Dyckman Street
Dyckman Street-200 Street is a station with two side platforms for four tracks. The middle two tracks are not for express trains but yard leads that go underground, cross beneath the 1 train's elevated and enter the large 207th Street yard. Trains are stored on the middle tracks during off hours. At the end of the AM rush hour some trains terminate at Dyckman Street for better access to the lay-up yards, and other trains enter service at the station at the beginning of the PM rush hour (the Rockaway/Lefferts end of the A train has much higher ridership and receives more subway service during peak direction rush hours than the Washington Heights-Inwood, much shorter branch of the A train). The tracks and switches are configured in such a way that trains could bypass the station and still continue to the terminal at 207th Street, although I never recall a General Order with this as a service change.
The station's two side platforms have yellow painted columns and normal, original tiled walls, small '200s' run along these walls at regular intervals but there isn't an actual trimline. Long name tablets, white text on a maroon background interrupt the 200s and say Dyckman-200th St. South of middle of the platform are on platform fare control areas. The two directions are connected here by an underpass meaning there is a free transfer between train directions. The underpass entrances have maroon mosaics for the opposite direction.
The Uptown platform with all trains about to terminate at 207th Street, the next stop, has a bank of high exit only turnstiles. These lead up to exit only staircases, two are at the NE corner of Dyckman Street and Broadway, two are at the SE corner.
The downtown platform has the turnstiles with the token booth behind them. It has two exits that are more unique. At the southern end a staircase leads up to a small passageway with a peeling paint ceiling, beneath the wide intersection where the disconnected half of this tiny northern section of Riverside Drive ends. This leads up to a slightly wider than normal streetstair to the SW corner of Broadway and Riverside Drive at the NE corner of Fort Tryon Park.
The other exit is even more unusual, a short single staircase leads up to a small and abandoned (for at least 30 years) underground shopping arcade. All of the former shops have black boarded up windows and doors. There are two exists lead out of this abandoned shopping arcade between the shops lining the ground floor of the apartment building at the NW corner of Broadway and Dyckman Street. Both have metal steps with an original and unique central railing. The entrances to the street have white stucco (I assume) engraved with 'Subway Entrance.' A modern sign is hanging beneath it. They also have a modern early 1990s square with an M above the green cube entrance globes hanging from the original subway entrance signs. The Broadway entrance in the building has a shop open behind the staircase. The Dyckman Street side has a gate that blocks off ventilation equipment and half of that staircase is closed (as of February 2013) with a sign from the MTA saying the staircase is closed because its unsafe from a lack of maintenance from 4761 Associates LLC, the apartment building (with shops on the ground floor) that owns this station entrance.
Photos 1 & 2: September 26, 2003; 3-5: December 28, 2004; 6: May 8, 2005; 7 & 8: December 21, 2005; 9-18: August 15, 2008; 19-32: October 31, 2012; 33-38: February 16, 2013; 39-52: March 7, 2013; 53 & 54: April 25, 2013; 55-57: October 14, 2013;
