One reason that the New York subway is so confoundingly hot these days was written long ago and discovered in the 19th century: the second law of thermodynamics. Economists will know the first law by the acronym TANSTAAFL, denying the ability to get something for nothing. The second law, depressingly, tells you you cannot even break even. Thus, the effort to air-condition subway cars will make those cars cooler at the expense of making some other place hotter, but the heat generated by the effort will increase the overall level of heat in the system. The net result is temperatures approaching sauna levels; avoid 34th street on the N/R/W line in the summer if at all possible.
The original two subway lines in New York, privately owned and operated, used a different method of cooling. Both the IRT, opened in 1904, and the BMT relied for cooling in part on operable front windows, as seen in this BMT photo, and this IRT photo; this reflected these private companies' concerns for the comfort of their customers. The IND division, opened for first riders on September 10, 1932, was designed for speed and long stretches of express runs; upsetting boys of New York, the front windows would not open to allow in cooling breezes. The IND, or "Independent" system, was built by the city of New York, and added a third, competing subway system underwritten by the public (this during the depths of the depression), which eventually drove the other two truly independent systems into one consolidated system in 1940.
All three systems provide substitutes for pleasures so common in the suburbs that they go unnoticed. The urban youth is denied the ability to drive long distances in a convertible, and so his only chance to experience the wind (along with dirt, dripping water, steel dust, and Federally-distributed bacillus bacteria) in his hair is to camp out in the front of a train equipped with an operable window; speeds of over 50mph and the constricted shape of the tunnels will conspire to drive an impressive volume of air through the front window. There are others, especially those who grew up with only an IND subway nearby, who will simply peer out into the gloom, until their appointed stop is reached. Should visitors to the Mises Institute's 25 Anniversary conference wish to avail themselves of the chance to partake, a little explanation of the rituals of the natives is necessary.
If the front window is free, you may occupy it at will; lean against the compartment where the motorman operates the train, and peer out down the tracks. If you see one person in the window, you may lean into the left side of the window; make no eye contact while the train moves, but a nod when moving into position will secure your place as a member of the "society." If there are two people, you may lean against the pole directly behind the front window and stare out as best you can, but you may not approach the window until one leaves. If, however, there is one taller and older man at the window, with a younger child on tiptoes straining to peer over the bottom edge of the window, you must refrain at all costs from your urge to stand over the child and look out the left side of the window. Like a Bushman learning tracking, an Eskimo learning seal hunting, or a father taking a son into a duck blind, a sporting skill (albeit here completely useless) is being taught, one with which you dare not interfere: hunting locals.
Locals are the ungulates of the subway system. They carefully graze at intermediate stations, lazily loading and unloading their feast of passengers. Express trains are the raptors, the big cats, the top-line predators of the subway system, stopping at far fewer locations yet still concentrating a large proportion of the ecosystem's protein within them. Denied the opportunity to hunt within the city limits, the urban youth will be trained by caretaking older males in this ongoing, forever-open-season hunt.
Learning to track the elusive local starts with an understanding of the facts of its motion. Since Franklin Sprague (who in essence created the suburb through his work with streetcars) invented multiple unit control, the largest concern with a moving electrical train has been the ability to stop it safely. The IRT, a private subway, was designed with safety foremost in mind (curiously, absent the direction of legions of bureaucrats), including the first railroad fleet of all-steel cars in North America and an emergency system for stopping trains before they could come into contact. As nycsubway.org explains:
Although not themselves signals, stops, or “trippers”, or “automatic train stops”, as they are sometimes known, are a key component of the New York City subway’s signal system. They are and have always been used everywhere in the system to force trains to stop if and when they attempt to illegally pass a red signal (one indicating “stop”). The stop is a T-shaped metal rod about a foot long, usually painted bright yellow, at track level, to the right side of the track on the IRT Division and the left on the BMT and IND Divisions. When the stop is raised by the signal system to the “tripping” position, it engages a “trip cock” on the wheel frame (truck) of a passing train, which cuts power to its motors and applies its brakes in a “full emergency” application, bringing it to a screeching halt, very possibly causing discomfort or minor injury to passengers, but stopping the train as rapidly as possible. That action is called tripping the train. Every car (not just the first car) is equipped with tripcocks.
Stops are an integral part of the signal system, and the key to its safety strategy. All signals except dwarf signals have stops. The stops are operated by a heavy mechanical spring and either an electric motor or a pneumatic valve (the original IRT was all pneumatic in this regard) – if electric power or air pressure is deenergized, or fails, the stop is raised to the “tripping” position by the spring. The signal system, therefore, drives the stop (forces it down) when conditions are safe, not “raises” it when conditions are unsafe (this exemplifies the general “fail-safe” design of the signal system.)
This lengthy explanation is not usually provided to the local-hunting initiate. Instead, he will hear that the small metal stop itself will bring the train to a halt, and marvel at the strength of its steel; he will likewise know to associate the red light with a train's recent departure from a stretch of track. He now knows enough to hunt.
Locals will bleed a string of red lights out into the tunnel behind them. By carefully tracking the progression of lights along the local track, the hunter can become aware of the presence of a local, even before drawing it into sight. He can now prepare for the kill.
The most humane sort is where a local, unsuspecting, has just come to a stop and not yet opened its doors to feed. The express will humanely sweep past, smiting it with a mighty rush of air in one fell swoop. This is the image that the hunter will have of the lion on the savannah, humanely dispatching the springbok quickly.
This is incorrect, however, as lions will usually kill by suffocation, a slow death as the animal staggers forward. This, sadly, will happen as well to the local trains, as they may futilely start to accelerate out of their station in an attempt to catch up with and even pass the express, before stopping once again to graze upon local-station passengers and falling victim. Occasionally, however, one will make it safely to meet the express at the next express stop, and survive its ordeal; you may not hunt where you also stop.
It is possible to bag many locals at rush hour, especially when hunting on the Serengeti of the subway, the West Side IRT. More experienced hunters looking for a challenge will seek out the late-night quarry, when knowledge of train headways indicates the slight chance that an express departing Brooklyn Bridge will catch a local only near 110th or 116th streets. Slight deviation in schedules will allow the local off to the Bronx, safe once again from the expresses of the night.
If you wish to participate, you must observe the rules on kills above. In addition, you may not hunt locals as they gather in social groups near the end of their runs, including south of Canal Street on the East Side IRT, or near 67th Avenue on the Queens IND line; this will allow the locals to properly reproduce and keep enough available for other hunters (sadly, the subway can suffer a tragedy of the commons.). The best hunting locations are on the IRT in Manhattan (the 2/3, or 4/5 trains), the E/F in Queens, and, most thrilling of all, the Flushing Line (7 train), best hunted in the morning as the locals thunder towards the safety of Manhattan through the open air, with the expresses in hot pursuit. Sadly, the "War on Terrorism" will prevent you from photographing your kills, so you will only have stories to keep from the experience. It might be best to keep those to yourself.
October 11, 2007
