155 Street
155 Street is one of two local stations in Northern Manhattan that are on the Washington Heights branch and are serviced only by local trains heading to terminate at 168 Street, meaning this station and it's sister 163 Street-Amsterdam Avenue are the only stations in Manhattan to only receive service from the C train, except late nights when A trains stop.
The station's service was much more complicated before March 1, 1998 when the B and C trains switched terminuses with 3 different subway lines servicing the station (one at a time) depending upon the time of day and day of the week, with the station entrances saying A,B,C as the subway routes:
The station is along a section of line where the tracks are stacked, with the two express tracks located on a lower level beneath the two local tracks. This means passengers on Express trains don't see the station, with the local station feeling like it could be on a two track line with two side platforms on its upper level.
These side platforms have small 155 tiled in black beneath what should be a trimline, but no trimline (like all of the Central Park West Line local stops) was ever added to the platform walls. There are name tablets with white text saying 155th St. on a golden yellow background surrounded by black tiles. The platform columns are painted a similar yellow
The station currently has a single open exit towards the southern end of the platforms, here three sets of two staircases (6 streestairs total) lead down from the NE, SE and SW corners of 155 Street and St. Nicolas Avenue, down to a mezzanine. This mezzanine contains a High Exit turnstile to the south that leads down to an exit only staircase down to each platform, and a bank of regular turnstiles across from the token booth in the middle of the mezzanine area. This leads down to a larger mezzanine to about the middle of the platform with three staircases at regular intervals down to each platform.
The station's still open mezzanine than ends because the space that it would be in above the platforms is taken up by the large pipe from the Old Croton Aqueduct, the subway here had to directly underpin this pipe that was still in service until 1955.
At the southern end of each platform is a single staircase closed off by a door that once led up to a smaller north mezzanine, that has been turned into offices for the station department. This mezzanine once contained exits, now grated over or slabbed over to the SE and SW corners
Photos 1-9: June 1, 2007; 10-13: July 22, 2009
