#MTA Rail Yards

[trainphilos]

Adieu to 2023

2023 is history. Not that I will look back upon it fondly. Too many scary things reared their ugly heads during the year gone by. I fear though, that 2024 will disappoint us even more. November 2024 will be a water shed moment for the US. And I am not hopeful. But enough of these dark thoughts. It has been quite a while since the last blog appeared here. I just never seemed to find the time and…

[coramatus]

Poor Em, living rough on the streets.

But I realised something, he actually wouldn't be able to get most jobs a NYC subway. He doesn't have any certificates on him and even if he did then they'd be invalid since the schools/college/uni he got them from doesn't exist. He wouldn't even be able to be a depot agent since that actual requires a minimum of 2 passing grades.

Emmet would have to work his way up from the very bottom, probably getting a job a a ticket seller or a cleaner and transferring up within the job. I think eventually, if he believe that he'll be stuck in NYC forever, then he'll go back to college just so he can go back to being a conductor/engineer.

Realistically, Emmet’s situation is a logistical nightmare. He has no birth certificate, no social security number, no record of his existence, no visa, no legal citizenship, no legal ID, never mind any accredited educational degree or job training certificates. If this were any other story, he’d be categorically fucked.

But this is where the vigilante train repairs come in.

In frustration from not being able to fix the stupid portal device that dumped him here, Emmet figures he might as well fix something and takes it out on NY’s shittiest subway cars. And because he’s from a (slightly) more technologically advanced society, he knows a few things people here haven’t figured out yet.

Before the MTA knows it, suddenly their drivers are discovering their trains are running like a dream when before they might as well have been scrap (ok well, the grosser parts are still an issue but Emmet’s a train engineer, not a train janitor).

When the admins learn about this, it doesn’t take them long to find out who did it. Some want Emmet arrested, but a few others think there can’t be any harm letting this good samaritan rando keep up his free volunteer engineering work. It means the less they need actually spend on maintenance, right??

And this might have worked if the unions hadn’t caught wind of it.

Because then, there’s the threat of the actual paid engineers losing work and the skirting of work safety laws because of these unapproved repairs by a volunteer, which sets a very bad precedent. And why not get this guy on board and actually pay him for his work? It’s only the right thing to do, isn’t it? >:)

The next time Emmet sneaks into a rail yard to tinker with the trains, someone catches him in the act. Emmet expects to be arrested and isn’t surprised when the MTA cops show up. But, they’re just there to escort him to headquarters, not arrest him. Apparently the higher ups are verrrry interested in meeting with him.

When Emmet makes it to the main offices, he’s questioned about his motives, who he is, what is he doing here, how did he learn that kind of electrical engineering, etc.. (Based on what Jamal warned him of, he was expecting this of scary government people, not the train police). And as he expected, his answers are not encouraging, re: paperwork.

What really throws him for a loop is that some of the higher ups are willing to… bend the rules a bit for him, perhaps. Emmet is pretty sure that’s illegal, but the MTA is a bit desperate to get him on board lest the unions go on strike again. They can help him with some legalities. Illegal immigrant with only foreign documentation? They can pull a few strings to arrange a work visa for him (he refuses a green card, he does not want to be a US citizen). No education or certifications? Pass the GED and if he really is as good an engineer and conductor as he claims, then pass the tests (he would have scored perfect on these if the New York state and US federal rail laws hadn’t tripped him up). He can’t circumvent the waitlist to be a driver, but in the meantime he can try teaching their engineers whatever electricity magic it is he’s been doing. As for everything else? They’ll work it out when they get there.

Emmet is speechless at this offer. Who knew fixing trains made that much of an impression? It’s a lot to take in but he recognizes that if he wants any chance of thriving here and not driving Jamal nuts from squatting in his apartment, then he’ll never get a better chance than this.

So Emmet accepts.

The subway systems of NYC are never quite the same afterwards…

[supplyside]

Proposed development of the MTA's Western Rail Yard site, including eight mixed-use towers, as envisioned by the Related Companies

[adribosch-fan]

Biden en entrevista con TIME dijo que Putin es el presidente de China y dio a entender que Brasil quedaba en África

Al ser cuestionado sobre su capacidad para servir un segundo mandato, Biden respondió con confianza: “Puedo hacerlo mejor que nadie que conozcas” President Biden Makes Infrastructure Announcement at Long Island Rail Road West Side Yard President Joe Biden visited the MTA Long Island Rail Road West Side Yard on Tuesday, Jan 31, 2023 to announce a federal grant of $292 million toward the Hudson…

[1863-project]

can I ask what cool train lingo the twins [and you] might use?

Hey, anon! I went and found some railroad slang glossaries for you!

Be warned that some of these terms are wildly outdated and therefore you may see derogatory things that were once in common use. People don't use those today, and if they do, they're probably racist.

This one is from 1945, for instance. You'll notice a LOT of terms in there that aren't okay anymore (and frankly, never were, but fighting against bigotry is always an ongoing process). This one and this one are more modern.

A phrase I'm not seeing in any of these is "read your iron," which is a term the NYC MTA uses to remind motormen/engineers that they need to double check the rails ahead of them and make sure the switches were set correctly; if they go the wrong way, that's a massive headache, especially for commuter rail or mass transit of any sort. We have a lot of lines that converge, after all. It's also a reminder to check that the switch was set safely and you can pass through without issue. This obviously also shows up in rail yards for fairly obvious reasons.

So in terms of Submas, it might also help to know some general NYC Subway terminology, so this site and this article might be of use for that specifically!

And that's not even getting into how New York-area people talk in general, but that's another story entirely...

[cpw-nyc]

6 crucial ways New York City’s landscape will change in 2019

What to expect from New York’s transit, parks, megaprojects and more in the coming year

By Zoe Rosenberg Jan 2, 2019

2018 was one heck of a year for New York: The beloved Riegelmann Boardwalk at Coney Island became a landmark, a wave of progressive politicians refocused the conversation around issues like housing and inequality, 520 Park Avenue unseated its neighbor at No. 432 to claim the city’s top residential sales, and—even though the news often felt crushing—good things did indeed happen in New York.

Now, with 2018 in our collective rear view, it’s time look at what 2019 will bring. Rent stabilization will take center stage in June when the city’s laws are up for renewal, megaprojects throughout the five boroughs will make giant strides, the city’s new tallest residential tower will top out at 1,550 feet, and so much more.

Read on for what New Yorkers can expect to play out across the built environment in 2019.

Megaprojects

The construction of Amazon’s HQ2 in Long Island City will be a development a decade in the making. While local pols like the city comptroller and a handful of City Council members are still decrying the deal, it’s too soon to tell what will physically happen at the site this year. (Reps for Amazon and the New York City Economic Development Corporation were none too quick to share specifics.)

Here’s what we do know what the year ahead holds for the manmade inlet of Anable Basin that will hold HQ2: A 14-month planning process will kick off in January, with members of the 45-person Community Advisory Committee holding four meetings throughout the year. The CAC’s Project Plan, Neighborhood Infrastructure, and Workforce Development subcommittees will meet monthly as they hash out community-driven recommendations for the development. (Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer of Long Island City and state Senator Michael Gianaris called the CAC, which they oppose, a “thinly veiled attempt to present the Amazon deal as a fait accompli.”) The committee’s recommendations will inform Amazon’s master plan for the site, which should be revealed by early 2020.

📷 The waterfront warehouse owned by Plaxall will most likely be razed to make way for Amazon’s HQ2. Max Touhey

The tech giant has already committed to constructing between four and eight million square feet of office space and providing more than 500,000 square feet for public improvements including a school, light manufacturing space, a community facility workspace, an art and tech accelerator space, and public open space. The EDC and Empire State Development Corporation have expressed that construction could begin at the site as soon as 2020, with Amazon eyeing a 2022 move-in.

The much whispered about initiative to deck over 180 acres of rail yard bisecting parts of Long Island City and Sunnyside, creating Sunnyside Yards, was confirmed by the city in May when Amtrak and the MTA announced it tapped Vishaan Chakrabarti’s Practice for Architecture and Urbanism to create a master plan for the massive site. (Yes, massive is an appropriate adjective—it’s six and a half times the size of Hudson Yards.)

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/1/2/18161731/nyc-real-estate-architecture-predictions-2019

[region-nyc]

When snow accumulates, the MTA gets to work clearing platforms, stairs, tracks, and especially switches (in many spots, "heat" is turned on to keep them from icing up). Snow isn't supposed to be shoveled to the street from elevated stations, and snow removal along open cut lines can be especially challenging (as well as on elevated lines with concrete trackbeds and nowhere for snow to fall below). There is even a need for snow removal underground when snow makes its way through the grates, and ice can create problems in tunnels too. Many trains are stored underground in case operations at aboveground yards become challenging, which means some express service sometimes gets canceled (if trains are stored on express tracks) and crews need extra time to report. Trains operate more slowly too, since it can take longer to brake on icy rails. There are many impacts and complexities with running a 24/7 railroad during inclement weather. #nycsubway #subway #metro #underground #mta #nyctransit #nyc #snow #ice #winter #snowstorm #nycsnow #snownyc #noreaster #weather #snowday #winterwonderland #snowremoval #train #trains #trainstation #railroad #trainspotter #publictransport #publictransit #publictransportation #cities #infrastructure #railfan #foamer  https://www.instagram.com/p/CZXcJZTOL2L/?utm_medium=tumblr

[newtownpentacle]

glancing backward

Thursday – photo by Mitch Waxman One does wish that the pandemic related train cleaning regimen MTA has been observing included the polishing of the window glass on their rolling stock, but there you are. That’s part of the Sunnyside Yards pictured up there, shot through a 7 train window while heading west. A Long Island Rail Road train is at the bottom of the shot, and the owners of the trains…

[architectnews]

Sunnyside Yards Housing, Queens NY

Sunnyside Yards Housing, Queens Real Estate, New York Affordable Homes, American Architecture Images

Sunnyside Yards Housing in Queens, NY

Apr 27, 2021

Sunnyside Yards Housing

Architecture: daab design

Location: Queens, New York, USA

Jury commends Battersea architects on Sunnyside Yards affordable housing submission

The jury deciding New York City’s new Sunnyside Yards affordable housing competition have highly commended Battersea-based architects daab design for their sustainable, ambitious and intelligent submission to creating a new community over railway tracks in Queens.

Together with engineering firms Buro Happold and LERA, daab design architects submitted their much-praised scheme ‘Loop n Link’ which was awarded finalist position while Dublin studio, RKD Architects, were announced winners of the $15,000 prize. Pei Cobb-Freed Architects were recognized as finalists as well.

The jury highly commended daab design, Buro Happold, and LERA for their creative and community-centered concept that exceeded sustainability measures and displayed an exemplary outline of engineering that was ‘grounded in reality’.

‘Loop n Link’ was conceived as a series of serpentine, curving housing blocks that envelop residents in a series of diverse public spaces where people can share a sense of togetherness. Designed to a passive house standard, the team placed the social and physical well being of residents among the top priorities of the scheme, ensuring ‘Loop n Link’ would deliver a close-knit community experience while still seamlessly integrating with the existing surrounding neighbourhoods.

Sunnyside Yards sits atop 180 acres of proposed development over the Amtrak, MTA and LIRR shared railway yard and depot between Queens Boulevard and Honeywell Street in Queens, New York City. The publicly owned transport site has been earmarked for 12,000 new affordable dwellings along with parkland and several schools, health centres, libraries and children’s facilities.

Dennis Austin, Director at daab design says: “If Hudson Yards is a copy/paste of the Manhattan grid, Sunnyside Yards is an opportunity to create a new diverse community informed by the city grid, but responding to the specific needs of the communities within Queens.

Looking to the future we need to unlock the real potential of rail integration to our communities and tap a resource of reinforcing a local circular economy. Sunnyside Yards has great potential and we’re proud to have been recognized for our well-thought out scheme with our project partners Buro Happold and LERA.”

Denzil Gallagher, Partner at Buro Happold says: “It’s great to be involved and recognized in a competition like this. The idea of unlocking a stranded rail yard asset to improve social wellbeing is a very common challenge in getting the best for people who live in New York City and similar cities around the globe. The scheme, developed with our colleagues daab and LERA, used sustainable health and wellbeing strategies to promote a vibrant social community.”

Daniel Sesil, Partner at LERA says: “The presence of the railroad yard, the rhythm of the tracks, and the need to span them efficiently with a repetitive structure, formed the fundamental guiding principles that informed our structural proposal, both at street level and above. The project’s proposed structural systems succeed by being straightforward, repetitive, and economical, while enabling flexibility in the architecture above, each of which we see as being essential to making the development of Sunnyside Yards a reality.”

Competition juror Enrica Oliva, Partner and COO of Werner Sobek New York says: “The entries have shown a wide variety of approaches: it was a true reflection, in my opinion, of how architects and urban planners, along with their allies—the structural engineers and facade consultants—are looking at the challenge and seeking an opportunity to make a difference.”

Architect: daab design

Sunnyside Yards Housing, Queens images / information received 270421

Location: Queens, New York City, USA

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Comments for the Sunnyside Yards Housing, Queens page welcome

Website: Queens, NY

The post Sunnyside Yards Housing, Queens NY appeared first on e-architect.

[newsfinale]

Graffiti vandals strike again, ravaging MTA trains at Brooklyn rail yard https://ift.tt/37cNK96

[mitchell721]

Rail crossing -7 train entering the train yard #mta_transit_pics_vidsphotography #mta #mtasubway #mtanyctransit #subwaytrain #7train #caseystengeldepot #nyctransit #trains #train (at Casey Stengel Depot) https://www.instagram.com/p/CIOURQkLLKo/?igshid=1bvc9ffhx6eee

[siothishere]

Just a woman who loves paw dogs books tea flowers shirt

Just a woman who loves paw dogs books tea flowers shirt

Some folks place themselves on the Just a woman who loves paw dogs books tea flowers shirt decals, and others blow by them. State-of-the-art sanitation measures are also being tested. In a Corona, Queens, rail yard, the MTA is currently piloting U.V. light cleaning. The technology is already used in hospital waiting rooms, but it needs to be outfitted to meet the subway’s precise needs. Lamps…

[thuethamtuuudam]

Just a woman who loves paw dogs books tea flowers shirt

Just a woman who loves paw dogs books tea flowers shirt

Some folks place themselves on the Just a woman who loves paw dogs books tea flowers shirt decals, and others blow by them. State-of-the-art sanitation measures are also being tested. In a Corona, Queens, rail yard, the MTA is currently piloting U.V. light cleaning. The technology is already used in hospital waiting rooms, but it needs to be outfitted to meet the subway’s precise needs. Lamps…

[bronxnewsroundup-blog]

MTA cleaner killed after falling at <b>Bronx</b> train yard

An MTA cleaner was killed Thursday morning when he fell at a Bronx train yard — and possibly touched the third rail, police said. The 40-year-old ... from Google Alert - Bronx https://ift.tt/35noPze via https://ift.tt/2G9ANlB

[glrosario]

My favorite block in Ridgewood is 70th Ave between Fresh Pond Road & 60th Ln. It’s off of Fresh Pond Road, which is a great area for anyone who enjoys great coffee, great restaurants, the convenience of everything being close, including public transportation. Fresh Pond was a small middle class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, separated from Juniper Valley by the Lutheran and Mount Olivet cemeteries. In present day, it is now considered part of the surrounding neighborhoods of Maspeth, Middle Village, Glendale, and Ridgewood (its neighbors to the northwest, northeast, southeast, and southwest, respectively) and is no longer referred to by the name "Fresh Pond." The area was originally named for two freshwater ponds that, in the early 1900s, were filled in. Other ponds were lower, and brackish due to Newtown Creek being estuarine. Its main streets, Fresh Pond Road, Metropolitan Avenue, Eliot Avenue and 61st Street, meet at the community's commercial center. Fresh Pond is served by the Fresh Pond Road and Metropolitan Avenue stations of the BMT Myrtle Avenue Line (M train) of the New York City Subway. It is also the home of the Fresh Pond Depot for MTA Bus and New York City Bus. A former Long Island Rail Road freight station of the Montauk Branch and the Fresh Pond Yard lie east of the corner of Metropolitan Avenue and Fresh Pond Road. The freight only Bushwick Branch of the LIRR branches off below (west of) the Fresh Pond yard before crossing Flushing Avenue. Freight cars interchange here with the New York Connecting Railroad including those from Bay Ridge and the New York Cross Harbor Railroad. Fresh Pond Road has existed for centuries. During the American Revolutionary War, British forces pursued the American military along Fresh Pond Road. [Wikipedia] George L. Rosario #glrosario NYC’s Hometown Realtor The Luxe Stone NY Team Brokered by eXp Realty www.GeorgeRosario.com #NYCsHometownRealtor #MayorOfNewYork #PowerAgentsRock #Queens #RidgewoodNY #RidgewoodQueens #5amCLUB #mindset #LIONSquad #limestonehouse #limestone #eXpRealty #townhouse #neighborhood #Ridgewood #exprealtyproud #30to6figures #QueensNY (at Fresh Pond, Queens) https://www.instagram.com/p/CEcQr3rjt0I/?igshid=lzzcyip9nudt

[themarrero]

Growing up in this area just west of Manhattan it could easy to overlook the beautiful skyline particularly when the sun is setting at ‘blue hour’ but the truth is I never tire of standing at Hamilton Park in Weehawken because over the last 37 years it is ever evolving. Witness in this pictorial collection the reflections upon the newest area on the island Hudson Yards literally built on a platform over the MTA’s Hudson Rail Yard. @bheventspace @hudsonyards #bhportdev https://www.instagram.com/p/B3TLggqJV3U/?igshid=1pdpausk1yw51