Love Coney Island-Stillwell Ave's enormous trainshed! To put things into perspective, that trainshed is around 80,000 square feet! And yes, the roof is covered in solar panels! The roof consists of 2,730 thin-film modules from Schott AG. It has a nominal capacity of about 210 kWp (meaning kilowatts peak) which equates to an annual output of 250,000 kWh (kilowatt-hour). The solar panels provide about 15 percent of the station's power. Due to the station's location near the beach, the solar panels needed to meet stringent hurricane standards. Thus, the panels for the station were rigorously tested in a laboratory in York, PA. This makes Stillwell Avenue the first solar-powered subway station in the NYC Subway! Interesting facts about Coney Island: Despite the name, Coney Island is currently a peninsula, and it turned from a barrier island into a peninsula as a result of a large section of the Coney Island Creek filled in during the 1920s and 1930s. Stillwell Avenue was named after settler Nicholas Stillwell (who lived from 1603 to 1671), who had a farm in the area and became the progenitor of an influential Brooklyn family by the same name. Plans for Stillwell Avenue began in October 1926. The Lenape once called the area Narrioch. This name has been attributed the meaning of "land without shadows" or "always in light" describing how its south facing beaches always remained in sunlight. A second meaning attributed to Narrioch is "point" or "corner of land".
Hi! I’m honored to have received another comment from you :). I very much appreciate all the interesting information and background you provide! (I’m sometimes too lazy to research myself :P). I honestly expected that a roofs-worth of solar panels would produce more than 15% of Stillwell Ave’s power but maybe I’m just underestimating how much energy a single station uses, especially one with eight tracks!
What a legendary station!! I had no clue such a great functional piece of architecture existed on the NY subway. It looks a lot like a German main Hauptbahnhof. Thanks for the tour!
"RTO" = "Rapid Transit Operations" It's the motormen-and-conductors part of the subways, while the booth clerks and the sweepers are the "Station" department
Luna Park honors the name of the original 1903 park which operated until 1944 while the current park opened in 2010! The iconic Wonder Wheel next door opened in 1920 and is an eccentric Ferris wheel, meaning some of the Wonder Wheel's cabins are not fixed directly to the rim of the wheel, but instead slide along winding sets of rails between the hub and the rim like a roller coaster! This inspired the Pixar Pal-A-Round at Disney California Adventure. Here's some Nathan's history: Nathan's began as a nickel hot dog stand in 1916 and bears the name of its co-founder Nathan Handwerker who started the business with his wife, Ida Handwerker. Ida created the hot dog recipe they used, and Ida's grandmother created the secret spice recipe. Because Nathan's Famous all-beef hot dogs lacked rabbinic supervision and the meat wasn't kosher, Handwerker coined the term "kosher style" because the hot dogs were not made from pork or horse meat. Handwerker was a Jewish-Polish immigrant who arrived in NYC in 1912 and soon found work at the Coney Island restaurant Feltman's German Gardens. He was encouraged by singing waiters Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with Feltman's. Nathan and Ida spent their life savings of $300 to begin the business!
As a subway buff, I wish to inform you that the West End Line tracks of the D train you announced as Tracks 1 and 2 are literally Tracks 7 and 8. Tracks 1 and 2 are on the opposite side of the train station where the N Sea Beach trains terminate. I lived in Coney Island more than 46 years ago, but I was born in Brooklyn 70 years ago. I am sorry I had to mention a correction like another railroad buff, but your show and tour were helpful indeed.
@@nathantransitj I believe in the biblical proverb, "A soft answer turns away wrath; harsh words stir up anger." Taken from Proverbs 15:1. Being polite, even in keyboarding, brings satisfactory results. I thank you for typing to me.
grew up in Coney Island so I used this station daily for years. the station this replaced was extremely old and dingy, so this modern station was very welcome when it opened. there was also a time during construction that only 1 line ran out of here, the W / D
A few things: 1:16 Through movement is also used if there is a need to reroute trains onto other lines. If there is a Q coming into the station, for example, from the Brighton Line, but there happens to be an immediate incident preventing the Q from going back up the Brighton Line, it can continue through the station with a new train crew up the N/Sea Beach Line, or if the incident clears up, a rerouted Q via Sea Beach can go back to its normal route when it reaches the terminal. 2:02 RTO=Rapid Transit Operations. Train Crews, supervision, and line management are there. 3:28 Coney Island is more common when it comes to the riding public, but Stillwell Avenue is used mostly internally. Hope this helps!
Internally, they also use the formal name of the station: Stillwell Terminal. It was publicly visible on the departure boards at entrances until they were removed.
Comparing the platforms from the 90s to now, with all the photos I've seen, it was a major improvement.The (B) and (W) once terminated there via West End and the (D) used to be on Brighton.
Hello from Lima - Peru 🇵🇪. New subscriber here, I enjoy your videos a lot, great to learch how the NY subway system works and how it looks. Wish we had that here in Peru. Regards
NYCT F line Train Operator here... I love how you kept saying how nice Stillwell Terminal looks even though it's covered in 20 years of bird guano...😂 In 2004 it was beautiful, 2024 not so much... Transit needs to give it a thorough cleaning...
My brother and his friends would ride the NYC subways in the 1950s as their recreation. They were all (and still are) huge railfans. Back then, it only cost $0.05 (that's right FIVE CENTS) to ride 500 miles of track! I still have tokens from the 1960s where one was 10 cents and the other 15 cents.
Coney Island is the neighborhood i grew up in theyve actually added a couple of bus lines the B82 and the B68 which used to terminate on West 5 st down closer to the Aquarium. So all we had was the B36 which ran on Surf ave, the B64 which used to terminate across the street from the station on Stillwell then would use the bus loop to turn around and the B74 whichu caught underneath the station like u saw
Thanks for the video! I haven't been out to Coney Island since I was a kid a million years ago. Maybe I'll take a train ride out there this summer and have a Nathan's hot dog :-)
So strange to see that Conyne Eylandt (Konijnen Eiland in modern Dutch) of the New Netherlands Colony was butchered by (the) English into Coney Island instead of translating it into Rabbit Island. Besides that, nice to see a metro terminus station with so much subway lines.
Really Enjoying Your Channel. The Station Definitely Looked Like A Train Station.Please Do A 65 Year Old Man A Favor, Go Back In The Summer. I Have Been To NY Several Times, But Never To Coney Island Or The Atlantic Beach. Keep Up The Good Work. Thanks From San Diego.🌴
Coney Island - Stillwell Ave is one of the most unique man. With 8 tracks and trains coming from 4 directions its certainly got some amazing views. The only problem is now that the R160s arwmt on the N/Q lines lol but the scenery and apparoching sights off the F and Q are amazing!
Yes, tracks 7 and 8 are shorter than the other tracks at the terminal. The West End line platform was probably added after the other three platforms which were below the old crew house, and are still below the modern one, since the terminal was reopened in 2004.
Quando fui pra New York o ponto que eu estava mais interessado era Coney Island, sempre que viajo pra lugares novos eu gosto de explorar os pontos turísticos mais suburbanos, por assim dizer. Fui no verão, mas não estava muito cheio não, deu pra ir no Luna Park, que gostei muito, e no aquário também. A praia não se compara as daqui do Rio, tem poucas ondas, eu gosto de pegar onda hehe. Sobre a estação, eu acho ela muito bonita sim, mas sinto falta de um serviço expresso pra Manhattan, todos os trens que saem dali são paradores por um longo tempo, o único serviço expresso é o B em Brighton Beach, mas só opera em dias úteis.
Eu não sei se é bom ou ruim que a praia não tá muito cheia no verão kkkkk. Eu totalmente concordo que é um pouco chato não ter um serviço expresso. Eu tô curioso: você sabe qual é o trem que chega em Manhattan mais rápido? Eu não sei.
@@nathantransitj Saber com certeza não sei, mas chutando diria a conexão Q+B. Apesar dos intervalos do B serem bem dilua. Direto de Coney Island diria o D, pois assim que sai da linha West end vai expresso até manhattan( e até no Bronx, nos horários de pico).
The F & F Express, while having not so good service changes, it does go to Culver, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Roosevelt Island/63rd St and Queens with a lengthy history.
I used to work at Methodist off the F line and go to that stop after work to get a Nathan's 🌭 during the summer, years back. Just to sightsee and ride the trains when it wasn't peak time!
I somehow never knew how new this station was. Despite all their flaws, the MTA has been consistently bulidings nice stations for a couple of decades now.
They completely rebuilt the station, but didn’t bother fixing the ramps on the D train to make them all ADA accessible. 🤦♂️ it’s also weird that the F and Q don’t have elevators to that overpass, meaning you have to use only the ramps to transfer, or that long route to the D.
Being from Brooklyn there's nothing like Nathan's in Coney Island. I don't know what it is but the hot dogs taste different from others of the same brand. Maybe it's the Coney Island beach. It's much better now than the 70's & 80's. Visitors don't forget the steak fries😊 There two Nathan's go to the one on Stillwell Ave not the broadwalk.
Back in the days Coney Island station looked like shit. After that I never been to Coney Island station or the area for almost 50 years. They really rebuilt that station. No wonder N train don’t stop at Coney Island for decades they had to build that canopie
Well done. The Manhattan Beach RR was part of the LIRR. It ran next to the Brighton Line from Avenue H to Sheepshead Bay. You can still see remnants of the Neck Road Station. Stillwell Avenue also boasted a trolley ramp.
Love Coney Island-Stillwell Ave's enormous trainshed! To put things into perspective, that trainshed is around 80,000 square feet! And yes, the roof is covered in solar panels! The roof consists of 2,730 thin-film modules from Schott AG. It has a nominal capacity of about 210 kWp (meaning kilowatts peak) which equates to an annual output of 250,000 kWh (kilowatt-hour). The solar panels provide about 15 percent of the station's power. Due to the station's location near the beach, the solar panels needed to meet stringent hurricane standards. Thus, the panels for the station were rigorously tested in a laboratory in York, PA. This makes Stillwell Avenue the first solar-powered subway station in the NYC Subway!
Interesting facts about Coney Island: Despite the name, Coney Island is currently a peninsula, and it turned from a barrier island into a peninsula as a result of a large section of the Coney Island Creek filled in during the 1920s and 1930s. Stillwell Avenue was named after settler Nicholas Stillwell (who lived from 1603 to 1671), who had a farm in the area and became the progenitor of an influential Brooklyn family by the same name. Plans for Stillwell Avenue began in October 1926. The Lenape once called the area Narrioch. This name has been attributed the meaning of "land without shadows" or "always in light" describing how its south facing beaches always remained in sunlight. A second meaning attributed to Narrioch is "point" or "corner of land".
Hi! I’m honored to have received another comment from you :). I very much appreciate all the interesting information and background you provide! (I’m sometimes too lazy to research myself :P). I honestly expected that a roofs-worth of solar panels would produce more than 15% of Stillwell Ave’s power but maybe I’m just underestimating how much energy a single station uses, especially one with eight tracks!
stillwell is the largest elevated subway terminal in the world btw
Actually true however 155th 6 and 9 ave El was once the largest train terminal for the El train in Manhattan before it was torn down
One of those places where the history of the lirr and nyc subway become one, like the rockaway branch
What a legendary station!! I had no clue such a great functional piece of architecture existed on the NY subway. It looks a lot like a German main Hauptbahnhof. Thanks for the tour!
Yup. And I have the luxury to see it everyday.
Well yes not everything is in Manhattan
"RTO" = "Rapid Transit Operations" It's the motormen-and-conductors part of the subways, while the booth clerks and the sweepers are the "Station" department
Luna Park honors the name of the original 1903 park which operated until 1944 while the current park opened in 2010! The iconic Wonder Wheel next door opened in 1920 and is an eccentric Ferris wheel, meaning some of the Wonder Wheel's cabins are not fixed directly to the rim of the wheel, but instead slide along winding sets of rails between the hub and the rim like a roller coaster! This inspired the Pixar Pal-A-Round at Disney California Adventure. Here's some Nathan's history: Nathan's began as a nickel hot dog stand in 1916 and bears the name of its co-founder Nathan Handwerker who started the business with his wife, Ida Handwerker.
Ida created the hot dog recipe they used, and Ida's grandmother created the secret spice recipe. Because Nathan's Famous all-beef hot dogs lacked rabbinic supervision and the meat wasn't kosher, Handwerker coined the term "kosher style" because the hot dogs were not made from pork or horse meat. Handwerker was a Jewish-Polish immigrant who arrived in NYC in 1912 and soon found work at the Coney Island restaurant Feltman's German Gardens. He was encouraged by singing waiters Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with Feltman's. Nathan and Ida spent their life savings of $300 to begin the business!
My mother would never let me ride the Wonder Wheel in the 1950s. Grrrrr.
As a subway buff, I wish to inform you that the West End Line tracks of the D train you announced as Tracks 1 and 2 are literally Tracks 7 and 8. Tracks 1 and 2 are on the opposite side of the train station where the N Sea Beach trains terminate. I lived in Coney Island more than 46 years ago, but I was born in Brooklyn 70 years ago. I am sorry I had to mention a correction like another railroad buff, but your show and tour were helpful indeed.
Hi! Don’t be sorry. Corrections are always appreciated, especially when given in a respectful message (like yours). That’s how people learn. Thanks!
@@nathantransitj I believe in the biblical proverb, "A soft answer turns away wrath; harsh words stir up anger." Taken from Proverbs 15:1. Being polite, even in keyboarding, brings satisfactory results. I thank you for typing to me.
You are welcome.
grew up in Coney Island so I used this station daily for years. the station this replaced was extremely old and dingy, so this modern station was very welcome when it opened. there was also a time during construction that only 1 line ran out of here, the W / D
I remember when the F and Q also ran there before being cut to Avenue X and Brighton, respectively.
long live the diamond Q!
A few things:
1:16 Through movement is also used if there is a need to reroute trains onto other lines. If there is a Q coming into the station, for example, from the Brighton Line, but there happens to be an immediate incident preventing the Q from going back up the Brighton Line, it can continue through the station with a new train crew up the N/Sea Beach Line, or if the incident clears up, a rerouted Q via Sea Beach can go back to its normal route when it reaches the terminal.
2:02 RTO=Rapid Transit Operations. Train Crews, supervision, and line management are there.
3:28 Coney Island is more common when it comes to the riding public, but Stillwell Avenue is used mostly internally.
Hope this helps!
Thanks for the information! I didn’t think about train rerouting :)
Internally, they also use the formal name of the station: Stillwell Terminal. It was publicly visible on the departure boards at entrances until they were removed.
Comparing the platforms from the 90s to now, with all the photos I've seen, it was a major improvement.The (B) and (W) once terminated there via West End and the (D) used to be on Brighton.
Hello from Lima - Peru 🇵🇪. New subscriber here, I enjoy your videos a lot, great to learch how the NY subway system works and how it looks. Wish we had that here in Peru. Regards
RTO - rapid transit operations. Beyond that door couple offices then the locker rooms and a big crew area and dispatcher
NYCT F line Train Operator here...
I love how you kept saying how nice Stillwell Terminal looks even though it's covered in 20 years of bird guano...😂
In 2004 it was beautiful, 2024 not so much...
Transit needs to give it a thorough cleaning...
My brother and his friends would ride the NYC subways in the 1950s as their recreation. They were all (and still are) huge railfans. Back then, it only cost $0.05 (that's right FIVE CENTS) to ride 500 miles of track! I still have tokens from the 1960s where one was 10 cents and the other 15 cents.
I wonder what $0.05 would be today taking into account inflation. My guess would be around $2.
60 cents
Coney Island is the neighborhood i grew up in theyve actually added a couple of bus lines the B82 and the B68 which used to terminate on West 5 st down closer to the Aquarium. So all we had was the B36 which ran on Surf ave, the B64 which used to terminate across the street from the station on Stillwell then would use the bus loop to turn around and the B74 whichu caught underneath the station like u saw
Thanks for the video! I haven't been out to Coney Island since I was a kid a million years ago. Maybe I'll take a train ride out there this summer and have a Nathan's hot dog :-)
So strange to see that Conyne Eylandt (Konijnen Eiland in modern Dutch) of the New Netherlands Colony was butchered by (the) English into Coney Island instead of translating it into Rabbit Island. Besides that, nice to see a metro terminus station with so much subway lines.
Het is ook raar dat we hebben Staten Eiland, “Staten Island” genoemd in plaats van “State Island”.
There's a great pizza shop right next to that station on Stillwell, best Sicilian slices anywhere.
Great memories of going to Coney Island well before this station was rebuilt. Nice video!
Thanks!
You should review Howard Beach-JFK Airport on the (A) eventually.
Really Enjoying Your Channel. The Station Definitely Looked Like A Train Station.Please Do A 65 Year Old Man A Favor, Go Back In The Summer. I Have Been To NY Several Times, But Never To Coney Island Or The Atlantic Beach. Keep Up The Good Work. Thanks From San Diego.🌴
My favorite station in South Brooklyn! Great video
Coney Island - Stillwell Ave is one of the most unique man. With 8 tracks and trains coming from 4 directions its certainly got some amazing views. The only problem is now that the R160s arwmt on the N/Q lines lol but the scenery and apparoching sights off the F and Q are amazing!
Only been to coney island a couple of times (after taking the F train the entire route lmao) but this was some neat history!
How was the ride?
Fun Fact: The West End line platforms/tracks (D) are the only trackage at the station that does not have through tracks.
Yes, tracks 7 and 8 are shorter than the other tracks at the terminal. The West End line platform was probably added after the other three platforms which were below the old crew house, and are still below the modern one, since the terminal was reopened in 2004.
💙
I saw a bunch of stations like this in Europe. I’m happy to see that the US has one.
Quando fui pra New York o ponto que eu estava mais interessado era Coney Island, sempre que viajo pra lugares novos eu gosto de explorar os pontos turísticos mais suburbanos, por assim dizer.
Fui no verão, mas não estava muito cheio não, deu pra ir no Luna Park, que gostei muito, e no aquário também.
A praia não se compara as daqui do Rio, tem poucas ondas, eu gosto de pegar onda hehe.
Sobre a estação, eu acho ela muito bonita sim, mas sinto falta de um serviço expresso pra Manhattan, todos os trens que saem dali são paradores por um longo tempo, o único serviço expresso é o B em Brighton Beach, mas só opera em dias úteis.
Eu não sei se é bom ou ruim que a praia não tá muito cheia no verão kkkkk.
Eu totalmente concordo que é um pouco chato não ter um serviço expresso. Eu tô curioso: você sabe qual é o trem que chega em Manhattan mais rápido? Eu não sei.
@@nathantransitj Saber com certeza não sei, mas chutando diria a conexão Q+B. Apesar dos intervalos do B serem bem dilua.
Direto de Coney Island diria o D, pois assim que sai da linha West end vai expresso até manhattan( e até no Bronx, nos horários de pico).
@@magicmasterfan1Faz sentido
Informative and nice views of the station.
Awesome description. Thank you very much indeed.
Excellent video! Subscribed
The D is the only line in Coney Island to go to the Bronx via. Concourse, it's also the only line to use R68s on normal service
The F & F Express, while having not so good service changes, it does go to Culver, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Roosevelt Island/63rd St and Queens with a lengthy history.
The N, even on Sea Beach, is okay for what it is
The Q is the only line to go to Brighton, thus meeting with the B line, and it goes express for a while
When there are any service changes for these lines, take either the D, N, F (F Express) and Q if one of the lines doesn't go to Coney Island
Visited this station when I was a kid, it's huge
The B, D, F, and Q route lines originally were separate railroads in the 1800s.
I used to work at Methodist off the F line and go to that stop after work to get a Nathan's 🌭 during the summer, years back. Just to sightsee and ride the trains when it wasn't peak time!
I somehow never knew how new this station was. Despite all their flaws, the MTA has been consistently bulidings nice stations for a couple of decades now.
Yes, it get's really crowded in the summer with the amusement park being there and there's a minor league baseball team that has firework shows
Did you miss the Brooklyn Cyclones stadium, right up the street, Maimonides Park?
Do a video on the Staten Island bus terminal at the ferry it’s only me amazing lines & do the queens center bus area
I just released a video on the Staten Island Railway and near the start I show a bit of the bus terminal at St. George!
That was some great work and yes I am a nyc transit fan
It took me an embarrassingly long time to understand the obvious reasons why Nathan’s hot dogs are your favorite
I honestly don’t even know what they taste like! 🤣
For reasons that I can't account for, Nathan's hot dogs taste much better when you get them at the original location on a sunny summer day.
1:22 what's that r68 car doing all alone?
They completely rebuilt the station, but didn’t bother fixing the ramps on the D train to make them all ADA accessible. 🤦♂️ it’s also weird that the F and Q don’t have elevators to that overpass, meaning you have to use only the ramps to transfer, or that long route to the D.
Being from Brooklyn there's nothing like Nathan's in Coney Island. I don't know what it is but the hot dogs taste different from others of the same brand. Maybe it's the Coney Island beach. It's much better now than the 70's & 80's. Visitors don't forget the steak fries😊 There two Nathan's go to the one on Stillwell Ave not the broadwalk.
The Nathan's restaurant at Stillwell Avenue is immense with a large back patio for outdoor dining.
Awwwww you were in the neighborhood💛Feel like I should have gotten you Nathan's in commemoration
All those roof panels were . to be for solar energy production for the terminal but like usual, it was a failure to work properly
That blue and red coaster is awful 😂 also that spiral track is the lift. I very got a video about the coasters if you're interested.
Very nice!
That one R68 Car chilling in the yard 1:19
Second comment. Btw I use this everyday it is good for it to finally get attattention.
That one spiral rollercoaster is more painful then fun. I went on twice and had very sore shoulders. DO not reccomend!
Back in the days Coney Island station looked like shit. After that I never been to Coney Island station or the area for almost 50 years. They really rebuilt that station. No wonder N train don’t stop at Coney Island for decades they had to build that canopie
Great.
I remember before they rebuilt it.
b trains like to come here as well
Like f train
Nathan is so cute
Coney Island is a garbage terminal
Well done. The Manhattan Beach RR was part of the LIRR. It ran next to the Brighton Line from Avenue H to Sheepshead Bay. You can still see remnants of the Neck Road Station. Stillwell Avenue also boasted a trolley ramp.