1963 - Amityville (old station), 1964 (temp. trailer), 1968 (temp. depot)
(lots of interline sales, mostly to Florida. In my “youth” I kept mixing up Philadelphia and Pittsburgh so had to be careful with the interline stuff.)
Amityville Station and temporary trailer Fall 1963
Amityville - new eastbound Shelter - Summer 1964
LIRR Pass - Extra Clerk 1964
LIRR Pass - Clerk 1969/1970
LIRR Pass - Clerk 1970/1971
LIRR Pass - Clerk 1973
1965 through 1969, 1973 - Jamaica ticket (I owned the ticket/toilet/scale/stockroom job for a time. Weekends in the summer were amazing; lines out the door all day.)
Jamaica Station - Extra Ticket Clerk
Brad Phillips Fall 1969
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Jamaica Station Ticket Windows - 1973
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Oakdale ticket is an example of the new ticket paper replacing the old protected paper (replacements started in 1966). Note serial #000000.
1965 - Jamaica info bureau (only 1 day, thank God)
1965 - Jamaica freight office (1 day only – boring. I don’t even remember exactly where this office was located.)
1965 - World’s Fair (when some passengers asked for the next train to Seaford, they really meant Seaford, Delaware on a PRR Delmarva special.)
The World’s Fair ticket is unusual as it documents the two changes required to get to Brooklyn. The World’s Fair ticket cases were huge with tickets to almost every LI destination.
1965 - Rosedale (really boring)
Rosedale Station September 1965
1965, 1967 - Flatbush Avenue (main waiting room and track level)
I always enjoyed selling at Flatbush. Gene Maraz was the agent in
1965, a really nice guy. He subsequently went to Jamaica where I worked for
him many times in later years. The ticket window shot looks very much like
the waiting room ticket office. The track level office that I worked out of
was actually modern, with large glass windows, etc.
Flatbush Ave Station, Brooklyn Waiting Room 1979 (Huneke-Keller)
1965 - New Hyde Park (including freight work; check the freight sidings in the dark before opening for ticket sales.)
1965 - Merrick (lost a $10 weekly ticket to a slippery commuter during one of my first Monday rush hours; that NEVER happened again!)
1965 - Wantagh
Wantagh Station 1965
1965 - Massapequa Park
I was the first ticket clerk to be
assigned to the “new” trailer ticket office in August of 1965. Before
the trailer opened, tickets were only sold on Monday mornings from a small
“closet” in the northwest corner of the westbound shelter. The
tickets, dater, etc. were kept in a travelling box at Massapequa which was
picked up by the assigned extra early on Monday mornings, similar to several
other Monday-only offices around the railroad (many of which I worked over
the years).
I was assigned effective on a
Monday. I picked up the ticket box and proceeded to sell tickets from
the corner closet. After closing down that day at about 10 am, per the
official schedule, I started setting up the new ticket office in the
trailer. A major plus was air
conditioning!
Being the enthusiastic guy that I am, I stayed late
into the night getting everything set up to be able to start selling tickets
the next day (Tuesday). I must have worked until 7 or 8 that night but
was ready to go at 6 am Tuesday. No visits by
any officials on that Monday (Tom Merkel was agent stationed in Massapequa
and the division super was …. Harold Remple (?? I can’t be sure of his
name or the spelling)).
I opened to the surprise of many commuters at ~6 am
Tuesday. Later in the day, Mr. Remple, or whoever, stopped by to see
how things were going and was surprised to see everything set up and tickets
being sold. In discussing how this happened, I mentioned my heroic
(!!) efforts of the previous day. I was young and naïve and didn’t
even think of a) asking to work OT, or b) getting approval for said OT.
Happily, Mr. Remple was very pleased that things had proceeded well and
authorized the time I worked as OT, which was a bonus for me as I had no
intention of asking for payment. I just enjoyed being able to set up
the office.
About a week later, I was unceremoniously bumped
from this nice, close to home, job and assigned to Southampton, which is a
whole ‘nuther story. (This guy followed me around the railroad
bumping me from place to place, why I never did find out.)
(My only time ever opening late; got to the station one morning minus the office keys … oops!)
Brad G. Phillips - Massapequa Park - New station 8/02/1965
1965 - Bay Shore (one Sunday evening a lady decided to step in front of a WB with scores of passengers on the platform; nasty.)
1965 - Patchogue (sold my one and only remains ticket; I decided to announce a train on the loudspeaker one night (‘cause I was bored, and new to the job) and was promptly, but nicely, educated in union protocol by a friendly trainman.)
1965 - Southampton (1 day; memorable sales: Pullman space to Chicago and a weekly from Speonk to Brooklyn.)
1965-1969, 1973 - Massapequa (I owned the relief job there for a time.)
1966 - Hicksville (Monday mornings were unbelievable – 4 ticket windows open, lines out the door for hours on end.)
1966 - Laurelton (even more boring than Rosedale)
1966 - Long Beach (great in the summer, lots of pretty girls heading for the beach.)
The
Long Beach - Valley Stream ticket is unusual in
that there were so many kids riding to “Green Acres” (the big shopping
center in Valley Stream) that "strip tickets" (Form 1-BHS) were
used to speed sales. There was never a dull moment at Long Beach in the
summer with hordes of kids coming to the beach and hordes going to the
shopping center!
St. Albans ticket is an example of the new ticket paper replacing the old protected paper (replacements started in 1966). Note serial #000000.
1966 - Bellmore - Here’s a shot of Bellmore taken when I was working there
to cover the regular guy’s vacation. During
slow times (almost all afternoons), I typed a position paper positing that
there should be increased rail service from Philadelphia to South Jersey
points vs. the steady decline that was taking place in the late 60’s.
Bellmore Station View W 1966
Bellmore Station View E 1967
1967 - Woodmere
1967 - Rockville Centre
The Rockville Centre – Valley Stream ticket is unusual for the south shore as there was no “through” train. A change in Lynbrook was required. I never saw a similar ticket in any other station on the Babylon line.
1967 - Baldwin
1968 - NY Penn (had the parlor car window on Friday; great fun.)
Parlor Car Tickets
My shifts at NYP were not just for parlor sales, but when the Friday rush started my window was converted to parlor only. Actually, NYP ticket and info was pretty routine and I don’t have any particular stories to relate. All the clerks were busy all the time so there was little personal interaction. The customer interactions were short; long lines all the time lead to quick sales. Ticket sellers referred customers to the info booth which was nice not to have to deal with schedules and all the other crazy questions. While in the bubble, things were pretty routine in nature (albeit with the crazy questions like how do I get to Rockaway Park or Coney Island, etc.!!). (I’m no subway expert so referred all that to the token booths!)
Brooklyn (FBA), both upstairs and down, was pretty much the same except you gave out schedules and track info.
The crazy place was Jamaica! All kinds of characters, particularly related to the storage lockers which I handled for some time. LOTS of rude people from the neighborhood pushing into lines and blaming clerks to late trains, etc. Also the typical attempts to short change us during busy times. Race days at Belmont were interesting as the racing fan personality was unique. Clerks sold tickets and handled all the track and schedule info; funny during rush hour when you told some folks to use track 4 or 5 and they didn’t believe you thinking all their trains always left on tracks 6, 7 or 8!
Of course, the late 60’s were the years of the flower children and crazy dress so you saw that everywhere you went.
1968 - NY Penn info bubble (2 days – couldn’t wait to get out.)
Passengers wait at the LIRR information booth
at Penn Station. 01/20/1972 (Newsday-Dick Yarwood)
1968 - Great Neck
Great Neck Station westbound train 1968
1968 - Valley Stream
1968 - Malverne (Monday morning)
Malverne tickets (sold in station) look like they were sold in Jamaica and
NY Penn. Jamaica, FBA and NYP all used the small 1BH forms where the line stations used the large 1H form.
1968 - Lynbrook
Center Ave. Lynbrook
ticket (sold in station) looks like it was sold in Jamaica and NY Penn. Jamaica, FBA and NYP all used the small 1BH forms where the line stations used the large 1H form.
1968 - East Rockaway (Monday morning)
1968 - Port Washington (over Christmas; killer commute from Amityville on the LIE in snow and ice.)
Elmhurst is abandoned, of course, so that’s a nice “souvenir.”
1968 - Nostrand Avenue
1968 - Nassau Blvd. (got dinged by a supervisor for wearing a blue vs. white dress shirt … sorry, sir!)
Nassau Blvd Station Summer 1969
1968 - Hempstead
1968 - Roslyn
1969 - Bellaire (Monday morning)
1969 - Queens Village (almost missed opening time; difficult safe down a spiral staircase in the basement; opened less than 5 minutes
before the first WB just barely getting all the commuters their weeklies. They were banging on the windows!)
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