I Ride The Harlem Line

Tagged: new york city transit

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Behind the Scenes at the Subway’s Power Control Center Trains Photos Videos

Throughout the city there are countless nondescript structures that garner little attention from passersby. Hidden within one of them is the Power Control Center of New York City’s subway system, which like many important pieces of infrastructure today tries to keep a lower profile. A venerable hive of activity, the Power Control Center occupies an enormous room with long rows of seafoam green control panels running its length. Clusters of desks are arranged in the middle between the panels, with a perfect sight line to monitor the flashing lights and relayed information. The PCC’s expansive control panels display a schematic...

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A Rotary Converter and the Power Historian History Photos Videos

One of the joys of running this site is getting the chance to meet interesting people. When researching the supposed Nazi sabotage of Grand Central’s sub basement known as M42, I encountered a video on YouTube showing one Robert Lobenstein—identified as the retired General Superintendent of Power Operations at New York City Transit—starting up an old rotary converter. I had seen rotary converters before, the very ones in Grand Central’s M42, in fact. Yet I had never seen one in operation, and the video fascinated me. It was clear that the modern static frequency converters I had encountered on filming...

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WTF? Posters are so yesterday… Get your WTF Shirt! Trains Humor

By now you’ve probably heard of the unauthorized WTF posters popping up in the subways. It has been big news in the New York area, and online. They were designed by the Working Families Party. They would have even paid the MTA for the advertising space… had the ad not been rejected. If you need a bit of amusement in your day today, I suggest checking out ABC 7’s video regarding the subject, complete with reporters attempting to use acronyms at every possible chance, and old people getting interviewed that have no idea what WTF means. But those posters are...

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