NYC 1935 New York High Line

The West Side Cowboys and the White Turkeys have been forgotten. The West Side Line has seen the same people-friendly repurposing as many of Canada's pioneer railways. Today, you can even travel along the New York High Line urban park via Google Maps. 

This article comes from a short-run serial magazine from the mid-1930s: Railway Wonders of the World (Amalgamated Press). They were dutifully transported to Canada in airborne luggage by a penpal contact of long standing who visited my mother from the UK. They were transported because her spouse - LC Gagnon - 'likes trains'.

The identity and interests of the original conscientious collector of the 1930s are lost to history. He might well have been of the same cohort as our maternal grandfather who was in Europe 1915-1919 with the Canadian Railway Construction Corps. 

Busy with all sorts of written correspondence, grandchildren-related activities, history reading, and a having a greater interest in Canadian, and some American roads, LC Gagnon carefully wrapped and salted away this collection in the garage. They were passed on to me in the 1990s with limited and almost apologetic artifact-promoting enthusiasm. From time to time, selected articles are posted here if I think there might be some interest in them. Often we do become quite specialized in our own railway interests, it seems.

As I get older, I find my interest in railway systems has become deeper and broader. The original simple idea of steel wheels running on 'metals' to keep carts transporting heavy loads from sinking in the mud has contributed, and still does contribute, a great deal to the world's standard of living. 

This magazine series includes articles on many of the colonial railways then in place. These railways promoted local economic activity and increased the prosperity of the various empires whose engineers were sent to build them.

The series is also available on-line. You'll see that it really does present a true international perspective on railroading. Typical for the era, Canadian railway company publicity photos are used in many of the articles on Canadian topics. 

Here is the New York Central-supported article on their new West Side line.

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The YouTube link below perfectly illustrates the typically dangerous urban conditions before this grade separation on the west side of New York. This is one of the YouTube channels which Jim Christie first discovered and generously shared with his correspondents. 

The description indicates that the location is probably in the area of 33rd Street and 11th Avenue. At around 4:30 in the video, an engine passes and the engineer displays typical, harmless, 'don't take it so personally' 'New-York-style acknowledgement behaviour' to the hand-operated camera operator. 

As I understand it, the old motion film cameras had no automatic speed regulation and adding simple spring-driven mechanisms would subject the frame-rate to torque decay. However, skilled professional camera operators were known for their ability to maintain a solid, steady crank rate with their right hands. 

Both the engineer and the photographer share the skill of regulating cranks attached to wheels.

New York Central: the West Side Line in 1927 and 1928

In the video, you'll notice very short, boxy steam-emitting locomotives ... these steam 'dummies' were designed to enclose the motions of the side rods, etc, so as not to startle horses where close contact between the two was possible. Being short tank engines underneath the box, they gave the crew better visibility to avoid accidents on this dangerous line and they produced less smoke (I think some burned oil) than a full-sized locomotive.

You'll notice that some trucks crossing the tracks are hauling loads of coal ashes.

The brakemen riding atop the cars are protecting the leading end of the switching move by giving (or relaying) hand signals to the locomotive engineer from their highly visible, all-seeing position ... decades before the days of portable radios. Also, it was probably a much safer place to ride than on the end-ladders in this environment!

At the end of the video notice the gondola car of 'The LCL Company' shipping containers. This was an initiative of the New York Central to try to deal with small freight shipment (or Less-Car-Load) shipping bottlenecks. A common factory crane could extract the container for unloading at trackside - leaving the siding or teamtrack clear for fully-loaded boxcars.

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Map from 1956 Showing New York Central's New York Operations

LC Gagnon had become a seasoned New York visitor via the D&H in the late 1940s - seen elsewhere on this blog. However, I don't think he was down there when this March 1956 tourist pamphlet was picked up: The New York Visitor (map, attractions, advertising pamphlet); March 1956; New York Central System.

I had to do a 'work-around image cut' to have the map display properly (Blogspot software is in flux these days). However, a key location is just above where I cut the image, so just find the cut and look above for the "New York Central Freight Yards 33rd Street".

from: The New York Visitor (map, attractions, advertising pamphlet); March 1956; New York Central System.

The New York Central, St John's Park freight terminal mentioned in the article (the High Line's southern terminal, as seen above) was redeveloped into warehouse space after rail use ceased in 1960. In the late 2010s, Toronto-based Oxford Properties and CPP Investments (yes, that CPP) had the building redeveloped. Google bought the building for $2.1 billion. Now it is the North American headquarters for Google's Global Business Organization ... where Google makes most of its money. Google's regional business teams in many parts of the world are based there as well.