Church Avenue Subway Yard

Published on: November 23rd, 2015 | Last updated: November 20, 2015 | Written by: Bad Guy Joe

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Church avenue yard is one of very few underground NYC Subway Yards.

It is located just south of the Church avenue F & G line station. It consists of 4 tracks, located below ramps that carry the F train onto the elevated ‘culver line’ elevated viaduct to Coney Island.

When I visited this yard in 2006, it was being used only for laying up (parking) out of service G trains. All 4 tracks were used to store trains. However, on July 5, 2009, G train service was extended from Smith & 9th street to Church Avenue. In order to turn trains from the southbound track to return northbound, one of the inner tracks within the yard is kept clear, allowing a G train to pull in, and reverse back out to the proper platform once the train operator has walked to the other end of the train.

Unlike the 174th street yard, this yard doesn’t seem to have been built as a provision for future subway route expansion, thought it was built during an age were complaints about elevated subway viaducts had grown, so there may have been some thought that the length of the route to Coney Island might someday be placed underground.

An insanely dark layup yard.

This space above the tracks has no known purpose, other than perhaps inspection of the iron work

Interesting graffiti in the back – with clear evidence of “Vandal Squad’s” old method of dissing graffiti to try to entrap writers coming back to fix their work

Emergency Exit & Track Diagram

Free parking

Heading Home

*This post supersedes a old site post from July 2006

Comments

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3 responses to “Church Avenue Subway Yard”

1. PegLegGuy says:

   November 30, 2015 at 6:16 AM

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   Always wondered why that space above the tracks was built.

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2. James O’Connor says:

   April 9, 2019 at 12:08 AM

   In 2019 are trains still layed up at Church Ave? What days? What times?

3. Matt says:

   December 29, 2019 at 3:03 AM

   Interesting communist graffiti.
   Left-right, top-bottom:
   Peace to the world, we will surpass America!
   USSR, Lenin is always alive!
   Friendship among the Citizens. Long live the CPSU! (Com. Party of the Soviet Union)

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