BusTalk

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

(SEE PREVIOUS COMMENTS/PHOTOS)

Sobering indeed (CIY, 1980)...........

When a massive, solid hunk of a steel subway car like the "Artren" ("Thunderbirds") suffers THIS amount of mortal damage you KNOW the encounter HAD to have been a SERIOUS one; again, indeed hope no fatalities were involved in this wreck.

As you can easily see, when a STEEL car is involved in a serious enough wreck, it might as well have been a wooden car...........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?2575

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?2576

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?2577

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["R-10"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here's another interesting article on the 1918 wreck (w/photos) from 2019..............

https://brooklyneagle.com/articles/2019/11/01/malbone-street-train-wreck/

["SANDS STREET"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Elevated cars dangling off the tracks and hanging over the street below could indeed be particularly unnerving; this derailment on the 6th Avenue El took place in 1905, a few years after electrification..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?106433

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["INTERBOROUGH"]

[W.B. Fishbowl]

[W.B. Fishbowl]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

Speaking of rapid transit "enounters"...........

In Stan Fischer's updated edition of 'UPTOWN, DOWN", there are several dramatic (and downright scary) photos of El wrecks, all of them quite nasty.

One photo from 1923 shows the aftermath of a collision between a "Lo-V" and a wooden El car, at the junction of the Jerome and 9th Avenue lines.

One El car had telescoped into the lead car, which slammed into the 'Lo-V" (NOT a pretty sight)

Most dramatic photo depicts a massive derailment (with El cars smashed to pieces on the street below) which took place in Brooklyn in 1923, involving the 5th Avenue El.

A delivery truck was destroyed by one of the El cars......indeed, truly frightening............

"NYO"

["RIDE THE OPEN-AIR ELEVATED"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here we see the aftermath of a serious "Eye-Are-Tee" accident (near E.180th Street), back in 1969; to be scrapped on the spot, this unfortunate "R-14" have had to have taken a mortal blow............

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?132586

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["ACF"]

[W.B. Fishbowl]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

Agreed.

I shudder to think what one of today's "Rolling iPads" would look like after a "less-than-a-love-tap" encounter.

It would NOT be a pretty sight, that's for "soitan".

Even the classic equipment could REALLY take a serious and mortal blow, after a particularly nasty accident.

Case in point: look at how the cars involved in the 1970 disaster at Roosevelt Avenue, and the equally serious wreck on the Willy B, back in 1995, fared.

The updated edition of Stan Fischler's "UPTOWN, DOWNTOWN" has a frightening photo that shows the interior of car #4461, an "R-40", totally demolished and horribly mangled (Willy B wreck)............

"NYO"

["J"]

[W.B. Fishbowl]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

W.B.:

Funny, that.........

When cars like the "Brightliners" debuted, they were deemed "lightweights", in comparison to the "heavyweight" prewar cars.

Today, we've come come fill "coicle", with cars like the retired "Brightliners" (or even, for that matter, the long-gone SMEE fleet) regarded as "heavyweights", compared to today's "rolling iPads".

I'll say ONE thing....as heavy as the prewar "Eye-Are-Tee" rolling stock was, they'd be no match whatsoever for one of the NYW&B's MUs........

"NYO"

["BUDD"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Here we have new "Steels" involved in a (minor?) 1918 derailment; ironically, this was the same year as the Malbone Street disaster..........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?117050

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["2208"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

Picture now one of today's "rolling iPads" in this situation, instead of the "Brooklyn Battleship" depicted here.........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?141855

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?112845

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

*In my collection, I have a number plate from car #2527

["BMT LINES"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

14th Street/Union Square, 1991; the only saving grace of the 1991 disaster that it did not occur during the height of a rush hour (as was the case with the 1928 IRT Times Square wreck), when those cars would have been packed.........

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?7661

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["X"]

[NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629]

West Side IRT derailment (96th Street), January, 2024.................

https://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?161249

(courtesy: nycsubway.org)

["1"]