Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn

I really prefer riding the trolley lines of 2005, but the other day I tried a bit of nostalgia by riding Brooklyn's Nostrand Avenue bus and trying to recall it as a streetcar line. I had certainly seen it while riding other car lines in 1940, but I don't recall ever riding it through from Delancey Street to Avenue U. Anyhow, the longest one can do now (and it is quite long) is southbound B44 Limited from Bridge Plaza to Sheepshead Bay. I chose southbound because much of the northbound route is now on parallel New York Avenue. Anyhow, it was easy to look at the streets that carried intersecting car lines (Flushing, Myrtle, Gates, Putnam, Church) and imagine or perhaps recall some scene from 55+ years ago. What surprised me was to see that Nostrand Avenue is still busy with small businesses, in fact, thriving. Because of idiot double-parking of delivery trucks, two-way streetcar service would now be a pain. Later, I found Stan Fischler's "Confessions of a Trolley Dodger from Brooklyn" and his chapter on the Nostrand Avenue line, with some excellent photos. And the B&QT map on nycsubway.org confirmed that the route ended at Avenue U. As I recall it, cars turning back at the Flatbush-Nostrand junction looped by going through an empty lot between the two streets. However, someplace around there I recall a trolley loop that was clockwise. To enter the loop, the car crossed the track that had just left the loop. Was that at Avenue U and Nostrand or Avenue U and Flatbush? Thanks. Joe McMahon

According to an ERA track map of Brooklyn, both loops were in a clockwise direction. The one you remember was at the end of the line at Nostrand / Avenue U.

Thanks for looking that up. In the past year, I recall reading something about a transit line (subway? streetcar?) that had excessive wear on the wheels on one side because of loops. As both Brooklyn Bridge and Delancey Street terminals both had counter-clockwise loops, I wonder whether that motivated the B & QT (or whatever name) to introduce clockwise loops at the southern end of some lines. Of course, the McDonald and Coney Island Avenue PCC's looped counter-clockwise at West 8th Street also. Again, thanks for explaining about Avenue U.

Hi All,

The end of the Nostrand avenue trolley, now bus line, connected to the Green lines bus lines into the Rockaways. This I remember vividly since the time when there was a huge power failure in NYC and surrounding cities in 1965. My, at that time, fiancee was to be picked up by me at the Cross Bay Blvd station of the BMT. Of course the train never showed up, so I drove my car home, in Far Rockaway. Since my brothers had the situation under control at home, I changed clothes and went to spend the evening with my Mother-in-law to be, and had dinner with her, by candlelight. Several hours went by, and finally my fiancee came in the house complaining about having to walk the subway tracks to the nearest street, trying to call home for help, but the pay phones were full of dimes and would no longer work, and so had to take the Nostrand Ave bus to the last stop, and transfer to the Green Line bus and home in the Rockaways. She was a mess, tearful and hungry. And to this day, my wife resents that I had candlelight dinner with her mom, and not her. What an evening that was. Interesting feeling to be sitting in your car when all the traffic lights go out, all the street lights go out and all the lights in the surrounding buildings go out as well. Candles were selling for a dollar apiece.