My most recent nerd trip to New York was to tour the New York City Transit Authority’s 240th Street Yard, also known as Van Cortlandt Yard. The train yard is completely elevated, which in my opinion makes for impressive structural engineering. It is a small shop, so it cannot hold all the trains that are out of service. The do regular maintenance as well as repair. I was impressed with all the safety mechanisms and protocols they have to make sure no one gets hurt.
Entrance to the elevated 240th Street Train Yard
Below the elevated 240th Street Train Yard
The underside of the completely elevated 240th Street Train Yard
The lavish office of the yard supervisor
Train in for maintenance
Stacked and organized supplies
I have no idea what these are, but the shop has really cool looking parts
Contact shoes (how the train makes contact with the 3rd rail). The one of the left is a snow shoe, the ridges cut the snow and ice, and the one on the right is a regular shoe.
Basket full of contact shoes. The yellow one is a snow shoe.
Trains in the 240th Street Train Yard shed
Cables hanging in front of the car are “bugs”. The one with more cable and a 2nd box is a little bug because it has less voltage. The other one on the left is a big bug because it has more voltage and power the entire train.
A stick is used to make sure the contact shoe is at the right height. A maintenance worker is carrying another stick used to measure the height of the car above the rail.
Unclose view of the 3rd rail that ends at the entrance to the shop.
Cool looking thing on a train the shop. I think it is a device that tests the doors and opening and closing.
240th Street Train Yard entrance to the shop
Signals at the entrance to the 240th Street Train Yard shop