Wow Fitz! Those are so cool! Thanks again! Russ, I'm not in the pictures at all unfortunately! I should be behind the throttle! The "Cross Harbor Railroad" came about after a merger of the New York Dock and Brooklyn Eastern District Railroads. (Ahhhh....'75??) There was a lot of trackage and piers abandoned because in the late 60's and into the 70's, ships and trains both took a hit here in New York City. Everything just died and now all those warehouses and delapidated old piers are getting new life as condos and recreational piers. Thank God the Bush Terminal area has remained wonderfully old and still is very industrial. When I first "discovered" the railroad in '87, there were spurs running into dozens of buildings and small yards all along 1st and 2nd aves. It's noticible that 1st ave has had a major upgrade in the last few years, covering up all those abandoned spurs. And those wonderful old killer cobblestones! (FYI: cobblestones came here as ballast in ships)! But at the opposite end of 1st ave, the streets are like the surface of the Moon! The shots show the engine running from the South Brooklyn Railroad, which is owned by the MTA and doesn't really carry frieght, but judging from those gondolas I'd say they are bringing in supplies for the MTA. The Cross Harbor still delivers a few boxcars to some companies along the way. They have a pipe company that has carloads of pipes coming in and are unloaded on their property. It looks like they have lumber removed from cars there too but I'm not sure. That might just be cars coming and going from the NY&ARR. And a scrap metal crane can be seen filling gondolas at another part of the CHRR'S yard. The yard is only 8 blocks long and I think the railroad measures 2 miles. Also, there are a lot of trucks using the old freight buildings along the waterside of the yard. What they used to do also, was take old subway cars off of the SBRR and send them on carfloats to Jersey for scrapping or rebuilding. New ones would come back over and would be taken back to the SBRR so they could be put onto the subway at 38th st. and 3rd ave. I have seen them going straight across this 8 lane street and man, let me tell you it is one busy street, but if you suddenly saw a subway car coming across in front of you with a madly blowing diesel horn echoing off of the BQE above you, you will STOP! I'm sure this scene has freaked out a lot of people! Gang tagged cars with no windows being pushed by a diesel engine across this street is something to see!!!!!!! Oh, I remember that there were 2 SBRR engines, one on each end! The gentlemen standing on the front of the train is Mike DeLuca. I met him for the first about 2 minutes before I took that picture! As a matter of fact, he came up to me and asked me to take his picture! I sent him some great shots of himself on the 2293! Mike asked me if I had a book called, "Brooklyn's Waterfront Railways", which I did and sure enough some of his 30 year old photos of the SB and CH are in it! He is a nice guy, a real native Brooklynite and one hell of a railfan! I hope to be seeing him again down there or when the nicer weather comes and hopefully we can get together and do some railfanning! And the CHRR meets the NY&A in the Brooklyn Army Terminal which is a whole other story. Maybe Russ would like to add something to that since he loves the NY&A! i imagine that a car could enter Long Island vai the Hellgate Bridge and leave NY via carfloat to New Jersey! Watash asked me about those sharp curves and how they handle 40 ft cars. Well..........it's incredible to see anything running on those tracks! I doubt anything over 40 feet could do it! I swear that in some spots it looks like there's no rail left at all! You can take a bad spill there too chasing the train. For me it's best to do it by car!
This is a good site to look at. it has a lot of photos of the Cross Harbor area. http://www.nycsubway.org/us/waterfront/
Cool Johnny. On the same topic of street running, here is a pic of NYAR doing some of their own in Bushwick: Russ
Russ! That's cool! A few years back, I was a chauffeur for a politician here in the City. I was going out to Forest Hills and got stuck on the BQE and had to jump off and ride Metropolitian Ave. all the way. I had the lights and sirens going and all of a sudden a guy with a red flag was out in the street waving it like mad. Not only was he stopping the traffic FOR ME but he actually stopped a LIRR frieght train IN a similar scene like this!!!!!! I actually stopped the train!!!!!!! That was a first for me!
OK Guys! Now we got prototype proof that we can have terrible track and 8" radius curves and get away with it! Next is to find or made some equipment to roll on it and stay on the rails at least as well as the real guys do! I'm glad I have sprung trucks and engines! I wonder if they ran 0-4-0's and 0-6-0's back in the steam days? I don't think anything larger would have made it.
Now THAT is real railroading! What a wonderful model railroad that type of operation would make! Thanks for the wonderful pics. Johnny
The Pennsy ran four 0-4-0 tank locos on the Baltimore(?) docks until shortly after WW-II. Gordon Varney used them as the prototype for his HO Dockside. I seem to remember that they could handle curve radii almost as tight as trolley tracks. They had "tiny" drivers, around 45". The tracks in Johnny's photos probably ran similar locos. Maybe he, or Russ could dig up photos from somebody's archives ... ? OOOPS!!! I think it was B&O that owned the Dockside, not Pennsy ... sorry guys [ 26 February 2002, 02:44: Message edited by: Hank Coolidge ]
Thanks for the great comments fellas! I'm pretty sure that it was something like 0-4-0's running along there at one time. There was an old 0-4-0 just sitting on Kent Ave on an abandoned Brooklyn pier for about 30 years! It was taken away one day and even my most knowledgeable railfans in Brooklyn have no idea what happened to it! I'm glad everyone liked the shots and I had a few brief moments of fun before my film ran out and I realized I had to go back to work! I hope to get there again in March when I'm on vacation! Oh, I will check on old photos of the Cross Harbor, but I've never found anything earlier than the 60's.
Here is the "George Sullivan" that was found stored at Horseheads, New York by my main spy roaming the New England area. I don't know anything about it, or where it ran, but it may be similar to the ones in Johnny Trains's area. With only 4 wheels, this would really be a rough seasick ride on the tracks there!
Watash, That loco is almost what the Brooklyn East District Terminal (BEDT) ran. Here is a link to a pic of their 0-6-0 Tanker: http://gelwood.railfan.net/other/misc-b/bedt-s15s.jpg The BEDT loco in the pic now resides in the RR Museum of Pa. for those interested in a visit. <img src=http://www.trainboard.com/sigbreak.gif> Russ
Sorry for not editing the above post to include this pic, but here is the ex-BEDT 0-6-0 at the RR museum of Pa in Reading paint. Russ
Nice engines! I think the one I remember, and it's been almost 20 years since I last saw it, looked more like the one Watash posted. Russ, I think the railroad must have been the BEDT. I'll check the site you posted too! I'll bet it's cool! One other thing is, and I'm totally amazed at this, is that the NEW YORK CROSS HARBOR RESERVE SPECIAL AGENTS have been called to duty!I can't say just what yet, but you all will be the first to know!!!!!!!! I'm excited to be moon lighting as a railroad agent!
Johnny - Thanks! Alan - Is that Thomas or Percy? LOL (Sorry but my kid actually asked me that. She couldn't tell because it was in Black and White! ) Russ
Sure enjoyed the pictures of 2293. The unit is an ex SSW SW1200, built in 1966. Sure reminds me of Oakland CA on a rainy day. To bad the light package had been removed. Greg Elems
