The #58 trolley, the Ridgewood-Flushing Line, ended service on 7/17/1949, but here on 60th Place and Kleupfel Court (near 67th Avenue) it’s like it never left. In Ridgewood, the line had its own right of way under the el train bound for Metropolitan Avenue (this is the Nassau Street line in Manhattan, Broadway Line in Brooklyn).
The #58 followed roughly the same route as today’s Q58 bus, with the exception being that the trolley followed a brick-paved route called Strong’s Causeway through Flushing Meadows; today, the Q58 bus uses the service road of the Long Island Expressway.
17 comments
62 years and the city still hasn’t paved over the tracks.
At least we get to see some history.
Not exactly the case. They’re paved over normally, but it doesn’t seem to adhere to the stone and track surface well, and traffic erodes it over a shorter period of time until the tracks reclaim the surface 🙂
Not sure it is still true, but along part of the route under the el near Myrtle Ave, there were not only tracks but the overhead wires were still there, at least in the late 70s and 80s.
The M is no longer via Nassau St. It now goes up 6th Ave and via 53rd to 71st Ave, Forrest Hills. This was part of the service cuts in 2010.
The only other cross street that currently has tracks is Putnam Avenue. The accompanying photos shows an eastbound Flushing-Ridgewood car No. 8494 crossing Madison St. Year unknown. Courtesy photo by Walter Broschart – used for educational purposes only.
[IMG]http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b73/mineola/Trolleyunderel.jpg[/IMG]
Sorry about the image. Copy and paste but delete the [IMG] from both ends.
Used to live in this part of Ridgewood and often wondered if/when the city would ever pave over the tracks. So far, so good!
Prior to this line being elevated in the 1915, the BMT ran trains at street level where the trolley tracks are now. I’ve seen pics of trains running along the ROW with the third rail right on the street. Even earlier, a steam railroad from Myrtle Ave to Lutheran Cemetery at the end of the Myrtle Ave Line at Metropolitan Ave was in service dating back to the 1870s or so.
Yes, the Myrtle El ROW was originally the Bushwick RR that was a steam dummy operation to the Lutheran Cemetery out at Metropolitan Ave. See the website above for more information and photos of the ROW.
I had always known the surface cars continued after the elevated ran above them, but I thought they terminated at Fresh Pond Depot, never realized they turned N on Fresh Pond, then E on Grand Ave working their way to Flushing. Similar to the route followed by the #58 bus today.
If I.m not mistaken, Ridgewood was one of the sites of the Battle of Long Island at the begining of the Reveolutionary War.Continental Army troops that were supposed to have stopped the pursuing Red Coats were instead outflanked & George Washington & his troops were fortunate to reach the East River before the Red Coats could overtake them. The retreat continued until Washington found safe haven in Pennsylvania.
If you do a street-view Google map of Woodbine St where the M crosses over, you can easily see the tracks sticking out of the pavement.
Down by Dekalb and Seneca Avenues, there are more trolley tracks peering out of the blacktop. They are right outside the entrance to the Associated supermarket parking lot. That parking lot was possibly a depot to the Dekalb Ave trolley. That line is now served by the B38 bus. The tracks make a right turn out of the supermarket parking lot onto Seneca Ave, then, it’s assumed, that the tracks make a left onto Dekalb Ave.
Yes, there were carbarns on Seneca and Dekalb Aves. A small shack across the street was the original home of Kozy Shack rice pudding. Was delicious way back around 1960 when I switched buses there to go to Grover Cleveland HS.
In Manhattan, the M train now runs on the 6th Ave. line, not the Nassau St. line.
I lived in Ridgewood in the mid 1950’s I grew up around Fresh Pond Rd right near the old trolley barn that was located next to the station that is now occupied by the bus garage. Us kids would have our own playground playing in and around the barns as we called it, And we had fun dodging the occasional police cars making their rounds around the barn area they increased their surveillance after a wooden supply building went up in flames on the other side of a red brick fire wall, Between the fire wall and the back of the houses behind that there was a large crowd watching the fire dept putting out the fire. We played in the barn jumping the service pits between the rails and threw found light bulbs at large bulls eyes on the wall at the end of the tracks. There was storage rooms still filled with all kinds of treasures, trolley poles, parts for repair of the cars still in boxes, large piles of window sections mostly broken for the convertible cars, boxes of light bulbs but the one thing we had the most fun with was the old trolley car on the 2nd floor access by climbing along the edge of the railing as some steps were missing. There was a large room with a broken chalk board at one end classroom like chairs and an old type double truck trolley car similar to a 4500 series convertible car. The car was in bad shape all windows broken inside was trashed but it still had the controllers at each end with gauges.There was a section of trolley wire with a trolley pole still touching it and we had fun pulling the pole down and putting it back onto the wire this was a classroom for training the conductors and motormen, there was a large amount of those destination metal signs all over the floor some were taken by my friends I had one but lost it over time. We also played in the boiler room with the boiler doors open, one friend tried to climb up the inside of the chimney but we convinces him not to, we even played on the gate cars that was stored in the yard next to the barn but we had to be real careful as the buses used the area in front of the barn to turn around so it was very rarely we would be there also dangerous because of the 3rd rail. this was our favorite place until in the mid 60’s contractors arrived and tore the barns down the roll up doors came crashing down and so did our fun. our parents never knew of our playground luckily for us we didn’t get hurt there, that’s my memories of the car barn I wonder where the other guys are. Fred
I was killed by a trolley here, was a really bad day.