Dyre Avenue
Eastchester (only on train cars, not on signs at the station)-Dyre Avenue is an end of the line station for the 5 train, but not a stop that opened as an end-of-line station. When the station first opened, as part of the New York, Westchester, and Boston Railroad, it was just a local stop on the high-speed railway that just so happened to be the last stop in the Bronx before trains continued on their four-track, fully grade-separated, electrified by catenary lines right-of-way into the City of Mount Vernon and Westchester County, before splitting into two branches at Columbus Avenue to either Westchester Avenue in White Plains, or Port Chester (right next to the current New Haven Line station). The BART in San Francisco-like high speed railway, with distance based fares and tickets checked inside the station houses by ticket agents both before boarding and after exiting (there were distance-based fares) made the NYW&B railway was way ahead of its time operationally. But the lack of a proper Manhattan terminus, ending at the Harlem River, meant it could never even start paying the principal on its bonds, and it went bankrupt with service discontinued in 1937.
With a bill to create the Bronx-Westchester Railroad Authority and take over the NYW&B as a public benefit authority on the Governor’s desk, but vetoed under pressure by Mayor La Guardia who wanted to take over only the Bronx portion of the line to incorporate it as a subway extension. The Dyre Avenue became the terminus point of the former railroad as it was the last stop in the Bronx before Mount Vernon. This is the New York City subway is the only subway system in the United States not to leave the main city it services and provide service to any nearby suburban destinations to increase regional connectivity.
When Subway service began on the line in 1941 trains used a temporary single-track platform along the northbound track. In 1962 the Transit Authority began a modernization of the Dyre Avenue line which included completely the rebuilding Dyre Avenue Station, today a new island platform is located on the former Northbound Express track, with trains stopping on the northbound local track and southbound express track, making the station feel like a normal two track terminal, with a crossover switch just before the station platforms. Trains use a crossover just south of the station to change direction. North of the station the tracks continue to beyond the station, allowing one additional 10 car train to be stored on each track.
Signs of the station’s former days as a local high speed railroad station include the fact the station is mostly on an earthen embankment with very different concrete bases holding up steel bridges overpasses over surrounding streets. passengers enter through a single entrance near the NE corner of Dyre Avenue and Light Street. This entrance is on the western side of the railroad that crosses Dyre Avenu and Light Street at an angle over the intersection.
Passengers enter a small station house that was extensively renovated and rebuilt during the 1962 rebuliding. The station house contains 1960s tall vertical tiling. There is conventional token booth inside a cage so it can be gated shut at night when it is closed. Next to this are the turnstiles, followed a short distance later by two staircases lead up to the island platform under a canopy structure with blocky turquoise painted supports near the southern end of the platform. At the southern end of platform and canopy structure is a crew building for train crews (locker rooms/lunch rooms) built over the station’s canopy. The canopy extends for five cars before ending with the northern portion of the platform exposed to the elements including silver lampposts with small vertical Dyre signs along them. The lampposts on the northern end of the platform I don’t think have ever been replaced since the new platform was built in 1962.
Photos 1-5: December 29, 2006; 6-8: September 10, 2012; 9-29: October 13, 2012;
