Remeniscent of The Bronx

Is that Fordham Rd or Southern Blvd?

Peter

Peter,

My wife is a native of the Bronx, not me. I am a Long Islander or Flat Lander as the Upstaters call us. Considering the trolley poles, this car cannot be in Manhattan, so its the Bronx, maybe Westchester.

I see you are into the Putnam Division of the NYC. Have you taken a look at the MTH Rail King 30-1158 Ten Wheeler. Its prototype ran on the Putnam Division pulling passenger trains. A little detailing will make this inexpensive locomotive a sweet replica of the real thing.

 http://www.railarchive.net/nyccollection/nyc1253_wk.htm

Yikes! I hijacked my own thread!!!!

Well Peter, it's nice chatting with you. Have a nice day.

I always have my eyes open for that engine.....You did not hijack anything.....the Putnam Division is part of Bronx lore!

I have a Legacy NYC 10 wheeler from 2008.  With it I run the Atlas NYC Trainman cars and I also have a Weaver NYC RPO.

For more Bronx action I have an Lionel S motor, NYC Heavyweight Commuter cars from MTH and some NYC Geeps and Alco units, and a Lionel 2-8-0.

I went to Manhattan College long ago.....driving to school, up the Deegan along the Put ROW, I loved passing the Stella Doro factory to inhale the sweet smell of baking cookies!

Peter

Hi Putnam

Sounds like you could use an RS-3 in there as well

I remember driving to Manhattan College and smelling those cookies too.

Thanks for the memory

I met my wife at a Manhattan College mixer....it smelled like beer that nigh!   On the cookie front, however, my father was a patrolman in the 5-0 and used to bring home those delicacies regularly.

Yes those Manhattan College Mixers were really something! The Barn Dance sticks out as memorable. This was the event that many guys came home with a different girl than they went with. Looks like we have a reunion going on in this thread.

actuallty I'd not be welcome at your 'reunion' as I am a St. John's grad ('72). When I met the Mrs at the mixer in '69 I was sneaked into the mixer through a fire escape and she had the then-popular 'cousin's proof' since she was just 17. If you recall those Manhattan mixers were for Manhattan guys only.....fearing, wth justification, that us St. John's guys would get the girls........which was true.  

  You haven't really lived, till you lived in the Bronx! 

Tin

Sadly, when I left (fled?) in the early 70s it was feared that you wouldn't really live UNLESS you left.

And now, the subway stations can go for months at a time without a single incidence of graffiti.

BTW, I did voiceovers for that trolley. Pretty much the only reason I own one

---PCJ, Bronx born, raised educated, employed, and still residing there.

No question the old stomping ground is in much better shape today than fourty years ago. Railride is right about graffiti and other irritants that helped depopulate the borough in the "Fun City" days.

PS It is always great seeing RailRide at the Allentown train meets. Someday we'll convince him to leave in the wee hours to join us for breakfast at HamFam.

I can guarantee that Third Ave didn't look like that in Manhattan.  I know that I'm dating myself, but I remember riding on that Third Ave Trolley.  I don't remember it going up into Westchester County.

Chuck

In Manhattan, cars of the third avenue company were powered from a rail below ground . The car had a shoe that went through the opening in between the rails. It sort of looked like 3 rail track.These cars did not go to the Bronx and Westchester. 

In the Bronx and Westchester , cars of this company operated from overhead wire. There were a few lines that crossed into Northern Manhattan under wire but these cars terminated at that point where they came across .

Guys......how about those stations on the Dyre Avenue line with the grand station building at 180th Street.......I always wondered why the Dyre Avenue was different from the other NYC subway and El stations. I always wondered why such an extensive building wasn't closer to the West Farms Station and on Tremont Avenue.

However, both of those questions and more were answered when I discovered the New York Boston & Westchester RR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...r_and_Boston_Railway

http://world.nycsubway.org/us/nywb/

http://nywbry.com/

http://www.rrpicturearchives.n...eThumbs.aspx?id=1135

http://www.angelfire.com/fl/ma...e_ave_line_memories/

This has been a real treasure throve of Bronx and lower Westchester County history for me.

Peter

Very nice pictures & information. Thanks much!

Jack

In the summer of 1950 on my way back to the Coast Guard Academy i spoted a trolley yard just off the Hutch. Got off and found it . I don't remember any wires but the cars had poles so it must have been where they were scrapping the cars.Maybe they came from the Yonkers operation that was Third Avenu.

The New York, Westchester and Boston was quite interesting and having ridden the #5 line from the northeast bronx for several years when living there into manhattan (at night, coming home at 2am) during the late 80's, I knew the line well. There are pieces of it still in existence besides the #5 line from 180th street, there also are bridges and such left up in westchester and there are remains in the bronx as well, bridge abutments and so forth.

It actually was a well designed railroad, that had several fatal flaws (trying to connect it to Boston was a pipe dream). It happened too early, before the great suburban movement had happened (post WWII it would have had a lot more traffic) and secondly they made the decision to end at 180th street and have passengers change to the subway. It wasn't an unthought out position, the subway was only a nickel, and people griped about the cost to go into grand central. Plus they also probably felt that the expansion of NYC would mean that area would end up a major business hub, but NYC zoning laws made that an impossibility by the time the line was built.People might have grumbled, but in the end the big problem, besides lack of ridership, was that it was just too inconvenient, having to ride the subway another half hour or so into Manhattan.

The city got a big bargain on it, they bought the stretch in city limits for about a million bucks and didn't have to do much to make it work, other then put their signals on it. It used to be called "the Dinky" because initially it ran as a shuttle from 180th street to Dyre Avenue, and it had a conductor on board who would take fares and make change (I believe they ran old el cars on it, if I remember correctly), it wasn't until many years later that the line was integrated into the subway system.

I used 'The Dinky' a lot in the 60s and 70s. (People in my cirlcle of friends still call it The Dinky) I lived along Boston Post Road, between Gun Hill and Eastchester Roads, which was about half way between The #5 and the #2 on White Plains Road (as well as the 3rd Ave el into the early 70s).  If I missed the 15A bus to get to school I would simply walk to the Dinky. Either train got me to a hun fortyninth Schtreet to get to Hayes.   If I recall correctly the MTA reversed the numbers on the 5 and 2 trains in the 60s. I had no clue about the history of that stretch of subway. I just thought it was a fancy 'ground level' el.

My 1st experience with the Dyre Avenue was in 1967 going to Cardinal Spellman HS.  I took the 12A bus from Pelham Bay station and got off at Williamsbridge Rd.....walking across to the Esplanade Station of the Dyre Avenue.   It was/is so different from the 6 (Pelham Bay) which is/was my home line.

As far as thje NYW&B is concerned:

They should have extended it into Manhattan and merged it onto the Park Avenue Viaduct into Grand Central....It was about 25 years too early.  Some of the other stations in the Bronx still exist and were shared with the New Haven's line into **** Gate.

Until about 1933 the New Haven ran local passenger trains into Penn Station along the **** Gate line.  A remnant of another station is along the north side of the tracks near St Raymond's Church in the Morris Park neighborhood.

One of my earliest memories as a child (born in 53) was going to the the small New Haven freight yard along Tremont Avenue across from Parkchester (where the DMV was built in the 60s).  We used to buy Christmas trees right off the boxcars there.  I can still remember the colored lights strung up along the boxcars and the wood fire in a 55 gallon drum.

Peter