*NO LAST NAMES USED* This past Tuesday, a small group from the New York Cross Harbor Railroad Police Dept. were treated to a luncheon at a retiree's home in Brooklyn. Jerry our host is a long retired Transit Cop and is also an honorary member of the CHRRPD. In attendance was Chief HaRRy(ex Transit Police Captain) and a few members of the force, who are Reserve Special Agents. Russ and I (both Reserve Agents) )were there as well as Bob Diamond and his partner Greg from the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association. (The Atlantic Ave Tunnel and future trolley loop coming to downtown Brooklyn. A 20 year political battle!). Our day consisted of eating lunch, shooting the breeze and watching a railroad safety video on grade crossing accidents. It was from Op Lifesaver and was made for cops. Really amazing stuff, both staged and caught on camera! Then we went over to the Brooklyn Navy Yard to see Diamond's collection of 11 trolleys that he had bought from Cleveland. While we were there, Chief HaRRy who is also in charge of security for the BHRA bestowed a fun and special honor to Russ, Eric ( NYPD Aux. Captain), and Jerry. Other members such as myself and another Bob (Viet Nam Vet/ vol. forest fire firefighter) are already holders of the title. The guys were sworn in as "Special Street Railway Detectives"! How many people can say the were sworn in by an actual modern day Trolley Cop!!!!!!!!!!!!! We do have our fun moments now and then. OK. How about all the time! Russ will have his Cross Harbor uniform shirt soon. HaRRy freaked us out with his massive "hats with patches". LOL! He always has to do something wierd to have fun with us! I believe Russ is going to post some photos for us! Yes. We are a motley crew but band together in the fight against terrorism on the rails and injustice to the hard working men and women of the railroad. Or we just walk the tracks and bs. HA! HA! HA! Really, we mostly do volunteer work for the BHRA's events which are always unique in there own way! And we'll walk historic railroad walking tours throughout the City. The poor Cross Harbor RR is fading fast. We may be framing our collar brass before too long! But, while we are still here, we are a unit of one. ( I should write slogans for the military!) And we do have members that range from 30 to 70 something! The older guys are honorary members and include Chaplains from several religions! OK, Russ. Go for it man! LOL! Let's show 'em here we don't mess around! I stand behind my partners. So that way, when we turn to run I'll be in the lead!!!!!!!!
By popular demand....The CHRR Detectives. Hey, who is that handsome dude? (2nd from left) Another Angle..... Me getting sworn in. (I am the handsome guy on the left) I shall post some more later with the trolleys! Russ
Here are some of the Trolley pics. Johnny can explain about them better than I can. What I can tell you from our combined research is that they come from the Cleveland, Oh RTA and at one time may have even been on the NJ light rail system. An Overview first: Front view of the trolley on the pier: A view of one of the old rail float piers (the concrete pier on the left) Also notice the sunken Rail Girder in the water. That is the Williamsburg Bridge in the background (AKA the "Willy-B") You can tell by all the clouds that it was a brisk day. Didn't stop us from official duty! Russ
Watash, you can trespass on our railroad anyday! We'll even give you a trespasser's pass! Those are a few of the members. There are a few others too. The trolleys went from Cleveland to Buffalo and then Cleveland needed them back again! I believe Buffalo made some money on the deal too. I don't know how long they were in storage before Bob Diamond got them. He does have eleven of these and one more PCC in the barn on the pier in Red Hook. He paid a song for them and paid nearly five times that much to have them trucked to Brooklyn! Bob laid the track which he picked up from Conrail. I think he said along the old Reading line if I remember correctly. The same rail is being used for his trolley line, which will loop from Red Hook to Court St. and back. He hopes to also open the Atlantic Ave. Tunnel so they can run through it. The tunnel has been closed since before the Civil War! He gives tours now and then. Thanks for posting the photos Russ!
I almost forgot. As Johnny Mentioned, these trolleys are now owned by the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association. For more info on Bob Diamond's Trolley Project and the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, you may visit their official site here: http://www.brooklynrail.com Russ [ 09. November 2002, 00:16: Message edited by: rush2ny ]
For those of you that look at the outside of these trolleys and think that there is no hope in restoring them, here is a picture of the inside. Inside they are actually in fairly good shape albeit a bit dirty. Some TLC would fix that! Russ
