Railroad Forums 

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

Moderator: GirlOnTheTrain

 #470667  by finsuburbia
 
I took my first trip out to Far Rockaway a little more than a week ago and while it had some excellent views, it was painfully slow. Is this normal? If so, is it a problem of track quality or something else?

 #478601  by thor88
 
That's an anomaly.

Usually, they just wrap it around and run between the North bridge and Broad Channel. It's the fastest run on the TA.

I used to ride that line to work when I lived in Rockaway Beach and sometimes I wondered if the trains were going to disintegrate from excessive speed.

 #478606  by pennsy
 
Back in the year of the flood, when the Rockaways lines were still a double carfare, I got friendly with one of the motormen since I rode his train home to Far Rockaway every night. I saw him literally open her up on the flats and trestles from Broad Channel to the Rockaway Wye. The IND E train could not have gone any faster, so it probably had a governor on it. Top speed, we estimated, was somewhere around fifty to fifty five mph. The train had no headlights at that time, so you only saw the track and the signal lights, and the lights of the surrounding area. Smooth track, but that train was "moving".
 #478945  by Head-end View
 
Pennsy: "the train had no headlights at that time" ?????? How far back was this? The late 1950's maybe? The subway started running to the Rockaways in 1956, right? I was an 11 year old kid in 1962 and the subway trains had headlights then.............. :wink:
Last edited by Head-end View on Fri Dec 14, 2007 2:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

 #478985  by Robert Paniagua
 
I know, that Rockaway Park Line Speed is too slow, in fact, just as slow as the MBTA's Red Line to Braintree or even Ashmont which runs slower. Therefore, I feel that NYCTA ought to make an exception to the 50MPH limit rule and allow all Rockaway A train/Shuttle service to 65 MPH nmainly in that stretch from Rockaway Blvd Junction to Hammel's Wye interlocking. It'll need a little track replacement work, but these trains should be able to go a lot faster than now.

 #479032  by pennsy
 
HI Head End;

Sounds about right. It was during the days when a double carfare was charged to use the Rockaways lines. If you left Far Rockaway, or Rockaway Park, you would have to deposit TWO tokens to get through the turnstiles. When arriving in the Rockaways from "the city" or Brooklyn, you had to deposit an extra token to leave the station. That made many Rockawayites raise their hackles quite a bit.

By the way, in those days, subway MU cars didn't have headlights. No need for it. They did have marker lights. As far as I can remember, the LIRR always had headlights, usually overhead.
 #479417  by Head-end View
 
Rob, that's a very good comparison re: the speeds. Having ridden through Quincy, Mass. on the Red Line and across Jamaica Bay on the Rockaway line, I think the speeds are about the same........too slow. I don't think either one goes over 40-45 mph.

Alan, yes I remember the double fare. I think it lasted 'til around the mid 1970's. If I remember right, there was some kind of revolt by riders at the Mott Ave. station one morning after a fare increase, and enough public pressure was brought to bear that the double fare was eventually done away with.

 #480622  by Robert Paniagua
 
For comparison, the Braintree Red Line had a double fare like the Rockaway routes, but it was only eliminated just less than a year ago. Basically, Braintree from Downtown Boston and Rockaways from Midtown Manhattan are the same distance (11 miles)

 #500370  by Montyb
 
Robert Paniagua wrote:For comparison, the Braintree Red Line had a double fare like the Rockaway routes, but it was only eliminated just less than a year ago. Basically, Braintree from Downtown Boston and Rockaways from Midtown Manhattan are the same distance (11 miles)

I'm pretty sure it's more than 11 miles from Mid-Town to the Rockaways. Maybe more like 18. :-D