[PRCo] Re: Fwd: 2012

[Herb Brannon]

*Look close, at the 1937 photo, and you will see a Third Avenue Railway
System (TARS) 500-series conduit car operating away from the camera and
just clearing the intersection between the 11 and 12 o'clock positions.
BTW, TARS abandoned Route B-Broadway on December 14, 19**46.
*
On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 16:55, Fred Schneider <fwschneider at comcast.net>wrote:

> Herb:
> And after thinking about this, I am passing it back to all of you as well
> as Herb....
>
> Thanks Herb, for that pretty view of Times Square looking down (north)
> from the New York Times building before most of us were hatched.
>
> It surely didn't take Mayor LaGuardia's forces long to remove the evidence
> of the New York Railways Broadway- 7th Avenue line.   It was abandoned
> February 12, 1936 and the rails were gone in your 1937 photo of Times
> Square.   The year before, the red Third Avenue system cars were running on
> the tracks you see and the green New York Railways cars were on the tracks
> you don't see.
> The mayor was forcing the trolleys off the streets.   New York Railways
> went along with the mayor; TARS argued with him claiming they had perpetual
> franchises until hizhonor said, "...however, your bus franchises are not
> perpetual and if you don't get rid of your trolleys, I will revoke your
> right to run buses in New York."   Third Avenue got an extension through
> the war when even mayor found he could not argue with the U. S. Office of
> Defense Transportation and win.
>
> > URL :
> http://lists.dementix.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/NewYears2012.jpg
>
> It has to be some of the most valuable real estate in the world.  If you
> look at Bing or Google maps today, very few of those buildings from 1937
> are still there.   Today we have an entire new array of skyscrapers.   This
> long link may work.
>
>
> http://www.bing.com/maps/explore/#5003/0.6002=q:times+square:nelat:40.2135943922894:nelong:-76.0101852407148:swlat:39.9327221357105:swlong:-76.6315994252852:nosp:0:adj:0/5872/lat=40.757753&lon=-73.985721&alt=-13.29&z=30&h=14.5&p=15.4&pid=5082
>
> The amazing thing about New York City is how much transit riding it
> created.   In 1907, and I am using data from the U. S. Census of Electric
> Railways, just as the construction of interurbans was coming to a
> screeching halt in the depression or panic of 1907, 18% of all the
> streetcar / interurban passengers in the United States were in New York
> City.   Raw numbers.... 1.683 billion riders in out of 9.563 in the nation.
>   If we add in far southern Connecticut and Public Service's operations
> across the river in "Noith Joisey," we had 20% of all transit riding back
> in 1907.   Today ... well it's closer to 50% because outside of New York,
> Chicago and San Francisco, most of us don't use transit.   Perhaps those
> numbers give you an appreciation for why there are so many New York subway
> fanatics running around loose.
>
> My parents had a great love for Gotham which is something I never
> developed.   Dad first went there in 1930 and claimed he wore himself out
> walking from Central Park to Brooklyn ... ouch.  The thought of it boggles
> my mind.   He remembered the Manhattan els.
>
> He had some left over vacation time after we moved to Lancaster County in
> 1949 so we spent some of Christmas week in New York City.   Actually, he
> was frugal.   The Robert Treat Hotel in Newark and the train fare into New
> York City was cheaper than staying in a New York City hotel!   I said train
> fare.   One day I talked him into Hudson and Manhattan which was actually
> more expensive from Newark than the Pennsy.   He compensated by putting us
> on a Public Service bus the next day.   We stayed until the afternoon of
> December 31st, 1949.   He saw the merchants boarding putting plywood over
> their windows in Times Square and decided he would rather go home to Lititz
> and listen to New Years come in on the radio.   We caught the next train to
> Newark, checked out of the hotel, got in the car and headed home.
>
> My folks went to New York several times every year ... dad loved the model
> studios (girls), mom loved the stores and shows, and often they both went
> to an evening show at Radio City Musical Hall.   When the Pennsy removed
> the Pittsburgh Night Express from the timetables, they would drive to
> Philadelphia and take the train from there.   I think that went on until my
> mother's arthritis got so bad she just couldn't enjoy a day in New York any
> longer.
>
> I will enjoy the Christmas card in memory of them.
>
> Me?   I got to enjoy the theater in London and its civility of that city
> far more than New York.   I was crazy enough to even go to London for a
> weekend to see a play ... if I could get a plane out of Philadelphia
> instead of New York.   One weekend we found a $96 one way fare from Philly
> to London (the taxes added on were half the fare).   But I bought four
> tickets and we went to the theater in England for the weekend.
>
> To each his own....
>
> By the way, Derrick ... last week I met another person beside you and I
> who are nuts enough to go to Europe just for a weekend at the theater.
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: Herb Brannon <hrbran at cavtel.net>
> > Date: January 1, 2012 12:00:14 AM EST
> > To: Pittsburgh Railways Group <pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org>
> > Subject: [PRCo] 2012
> > Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementix.org
> >
> > Happy New Year
> > --
> > Herb Brannon
> > In Cuyahoga Valley National Park
> >
> >
> >
> > -- Attached file removed by Ecartis and put at URL below --
> > -- Type: image/jpeg
> > -- Size: 92k (94583 bytes)
> > -- URL :
> http://lists.dementix.org/files/pittsburgh-railways/NewYears2012.jpg
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>


-- 
Herb Brannon
In Cuyahoga Valley National Park