Green Star

Not one person in a thousand, I suspect, traveling on the Bronx River Parkway, would suspect that they were driving on the right of way of an abandoned railroad.  But here is the incredible story, just as it was published more than ten years ago in an obscure periodical.  Details of how I came to post this follow the article.

 

 

 

 

RAILWAY HISTORICAL JOURNAL

AERONAUTICAL DIGEST

&

STEAMSHIP HISTORICAL REVIEW

 

Special Issue

April 1, 2002

 

Forgotten Railways, number 3

 

 

GREEN STAR LINES

 

A Brief History of the

 

N.Y. SUBURBAN TRANS’N CO.

 

by Martin Ricebrook III

 

Less than half a century after its demise, there is little trace to remind us of this interesting system, which played such a role in the development of Westchester County in the first half of the twentieth century.  None of the several types of interesting and innovative cars remain; the right-of-way is largely built over, and the stations and other structures are almost all gone.

 

I. The New York and Northern

 

The story began with plans, not for a railway, but a waterway: the Port Morris and Yonkers Canal.  The canal age was long past when, in 1874, Major Duncan Ferguson, a recent immigrant from Aberdeen, arrived in New York, with a string of successful industrial ventures behind him.  For reasons that are not now clear, he conceived of a canal, “on modern principles” which would link the southern portion of what is now The Bronx with Yonkers.

 

This project, which would have involved several flights of locks, and major engineering works, was doomed from the start, but the Metropolitan, Port Morris, and Yonkers Canal Company was formed in 1877, with a capital of two million dollars, and a staff which included Martinus van Ruysbroeck, the eccentric civil engineer, piano-maker, amateur chemist, and enthusiast of Theosophy.

 

For a period of 22 months, starting in 1879, much of the right-of-way was surveyed, and grading carried out for two miles along the Bronx River, just north of what is now the New York Botanical Garden.

 

The company’s resources were exhausted by early 1881, and after a bitter exchange of letters in the press, van Ruysbroeck and Ferguson parted company, the former to go on to triumph in Edmonton, Alberta, and the latter to brood on the failure of his dream.  By 1887, he had returned to Scotland, leaving the bankrupt company in the hands of son-in-law and former chief assistant, Thomas Hannigan.

 

Hannigan quietly bought up the outstanding stock of the MPM & YCCo, which was seen as worthless, and in 1892 secured a franchise to extend the project to White Plains, with a branch to Eastview.  This highly-implausible scheme was passed by the legislature, with the backing of Hannigan’s friends, as an amendment to a bill dealing with bicycle regulations.

 

Unlike Ferguson, Hannigan had a realistic view of the direction transportation was taking.  The company might have been bankrupt, but it still possessed a charter and a right-of-way.  Seeing the success of the elevated railroads in New York and Brooklyn, he foresaw a role for a steam railroad connecting the northern terminal of the Suburban Rapid Transit Company with the cities and towns of Westchester.  In 1894, he incorporated the New York and Northern Rapid Railway, to which he leased the property and rights of the canal company.

 

As soon as it became known what Hannigan had done, capital began to flow into the company.  After delays associated with the Panic of 1897, work began in earnest on the line, extending from the Bronx Park terminal of the elevated (then under construction) to a terminal near Main Street in White Plains, with intermediate stops which averaged one half mile apart.

 

(There is a persistent, although unconfirmed, rumor that Alexander van der Zander, known colloquially as “the Commander” for his early maritime interests dreamed of developing the railway into a regional, and ultimately national, trunk line.   In any event, nothing came of whatever larger hopes were entertained).

 

Although conceived as a steam line, by 1900 plans were changed to electric traction.  It was at this point that the fateful decision was made to build the line to the unusual gauge of 4’ 4 ¾”, and to employ a side-contact third rail.   These factors, especially the unusual gauge, doomed the line to being a feeder to the elevated, and prevented through running into Manhattan.

 

The White Plains line opened on June 7^th, 1905.   Ten large coaches, two passenger-baggage combines, and two mail and express cars were acquired from the Jewett Car Company.  One- or two-car trains ran hourly throughout the day, with more frequent service during the morning and evening peaks.

 

In 1912, the ill-conceived Eastview branch opened.  This ran through sparsely-settled areas, and the chief justification for the line was the connection at its northern end with the Hudson Valley Transit line, which was also built to the 4’ 4 ¾” gauge.  From 1913 until the end of the Hudson Valley in 1932, the famous Sleepy Hollow Specials ran over the line.

 

Five steel cars, built by Laclede, were acquired in July for the Eastview branch.  They were experimentally fitted with the Brennan Patent Brake. In September the two surviving cars were rebuilt with conventional brakes.  The resultant lawsuits led to bankruptcy in 1915.

 

II. The New York and Westchester

 

The second component of the Green Star Lines had a much more conventional origin.  Incorporated in 1892, the first of the four lines, from Fordham Square to Getty Square, opened on September 1^st, 1895, followed by the line to Fleetwood, on September 17^th.  Both of these were conventional street railways.  The Ardsley line opened on March 23^rd, 1899.  All three were street-running, with considerable sections of single track, and were operated by a fleet of double-truck cars, 12 built by Brill in 1894, and 10 by St Louis in 1899.

 

The most ambitious line, which had been planned first, opened last, on August 3^rd, 1902.  The Mamaroneck line, commonly called the “Westchester Line”, was a combination of street, side-of-road, and private-right-of-way.  Eight double-truck, four-motor cars built by Brill in 1901 provided amenities such as leather upholstery and smoking sections, not found on the earlier cars.

 

Coincident with the opening of the New York and Northern in June 1905, the NY & W opened a new terminal adjacent to the NY & N’s new station at the Bronx Park elevated terminal, and abandoned the line from Fordham Square to Bedford Park Boulevard via Webster Avenue.

 

In 1912, eight new steel center-entrance cars were acquired from Cincinnati Car Co.  They were equipped for multiple unit operation, in the expectation of substantial traffic growth, and additional car orders.  As it turned out, they ran in multiple only in heavy snow, where the heavy two-car trains were useful in getting through drifts.

 

In 1917, six former Eighth and Ninth Avenue Railway cars, built in 1888, were assigned to the Yonkers and Fleetwood lines by the War Production Board, to transport defense workers.  They were commonly known as the “Hell’s Kitchen cars”.

 

III. Consolidation.

 

In 1916, the New York and Westchester purchased the bankrupt NY & N.  The combined company was renamed the New York Suburban Transportation Company, which was always oddly abbreviated “N.Y. Suburban Trans’n Co.” on the cars.  All of the NY & W cars, and the 14 original wooden and two surviving steel interurban cars, were repainted into a new green and cream livery.  The combined operation was branded as the Green Star Lines.

 

In 1919, an ambitious re-equipment program was begun.  Ten new Cincinnati curve-sided cars were bought for the standard gauge trolley lines, and eight lightweight interurban cars for the third-rail lines.  These replaced a like-number of wood cars on both divisions.

 

It was hoped that the curve-siders, on expedited schedules, would reverse the declining patronage on the “Westchester” line to Mamaroneck, but the growing popularity of automobiles, and the convenience of New Haven and New York, Westchester & Boston commuter services, led to the abandonment of the line as of December 31, 1922.

 

Traffic remained high on the White Plains line, but the Eastview line never paid its way.  The Hudson Valley Railway Sleepy Hollow Specials were discontinued in November 1932, and the company considered abandoning the branch.  Instead, there was a second re-equipment program, which resulted in the revolutionary and legendary “Cincinnati Comets”. 

 

Dr Howard Connors, who had successfully modernized several Midwestern lines with lightweight cars, was employed as a consultant.  In only six months’ time, he had evaluated a number of designs, tested models in a wind tunnel, and developed the distinctive, streamlined Comets.  The Cincinnati Car Co., eager for business in the depth of the Depression, and hoping the Comet would be the new standard electric railway design, completed ten cars in only five months, delivering the first one in June 1934.  The sleek, duralumin-bodied cars cut running times on expresses by more than 20%, and drew an increase in patronage of nearly 25%.  The remaining wood cars were retired, and the older steel cars extensively refurbished.

 

Although the cars proved popular, and successful, to the disappointment of Dr Connors and the builders, only six more were ever built.   Five smaller versions, with doors arranged for low rather than high level loading, were built for the Schenectady, Scotia and Skaneateles Railway in 1935. (These cars eventually went to the Humdinger Railroad in Nevada after the end of the S.S. & S).  After one of the Comets was struck by lightning and destroyed by fire at Scarsdale in 1937, Cincinnati built a replacement to the original design.

 

Having successful modernized the third-rail lines, the company turned its attention to the trolley routes, and in mid-1937 introduced 10 modern cars built by Clark Equipment Co.  Similar in appearance to the new PCC cars being brought into service in Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and Boston, they were double-ended and somewhat more angular than the St Louis and Pullman PCCs.

 

 

IV. End of the Line

 

The new cars stabilized, and for a while reversed the decline in patronage, and World War Two brought increases in ridership on all but the Eastview line.  In October 1943, service was discontinued, and the rails and other salvageable materials went to the war effort. By 1947 patronage on the other lines was in steep decline.

 

In a final attempt to attract new business, two streamlined interurban trains, Almond City and Camp Heartbreak, were purchased from the recently-abandoned Missouri Terminal interurban line.  The two new trains were introduced with elaborate ceremonies on November 28, 1948.  The company had hoped for a great deal of publicity, but unfortunately a subway extension in Queens opened the same day, and no reporters (and few potential passengers) appeared for the inaugural runs of the second-hand streamliners.

 

The White Plains line had always been slower than the New York Central’s Harlem line service, which ran parallel for its entire length, but lower fares on the Green Star route attracted passengers.  In 1950, air-conditioned cars were introduced on the Central, which induced some riders to switch.

 

In 1951, the final blow fell.  The New York City Board of Transportation eliminated the Fordham Road-Bronx Park segment of the Third Avenue elevated, so that Green Star passengers had a long walk from the terminal to the 200^th Street station of the el’s Webster Avenue route.  The inconvenience and longer travel time, combined with the attraction of the new air-conditioned cars on the Central, eroded ridership to such a degree that service was abandoned as of June 30, 1952.

 

The streetcar routes struggled on for a few more months, but increasing auto competition, and the loss of the economies of shared power generation with the White Plains line, led to the end of service as of September 30, 1952.

 

There are few reminders of the line now.  Almost the entire rights-of-way of the White Plains and Eastview lines were quickly reincarnated as the Bronx River and Spain Parkways, respectively.  The White Plains terminal and offices were substantially rebuilt, and now serve as the Westchester County Center.   Until the mid-1980s, the remains of the Bronx Park terminal and powerhouse could be seen on the site of what are now the Rose Hill Apartments.

 

……………………………………………………………………………………….

 

RAILWAY HISTORICAL JOURNAL, AERONAUTICAL DIGEST

& STEAMSHIP HISTORICAL REVIEW

 

Forgotten Railways special issues:

 

No. 1.  (April 2000)       The Hudson Subway.  

A pioneering tunnel line that ultimately fell victim to the lower level of the 8^th Avenue Subway.  (Out of print)

 

No.  2. (April  2001)      The West Side Elevated High Speed Line.

The famous “Miller Elevated”.  (Out of print)

 

No. 3.  (April 2002)       The Green Star Lines. 

The N. York Suburban Trans’n story.

 

 

 

 

 

You  never knew what surprises you might find, browsing in the second-hand books that were sometimes available in the late, lamented Corner Scone on Webster Avenue.  When I came upon this old issue of the “Railway Historical Journal … etc.” I conferred with a blogger I follow, who has an exhaustive knowledge of railroad matters.  As it happened, he knew the original author, who was happy to see a scan of  his article posted. Unfortunately, he held the copyright to the text only, so the page of photographs representing Major Ferguson, van Ruysbroeck, and the later streamlined cars could not be scanned.

 

 

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