May
11
Photo of the Day: The beauty of waiting for the train
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wisteria, subway station, ditmas park by flatbushnelson on Flickr
Just a short piece tonight because I was hit with an Internet outage just as I was about to start writing, and now I’d like to go to bed. I wanted though to share this photo posted late on Tuesday on Brownstoner. It is a truly gorgeous shot of the wisteria plants Beverly Rd. along the BMT Brighton Line, and it perfectly encapsulates waiting for the subway.
The photographer framed the shot in such a way that it highlights the intricacies of the trench along the Q and the B lines as well as the small platform spaces at many of the stations. The three people on the platform — all facing south to peer down the tracks for a looming train — have barely enough space in the sheltered station alcove to wait. The plants, meanwhile, are inching into the station as they begin to bloom, and for a few minutes, the station and subway trench, both in need of a good scrubbing and a fresh coat of paint, look absolutely timeless.
Despite our complaints and the shoddiness found in many stations, it’s still possible to find beauty in the architecture of the subway and a certain New York-ness to it all. It’s all right here for anyone to see.
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The Brighton line platform extensions have always been interesting for their … minimalism, as if the TA had to extend the platforms to handle the addition of the Christie Street connection and IND service along the route, but made only the absolute smallest adaptations possible on the stations to allow the longer trains to platform (thanks to the trench design, I’m not sure if this was a cost-saving measure, or if it was due to conflicts with the ground-level property. But there is a uniqueness to the extended narrowness of the extensions that the stations in the trench on the extended platform sections on the Sea Beach line don’t share).
As a child, I lived along the Sea Beach line in Bensonhurst.
I remember that those platforms tended to be “too long” for the train, rather than too short.
The reason was that the stations ran from one avenue to the next avenue.
(Bay Parkway to Ave. O, Avenue T to Avenue U, etc.)
At each end of a platform, there was an old sign saying:
TRAINS STOP AT CENTRE [sic] OF PLATFORM
Coming to think of it, this brings back another childhood memory.
At the Stillwell Ave.-Coney Island station,
there was what must have been a very old sign:
TO STREET AND NORTON’S POINT BUSSES [sic]
Not only an archaic spelling of “buses”, but also Norton’s Point instead of Sea Gate!
Very nice picture – I’ve never been, had to look up the station. Which brings up a question:
MTA’s station name on the online map spells it “Beverley Rd” for the B-Q stop, but “Beverly Rd” for the 2-5 stop. Google Maps has both stations spelled “Beverly”, with the street spelled with the extra “e”. Does the street name really change spellings, or is that just an MTA typo?
The street name is consistent for its entire length, and the Brighton station’s name matches the street signs. The IRT station is apprently one very long typo.
apparently.
Speaking of typos.
I recall reading somewhere that a long time ago the street signs WERE inconsistent, part of that street being BEVERLY ROAD and part of it being BEVERLEY ROAD.
According to that version of events, those subway stations were built at different times and each one was named after the street signs on THAT part of Beverly Road.
Beautiful Wisteria. Used to grow alongside the porch of my parents home, the smell was wonderful
Yes, that flaking paint is a nice touch. Too bad you can’t get that piss smell at the end of the platform by looking at the photo.
Decay does make for some gorgeous photography. I’ll just leave it at that.