Tag Archives: R160

Oren’s Reading List: The Stories Behind The Subway Announcement Voices We Know So Well

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R142 6415 at East Tremont Avenue, June 20, 2009

In keeping with the recent post about a podcast episode recommendation, here comes another one that may be worth your time.  This time, we’re featuring the “Mind the Gap” episode from “Twenty Thousand Hertz“, which describes itself as “the stories behind the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds.”  If the episode’s title immediately conjures an image of the London Underground in your head, I think it is fair to say this podcast is achieving its goal.

This episode features the stories of the voices behind the iconic subway announcements in London by Elinor Hamilton and in New York City by Charlie Pellett and even though I had some familiarity with some aspects of their stories, there were also some parts of their careers and stories I was not familiar with, especially Elinor Hamilton’s.  If you’re really into the automated, prerecorded announcements that are commonplace on public transit today, you’ll want to give this a listen.  (Even Mrs. Oren’s Transit Page, who is not the biggest podcast fan, enjoyed listening to this one with me.)

Listen to Twenty Thousand Hertz’s “Mind the Gap” episode (or read the transcript) by clicking here, or searching wherever you prefer to download your podcasts.

Oren’s Reading List is an occasional feature on The Travelogue in which I share articles that I’ve read that might also be of interest to the readers of this website.

Rail Photo of the Month: August 2017

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R160A 8497

R160A 8497

Location: 9th Avenue Station, Brooklyn, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: June 24, 2010

Over time, transit routes can and do change.  I took this photo of an M train entering the 9th Avenue station in Brooklyn on the last day of M train service at this location in 2010.  Starting the next Monday morning, the M train had a new route that used a track connection that had been out of use since 1976.  The M train is just one of many New York City Subway lines which has maintained both a segment where it has always run (Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn) and a variety of segments that it no longer serves (Brighton Line, West End Line, Nassau Street Line, etc.).  The same can go for certain stations.  The Myrtle Avenue Line originally served a now demolished upper level station at the Myrtle Avenue-Broadway Station and continued to Downtown Brooklyn.  The 9th Avenue Station where I took this photo has a disused lower level that serves the now demolished Culver Shuttle Line; you can see the tracks leading to that abandoned level to the right of the M train in this photo.  The New York City Subway has many fun nuances like this, as do other systems, though perhaps to a slightly lesser extent.  It is what makes this hobby so fun sometimes, to travel around and know what was and what could be and to document it as best I can.

For more photos of the R160s, please click here.