Myrtle Av-Broadway (J,M,Z)

Myrtle Avenue (Broadway) is the final station and transfer point before M train leaves the Broadway elevated to branch up and go up to what remains of the Myrtle Avenue elevated, the remains of which are very much alive in the station, ever since it was closed over fifty years ago on October 4, 1969. The last core BMT elevated line to run in Brooklyn. The currently opened station is the lower level Broadway elevated platforms, which are in the express station layout for a three-track line with two narrow island platforms, and the middle track (used by J/Z peak direction express service during weekdays and M Shuttle trains during late nights). The station was rebuilt in 1999 (at least that's when the stained glass in the island's platform's windscreens date from) and has the modern green color design for an elevated station.

Each platform has two staircases down to a passageway near the middle of the platform but closer to the eastern (away from Manhattan) end, the passageway leads to directly beneath the skeletal remains of the Myrtle Avenue elevated, this passageway follows the el from beneath the tracks before going up again half a staircase to the small station house. The station house would have been easier to access from the Myrtle Avenue el than the Broadway el, with no passageways, and a staircase directly up to the island platform. From this small station house are two exits down to either side of Myrtle Avenue at the southern corners with Broadway (meaning passengers leave the station underneath the station, not approaching it).

The remains of the closed portion of the Myrtle Avenue el in the station is above with some maintenance houses now on the remains of it's island platform, some of whose wooden plank bottoms (what the platform was made out of to the day it closed), are still visible from street level. The skeletal remains of the el also for some reason extend a block southwest of the station above Myrtle Avenue to Lewis Avenue. The steel remains that held up the two trackways are still there, in addition to the remains of some signal boxes, and the posts that held up the standard fence along the el. North of the station the el continues a block north until the M's elevated curves off the mainline, at a flat-junction (meaning Myrtle-Avenue bound trains must cross the Middle track and Manhattan-bound mainline tracks), and curve around over private property before rising up to the Myrtle Avenue el at what must have been a flying junction. Another remaining feature that is the numbering system on all the pillars of the elevated, are numbered along Myrtle Avenue and begin in the 200s along the abandoned elevated south of the subway station and continue to increase as the M curves around to join the elevated. One must have been somewhere in downtown Brooklyn.

The station also has the dubious distiction to be the last to recieve electronic turnstiles to accept MetroCards, with the 50-year old mechanical ones being removed on May 14, 1997 [NY Times Article]
1-31: May 29, 2009; 32-41 March 8, 2013; 42-46: July 26, 2013; 47-50: June 15, 2014;

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A view about to enter Myrtle Avenue on a Jamaica-bound J train.

Looking out of a stopped R42 J train at Myrtle Avenue.

A view down one of the two narrow platforms at Myrtle Avenue.

A close-up of a Myrtle Avenue column sign.

Looking down one of the tracks at Myrtle Avenue, old lettering is visible on the side of a warehouse.

Approaching one of two staircases down to the small mezzanine level.

The remains of the Myrtle Avenue elevated makes it's way north of the station, the M train's crossover to it joins it shortly.

R143A-1 #8453 and a Jamaica-bound J train leave Myrtle Avenue on the center track, there's a R143A-1 M train on that local track, and a Manhattan-bound train on it's track.

R143A-1 #8453 continues pulling out of the center track at Myrtle Avenue.

R42 #4811 stops at Myrtle Avenue, it's signed as Z for its return trip back to Jamaica, but right now its running as an all stops J train.

Looking up at the remains of the Broadway Station of the Myrtle Avenue el, now it's in non-passenger uses. It crosses diagonally above the Myrtle Avenue Station

A tower structure on the remains of the Myrtle Avenue el.

R42 #4811 signed as Z leaves Myrtle Avenue to continue an all stops (should be signed as J) trip to Manhattan.

The portion of the Myrtle Avenue station that's beneath the remains of the Broadway station on the el.

Looking down towards one end of one of two narrow island platforms at Myrtle Avenue.

The two staircases up to the Manhattan-bound platform from the narrow underpass that leads to the station's small station house.

The staircases down from the Queens-bound platform, and the passageway that leads the the station house that is beneath the abandoned Myrtle Avenue el.

The one bank of turnstiles that are the station exit at Myrtle Avenue.

Looking beneath the remains of the southern section of the Myrtle Avenue el, and the station house beneath the abandoned trackways.

Beneath the skeletal remains of the Myrtle Avenue el, the B54, the el's replacement boards passengers.

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