m42 under grandcentral

there is a show on history channel now about underground NyC and GCT

nice shot of mncx 002

Some of what they said in the piece tho appeared to be outright fabrications. Given the recent Bear Grylls revelations about his "survival" show I would not be surprised if some of the information was massaged for the sake of entertainment value.

Nice to see those rotary converters still in place. Shame to see them not working and not even on standby. Its a shame that Metro North couldn't be more like Amtrak and have all that stuff still functioning.

Interesting point of comparison I believe that the Penn Station support building was able to be built above around across the street. There are detailed library of congress photos of it when it was being gutted/renovated in the early 1990's,

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=40.749661 ... =0&m=s&v=2

I'd watch out with that show - we had a thread about it past, and it was decided (rightfully so) that the show was mostly BS - there was suggestions about a particular LIRR 4-wheel-trucked baggage car being an armored car for FDR, with supporting evidence being the "heavy duty trucks" and "glass windows, which aren't usually on a baggage car". Any foamer or railroader can tell you a heavyweight meant to carry extra weight would have... 6 wheel trucks! It's no surprise that History Channel doesn't have the railroad background and knowledge some posters here have, but the out-and-out fabrication of a significant part of the show is disappointing.

thats the car they had on here. i also liked how they kept calling the metro north the subway

I only watched the first few minutes so far, and already I believe there's a mistake. Direct quote: "Grand Central is the largest and busiest train terminal in the world"

Penn Station's certainly busier, right? But I guess it's not a "terminal"

You may be right or wrong, but relating traffic to configuration - terminal vs. station - is a bit silly. While it's important to recognize the diff, it's misleading to not compare the two - more important than being a terminal or station, they should be considered "major metropolitan anchor stations", just like 30th street, WUS, CUS, CUT... Half of the stations I've just named - CUS, WUS, CUT - are both terminal and station, with stubs and thru tracks.

Bottom line, this show was written by somebody that's read wayyy too much Robert Ludlum. People arrive, people depart, trains are cleaned, and guys like Dutch make a living. That's about it.

And of course people forget the loop track(s).

"This stop, Grand Central, next stop, Grand Central."

mncommuter wrote:I only watched the first few minutes so far, and already I believe there's a mistake. Direct quote: "Grand Central is the largest and busiest train terminal in the world"

Penn Station's certainly busier, right? But I guess it's not a "terminal"

Metro North has 625 trains per day of which probably about 575 go in or out of GCT, this figure includes deadheads.

Let's not discuss the shall-not-be-named mystery car, which is no mystery. Anyway, a nice article by: Untapped Cities

Now, don't get me wrong, I like the "official historian". I attended a tour of GCT held by him (which did not include the M42 room), and it was very informative. We even got to see the car in question. That myth has been debunked, and like the Turboliners is topic verboten on these forums. It was still cool to see... moving on to the article on M42.

Inside the Clandestine M42 Basement Deep Under Grand Central Terminal

Deep below Grand Central Terminal, there’s a hidden power station known as M42 that does not appear on a single map or blueprint. In fact, its very existence was only acknowledged in the late 1980s and its exact location is still not public information. Nonetheless, unpublicized special tours have allowed the curious to head down there in the last five years or so. We can’t share all the details of how we landed on the coveted visit, but we were given the opportunity to explore this and other off-limits places in Grand Central Terminal recently – and took photographs.

Most famously, the M42 basement (also known as Substation 1T and 1L) played an important, clandestine role in World War II. The original converters, which are no longer in operation, powered much of the New York Central Railroad and were a target for German spies who wanted to sabotage rail movement on the East Coast. The M42 basement was so secret that you risked being shot on site if you went down there – something our intrepid guide, Daniel Brucker, the official historian for Grand Central Terminal confirmed.

Room 42 always conjures up images of the hidden robot base from the Anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion".

Or it sounds like somewhere James Bond would go-- "007, you will proceed to New York and report to Room 42 for further instructions from our station chief."

or at least, Perry the Platypus