Well today I did take the subway but not for transit fanning purposes (4 swipes on my Unlimited in all). I was back at Jay Street and transfered to the R train, after just missing a train, we decided there was no reason to wait and walked to our destination at DeKalb Avenue using the operational today up exit only escalator to Lawrence Street, after we waited for a man to run down the escalator as it was moving up. I guess he took it by accident but wasn’t planning to leave the subway system. (when you get to the top your at a landing that only has two High Exit Turnstiles, and are forced to leave the system unless you run back down against the flow of the escalator-a unique feature of this station photo of the upper landing, its well signed Exit Only). I think the status of this unique escalator is going to become one of my odd fascinations that I’ll check on each time I use Jay Street during my twice-yearly visits back east.
I still can’t believe 3 days after the storm the MTA still hasn’t dug the Sea Beach Line (N) or Franklin Avenue Shuttle fully out to restore service. The Brighton Line finally reopened by this morning’s rush hour. Well my experience there on Tuesday when I walked down the platform at New Utrecht Avenue felt like a subway-less post apocalyptic world. The MTA also just released photos of just how covered in snow the Sea Beach Line is Here, including the amount of manpower still required to clear its snowiness at 8 Avenue (As of 1 AM Thursday morning the line is still closed). The LIRR and Metro-North look (according to the MTA’s website) also finally back to normal except for a bus (I know it doesn’t need more than one) replacing the Greenport Shuttle. That will be interesting when it resumes service again, it doesn’t even run weekends any more except in summer, good think my grandmother moved away from the North Fork two years ago otherwise I’d be stuck on the jitney (definitely a better bus than a Greyhound but I prefer my trains).
Anyway, this evening I did have a chance to start my run down the West End Line and upload two new stops, both have extremely unique features that can only be viewed from street level, from a train the stops, Fort Hamilton especially look like they hold nothing of interest beyond:
- Fort Hamilton Parkway–(32 photos)-This stop has some of the most amazing detail work I know of on the concrete covering of the sides of the elevated structure, there’s a trimline of green tiles just beneath the platform line and more tiling on the pillars holding up the elevated off the street. The most amazing feature is the designs on the curved bottoms of the platform. The subway was designed to be beautiful even from the ground up to unsightly els
- 9 Avenue-(57 photos!) – This stop is unique to begin with, the only at grade West End Line station, and the 38 Street Garbage (Train) Yard beyond the station and visible from it, even more unique is the BMT station house at street level its a brick house with the bricks clearly exposed along with some old Subway Station text.
Also I claimed that Astoria-Ditmars Blvd (32 photos) was on the web a week ago, I forgot to upload the section, it is on the web now. Tomorrow I’m planning another snowy adventure expect it late that night or the next day.
Also theMTA’s twitter has some excellent of workers using there just shovels to get the huge drifts off the tracks. It’s strange to think that snow plows can’t be used to clear the tracks, just man power