Queens Boulevard 46th Street from IRT 7-Line Station

west 3 east 1 We're up on the platform of the IRT #7 train's 46th Street station, only renamed in recent years from 46th-Bliss Streets. The 7 train rumbled eastward over Queens Boulevard from Queens Plaza (Or Queensboro Plaza, depending on which train you use), until it veers up Roosevelt Avenue on its way to Flushing. In 1999, the #7 line gained national notoriety, even international headlines, when then star Atlanta Braves reliever John Rocker made notorious references to it, with pointed jabs at the ethnicities, pregnancy status and gender preferences of what he felt was the typical 7 passenger.
Eastbound side looking west  Eastbound side looking east
west 1 The retro lighting craze that swept New York City over the twenty plus years preceding the original publishing of this article in 2001, by then had also invaded the transit system. These pseudo-ancient bishop creek canes were more like canards, but what the heck; I thought they were at least cute, which is far more than I can say for some of their contemporaries.
Prior to WWII and it being Christianed the #7, some of the trains plying these tracks went over the 59th Street Bridge and thence down the 2nd Avenue el, all the way past Chatham Square in Chinatown, which back then was probably just China Village (And today is more like Chinapolis). The more traditional route everyone knows today as the 7, or Flushing Line, took a sharp turn south just before the bridge, squeezing into a narrow tunnel in Hunters Point on its way to Times Square.
The tunnel was named for Steinway, the piano guy, and was built with trolley cars in mind. Its absorption into the then privately owned Interboro Rapid Transit Company (IRT), as an alternate entry point into Manhattan for the Flushing Line, was merely an afterthought when the trolley idea failed to materialize. Had that never occured, this would have evolved as a branch of the BMT Broadway line, with which it shares specifications and the Queensboro Plaza station, and would probably carry a currently unused letter designation such as the P. The P train? That might encourage uncouth drunks to do what uncouth drunks do when called by nature.
west 2 Speaking of John Rocker's devil, a troop of the famed 1963 vintage 7 train redbirds pull into 46th heading to Flushing. These cars went years with their original 1964 Worlds Fair color scheme of white and aqua blue. Finally, in the early 1980s, with the graffiti scourge still in high gear, the Transit Authority decided to repaint most of them white, with black trim. The new paint was supposed to be graffiti resistant. Instead the spartan white surfaces proved graffiti irresistable, and no, the paint did not hold up well at all to the constant scrubbings that the frequent vandalism required. Finally some years later, the cars were repainted in the maroon and black scheme they sported until their retirement not many years after I shot these and thus garnered the affectionate nickname they ultimately died with, The Redbirds.
west 4On a beautiful day, this platform made a wonderful terrace to hang out on. With my unlimited MetroCard, I had the freedom to come and go from there at will. These are the eastbound lanes, and of course, down below on the left was my favorite, White Castle. It isn't my favorite anymore because as I update this story in 2018 it isn't there anymore. So says Google Earth. The tall building in the center background is the Citicorp Center in Long Island City. Further back is the Empire State Building.