User:Kew Gardens 613/IND Lines History

Service patterns
A, E, CC, C Fulton Street

Rockaways

A 207th Street

168th Street local

Concourse; more; more

E

60th Street Tunnel

Headways
A Lefferts Boulevard, E, CC/C

Rockaways

Concourse

F train

E train

Service changes
C train 1988-1992

Miscellaneous
As for the ind, one of the old timers in the schedule office mentioned to me that one of the schedule makers had proposed having the AA run 24/7 and having the rush hour Concourse Lcl be a DD between Bed Pk and 34/6. He was shut down by the higher ups at the time who insisted that the Wash Hts and Concourse branches should each have an 8th and a 6th Ave service. I wonder what those naysayers would say now!

The IND used to have something like that at 125 St. There were illuminated signs mounted on the columns between the express tracks that displayed either “For local stops on the Concourse Line take trains marked CC” or “Trains marked D make local stops on the Concourse Line” depending on how the service was running at the time. I do remember that years ago, the exact start and start times for part time services were displayed at the appropriate stations but when the suits came in to operations planning, that changed since almost every pick, schedules and resulting start and stop times for the various services changed by a minute or 2 and it would have been massive undertaking to change all the signs at every location that had them. I also recall seeing illuminated “Express not running” signs at certain stations although at this point I can’t recall their locations or even what division they were on.

The IND Queens Line opened on August 19, 1933 between Roosevelt Avenue and 42 Street- 8 Avenue and "E" trains began running between Roosevelt Avenue and Hudson Terminal. The Queens Line was extended to Union Turnpike on December 31, 1936. "E" trains by this time were running local between there and Church Avenue via the Rutgers Street Tunnel. When the Queens Line was opened to 169 Street on April 24, 1937 it was decided to institute express service between Continental Avenue and Queens Plaza during rush hours. The "E" would now run during rush hours only between 169 Street and Church Avenue while the new "EE" would cover the same route in the non-rush hours.

This service pattern lasted only for a few months. When the Crosstown Line was completely opened on July 1, 1938 the "GG" became the full-time local service on Queens Boulevard and the "E" was made a full time express service. The "EE" was discontinued.

Actually, the original Rocakaway shuttle carried either A or E signs depending on which through service went to the Rockaways during rush hours. some picks the A went to Rockaway and some picks it was the E. When the late trainmaster George Abere was a M/M in the Rockaways circa 1960, he wrote a letter the the then AGS of the NYCTA Transportation Dept Leo Cusick stating that the Rockaway shuttles were neither a nor E trains and suggesting using the disused "HH" signe which the R-9s through R-10s had. AGS Cusick agreed and the rockaway shuttles were given the HH designation and when the R-27s through 38s were delivered they included signs which read "HH/Rockaway Shuttle." When the R-40s came in they had any number of different letter designations for the Rockaway shuttles including A, E and HH and there was a bit of confusion for a while but the official TA designation for the Rockaway shuttle remained HH.

That is correct. Back when the B was the West End service, there were actaully 4 Bs on the late PM that operated via the F Line to Bway/Laff where they went in service there. This was also before the 63 St connector opened up and the Bs terminated at 21 St during late PMs and weekends. There were also 2 Ns that operated over the Brighton Line to Dekalb for the same reason although I dont recall whether they ran light or in service, to provide "windows" for work trains operating on 4 Ave. Also, due to the work trains, there were some S/B Rs that turned at either Canal or Whithall St to provide N/B service into Queens and the headway N/B out of 95 st was opened and adjusted by holds at Whitehall and Canal St to blend with the short turns. The reason that the Rs were impacted was that some of these work trains had to operate vis the Montague St Tunnel to get to locations in the Eastern Division so windows were required there as well.

I remember the Euclid Ds. Often on my way to college in the 1960s, I would get one of them at 59 St in the AM. In those days the IND still had swing runs so I would imagine that the crews operated S/B in the AM, swung till the afternoon and returned N/B in the PM. In the days of the swings it was common for the midday swing to be at locations other than the home reporting terminal. A M/M I knew once worked a job that reported at Hudson Terminal in the AM operated N/B on a CC, returned S/B on a D to Church Ave, swung till the PM operated a N/B D from Stl to 205, S/B to Bed Pk and on a S/B CC back to Hudson Terminal to clear.

For the most part with the opening of Chrystie St in November 1967 although since the IRT picks normally did not go into effect at the same time as the BMT and IND the IRT change might have been a bit earlier or later. What was interesting about the way it went in is that the C/R division of TWU dis not OK the agreement at the same time as the M/M so the C/Rs retained swings a bit longer, I think till the next pick in the spring of 1968. The BMT was the first division to do away with the swings and I never recall seeing any swing jobs on the BMT as early as 1960 except for certain platform C/R jobs that were set aside for 2nd position C/Rs who never qualified as C/Rs in charge. On the IND and IRT, switchmen (Yd M/M) were used to lay up and put in trains whereas on the BMT road crews would put their own trains in before the rush and lay them up after. As originally instituted, the putin/layup tasks known as “T/C” for transfer cars took the place of one of the road trips that would be made by crews without T/C. Thus on the Brighton Exp on which the normal complement of runs was 3 round trips to 57 St, a crew with T/C would do a put in and 2 trips, 2 trips and a layup or in some cases a layup or put in between the 2 trips but never the full 3 trips and any sort of T/C. In many cases if an arriving crew had something like 2 hours of T/C at the end of a run, the crew would just lay up the train and the Yd/mast would not expect any more work from the crew and so the crew got an early break. This concept delighted the IRT and IND crews who voted overwhelmingly for the change since it was a package deal that combined the institution of runs with T/C and the elimination of the swings. Also the changes over the years that no longer required NYCTS employees to live in NY City meant that it was not as convenient for an employee who lived in the suburbs to go home midday and return in the afternoon the way it was back when many employees lived in walking distance or a reasonable travel distance from their reporting locations. In any case when the swing runs were eliminated and runs with T/C were instituted most employees were pleased. Due to conflicts withe interpretation of the term T/C, that section of the work programs was changed to “WAA” or work as assigned. Over the years primarily due to the increase in allowed overall work time, many of the trips that had WAA in lieu of a trip now included the full complement of trips per line with the WAA as either a put in or layup in addition, not exactly in the spirit of what the crews voted for in 1967.

Since rush hour headways were closer than midday headways, those crews who operated in the rush hour were not needed midday which is why the swung till the PM. With the elimination of swings, there were actually a few more crews needed since they would be on T/C (or WAA) time post rush and they would no longer be available to cover the PM rush hence new reporting crews required to cover PM rush hour trips. It wasn’t necessarily a complete 1 for 1 and the crews now covering the put ins and layups would mean that some of the switching jobs that formerly covered them could be eliminated.

Rockaway Division
I didn't know it at the time, but per union agreement, a new division, the Rockaway Division was established initially to provide runs for BMT train crews displaced by the closing of the Fulton St el. When the vote was taken IRT crews packed the meeting and runs on the Rockaway Div were allotted based on the number of total employees on each division. Initially, the Euclid - Lefferts operation was kept as a shuttle, when the Rockaways opened in June of that year, alternate A trains operated through to Lefferts and alternate As turned at Euclid, At that point, the E became the Rockaway service, and IND crews were relieved at Euclid by Rockaway Division crews. This practice continued until the Chrystie merger of the BMT and IND when the Rockaway Division was abolished and IRT crews who were able to pick Rockaway were forced back to their home division.

I remember the changing of a crew on one weekend day at Euclid after alternate "A" service to Far Rockaway was just established in July 1967. When the R-10 "A" train pulled into Euclid, the M/M came out of his cab but told the passengers to stay put in the train, and the next M/M came in to the cab for the continuing of the run to Far Rockaway. And so it goes...

After the IND got full control of the Rockaways, F/R A Line crews would change at Euclid either S/B or N/B depending on the way the work program was cut. A similar situation existed at E 180 St on the #5 before the crew room was built at Dyre. The reason for the crew changes at those locations was the lack of proper crew facilities at Dyre and Far Rock which necessitated the enroute crew changes. The A at that time was also a polyglot of services with A trains originating at Far Rock, Lefferts and Euclid. An A crew arriving at Euclid on a layup would often be relieved by a switchman who took the train to the yard. That crew would after recovery time relieve a crew from 207 St, take that train to Far Rock and bring that train back through to 207 St. Some crews would operate through the Far Rock, return the Euclid and be relieved either for recovery or lunch and then relieve a crew coming from Far Rock and take that train to 207St. Until Far Rock service became the full midnight service, per union agreement, crews were only supposed to be scheduled for one Far Rock trip. The other trip had to be a Lefferts. Crews could make 2 Lefferts trips but not 2 far Rocks. Now that the principal full time A service goes to Far Rock, crews do make 2 Far Rock trips. Also back then there was no full time supervision at Far Rock so the Far Rock crews had to report and be relieved at Euclid. Once the crew facilities at Far rock were upgraded and a full time supervisor assigned there, Far Rock crews could now operate through. Oddly enough, Rock Pk had a full time T/D and good crew facilities from the beginning even though Rock Pk service ended up being a shuttle for most of the time.

When I was a M/M and when I first became a T/D there were some D crews that reported at 205 St and went through to BBC (back when the D was the Brighton Line). Crews that reported at CCYd and put in their own trains also went through. For many years, there was no delay written into the D timetables but with most of the equipment becoming SMEE requiring a BIE when changing crews, a 2 min hold at B/Pk was written into all D intervals. There was a brief time in the 1980s, when the D work programs were written so that in the AM rush, crews changed northbound at B/Pk so that there would be no S/B delays changing crews, but it was short lived. There were other incidents of crews changing at other than terminals. The #5 Dyre crews changed at E 180 St, N/B in the AM rush and S/B in the PM rush so that passengers would not have delays in the peak direction of traffic. Far Rock A Line crews also changed at Euclid in a similar pattern and those crew changes lasted until proper crew facilities were constructed at Dyre and Far Rock respectively. In the case of Far Rock, the reason for the crew change was not so much due to lack of crew facilities as it was the lack of supervision at Far Rock. At some point, the NYCTA decided to put a full time supervisor at Far Rock allowing crews to report there.