Lexington & Myrtle AVE ELS movie footage

[@empirestate8791]

I understand why the city replaced some of the Els with subways (after all, the subways were much faster and higher capacity, and they didn't take up as much space), but they should not have torn down any of the Els before constructing a replacement subway. The loss of the Myrtle Ave El and 2nd avenue El is still felt to this day, as neighborhoods lost a vital rapid transit connection. Buses just can't replace trains, and at the very least, the city could have upgraded the Els to handle faster, higher capacity modern trains (much like what they did for many of the elevated lines in the outer boroughs) as opposed to tearing them down without building a replacement subway.

[@robertn3232]

the lex and the mytle were obsolete after the a train was completed under ground

[@BK_718]

@@robertn3232there’s no longer a 1 seat ride from bushwick or ridgewood queens into downtown Brooklyn without transferring or riding into the city first then crossing back into downtown Brooklyn via lower Manhattan. The B54 bus sucks.

[@georgemurphy2579]

Lived on Waverly just in from Myrtle.

[@tomryan943]

If people today complain about the. subway service, let them take a look at this video!! Great shots! I think I rode this el once when I was in high school!

[@luislaplume8261]

1958 was the last year the open platform gate cars were used on any NYC El line. I was a little boy at that time. We were unaware of it because we lived then in Woodside, Queens where el train service ended in 1942 from the 2nd Avenue El. I wish we had known about it and brought our 1955 Kodak camera with us.

[@trainrover]

my! they're absolutely adorable

[@georgemurphy2579]

Remember Blackboard Jungle with Glenn Ford and Sydney Portier? Great old el cars in that flick

[@luislaplume8261]

Correct! Within the first few minutes of the movie. From the city scene it looks like the Bronx. And Imshould know, I am a New Yorker.

[@georgemurphy2579]

Grand Ave stopped running about 1953 ... went off just west of Washington Ave.

[@vze21gwa]

Wow. They were really slow!

[@georgemurphy2579]

Farragut projects and Myrtle Ave!!

[@litlgrey]

Oh that music... that music... it's like watching horrid sitcoms on ABC in 1984 or something. Gahh.

[@josephwalc1496]

In the 1950’s my parents and siblings lived on Evergreen Ave between Stanhope and Stockholm. My dad and I got the Myrtle Ave El at Central Ave travelled to Jay St. (the last stop) and go to Sid’s Hardware Store then a visit to the historic Firehouse. The fire house was the headquarters of the Brooklyn Fire Dept before It was merged with the Fire Dept of New York (FDNY). It remained an active firehouse into the 1970’s. The Engine 207 and Ladder 110 moved into it’s newly built firehouse on Tillery St. near the Manhattan Bridge and theBrooklyn Navy Yard. After a short walk to Fulton St. going to Korvets and Abraham & Strauss Dept stores. Along walk back to the Mrytle Ave El we would stop for a hot dog or hamburger. Those were good times and good memories.

[@rolandsanchez623]

They should rebuild that line

[@j3lny425]

I didn't even know there was a Lexington Ave. in Brooklyn.

[@georgemurphy2579]

I'm with you on that one 😮

[@manfocused]

I grew up on Lexington Ave bet. Throop & Tompkins (1983-1997) and never knew about the elevated train until I saw an old picture of Lexington & Tompkins Ave from the 1940s.

[@jdredman]

I grew up on the next street, Quincy, between Throop & Tompkins (1973-1991)!

[@stephenjackson5131]

I lived in marcy houses in late 50s to 1964 and use to marvel at the el train. From my bedroom I could stare and watch the trains go by . 3 cars during the day, 6 at rush hour.

[@1575murray]

I went to one end of the line one day and watched the workers couple 3 car trains together for the PM rush hour. It was dirty, dangerous work because nothing was automatic like it is on modern cars with fully automatic couplers. A pin had to be inserted into a receptacle on each car to secure the connecting link and cables and hoses had to be connected between the cars to make the 3 car sets work as a 6 car train.

[@luislaplume8261]

Absolutely true! In the rush hours my late father phoned my mother and asked her to bring the keys to the house with her to his work in Bushwick. We saw the 6 car rush hour train on the upper level that still had the original wooden roof and platform. In Old America in Old NYC during the Mad Men era of the 1960s!

[@johnrobinsoniii4028]

Me, too.(though it was called the Marcy Projects back then.)Where we lived, we didn’t see the trains, but we heard them from a distance.

[@georgemurphy2579]

America is now a pseudo, third-world country... we'll never see this again!!!!

[@nebuladus7850]

When I was little it was the dark color of the trains the wood like smell and the sounds they made especially in the subway...this really great steelo thxsomuch🌺💥🙏💥🌺

[@ronramos2779]

I remember taking this train back in 1966/1968, lived right off Myrtle Avenue

[@georgemurphy2579]

I have a kerosene 🏮 lantern that fell from a wooden gate car overhead, in 1955. It missed my father by a few feet when he was getting into his car on Myrtle and Washinton.

[@shamus967]

Where is the Graffiti? I guess it was a different "Culture" back in the day.

[@mtanyctrainatlantamartatra7164]

Those graffiti, so called artists are ridiculous

[@georgemurphy2579]

...and, Class!

[@Ezekiel144k]

There were pick pockets and robbers back then

[@luiszuluaga6575]

There were no cans of spray paint available in those days.

[@jessewolf7649]

@@Ezekiel144kworse today

[@00crashtest]

I wish they rebuilt all els in New York, but with floating slab track, pillars relocated to outside of the curbside, and wheels with variable taper in order to prevent flage contact altogether just like with upgraded trains and bullet trains in Asia and Europe. That would enable New York to return the iconic aesthetics of its historic els while still ensuring a whisper quiet experience and giving a unique world-class sightseeing experience just like with Chicago's Loop. Unlike the CTA L however, my proposal would have a Business Class car in every trainset (just like with commuter rail in Asia, especially Green Cars in Japan) that travels on elevated lines in order to ensure that sightseers get a great experience from having a comfortable ride with a luxurious interior free from homeless. The Business Class fares for tourists and upper class commuters would also cost many (perhaps a dozen) times more than a standard fare in order to subsidize the low-income commuters in order to ensure the financial security of the railway operator so that future generations can continue to enjoy the elevated signseeing experience on infrastructure maintained to certified pre-owned like-new condition. I bet that such a modern el (but with historic aesthetics) built to my high standards would still be way cheaper than tunnelling the Second Avenue Subway through ultra-hard metamorphic schist rock hundreds of feet underground. After all, even the economically much-worse-off Philly was able to completely rebuild the Market Street western elevated portion of the Market-Frankford Line (including the foundations of the pillars) in the 2000s to a modern concrete structure, though I'm not sure whether floating slab track was used or not. Perhaps Chicago's el's weren't demolished because the original builders went the extra mile to lengthen the transverse girders in order to be able to place the pillars on the sidewalk or place the els over alleys alltogether, both in order to not block horse and automotive traffic? That is unlike New York, where the pillars were placed in the middle of the street on most elevated lines presumable to save money on having shorter transverse girders.

[@iandale3674]

Luv the illuminated sign box at 1:57!! It 's from before 1940, as it even includes the Fulton Line!!

[@curiosity2314]

I always wondered as a kid whether the turn was to tight with the famous scraping noise heard from the wheels. Started riding the subway in 1960.

[@tron.44]

It's not the wheels so much as it is the shoe scraping the third rail! The shoe is how the electric motors get electrified.

[@JoseNunez-hh1yr]

Lots of NYC still looks like this. I was a C/R(1983-2013), got to hang out at Myrtle/Bway tower a couple of times.

[@susanmolloy4705]

Wow! Does this bring back memories!

[@TheLordAI]

I wasn't born til 74 so I missed all this

[@JoeBeim]

Weren't the people along the line afraid of electricity leaking out of the uncovered third rail.

[@EdwardM-t8p]

I wonder what New York City would be like if the transit authority maintained and upgraded all the elevated railways instead of knocking down all the lines that didn't tie into one of the tunnels?

[@1575murray]

This is a great video thanks for posting it.

[@bmendez3782]

Lol well what do you know turns out the squeaky sound when trains make when they turn has always existed.

[@parrot0051]

Why didn't these so called transit buffs ever film the conductors operating the gates for the passengers ? this should have been these historic films. Rail fans don't even do this today when they run these museum gate cars and they call themselves rail fans, if your a rail fan you record on video as much as you can.

[@oluhamilton2121]

Only ONE platform? Weird.....

[@59cadcoupe]

Thanks for sharing on KZbin.

[@georgemurphy2579]

It is such a shame about NYC these days...

[@vancepomerening4794]

And to think people 8have this all up just to have lawns.

[@Interscope100]

Man, what a shame to let all of this go 🙁

[@georgemurphy2579]

Could go from downtown area to East New York

[@nebuladus7850]

Hey this Awesome steelo💥💥💥💥💥

[@jamarinyc]

i used to have an apt on Hart & Tompkins, really cool to know there used to be el's next to me

[@georgemurphy2579]

Ribbed rails and DC motors...who could ask for anything more??

[@revenniaga6249]

Cool, if I could only go back to that time and live and ride trains for a month.

[@bertoneer1]

WOW

[@georgemurphy2579]

Bedford Stuyvesant....wow!!!!!

[@curiosity2314]

Question is how do we Colorize this?

[@Mhel2023]

NOOOOOOOO😂

[@curiosity2314]

@@Mhel2023 The original still remains intact.