Noo Yoik subway

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There appear to be significantly fewer books available than for LU, judging by the stock in the museum shop when I was last over there anyway. I managed to get hold of a couple.

I also managed to ride on (I think) the whole system. I thought that the 7 el through Queens was a particular highlight, along with the causeway to the Rockaways and the bridges over the East River.

My vast and still not complete (on flickr at least) collection of photos can be found here. I haven't labelled much, but can probably work out what and where each photo is.

Some excellent recommended books i have in my possession:

"Subway Style" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang Inc 2004) ISBN-10: 158479349X

"New York Subways- Centennial Edition: An Illustrated History of New York City's Transit Cars" (2004) ISBN-10: 0801879221

"New York City Subway Cars" (James Clifford Greller 2004) ISBN-10: 0964576503

"Interborough Fleet" (Cunningham 1997) ISBN-10: 0964576538

"Evolution of New York City Subways: An Illustrated History of New York City's Transit Cars, 1867-1997" (G. Sansone 2002) ISBN-10: 0801868866

"Under the Sidewalks of New York" (Brian J. Cudahy 1995) ISBN-10: 0823216187

"Tracks of the New York City Subway" (edition v4.4, P. Dougherty 2009) www.nyctrackbook.com

While they aren't working timetables, passenger timetables are available at www.mta.info/nyct/service/schemain.htm

*ramble on* When I was in NYC, they didn't have working timetables like we do. There was a timetable but it only showed passenger trips. If the particular run required a train to be put into service from a yard, the departure time from the terminus was preceded by the letter "P" (Put in). Runs were not numbered, just timed. Train ID was its departure time, e.g Pelham 123 was the train which left Pelham Bay Park at 1.23pm. This was used as the call sign on the radio.

Each terminus had a dispatcher, who decided which trains form which runs. Thus, if a train arrived in time for the next run out, it got made into that train. Crews were normally changed on every trip at the terminus. Crews had duties but they were told which train was theirs at the terminus. There was lots of overtime for the senior crews and rest day working. They could be called at home to come in and do a trip or two. Some senior crews did very nicely out of it.

Car numbers were taken for each train which arrived to keep a record of mileage. If the yard needed a particular train for maintenance, they would chat with the dispatcher to try to get it back. Normally the yard (run by a yardmaster - that's where we got the name from) would form trains of cars with similar mileage to try to keep them together for maintenance purposes.

Uncoulping was complex. Trains could be 10-car for the peaks, 6-car off-peaks and 4-car at night. There was no timetabled uncoupling other than a notice issued with the timetable which said, "After 5.14am all trains leaving Lefferts Blvd will be 6-car." The local dispatcher would have to work out which trains required cars to make it up to the required length and where he could get them from and which of his crew would do it. When a new timetable was issued, each dispatcher would work out all the stock moves to and from yards and coupling/uncoupling with paper and pencil. The resulting masterpiece was laid out on the desk with a large glass sheet over it so it was protected. The dispatchers were very experienced staff and most of them learned the new moves after a few days and could run the terminus from memory.

In my time there, cars were all motored (like 92TS) and the older ones had cabs at each end of every car. There were also "married pairs", what we would call a 2-car unit. Imagine a 2-car C Stock with two motor cars back to back, comperessor on one car and MA on the other.

All trains had two staff, motorman and conductor. The conductor was in the middle of the train and controlled the doors in two separate halves. Marker boards are provided on platforms to show the limits for safe opening. The oldest stock (all gone now) had the conductor between the cars. He operated trigger switches in the handrails on the car ends. To reach them he had to climb up onto two steps, one on each car. It was not for the faint hearted, especially in the teeth of a NY blizzard on the exposed run out to Far Rockaway. It's not called Far Rockaway for nothing.

*ramble off*

Apart from the L and the 7, I think that's a very good comparison, yes.

On the older stock (with the front window that passengers can look out of), the driver sits in something resembling a cupboard. Newer stock has full width cabs in preparation for OPO, which appears to be at least partly tied to the introduction of ATO.

If you want to know what any of my photos are of, leave a comment on it on flick and I'll fill in the details.

The original film, Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, Walther Matthau/Robert Shaw is quite good - reading the synopsis of the film makes very interesting reading!

I oce spent a few hours looking at the nysubway.org website, quite interesting seeing old cars being dumped in the ocean!

They have that on the Newcastle/Tyneside metro as well. I've always found that most bizarre!

Looking at the public timetables, the WTTs were very similar. You read across the page not down like we do. Also, if you look at the No 7 line, the morning inbound express trains become locals on the way back. This means the local stops get twice the service in the wrong direction that you get in the inbound peak direction. Some of the locals get very crowded.

My regular commute took me from 33rd St to Bowling Green or Wall St on the Lexington Avenue line, which required changing at 14St / Union Sq. From memory gap fillers are only present on one of the two island platforms.

You certainly learned not to stand on the things. Failure of them was also grounds for non stopping the platform, which is somewhat ironic given that the gaps they fill at 14 St are nothing compared to Bank Central Line.

I also remember having an argument with colleagues on the first day when I alighted at 14 St to change to an express service. They wanted to stay on the 6 local train, but I told them they would do so without me. They relented and we promptly boarded a 4 or 5 train and overtook 3 local trains before reaching Brooklyn Bridge and then Wall St. Of course we would have had to change trains to get to Wall St anyway.

Some stunning shots! I was not aware before of Broadway Junction: what amazing gradients!

I personally found the "Metro" in Washington DC and "Marta" in Atlanta to be more pleasant underground experiences than New York's.

There are PDFs of those around if you know where to look.