(rshsdepot) Re: West Side Line

["Paul S. Luchter" <luckyshow_@_mindspring.com>]

rshsdepot
Now there is a dream-storage of LIRR cars up on the loop and maybe down to
the Chelsea Market...would be picturesque by that old chimney by the post
office...maybe they could put their stadia up on top of that!!...Let's
remove the bricked up part of the warehouse arch and carfloat the NJT cars
over and use that B&O carfloat, using the space under the Lehigh-Starrett
building and maybe the elevators to store them while we're at it!!

And I am confused :  all the tunnels under Hudson went just one direction in
rushes-  huh? No reverse commuting. ?  What I like about LIRR is it is 24
hours a day both directions (except this one horrid two hour+ period if you
miss the 1:45 and have to wait till 4 AM, or something like that..)

Too late, making no sense, good nite...
- -----Original Message-----
From: James R. Guthrie <jguthrie_@_pipeline.com>
To: luckyshow_@_mindspring.com <luckyshow@mindspring.com>
Date: Monday, March 05, 2001 1:33 AM
Subject: Fw: West Side Line


>You  may find this of interest. Check out Tom's interesting site for
>the current situation.
>
>Cheers,
>Jim
>
>> Tom
>
>> Enjoyed your West Side line section.
>>
>> I'll think about this a bit -- as I believe I've mentioned, i rode
>> this line once upon a time as a 10 year old in the cab of a NYC
>> switcher to a point within sight of the Freight Terminal.
>>
>> I've attached a scan of one of Mr. Hagstrom's maps showing the line
>in
>> the street and on the ground all the way to St. John's Park.
>>
>> The short answer on the reason for the different ways the line was
>> constructed:
>>
>> 1. North of 72nd, it was simply a matter of being part of the Moses
>> grand Scheme for the Henry Hudson Parkway and the rebuilding of
>> Roverside Drive. The area was filled with hobo nd squatter camps --
>> Moses could eliminate all of that be putiing the line under
>Riverside
>> Drive and snuggling it against the Parkway.
>>
>> Grades were important here, as the line sported long freight trains
>> (and at the beginning still had a daily commuter train). Trains
>> were blocked for 30th St and various places further south at 72nd
>> street.
>>
>> 2. The cut was expedient in midtown for a variety of reasons,
>> including air rights and the new Lincoln Tunnel approaches.
>>
>> 3. The line had to reach surface for the 30th St yard -- a major
>Team
>> facility. My grandparents had their office at 437 Eleventh Avenue --
>> the "other" New York Central Building <g>.
>>
>> There were several platform tracks in the basement; several
>railroads
>> had offices there as well as Steelcase Office furniture. All their
>> office furniture shipments came via high boxcars from Grnad Rapids
>> Mishigan. Routing was via Chatham, the Harlem Line to Brewster, the
>> Put to High bridge and then to 72nd and on down to 30th St because
>> clearances were too low on the Hudson line North of Spuyten Duyvil.
>> The Put could handle "anything" in the way of high/wide shipments in
>> those days, and had daily through freights to the West Side.
>>
>> 4. From 30th St south, there were a whole lot of railroads to cross.
>> The PRR, the Lehigh Valley, Erie and B&O all had facilities with
>carflots
>> (The Starrett Lehigh Buiilding recently in the news is an example).
>> The NYC could forever preclude having direct track connections with
>> these lines by making it physically impossible to do so -- the grade
>> up from the river and then to the high line was impossible -- while
>a
>> cut two blocks up the incline would have been a straight shot. The
>> city also agreed that it was undesirable for other railroads to have
>> much street running -- so, voila! the Elevated line to the "new" St.
>> Johns Park.
>>
>> For the future? Heck, as long as we're blue skying, how about going
>> ahead with he 42nd St LRT project, extending it to Javits Center and
>> the Stadium site -- then on south to Chelsea Piers via the Elevated
>> Line?
>>
>> Or -- more storage for LIRR trains by extending tracks up and around
>> the loop to at least the Post Office. At the same time, NJT should
>> have its NY yard moved from Syunnyside to the 6-track portion of the
>> line for 72nd on south, getting their trians out of the East River
>> Tunnels and making room for more LIRR trains; at the same time, the
>> additional LIRR capacity gets rid of their gdeadheads, so the
>capacity
>> of Penn Station is increased by 1/3 without building new tunnels.
>hec,
>> even the North River Tunnels could be one way for awhile in the AM
>and
>> PM commission hours -- bringing 45-60 trains an hour into Manhattan
>> (depending on the signalling and other factors).
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Jim
>>
>>
>
>

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