Service Changes, Unusual Subway Sightings and Reroutes

[trainbrain]

I meant it had never been used in revenue service, which is true.

Also, I saw a video somewhere of a northbound G train on the express track at Smith 9th Street (at that time, southbound F train were all running express due to a stalled train at Carroll Street). There is no track connection back to the Crosstown Line from the express tracks north of Smith 9th Street, so this train had to have discharged at Jay Street, York Street, or it had to continue into Manhattan.

[GirlOnTheTrain]

As mentioned earlier in this topic - G trains running in Manhattan are not entirely unheard of...

[rr503]

Correct -- I had the pleasure of being on one many many years back.

[trainbrain]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUPKzksapPI

M trains running on Second Avenue. Must've continued via the F to 63rd Street and then switched to the Q side of the station. There is no way for an M train to get onto the Broadway Line at all. Oddly enough this was on a weekend when it normally terminates at Delancey Street, so one would think it would just have run to Forest Hills like it does on weekdays instead of doing this.

[railfan365]

To reply to something a few posts back - of course the Q side of Lex/63rd did not see revenue service until the start of SAS service. Those tracks stub ended at the East end of the station until Phase I was built. i do remember it well that trains ran between Queens and the Broadway line via 63rd Street going back to 1989 when the 63rd Street tunnel finally opened, with the tracks on the North sdie being used for layup until construction of SAS Phase I was underway.

[GirlOnTheTrain]

A little birdy informs me that there are 160s running around on the D line this morning.

Happy hunting.

[trainbrain]

I found this video of a ride on an R68A W train on a weekend. The description says that it was taken on Saturday March 25th.

https://youtu.be/RVHs_OhNJBo" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obviously the W doesn't run on weekends, but the description said that there was a service change that weekend and 7 trains weren't running west of Queensboro Plaza. I guess since the 7 wasn't running into Manhattan, they needed to have extra capacity on the Astoria Line, so they decided to run the W that weekend.

Can anyone confirm if this actually happened, and if it would be something that could be done in the future?

[GirlOnTheTrain]

Sounds about right - I remember people making a giant deal about it at the time.

[octr202]

Makes sense. I recall getting weekend Q trains to Astoria when the 7 was shut down, back in the way back before Second Ave opened up.

We often stay in LIC when visiting, and usually found the extra service on the N/Q was more convenient to where we were going than having the 7 running...one of those nice flukes of weekend diversions.

[trainbrain]

Found a recent video of an R68A R train. Description said it was due to a shortage of the normal equipment the R uses, so a train of R68A's was borrowed from Coney Island Yard and ran on the R for some amount of trips today. Any idea what was going on?

[GirlOnTheTrain]

They were short a train because a 46 was broken. Coney Island supplied that in exchange...nothing earthshattering.

[Allan]

This weekends' (10/6-10/8/17) planned work has an interesting reroute:

D trains will operate over the A line between 59th St-Columbus Circle to Jay St-MetroTech and then on the F line (Culver line) to Stillwell Av-Coney Island.

[This is sort of a homecoming for the D as it ran on the Culver Line (todays' F line) between 1954 and 1967 when the connector from Church Av was opened. In 1967 when the Chrystie St connection over the Manhattan Bridge was opened the D was assigned to the Brighton line and the F took over the Culver line.]

F trains will operate on the Q line after between 63rd St-Lexington Av and Dekalb Av. From Dekalb Av it will operate over the 4th Av line (D,N,R) to 36th St (Brooklyn) where it will operate over the D line (West End) to Stillwell Av-Coney Island.

In spite of all the posted signage on the stations, I am sure this will raise a lot of confused eyebrows as trains pull in.

[rr503]

Yyyyyup the lauded Culver Swap. Theyve done this a few times before, and invariably you see confused straphangers. I live on the F line in BK so I'm looking forward to a fun, fun weekend.

[trainbrain]

Looks like all of 6th Ave is closed this weekend, so D trains are running on 8th Ave and F trains running on Broadway. The Culver swap happens because there is no way for D trains to get to the Manhattan Bridge from 8th Ave, so they have it go on the F line, and then have the F cover the D line. Having the D go on 8th Ave and the F go on Broadway is better than having them both go on 8th Ave as was done before SAS opened because they don't have to run more than 2 services on one track. Usually when running both on 8th Ave, the F ran local with the C and E and the D ran express with the A. This meant there were 3 services on the local track and delays, and nothing could get onto the D line in Brooklyn, meaning it had to run in two sections. On weekends the F can run express with the Q on Broadway and running two services on one line is routine, unlike trying to run three, and service in Brooklyn is much closer to normal.

[eastwind]

Looks like all of 6th Ave is closed this weekend

Isn't it unusual to close a midtown trunk line entirely, especially for days, not hours?
What's the reason for this?