Whitlock Avenue
Whitlock Avenue is the first elevated station on the IRT Pelham Line and is probably the highest above ground level on the Pelham Line at that. Just north of the station the line takes a hard turn to go over the Bronx River on a box-guider bridge. While passing over the Bronx River trains pass over Sheridan Boulevard (previously the Sheridan Expressway, I-895, until it was rebuilt from an expressway into an urban boulevard) followed by the Amtrak Hell Gate Line. This rail line, running in a depressed trench, once had the Westchester Avenue station here that provided a transfer point between subway and railroad trains on both the New Haven Line (until 1931) and the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway (until 1937). This station’s long abandoned and now sealed Ivy covered station house is still intact across the underpass under Westchester Avenue of Sheridan Blvd. South of the station (too far to have views of the tunnel portal) trains head underground for the rest of their journeys to Brooklyn Bridge.
The station itself has 2 side platforms for the 3 track line with rush hour trains in the peak direction bypassing the station. The station was fully closed for renovation from February 8, 2010 through September 13, 2010, and got a full rebuilding with canopies and cream colored windscreens covering the entire platform from the north except for the southernmost two train cars. The southern ends of the platform have simple low-lying fences allowing nice views of the industrial areas of the Bronx beyond the subway station.
The station has a single exit at the northern end of the platforms. A single staircase at the northern end of each platform leads down to doors directly in front of the staircase down to a small station house. Inside the station house is a free cross-under and change of directional transfer, with a small fare control area with the token booth in the middle, along the fare control area between two different banks with two turnstiles each. A staircase then leads down to NW and NE corners of Whitlock Avenue (which the station is directly above) and Westchester Avenue (which the train line curves onto after the station).
My 16 year-old self in 2006 wrote about this station: Whitlock Avenue is one of the best stations for rail fanning on the whole system in my opinion. The station is located between where the Pelham Line exits its tunnel after Hunts Point Avenue (the portal is clearly visible from the station) and where the 6 goes around a sharp curve, over the Sheridan Expressway (I-895), over Amtrak's line to Boston, and over the Bronx River, one of the few real rivers that runs in New York (it's not in or is an estuary like others), and then down to it's normal typical el on Westchester Avenue. The Bridges over the Bronx River is quite high. The station has two side platforms with staircases at the very northern end of the platform which block part of the curves few for taking pictures (you have to be on the Manhattan-bound platform). After the windscreen ends on the Pelham-bound platform you can get a nice picture of trains going down into the tunnels or of trains going over the bridge if you have a good zoom and/or a high mega pixel camera.
Photo 1-22: November 8, 2004; 23-45: June 10, 2011;
