March 2019 marks Forgotten New York’s 20th anniversary. To mark the occasion, I’ve re-scanned about 150 key images from the early days of FNY from 35MM prints. In the early days, when people including me were accessing FNY with dial-up modems, I had to save photos really small — in some cases, just 4″ across. I couldn’t find all those early photos — I think I foolishly discarded some along the way — but all month, and into April, I’ll be picking out some and showing the newly scanned versions.
In the spring of 1999, I took a walk — along some railroad tracks. Normally I wouldn’t do such a thing but the tracks in question had no dangerous third rail and, on weekends, not a lot of use. They were Long Island Rail Road tracks along the so-called “Montauk” branch which runs from Jamaica west through Richmond Hill, Forest Hills, Glendale, Ridgewood, Maspeth and Blissville, winding up at the Long Island City terminal on Borden Avenue. These tracks have a rich history of passenger service, but by 1998, passengers had dwindled to between 2 and 5 people getting on at each stop. The line served workers in once-bustling industries in the aforementioned neighborhoods and did not connect to Manhattan at all. Diesel engines pulled units of 1950s-era MP72 cars — in 1999, the only stations west of Ronkonkoma served by such an arrangement.
These tracks still service freights, which do run on weekends occasionally; fortunately, I wasn’t spotted on the tracks by any rail personnel or cops. A couple years later, I walked on an officially sanctioned trip along the north-south Connecting Railroad tracks, sponsored by the Electric Railroaders Association.
Depicted is the Fresh Pond station at Fresh Pond Road and Metropolitan Avenue. The Montauk runs at grade, in open cuts and on elevated trestles, making for great railbuff views while the line was still running; it runs through cemeteries, parks, railyards and along Newtown Creek. Periodically one politician or another makes noise about converting the line into a subway extension, but there isn’t much demand for it and in any case, it would cost hundreds of millions for the perennially cash-poor MTA.
In the last decade of its existence the MTA had stopped servicing these stations and didn’t replace station signage when the local youth stole the signs. There were no platforms, just clearings along the tracks. At Fresh Pond, a footbridge, pictured above, crossed the tracks; the station entrance, at about this point, was hard to find, as you had to go through a maze of corridors on Metropolitan Avenue. The MTA sealed the entrance several years ago, but in 1999, I was able to simply ascend the steps to the entrance/exit. In 1998 the MTA installed signage indicating the closure of these stations and two, at Fresh Pond and Richmond Hill, stayed in place over a decade after service ended!
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
3/16/19