Historic NYC subway car Found in Springfield

[Metro Jacksonville]

Historic NYC subway car Found in Springfield



MetroJacksonville has confirmed that a historic New York City subway car has been discovered in the Springfield neighborhood.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/723

[billy]

Take the "A" train!

[jbm32206]

That's pretty cool....where's it at?

[NJ to JAX WHAT DID I DO?]

Is this in someones backyard?

[archiphreak]

Where is it?  Who owns it? And how much do they want for it!  That is so awesome!  Someone should clean it up, polish it and put it in a park or something.  Let people use it.

[fsujax]

Ionia or Walnut (ock??) and 8th on the northwest block.  It sits on someones private property.

[Ocklawaha]

Consider the Trucks are history, within the trucks of any type of electric railroad car are the large motors, these are full of copper. Not to mention many re-usable parts. So what we have is a car body and frame.

Before we do something rash and buy it to turn it into a new restaurant or a park toy for kids, consider this alternative. We all know we are headed for some sort of electric rail in Jacksonville. Trolley routes and old Subway cars work fine together. Same vehicle, different address. Several museums and historic trolley collections have operating subway cars. The only change is the addition of trolley poles on the roof for power
pick up, and of course new trucks.

By the way, one of the companies we are working with could restore this car to new condition with the above additions.
Ocklawaha

[Ocklawaha]

Okay, I was hoping it wouldn't become common knowledge as a sudden tourist bloom will send the price through the sky. If you go look, make it as casual as possible. PLEASE don't go into the yard or make yourself a pest. Someone lives right next door. It's on Iona, about 1/2 block North of 8th, in a fenced yard with some blue fabric covering for privacy.

I can confirm it was there long before the fence or the building along Iona today. 35 years or so.

Ocklawaha

[Ocklawaha]

ONE MORE TIME! What we need to find is a Jacksonville Streetcar, and THIS IS HOW THEY ARE FOUND! They became sheds, parts of houses and vanished into back yards or industrial buildings all over the City. At least 100+ cars. I know of 5 that were scrapped in the last 30 years. Perhaps another dozen before that... So where are the rest of them? Springfield. San Marco. Riverside. San Jose. St. Augustine. Waycross (at least one). Savannah, Talleyrand. Murray Hill, etc... LOOK FOR THEM! You clue could be as small and weird as the face of this "subway" sticking out of someones Florida room. Do us all a favor, back up and snap a photo, I'll let you know what you've found.

Story? About 28 years ago, I got an excited call from Jax Beach, "I think my house sits on a Trolley!" Our I went, sure enough, a crawl underneath showed the huge metal frame of a "something" industrial. But the wheels, still attached were no where close. Some sort of industrial cart? Close but no.

Another called to say, the same thing, and sure enough, there was the headlight sticking out from the porch! It was there from 1936 until about 1990, then the house was torn down, the neighbors remember "something about it, but they hauled this thing off or something...." Where is it? You tell us.

Ocklawaha

[second_pancake]

That is too freakin cool!  I don't know how you guys find this stuff, lol.  Funny what you said about them becoming parts of people's houses.  The first thing I thought of when I looked at the blueprint, was ISO shipping containers, and how this would be a great incorporated into a house built out of those containers.

[copperfiend]

I am no expert on the subject. Could that be refurbished?

[thelakelander]

Sure.  Savannah just recently refurbished a historic trolley, in preparation for their proposed riverfront streetcar line.

www.reconnectingamerica.org/public/download/charsavan

By the way, Savannah's demostration streetcar line is estimated to cost less than $2 million / mile.

[Ocklawaha]

Here's the proof, a similar car, although newer, converted to overhead trolley and running on a streetcar line.
Older cars even better... Let's do it!



Ocklawaha

[jcuski]

'is just the latest addition to a growing collection of historic railcars scattered throughout the Jacksonville metropolitan area.'

What other cars are out there?

[thelakelander]

I'm sure there's probably more out there, but here are a few I know about.

There is a caboose in Arlington's Bruce Park.
http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/default.aspx?f=1&guid=710abf41-8447-4cdb-b05d-d3091f489a7a&gid=2


a steam locomotive in the convention center's parking lot.


an Orange Blossom Special passenger car in front of the convention center along Bay Street.


a few former abandoned "office" cars on CSX property behind a warehouse on the Westside.


There's also a few switching locomotives rusting away at the vacant phosphate shipping terminal on Wigmore Street.