Thanks for the reply, Joe. To add to the history of the Dyer Ave Line, in the early 1940's my grandmother lived a block from the Dyer Avenue station, so we rode the shuttle from end to end. There were 2 open platform gate cars. One could only enter and leave by the gates at the coupled ends of the cars, where a conductor would open and close them.
When boarding, I would sit in the first seat on the left, so I could watch out the front window. The line was the old right of way of the Boston & Westchester, as my father called it. It was a 4-track line, but the two middle tracks had been torn up. There were one or two stops at which the platform was at the sides of the tracks, but at one (Gun Hill Road?) the B&W had had an express stop, so the station was between the tracks. Beyond Dyer Avenue, all tracks had been torn up, but the ROW was untouched. The next station still stood, spalling concrete and looking run down.
After the war ended, we drove more often and rarely used the subway.
I went for 2 years to HS in the Bronx in 1950-52, and occasionally rode the 3rd Ave El from it's northern terminus down to 42d St., where I'd get the crosstown shuttle (that line is another story). No gate cars then, just the old cars, but a great ride, looking into windows of homes.
I looked at many of the pictures & videos, and marvel at the realistic detail you've created. The video from under the El was excellent. I can remember my father driving under the El. Noisy with occasional sparks coming down
