User:Kew Gardens 613/IRT Lines History

The IRT numbers were a Board of Transportation invention after WWII when the decision was made to have a smaller version of the R-10 for IRT lines (R-12 and R-14)--I've heard that the B of T and the City claimed that as a municipal agency they were no longer subject to PSC regulation. I don't know if the State (PSC) ever challenged the City--if so, they lost.

Reminds me of the ongoing question of who actually owns the subway system, regardless of how construction may be funded.

During the 1950s, Broadway Expresses (1) ran from Van Cortlandt to New Lots on Mondays through Fridays express during midnight hours when it went to Flatbush Avenue. During weekends, it went to Flatbush Avenue at all times. Broadway Locals (1) ran from 137th Street to South Ferry on Mondays through Fridays from about 6 AM to midnight. Seventh Avenue–West Farms Express (2) ran from Bronx Park (and from East 180th once the spur closed) to Flatbush Avenue from about 6 AM to midnight, except on weekends when it went to New Lots. In the mid-1950s, the southern terminals of the Broadway and West Farms Expresses were swapped, and the Broadway ran to Flatbush 24/7 while the West Farms ran to New Lots during its hours of operation. Seventh Avenue–Lenox Locals (3) ran between 145th Street and South Ferry during the same hours at the 137th Street Locals except that Lenox service ran on weekends. Lexington Avenue–Jerome Expresses (4) ran from Woodlawn to Utica Avenue from

Lex/Jerome exps (4) ran from Woodlawn to Utica from about during AM and PM rush M - F midday to Atlantic then post PM rush Woodlawn to So/Fy and midnights Woodlawn to N/Lts. Weekends Jerome ran on midnights the same as M - F but from 600A to late PMs ran Woodlawn to So/Fy.

Lex Wh Pl Rd exps (5) ran from about 600 AM till about midnight M - F from 241 St to Utica AM and PM rush till midnights and Atlantic Av middays with selected trains going to Flatbush during rush hours. Weekends it ran from 241 St to Utica from about 600 AM till midnight. Midnights all 7 days, 145 St was closed and 7 Av Lenox service was provided by 7 Av lcls (2) between 241 St Wh Pl Rd and So/Fy which also replaced the Lex Wh Pl Rd which did not run on midnights.

I’m not entirely familiar with the Pelham (6) service pattern other than that it ran pretty much the same as it does today between either Pelham or Parkchester and Bkln Br. I’m not sure whether it ran to So/Fy on midnights so I’m not sure whether the Bwlg Grn Shuttle ran midnights or not. I do know that during the late 1970s, till Lex service to So/Fy was eliminated completely, midnight 6s ran to So/Fy. Over the years the service patterns changed slightly with weekend and late PM W/L and Wh Pl Rd service swapping south terminals between Utica and So/Fy. It’s interesting to note that while there was no midday M-F Bkln exp service back then, there was post PM rush and weekend exp service in Bkln.

1959 Changes
After Feb, 1959, the west side IRT service pattern changed so that all Bway service ran lcl and all Lenox service both 145 St and E 180 ran exp with the midnight 241 St service providing midnight 7 Av exp service. Also during that period, the Dyre Av Line was connected to the Wh Pl Rd line and alt 7 Av exps ran to Dyre except on late PMs and midnights. At that time there was no midnight service to Dyre and a shuttle ran between Dyre and E 180 on late PMs.

1965 Changes
Sometime in 1965, the north terminals of the Lex and 7 Av Bronx services were swapped and 241 St became the full time terminal for the 7 Av (2) Exp and E 180 and Dyre became the full time terminals for the Lex (5). Also the Bkln services were changed and Woodlawn trains provided the Flatbush/Lex service. Over the years the south terminals of the 2 and 3 were swapped back and forth between N/Lts and Flatbush but those changes and some others are too numerous to mention here.

1983 Brooklyn IRT
Prior to 1983, the 3 ran between 148th Street and Flatbush Avenue when it operated. The 4 ran to Flatbush during rush hours and midnights, to Atlantic Avenue middays, and to Utica Avenue on late evenings and weekends other than midnights. The 2 operated at all times to New Lots, and the 5 operated to Utica during rush hours, Bowling Green middays, post-rush Pos and weekends, except for late nights when it did not operate. On July 10, 1983, the 2 and 3 were swapped, necessitated by the reassignment of the car maintenance and inspection away form 240th Street to Livonia, making it easier for 3 train equipment to get to its roper maintenance facility. As originally planned, the 4 and 5 were to remain mostly unchanged, except that the 4 would run to New Lots during midnights instead of the Flatbush, and then go to to Flatbush during rush hour. However, that would have given the 4 four south terminals, not including Bowling Green, where some trains during rush hours. Randy O. recommended sending the 5 to Flatbush during the hours that the 4 ran there, and sending the 4 to Utica except middays when it ran to Atlantic and midnights when it ran to New Lots. His recommendation was accepted and the present service pattern was established, which has been modified to extend 5 trains to Flatbush during middays.

Flushing Express Changes
On February 10, 1993, 7 Flushing Expresses resumed stopping at 61st Street–Woodside. Express service to this station had been suspended on August 21, 1989.

Source: New York Division Bulletin / March 1992

Pelham Shuttle
I used them unless I had an encyclopedic knowledge of the line in question. Sometimes we would even go further than that. In the 1970s when the #6 was made a shuttle between Pelham and 125 on the Midnight, the original plan was to discharge passengers at 125 S/B and run light to 86 St to turn. I contacted G/Cent master tower and learned that trains on tk 2 in 125 St could be brought right back N/B through the Pelham tube and Xed to the N/B S/O 138 St. the schedules were thus written with S/B Pelham shuttles turning right back from 125 St and scheduled to leave 5 min after arriving N/B 4s to allow passengers walk time from the upper to the lower levels. Track maps certainly have to be used in the case of supplements in the event that a particular operation might be called for that the track layout would not permit.

1 train
In about 1955, select Broadway Express trains from New Lots Avenue during rush hours operate via the middle track from south of 103rd Street to south of 137th Street, bypassing the local stations in the peak direction of travel. It was discontinued because the expresses delayed local trains, since they had to be routed back to the local south of 103rd Street in the AM, and south of 137th Street in the PM. Since these trains were express on its branch line and local on its trunk line, trains carried route signs reading “LOCAL - EXP.”

On Friday, February 6, 1959, express service ran southbound in the AM rush and northbound in the PM rush. During rush hours, there were short line put-ins and layups at Dyckman Street to serve the bypassed stations. The northbound expresses during the PM only lasted the first day because confused passengers pulled the emergency cords upon seeing their stations bypassed by the express trains, and as there was difficulty fumigating the short-turns at Dyckman. A new supplement schedule, which was put into effect on Monday February 9, 1959, eliminated northbound express service during the PM, and extended the Dyckman lay-ups to Van Cortlandt Park. A few years later, due to the presence of GW HS at 191 Street and the large number of Bronx bus passengers boarding at 181 Street, the express service pattern was changed, and the expresses now bypassed 215 Street and 207 Street and stopped at 191 Street and 181 Street instead. In addition, the Dyckman put-ins were extended to Van Cortlandt. This continued until ten-car trains were able to be operated on the Broadway Local, and during rush hours all trains operated out of Van Cortalndt on a slightly longer headway, and 137 Street short-turns only operated during middays. The IRT service changes went into effect on a Friday because, at the time, the IRT payroll week ran from Friday to Thursday, so all IRT pocks went into effect on a Friday. Eventually all divisions’ payroll weeks were standardized to run from Sunday to Saturday.

This was discontinued on May 24, 1976, with a general decline in ridership during the 1970s

C/Rs operated 4X4 and opened only the first 4 cars at So/Fy. The lcl platforms S/O 34 St could only accommodate 8 cars so the Bway Lcls ran only 8 cars util those platforms were lengthened to 10 cars. On Sat & Sun the Bway Lcl operated 6 cars and the C/Rs operated 5 cars south and one car north so they could open up 5 cars at So/Fy. When trains returned to V/C the C/R position was now 5 north and 1 south so the drum switches had to be reset on every train so that the C/R could be 5 south and 1 north for the S/B trip back to So/Fy. .

The problem at one time was that the #1 timetables were written improperly with following trains scheduled to arrive ahead of the previous trains leaving time. Why it was done this way, I don’t know but that is the way I found it when I went into the schedule office in 1976. In typical IRT fashion, it was left to the rest of the road supervision to smooth out the headways along the line and the headway adjustments were done primarily at Chambers St. It was of little or no consequence that the trains left So/Fy ahead of time since this was mostly during the time that headways were so frequent that passengers would not even know the difference.