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Train downtown


greg g

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This picture from 1936, shows the NYC Empire Express at it's stop in Syracuse, NY the year before the tracks were moved north a few blocks to the new elevated R O W.  The Marron and black car looks like a 28 or 29 Plymouth.  Is the one in front of it a Chrysler? Can anyone I'd any others.  Pic looks to be colorized so some of the shades on the vehicles probably aren't right.

94231146_2553391468312240_3437917013148696576_o.jpg

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3 x a day in each direction for east west for the Empire Express, and 2x each direction for the 20th Century Limited passengers and multiple freights also this was the NYC Mainline on the water level route to Chicago.

 

https://www.syracuse.com/vintage/2016/06/video_syracuse_finally_free_fr.html

Edited by greg g
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Great pic but I am amazed that the train line went thru the city without it appears to have any barriers.............lol............hard to miss the train being there but......lol.......andyd

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Can you imagine the complaints you'd get from the nimby's these days!  There's a large naval dockyard just down the coast from me where they've just built a housing development across the water and the new residents are complaining about the noise from the ships. I guess they didn't see the two aircraft carriers when they were buying their new home.You couldn't make it up.

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13 hours ago, 61farnham said:

Can you imagine the complaints you'd get from the nimby's these days!  There's a large naval dockyard just down the coast from me where they've just built a housing development across the water and the new residents are complaining about the noise from the ships. I guess they didn't see the two aircraft carriers when they were buying their new home.You couldn't make it up.

 

Same thing when I was stationed at Miramar Naval Air Station, been there since before WWII.  People would whine about the noise of the planes. 

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Believe me , I'm no nimby...........lol........ but I'd have thought that the train company would have wanted something purely to stop having to clear out the arms & legs from the train wheels, still I suppose the guts would have reduced the downtime to lubricate the bearings etc............lol............andyd

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Nope, back then people were usually smart enough to

not put themselves in the position of becoming "train

wheel oil". And they didn't even have to have "safe places". 

There was a train track in Washington, D C that ran up the 

middle of Water Street in Georgetown. If you were on that

street you could feel that thing coming a couple of blocks

away.And you got out of the way!

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Look on you tube for Schuyler Street Chaos. As the supplies for the Adirondack brewing  Co formerly (Utica Club and F X  Matt) gets their barley bottles, hops, labels,0 cartons and cases for the various brands brewed there, by local dedicated freight.  And while we are talking about urban railroads check out the P 15 under the Third Ave Elevated tracks in NYC.

Caption says 1945 but the Buick looks 49 or 50.

 

94632410_10219841979378847_4775000298726883328_o.jpg

Edited by greg g
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I was working in Brownsville, TX from '86 to '90.  The Southern Pacific still had tracks running through a lot of downtown that they still used once a day.  They had been there for a hundred years or so already.  Most crossed the streets with alleys, but one or two ran down the middle of the street.  No mainlines, they were spurs to/from various industries.  No signals at all, and not one accident while I was there.  Only "odd" thing I noticed was that the once a day was between midnight and 2AM to set cars out and pick them up, but no one seemed to notice.  Pretty sure it's changed ("modernized") since, as the railroad crossing at the US/Mexico border and the commensurate yard was moved a few miles west of the city.  

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When I was a kid we had railroad tracks maybe a half block from the house.  Now these tracks were not on a street, but I never really noticed the sound when it went thru, day or night.  I guess you get used to it.  You'd know the train was coming, but it didn't wake you up in the middle of the night.  Guess you knew subliminally to get out of the way, but not consciously enough to wake you up if you were asleep.

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Going to college in Brooklyn, the Myrtle Ave Elevated train passed a half block from our apt bldg.  1 each in both directions, every 20 minute during the day and every 40 minutes at night.  In April of 69 they shut it down. With it quiet, the other noises that could then be heard, were much more disturbing than the trains going by.

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