In 2003 me and Rebel SC came across this very long abandoned Staten Island Rapid Transit car.
History
According to some transit fans, this ME-1 type subway car had been left rotting in the abandoned ‘Travis’ freight yard along the West Shore Expressway. It had sat there since at least 1973 (being the year that Staten Island’s old subway cars were replaced with R-44 cars). In doing so, it became part of an obscure collection of abandoned railroad artifacts spread around the city. For many years there were 2 other ME-1 cars with it – the 388 (which was eventually moved to Brandford and 366, which is preserved at Seashore. There was also a small whitcomb locomotive that was bought, transported and preserved by the Kingston Trolley Museum. This locomotive was used on the South Brooklyn Railway and in regular MTA work train service before being transferred to Staten Island.
The tracks were abandoned by the NYS&W in the early 1990s due to a lack of freight customers. Con Ed had stopped using coal to fire their nearby power plant, thus negating the need for freight rail service. Instead of being rail-banked or converted to another non-maintained ‘rail trail’, the tracks were bought up by the NY & NJ Port Authority. The Port Authority was keen on reopening these tracks as a means to remove truck traffic from it’s bridges, and to make their nearby container facility more viable.
In 2004 the entire yard was bulldozed (and eventually rebuilt) – subway car and all. Word is that it was simply reduced to a pile of rubble by a backhoe and sent to the landfill.
Today these tracks are used by CSX to move a variety of freight goods – primarily paper being shipped out for recycling.
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