[osiris]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

I am sure all of this would be cool if it were renovated.

And that, good sir, is the key.

[MacosNerd]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

NYC's subway is also one of the oldest (I think Boston's is older by a bit)

Yes Boston's subway is older, actually it was the first subway in the nation.

They're re-doing a lot of the stations now, some of which haven't been touched in 25 to 50 years. Some of the stations look like they haven't been upgraded since they opened in 1904

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by osiris 

And that, good sir, is the key.

Yeah I think renovation is better than tearing down and rebuilding. You lose something by doing the latter. I am all for modernism but there is something about preserving the work that they did long ago that says more IMHO.

[osiris]

Yeah, there is a lot of beautiful architecture - don't get me wrong. It's just so degraded and unkept. The restored stations are mostly in Manhattan. If you travel to Brooklyn, you can still find 70's graffiti!

[residentEvil]

the city's old train station; star of such movies as Transformers ( well, no the star.. ) is a great walk thru if you know when to go.

Detroit's Abandoned Train Station-- Michigan Central Station. Detroit, Michigan..:: Detroit Photos by Seedetroit.com ::..

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

NYC's subway is also one of the oldest (I think Boston's is older by a bit), and when some lines have been around for nearly 100 years (and, for the most part, running 24/7), it's bound to get a bit dirty. But NYC's is easily the most comprehensive that I've encountered, it goes all over Manhattan and the Bronx, and through a good part of Brooklyn and Queens as well, Most other cities don't have nearly that percentage of coverage, even accounting for their smaller size.

I remember riding the Toronto subway once, and noticing that at least back then, the subway cars were carpeted. My first thought was, "This would never work in New York."

I used to take the East Side 4/5/6 lines on a regular basis, and the stations downtown (like City Hall and Canal Street) have tile mosaics on the walls that date from the time when the stations were first built. The story I heard is that they were put there so immigrants who could not read English could still find their way around.

Yeah, the line I take home at night (A C) just celebrated it's 75th anniversary, and this Summer they were replacing the last stretch of original tracks.

As for coverage, NYC subways are great but if you get out into Queens it becomes much more sporadic. although, where I am in Brooklyn--and not a nice part of Brooklyn, either--has extensive coverage. It's only when you get out past East new York that you start to lose some of the extensive coverage.

As for the art-work, there were a couple exhibits this Summer at the MTA's Transit Museum--Yes, they have a museum just about their subway system--that focused on the two big schools of early-20th-century design that created the almost iconographic look of the subways in NYC. I don't know if the lettered plaques were intended to help immigrants identify their stop but it wouldn't surprise me. On a really crowded train one can look out the window and see one of these lettered medallions and know exactly where you are.

I work in lower Manhattan and the MTA is re-doing the entire system down here from Fulton Street to South Ferry. every station is being modernized, all new tracks are being laid, and the South Ferry station is getting a new underground platform. The whole thing is a multi-year, multi-Billion $$$ project which whill be completed in 2010. But, they really need to do this to most of the system. during the 1960s and 1970s, when NYC was fading into decay, almost no money was spent on upgrades/repairs/renovations. So now the MTA is paying for their short-sightedness by having to re-do whole sections of the system due to disrepair. Overall, I think the improvements are a big plus but (I think) it will be until the 2020s before the whole NYC subway system has been refurbished in some way.

And as for the dirt, fugheddaboutit. New Yorkers like to litter and there is no place better to litter than on the subway. Besides, I think all the dirt and grim in the subway tunnels makes the mole-people who live down there more at home.

[Dork.]

I've also heard that at least part of the Second Avenue Line got funded (again) recently. It has a long history of being on-again and off-again. Any High School student who wants to write a history report on NYC politics couldn't do much better picking that for a topic.

The linked Wikipedia article calls the line "The most famous thing that's never been built in the City". (I think the Jets' proposed stadium over the rail yards might take over if the line ever gets built.)

[BadKosh]

Originally Posted by dcmacdaddy 

You did seem a bit "dismissive" in your talk about the 1401 but no biggie, I was not offended. It's hard to read intentions on the intarweb. When I said HUGE I meant it's a big-ass train, nothing more; I wasn't using HUGE in a technical sense. Your post did send me looking for a pick of the H8, though. But, there aren't too many pics of it out there on the web (at least ones that I could find). I'm glad you posted more here in this thread.

I just like trains. I wish we had more of a train culture here in the US. I love taking the trains when I am Europe, even the little rickety ones in Ireland or rural parts of Germany were fun to ride.

The Allegheny is hard to find pictures of. This is mostly due to the places the engines were assigned. There just weren't many people who could afford cameras in WVA. I also can't find any really good pictures of N&W's Y6b. I posted the Southern Kludge they made from a 2-10-2 and added the mechanics/frame of an older 2-8-0 under a tender body. The 2-10-2's firebox & boiler was unable to provide enough steam for both engines, so after a few years, a standard tender was put on the back of the engine, and the powered tender was scrapped.

[ghporter]

I thought I was pretty sophisticated in high school. My school's science club took a trip to the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, by train. I'd ridden a train from Detroit to Kalamazoo once, and so I was an old hand (chuckle). The CN was so much better as a passenger line than anything I'd seen or imagined, it was incredible. Comfortable, clean, fast. Windsor to Toronto in a couple of hours. Loved it. And Toronto is built around trains it seems. It was a wonderful trip for a 16 year old. A couple years later, my family spent a week touristing in Toronto, and I got to take the subway there. Again, a wonderful experience. We rode once at around midnight, and I had way too many old movies set in New York pop into my head, but of course it was just smooth and simple. I gotta get my wife to Toronto soon; she'll love it.

[Mastrap]

Not really a train but it runs on rails so I'll post it - The Red Rockets, the Toronto street cars. A great way to travel. It takes me about 15-20 minutes from my house to my office.

[reader50]

Thread fixed up by a friendly staff member. Let's see more of the awesome train pictures.

[Sven G]

Talking about New York rapid transit (BTW, a great feature to have both local and express metro trains, on three- and four-track sections of the network)... what about an underground suburban railway link between the southern PATH terminus, Penn Station (the main, central station, IIRC) and the northern (ex) Grand Central Terminal?

If in Germany, probably they would already have done that Verbindungsbahn...!

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Sven G 

Talking about New York rapid transit (BTW, a great feature to have both local and express metro trains, on three- and four-track sections of the network)... what about an underground suburban railway link between the southern PATH terminus, Penn Station (the main, central station, IIRC) and the northern (ex) Grand Central Terminal?

If in Germany, probably they would already have done that Verbindungsbahn...!

There has been talk about that forever but nothing has happened yet. Although, there is also talk of moving the transit facilities out of the existing Penn Station to the old Post Office on 8th Avenue which would become the new transit-only Penn Station (instead of the existing station that is just one part of the Madison Square Garden sports/entertainment/shopping complex).

This link will take you to the site showing info about the re-design/re-development of THE major transit hub in lower Manhattan. I go through this station every night on my way home from work. It's a mess right now but should be awesome when it is complete.

This link will take you to the site showing info about the construction project going on right next to where I work. If any of you were in lower, lower Manhattan (south of the Financial District) over the past two or three Summers, you were inconvenienced by this construction. But, all the surface construction is done now and they have re-done Battery Park and the surface streets around it, making for a nice pedestrian/bicycle friendly zone bordering the park.

[Dork.]

Is the "S" train between Times Square and Grand Central still there? It may not be the most convenient thing in the world, especially since you've gotta wait for the shuttle, then walk from the Times Square station to Penn Station on foot, but at least it is all underground....

Part of me thinks they ought to replace that train with one of those moving walkways you find in airports.... How long are those, anyway?

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

Is the "S" train between Times Square and Grand Central still there? It may not be the most convenient thing in the world, especially since you've gotta wait for the shuttle, then walk from the Times Square station to Penn Station on foot, but at least it is all underground....

Part of me thinks they ought to replace that train with one of those moving walkways you find in airports.... How long are those, anyway?

The "S" just stands for Shuttle and yes, it is still there. There are several shuttle trains spread across the NYC subway system; They are cool as they are just two car trains. There is one near me in Brooklyn that runs south from Fulton Street, along the length of Franklin Avenue, to Prospect Park.

Yeah, you can get from the Port Authority all the way over to Grand Central via underground passageways and the shuttle train. I would imagine any attempts to create a unified underground passageway--either pedestrian- or train-based--triangulated on Penn Station, Port Authority, and Grand Central would cost in the Billions because of the amount of existing underground infrastructure in that part of Manhattan. I find much of the existing underground passage/shuttle system there rather claustrophobic so I get to the surface as soon as I can. I would rather walk a few extra blocks outdoors than be in that craziness underground.

[Sven G]

On the other side of the ocean, an important event that took place on 14 November was the opening of London's St Pancras International Eurostar terminal, replacing the former Waterloo International; here is a BBC news programme on that opening:

YouTube - First official Eurostars at St.Pancras station

- cool British accent, BTW!

[Mastrap]

2 hours, 15 minutes to Paris. Excellent. Only took the Brits what, 10 years?

[BadKosh]

Norfolk and Western "A" class simple articulated #1218.
This was taken in Bluefield WVA, after a run from Roanoke, VA where it was built in 1943.

[Mastrap]

Those were sweet engines. There's something about steam that can't be replicated by any other power source.

[Sven G]

BTW, what is the most beautiful modern train, in your opinion?

Personally, I'd probably opt for the TGV Duplex:

TGV Duplex - Wikipédia

(in French, but with images).

[analogika]

I don't know - the Duplex looks too much like an '80s plastic toy for my taste (though I can see why one could like it).

My fave of those currently in service:

ICE 3

[osiris]

Here's a couple of old trains in Japan, with a new Shinkansen being developed to exceed 581 kph (361mph)
Great for blurry landscape pictures.

[osiris]

BTW, I found this site LTVsquad.com // NYC Urban Exploration :
with lots trains & subways, but also tunnels, old infrastructure, etc. I think you'll like it.

[imitchellg5]

Keepin' the thread alive...

[brassplayersrock²]

thank you Mitchell

here is a map of all the railroads in 1890:

[Yose]

I leave for India in… uh… 10 hours. I'll be sure to snap some pictures of the trains packed with people hanging from them for this thread.

[boy8cookie]

I stumbled upon this thread and it reminded of two pictures I took long ago, so I dug through my old hard drives to find them, hope you enjoy them:

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by boy8cookie 

I stumbled upon this thread and it reminded of two pictures I took long ago, so I dug through my old hard drives to find them, hope you enjoy them:

Where are they from?

[boy8cookie]

Originally Posted by Dork. 

Where are they from?

Alaska!

[Dork.]

Originally Posted by boy8cookie 

Alaska!

Neat!

My parents have taken cross-country rail trips many times, and they always comment about how out West, there are areas that can only be seen at ground level via train, because no roads go there. It looks like that type of country in Alaska, too!

[brassplayersrock²]

time to get this thread going again.

[imitchellg5]

Originally Posted by Arty50 

Awesome movie.

I think I remember seeing that...
Let's keep the thread going.

[tomrock]

I love trains.

[l008com]