Railroad Forums 

Discussion relating to the past and present operations of the NYC Subway, PATH, and Staten Island Railway (SIRT).

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #754265  by njtmnrrbuff
 
Hello All,
This Monday, I'm looking at spending a morning railfanning on the Staten Island Rapid Transit. My starting point would be Eltingville, since I would be doing the NJT HBLRT/NYCMTA bus shuffle at Bayonne's 34th Street.

Where could I get good shots along the line in the morning? What stations should I be extra careful around, in terms of being in rough neighborhoods?
I went on to the nycsubway site, and looked at some of the photographs. I see that Grant City might be a good place, as long as if I'm there when the sun isn't too low. Tottenville is nice.
I rode the line end to end in Jan of 07, and last year, between Tompkinsville and St. George.
Thanks for any advice.
 #754528  by njtmnrrbuff
 
Thanks. Yes, Tottenville is a good place for photographs. I'm also thinking about photographing at Atlantic and Nassau, Annadale. I checked some of the pics of Oakwood Hts, and see that there might be too many trees along the platforms, and row away from it, so it might be tough. New Dorp, from what I saw in the pics on nycsubway.com, might be nice.
 #776867  by MNR's #1 Conductor
 
Clifton is also a good spot, where I heard you can get views inside SIRT Clifton Yard. One day I wanna check that location out, and see if I can spot one of the SIRT BL-20Gs or even, if they are still around, one of the Alco S-switchers.
 #810106  by njtmnrrbuff
 
In one of the next few months, I'm going to photograph the SIRT stations and various points along the right of way between Old Town and St. George.
Are there any neighborhoods that I should watch, crimewise?
I do want to spend some time in Clifton, especially since the Yard is there. I wonder if its possible for me to get nonobstructed shots of it from a public street. thanks.
 #810154  by R36 Combine Coach
 
MNR's #1 Conductor wrote:Clifton is also a good spot, where I heard you can get views inside SIRT Clifton Yard. One day I wanna check that location out, and see if I can spot one of the SIRT BL-20Gs or even, if they are still around, one of the Alco S-switchers.
They also have a (Main Line) R33 car there too as a service car.
 #860477  by Kamen Rider
 
Staring with the R44s, the MTA has only bough one order with half width cabs, the R62/As. everything has been full width. the closest you can get is if you somehow were permited to ride in an OOS train led by a B unit using the hostler controls.
 #860858  by Head-end View
 
Rob, you're out of luck on SIRT. Those R-44's are just like the ones in the NYC subways that were recently retired. But didn't you tell us several years back that there was one train running on SIRT that had corner-cabs? Either a modified set of R-44's or maybe a set of M-1's?

And Kamen Rider, you're almost correct. The R68/A's were delivered as single units with a corner-cab at one end and a full-width cab at the other end.
 #861418  by Robert Paniagua
 
I meant a Railfan window in a full width cab car,not a corner cab one, some of their cab access doors do have a small portion of the windows that I could see out front, and even see some of the motormans' controls too, as long as there's no newspaper clippings or ads
 #861552  by Kamen Rider
 
Head-end View wrote:And Kamen Rider, you're almost correct. The R68/A's were delivered as single units with a corner-cab at one end and a full-width cab at the other end.

How often were the run half cab leading. If I were seting them up in the yard, I'd keep the crew freindly full cabs out in front.

Robert Paniagua wrote:I meant a Railfan window in a full width cab car,not a corner cab one, some of their cab access doors do have a small portion of the windows that I could see out front, and even see some of the motormans' controls too, as long as there's no newspaper clippings or ads
That's not much of a railfan window. And the SIRT doesn't have motormen. They're engineers, and they get insulted if you call them anything else.
 #861555  by Head-end View
 
When the R-68/A's were new 20 years ago, they sometimes ran with the corner-cab leading, but in recent years I've only seen them with the full-cab in front. :(

And yes, despite it's "rapid-transit like" appearance SIR is an FRA railroad. So the train operators are "engineers", not "motormen", just like the PATH System.

I've only ridden on SIR once in the last 30 years, but I remember I was not able to see out. I don't even remember if they still have those traditional B&O type signals. :(
 #861757  by Kamen Rider
 
They run full cab becuase they were linked into sets.

and I think they replaced the B&O signals a few years back. I don't know if they switched to subway style, but I do know they resignaled the line.
 #862030  by Robert Paniagua
 
Oh I see, the operator are also FRA-style Locomotive engineers, and their attendants are Railroad Conductors, I see now, but at least I got to see out front for a bit off of the Cab Access door of R44SI 444 in 1999 when I rode that train. I'll have to ride the SIRT again so that I can get my own photos and movies
 #869602  by andre
 
Kamen Rider wrote:They run full cab becuase they were linked into sets.

and I think they replaced the B&O signals a few years back. I don't know if they switched to subway style, but I do know they resignaled the line.
SIR did replace a lot of the old signals on the line, however checked today, still the B&O style aspects

also car 444 has a small circle to see through but usually is covered from inside the cab

Clifton is a great spot to railfan FROM THE STATION PLATFORM, (there is no sidewalk on front st / edgewater st behind the yard/shops and its also a huge blind spot for cars speeding around the curve)

Grasmire is a good spot there is the old SI Advance siding with Ballast hoppers

New Dorp is a nice station, curves on both sides of the station and the rails "sing" as the trains arrive (also there is an overpass that you can take pictures from)

Eltingville is nice in the fall

Tottenville is good if you want to get a few shots of arrivals, departures and sets laying over

St George is busy but not the best place to grab decent pictures, lighting is dim and lots of foot traffic

most of the stations are pretty much the same just in different neighborhoods