As I’ve learned from decades of experience, there’s the right way to do things, and there’s the wrong way (of which I freely admit my occasional guilt) which is usually borne from expediency. Rush jobs are generally inferior. That’s why I cringe at what’s happening to 1910s-era subway elevated platform reflector cowls and their reproductions, which for a few years have been disappearing.
These “cowls” first appeared on BMT elevated platforms in stations built under the Dual Contracts in the 1910s, the first burst of expansive subway and elevated train construction; a second burst occurred in the 1930s, with the Independent Subway (IND).
I’ve been meaning to pay more attention to elevated train platform lighting, which has appeared in a myriad of stylings. The cowls, though, appeared in many BMT platforms and originally carried incandescent bulbs. As they began to disappear in the 1970s, they were later replaced by faithful reproductions such as this set at Sheepshead Bay (Q train). These carried yellow sodium lamps until the bulbs were replaced by bright white LEDs, as here.
Unfortunately, expediency rules at Queensboro Plaza, where the cowls that were functioning perfectly well were removed and plain LED fixtures were slapped up in their place. The esthetics are all wrong for people who care about these things. A full platform’s worth of “cowl” reproductions at the Court Square station, installed just a decade ago, are also being replaced by these LEDs.
As I say frequently and ungrammatically… sick transit, Gloria!
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11/24/23