flexliner wrote:was there ever a service pattern even in distant past that made use of the (old) center stub tracks at canal? (as a terminal station)
another question - with the Chrystie connection and reconfig of the manhattan bridge tracks, was there a reason to totally disconnect the nassau st tracks from the south bridge tracks and the broadway tracks from the north bridge tracks? could they have left juctions to both sides of the bridge to allow for service flexibilty?
what I mean is the the north tracks would be fed in from the 6th ave line (new) as well as the broadway line (old pattern to be used in emergency) and the south tracks would be fed in from the broadway line (new pattern) as well as the nassau tracks (old pattern, unused but available)
There was a service that lasted into the late 1960's called the "Broadway Short Line" which ran from Canal Street over the Williamsburg Bridge to Atlantic Avenue. (There were longer versions of this line in earlier years but it ended service as a Canal St to Atlantic Avenue line.
[I have a copy of a 5 Borough Street Guide of New York by Geographia Map Co. dated 1955 (MCMLV) which shows this line]
http://www.robkopolovicz.com/brooklynshortline.html
I think that due to changing ridership patterns there was a declining need for service on the Nassau Street Loop so the northern tracks were severed.
There is enough flexibility on the Brooklyn side (after they rebuilt that entire area) for service needs. That was proved back in the 1980's and 1990's when they did work on the MB and had a version of the B and D operating on Broadway and later when they had a version of the Q operating on 6th Av to 21st - Queensbridge.