In Oh Albany!, William Kennedy describes an "elephant crisis" in 1950's downtown Albany.
I thought Oh Albany! had a story about an intoxicated Times-Union reporter telling his newsroom colleagues he saw elephants on Broadway and having his announcement dismissed as a hallucination. When someone went downstairs, there were elephants - - walking from a railroad siding to the circus.
When I returned to the book, I found the elephants, but not the reporter.
In the 1950's, before construction of a riverfront Interstate paved over most railroad tracks, the Ringling Brothers circus unloaded on sidings in downtown Albany.
Before one circus, Kennedy wrote, "the elephants got loose and wandered around Downtown." "An intrepid Times-Union photographer," Kennedy continued, "snapped them on their spree." Imagine, being an office worker and coming out of your building to see elephants at large.
The paper ran a publicity photo of elephants the day before. When Barney Fowler, the city editor, asked news editor Ed Nowinski to run the "spectacular photos" of the elephants on the loose, Nowinski did not run them, saying "We had elephants yesterday."
On a recent afternoon, driving on Route 20 in suburban Guilderland, NY, I was reminded of Kennedy's elephants.
I thought Oh Albany! had a story about an intoxicated Times-Union reporter telling his newsroom colleagues he saw elephants on Broadway and having his announcement dismissed as a hallucination. When someone went downstairs, there were elephants - - walking from a railroad siding to the circus.
When I returned to the book, I found the elephants, but not the reporter.
In the 1950's, before construction of a riverfront Interstate paved over most railroad tracks, the Ringling Brothers circus unloaded on sidings in downtown Albany.
Before one circus, Kennedy wrote, "the elephants got loose and wandered around Downtown." "An intrepid Times-Union photographer," Kennedy continued, "snapped them on their spree." Imagine, being an office worker and coming out of your building to see elephants at large.
The paper ran a publicity photo of elephants the day before. When Barney Fowler, the city editor, asked news editor Ed Nowinski to run the "spectacular photos" of the elephants on the loose, Nowinski did not run them, saying "We had elephants yesterday."
On a recent afternoon, driving on Route 20 in suburban Guilderland, NY, I was reminded of Kennedy's elephants.
The Sunday evening before the afternoon, my wife Dorothy and I watched an episode of Michael Portillo's Great American Railway Journey, on WMHT, our local PBS station. In this episode, Mr. Portillo was riding a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train from downtown San Francisco to a stop near University of California - - Berkeley.
The BART system is one of several wonderful rail-based transit systems in San Francisco. It allows a hassle-free trip from the region's airports to downtown and its trains are pleasant to ride.
Given how integral BART is to the Bay Area and given how I had seen one of its trains on television the night before, you can imagine my surprise and amazement when I saw a BART coach on a flatbed truck, driving west on Route 20! It was such a surprise that I half expected to see elephants next.
After seeing the car, I contacted BART and spoke to Jim Allison, the agency's Media Relations Manager. Jim told me that BART "has contracted with Bombardier Transportation to build 775 new cars to replace our aging rolling stock." "These new cars," he continued, "are called 'The Fleet of the Future.'"
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| A BART car being loaded on a flatbed truck in Plattsburgh, NY. Photograph courtesy of M. Roberts |
When Jim and I spoke, Bombardier was building the cars at its plant in Plattsburgh, New York, near the Canadian border. A few days later, Maryanne Roberts, Bombardier Transportation's Spokesperson, advised me that Bombardier is moving its assembly line for The Fleet of the Future to Pittsburg, California over the next several months. However, Bombardier will continue to undertake rail work for other customers in Plattsburgh.
A week after seeing the BART car on Route 20, I saw another truck carrying a BART car, ready to make the turn onto Route 20. Then, yesterday, I saw a flatbed with a BART car - - this time traveling east!
This is not the first time I have seen rail cars from elsewhere in the neighborhood. My fishing friend, the late Bryce Butler, loved to fish the West Branch of the Delaware River and the ride there included Route 20 and Interstate 88.
Seeing three San Francisco-area subway in upstate New York is a marvelous, magical sight. It's also a reminder that even on what a person thinks is the most routine of drives that something new and wonderful may be coming around the next corner.
Unexpected sights such as elephants on Broadway, a BART coach in upstate New York, or large dinosaurs along "The 10" in Cabezon, California are gifts to lift people from the drudgery of travel. I hope that you have a magic moment of this sort - - with no traffic safety problems - - sometime soon.
[Thanks to Paul Grondahl and William Kennedy for squaring away my imperfect memory of elephants and Albany!]
Susan and I saw one of those. I thought it was a NYC subway car, but she corrected me when she saw the BART logo. It seemed like a long way from home.
ReplyDeleteI, too, had such a delightful moment. It was a couple of weeks ago near the University at Albany, where I had to move my car out of the way to allow the truck with the BART car on it to make a turn off the I-90 East ramp onto Washington Avenue. Beautiful, shiny train car, wheels right at eye level. I wondered why it was traveling east in the first place, and why it need to exit there - maybe the truck driver was taking a break to get some lunch or something before continuing westward to California ...
ReplyDeleteThis may explain the rail cars I saw of flatbeds heading North on I-87 several weeks ago
ReplyDeleteDon, David and Steve: Thanks for sharing your BART car sightings. Steve, I, too, saw car on a flatbed traveling north. Wonder why they were going in the other direction.
ReplyDelete