From Rachel and DNA Info comes yet another example of why it's a tragedy that Mike Cetera wasn't reappointed to Community Board 9. Mike found an artist who's working pro bono to place a giant history stone, and Kenitchi Hiratsuka is his name-o. Check out his site, yo.
Mike's commitment (some would call it obsession) to determining the exact history of Clove Road, and of giving it the commemoration it deserves, is nothing short of rockin'. To those who don't know, you can also thank Cetera for the beauty that it is Eastern Parkway. He fought hard to keep it from being turned into highway back in the '70s.
More on Clove and Malbone (you knew Empire Blvd used to Malbone, right? As in the infamous Malbone Train Wreck at our beloved Q/B/S station? You don't? Get crackin'!). And if you haven't even SEEN contemporary Clove Road, walk on over and check it out. It's a serious slice of history wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a controversy as to how to deal with it now.
8 comments:
I thought the Malbone wreck occured on what is now the Franklin Ave Shuttle line, not the B/Q...
True, true. I meant the B/Q/S station. I'm pretty sure the train was coming into the station when it happened. They've called it "elevated" in some accounts, but the S is below grade, with bridges going over it, until it gets to the other side of E.P. Are the tracks still the same? One would think they would've rebuilt.
The BMT didn't use any of those train names btw. I think they had numbers, yes?
So the BRT met the BMT there? They were two different companies meeting at PP station? Then BMT bought BRT? And they were all in the trolley business too.
No the BRT went bankrupt after the crash and was restructured to emerge as the BMT. And this was what was known as the Brighton Beach Line, which was elevated along Fulton St and then turned south along Franklin Ave (so essentially the shuttle tracks south of Fulton, although it no longer makes such a sharp curve). The regular engineers were on strike and the driver had never taken that route before.
Maybe "elevated" in this case means not literally underground in a tunnel?
As far as your other questions, I don't know enough about MTA history to say...
My family has an original Hiratsuka from 1982 on the farm in Pennsylvania. It should be fun. Ken has done his "one line" rock sculptures at Ayer's Rock in Australia, the northernmost rock in Japan (20' off the coast), Lapland, Brazil and now Brooklyn!
Our secret parking spots will soon be exposed! I always like taking this little shortcut up Clove and down Malbone when walking the pooch, too. The cobble stone streets make walking a bit wobbly, though. Have you seen the garages on Malbone? How are their basements not swimming during rainstorms?? Or are they?
My understanding is that the Q south of Prospect Park looked as it does now and then continued north on what is now the shuttle. When that line needed to connect to Manhattan thy skewed off on the now Q line and the Shuttle filled in on that deadend piece. I think this for 2 reasons:
1- the spacing between stops is drastically different from Coney Island to Prospect Park compared to north of Prospect Park. The Shuttle spacing is more in line with the southern part of the Q
2- the line was built to get rich folks from Crown Heights to the fancy beaches of Coney Island. So again it extending up to Fulton makes sense.
I am just guessing in this though.
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