The Last Run Of The NYC Redbirds

When the old maroon-hued subway cars left Times Square on Monday on their final run to Willets Point in Queens, the passengers included -- or so it seemed -- every former teenage oddball who ever rode up front, watching the onrushing tracks with nose pressed to the glass.
There also were the city's two top transit executives, public affairs aides, a small army of television and print journalists, uniformed subway employees and even some regular commuters, puzzled by the sudden hoopla on the No. 7 platform.

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The full story from 1010 WINS News.

I was one of the many people who took the last ride on a redbird, having boarded at 5th Avenue in Manhattan and riding out to it's last stop at Willets Point/Shea Stadium.

You can find some pictures that I took in this post over at Railfan.net.

Wish I could've been there. Did have the privlage of riding it in the past, I hated them then. Its funny how when you're about to lose/have lost something you earn a new appreciation for it. I enjoyed getting a look at them in the yard when I went to Shea about a month ago. They have much more character than the ones runnning now. I was disappointed that I didn't get to ride one on the way back from Shea.

Why only out to Shea and not to Main Street Flushing, is that station closed or was it just too small to handle the crowd?

tp49 said:

Why only out to Shea and not to Main Street Flushing, is that station closed or was it just too small to handle the crowd?

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Probably because the yard is right there.

tp49 said:

Why only out to Shea and not to Main Street Flushing, is that station closed or was it just too small to handle the crowd?

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No Flushing station is open.

I think that the chose Willets for a few reasons. One, since it is outside you have better lighting for pictures. Additionally if one shoots the photos right, you have the lovely backdrop of Shea Stadium.

Secondly, while not exactly crowd related, it does have to do with crowd control. At the Flushing stop, a three track stop, all platforms are open to all passengers at all times. Willets, which also has three tracks, is aranged in such a way that one platform is normally not open to the public. There is a side platform on the Flushing-bound local track that only sees use during the US Open at Flushing Meadows.

They held the press conference on this side platform and then posed for pictures. This also allowed them to keep one side of the train open for us to explore, without having regular passengers wandering in to await the trains departure.

Finally, Willets along with 111th Street are the closests stops to the Corona Yard. It's also not uncomon to have rush hour trains that terminate and finish their runs at Willets Point.

When you mentioned Shea as a photo op, I then thought about the Corona yard being there. I think the last time I took the 7 to or from Shea was probably 7 years ago so I forgot the station layout.

Here are some follow-up stories on yesterday's retirement run of the Redbirds. All stories, except the last one, include links within the story to on-line videos by the local TV stations.

New York 1 News.

Local ABC affiliate channel 7.

Local CBS affiliate channel 2.

Local NBC affiliate channel 4. Please note that this is a direct link to the video. The print story can be found here. The video link attached to the story however leads to an older video showing the cars being dumped of the New Jersey coast.

It should also be noted the some of the videos require Real Audio, while others require Windows Media Player.