fleet. Another person remarked that 'those IRT vestibules were also used for elicit purposes.'At first I couldn't understand how, since I was thinking of the Lo-V's. Then I realized he probably meant the Gibbs cars, where the entire vestibule could be closed off for the motorman. This person was probably referring to the rearmost vestibule in the last car. If there was some kind of prohibited /illegal activity taking place, it could be done in the vestibule of the last car - the "merry-widow" doors could be shut to close off the compartment for as long as necessary. This would provide a kind of privacy, especially on the locals, where the ends of the front and rear cars extended into the tunnel prior to platform extension, as well as on lengthy express runs or time spent traveling under the river to Brooklyn. Anybody else heard references or stories about the "mis-use" of early IRT vestibules? |
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| (1303985) | |
Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth? |
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Posted by randyo on Fri Jul 25 14:03:57 2014, in response to IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth?, posted by Express Rider on Fri Jul 25 05:22:17 2014. Doubtful since the windows on the cab doors of the merry widows were only painted a certain way down and at the bottom, there was about a 6 to 8 inch potion of clear glass, not enough to make an RFW but sufficient to see if any illicit activity were going on in there. |
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| (1304010) | |
Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth? |
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Posted by r17-6599 on Fri Jul 25 15:59:33 2014, in response to Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth?, posted by randyo on Fri Jul 25 14:03:57 2014. Absolutely! The trains back then were far more crowded than today, and the vestibule changed the entire interior configuration. During extreme crowding, whereby platform conductors had to literally push people into the car and "help" close the doors with their hands, rider's hands also made their way onto other passengers. And the vestibule was "the" place. |
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| (1304011) | |
Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth? |
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Posted by r17-6599 on Fri Jul 25 16:07:21 2014, in response to Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth?, posted by r17-6599 on Fri Jul 25 15:59:33 2014. I might add that I saw first hand on the 3rd Ave El and late night main line trains using vestibule equipment. Up until '63, there was a conductor in the front two and rear two cars. But the rest of the train, when ridership was very light...And the BMT Standards were no exception. Those open, unused cabs designed to hold two passengers often did, but not in the way they were intended. |
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| (1304073) | |
Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth? |
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Posted by Express Rider on Fri Jul 25 20:20:47 2014, in response to Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth?, posted by randyo on Fri Jul 25 14:03:57 2014. I thought I heard, or maybe was told by my Dad who rode them on the West Side locals in the late 40's, that he remembers a kind of "shade" that could be pulled down to cover the entire window, when used as an operating cab. If so, that could have been done by those using the vestibule for illegal goings on.Also, though the subway was more crowded decades ago - I had figured that inappropriate stuff took place in them late at night when ridershp would have been ultra light.... |
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| (1304121) | |
Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth? |
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Posted by randyo on Sat Jul 26 02:21:46 2014, in response to Re: IRT vestibules - urban legend or truth?, posted by Express Rider on Fri Jul 25 20:20:47 2014. That may have been the case back then since according to the IRT's own book on the subway, the vestibule door window was to have had a shade. By the time I rode them in the 1950s, paint was used the way I described it. |
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