Atlantic Terminal question

fender52 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 04, 2020 10:22 am and there an area we called the farm where all the Civil Defense supplies were stored and left to rot. That's another story.

Do tell! I've heard of another stash of CD material in the old Woodhaven underground tower that was accessible only to Signal at that time. Where else did they have CD/shelters on the LI?

Also, the EX yard was gone when I came on in the mid '90s, but a few old farts remember it not so fondly (ie epic dog-sized rats). I was always impressed by the infrastructure that had been in Flatbush terminal back in the day, for instance the old shop facility in Van, etc. We once had one of the old protect engines briefly stop in during one of the mega-blizzards in the late '90s, to get chased away in haste by the TM. I was stuffing towels and rags under the tower door to keep out the exhaust and wondered how did EX yard get switched out back in the day? This was when there was the "drafty" era with plenty of air gaps before the terminal was rebuilt. I can't imagine how bad the exhaust may have been back when the terminal was more enclosed, what did they use, diesel or electrics to switch out EX? Thanks in advance!

We "old farts" didn't care about exhaust fumes. They made our lungs stronger. It was a time and age when things that had to be done were done, and the consequences were a byproduct of progress and production. We brought many a diesel into Brooklyn to rerail and retrieve stuck equipment. Of course in earlier years, the DD-1 electric engines were used for the freight and express service. They were designed for Penn Station and Brooklyn.

Civil Defense supplies were stored in every potential group shelter. Public school and apartment house basements. Jamaica Station's basement. Penn Station. They were just about everywhere. The Atlantic Branch served as a kind of time capsule; it was a neglected nook where progress and maintenance stood still as years passed and the communities around it deteriorated. The City and the Railroad had no money in the 1960's prior to the embracing of socialism and high taxation.

At one point the viaduct was in such poor structural condition that several spots had oak cribbing sistering the columns, supporting the main girders. The LIRR even talked of abandoning the branch in 1981. Loose plans to turn it over to the Transit Authority were formulated then with proposed connections to the subway.

The entire terminal reached a point of filth and neglect that's difficult in these times to describe. Sort of like an underground 1970 Times Square.

I remember a diesel or two coming into the station in the 70's. Everyone is right, you needed a gas mask while they were there.

Some of the tracks in EX yard had slides that came down from upstairs.

Any pictures of the viaduct rebuild project. That was impressive seeing the progress every day.

BobLI wrote: ↑Wed Jan 08, 2020 6:27 pm Any pictures of the viaduct rebuild project. That was impressive seeing the progress every day.

The MTA has some on its flickr account

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtaphotos ... 7278043865

It was an impressive project.

I know the tracks are gone, but is the space where the EX Terminal once existed now all built up with the redevelopment of the property above it, or is it vacant space still?