Well, I got busy last week and over the weekends and didn’t quite have a chance to upload anything new. I do go on a few railfanning trips though: Last Monday I stared on the M60 Bus to the 6 train up to Pelham Bay Park for a day on Bee-Line Bus to all 6 Metro-North stops between New Rochelle and Port Chester meaning I have now visited all 8 New Haven Line stops in New York State. On the way home I got of the bus at Dyre Avenue and when I was connecting to the 4 train at 149 Street-Grand Concourse one of the 4 trains bound for the yard that terminates at Burnside Avenue running on the express track after 167 Street (which was quite a fast ride). The only downside is the Bx36 is a terrible bus route, I just missed two buses as the route was bunching and after waiting 5 minutes at Jerome Avenue managed to walk all the way to University Avenue before another Bx36 came so I ended up on the Bx3 instead back to 181 Street, that was a long but statisfing day.
Last Thursday I went on a PM Rush Hour adventure to Rockaway Park (there are five rush hour A trains in each peak direction that run directly to Rockaway Park requiring no transferring to the shuttle to overnight in the Rockaway Park Yard). I looked at the timetable and started off on a regular A train two stops to 168th Street where I got off, heard the automated voices say the next arriving train will be out of service. The next train came in, an R42 running as the 4:04pm train from Rockaway Park to 168th Street. I had a nice time on this unique trainset at the slightly graffiti covered front window. The train was crowded until we got to Rockaway Blvd where it emptied out quite a bit. We arrived to a completely empty Broad Channel platform (a shuttle was clearly the last train to leave the station) many passengers got off to wait for the next regular A train to Far Rockaway, there were just a dozen passengers in my car going across the South Cannel Swing Bridge as we took the southern track at Hammels Wye to head towards Rockaway Park. I took the train all the way to Beach 98 Street for a few photos. I waited far two long there for a Shuttle going the opposite direction, (which I just missed) photographing the second R46 A train special of the PM Rush. I finally got the shuttle back to Beach 90 Street for photos of the third A train (also a R46 of the PM rush) which I wanted to photograph from the opposite platform. I then used a crossover, photographed a R32 A train deadheading to the Rockaway Park Yard (it had terminated at Far Rockaway) before take the next shuttle to Beach 105 Street and the fourth A train of the PM rush, a R32 followed shortly behind which I rear rail fanned (via the back window) to Rockaway Park for some excellent yard photos.
I then took a shuttle back to Broad Channel where I had bad timing connecting to a Far Rockaway-bound A train with another terminating Shuttle arriving (and no Manhattan-bound A train) before my finally did. I took this train to Beach 67th Street, saw the new Averne by the Sea Transit Oriented Development (never thought I’d use that phrase in the context of the NYC Subway) and walked to Beach 60th Street where darkness had really fallen.
It was an uneventful A train ride home where I got a lot of reading done (one of the reasons I didn’t mind spending an hour and a half on the A train on this adventure). I am not happy at all with the Far Rockaway Station renovations. The main reason is now all the platform walls are either completely opaque green windscreens beneath canopies or now floor to ceiling mesh instead of the low fences the stops had before they were renovated. This means that the ocean views that were once the joy of waiting for a train in the Rockaways must now be observed through a mesh fence. Does the MTA now think people can’t be trusted to not jump off of elevated structures? I do like the artwork that has gone into the stations through and they definitely needed some rebuilding but the design could have been better.