Good evening, G Train believers and skeptics.
I apologize for my lack of updates. Rest assured that quest to uncover the truth about the G Train continues unabated. In fact, it is because I was so mired in my research that I was unable to inform and educate my reading public about this mysterious and misunderstood subway line.
This platform claims to lead to the G Train...but does it?
I spent all of April and the better part of May of this year living beneath the surface of this fair city. Hunkered down in in the Long Island City/Court Square station, equipped with a digital video camera and an ample supply of canned goods, I intended to wait out the elusive G Train and ultimately either capture proof of or definitively deny its existence. I chose this station because I believe it is one where one is highly likely to see a G Train during its operational hours, if said hours exist, and because of its proximity to 5 Points Graffiti Museum, which I think is cool.
I had forgotten both the battery charger for my camera and a can opener, which seemed to doom my project on the first day. However, I refused to give up so easily and decided that my own eyewitness accounts or findings would be ample proof for my fellow G Train hunters. At no time have I attempted to glorify this dangerous and often urine-soaked mission, nor have I sought fame and glory in my commitment to such. Therefore, to think I would fabricate or misinterpret a sighting would imply that one thought I was crazy.
This is the last picture I took before the battery in my camera ran out.
I subsisted on discarded food and drink encountered in the train station, which was actually more than sufficient. One day I found and entire uneaten lobster thermador and a mixed salad laying next to a garbage can near where the G Train station connects with the 7 Train. Another time I pulled an unopened and chilled(!) bottle of champagne from a garbage can. To be quite honest, I ate better from subway refuse than I do above ground.
I thought I had only been in that station for two weeks, but it turns out that due to an erratic sleeping pattern where I slept two hours some times and fifty-three hours other times, I stayed in that subterranean cavern for over six weeks, emerging only two days ago after I had the most startling and life-changing experience of my life.
Fellow G Train hunters, I saw an actual G Train with my own eyes!
It was on the fateful evening of May 18th of 2008 that I woke up from a ten-minute nap (that I figured later must have lasted in the neighborhood of ten days) to hear the slow shuffle of a subway train pulling into the G Train station. Until that time, I had heard the familiar click of the track brakes and the gentle hum of an approaching train a few times, but never saw the mythical subway cars materialize. And now, my eyes still bleary and bones weary from having used a soda can for a pillow and a slimy concrete slab as my bed for ever a week, I saw a train pull into the station. I rubbed my eyes, and saw a green circle on the front. I blinked, and confirmed a sans serif letter G emblazoned within this circle. This was it, ladies and gentlemen: the holy G-rail.
Leaping to my feet, I ran down the length of the platform to get a closer look. Almost beside myself with glee, I jumped onto the train with reckless abandon in hopes of traveling with it to its nefarious destination. But alas, as my senses began to fully clear, I realized I was not on a passenger subway car at all, but a work train, as evidenced by a row of lockers and three very confused uniformed transit workers looking up at me.
I didn't get a picture of the actual transit workers, but perhaps they were involved in this 2006 strike.
The three of them shrugged their shoulders, then stood up and began to file out of the car. I followed them and found they were in the station to tape some "WET PAINT" signs to several supporting girders, without applying any paint. Their task done, they entered the solitary car coupled with the G Train engine car, the doors closed, and the train shuffled off to parts unknown.
It was then that I realized I had not seen a G Train, but an engine car pulling a work train along the track. However, the very fact that the G Train was advertised on the front leads me to believe that the G Train existed, at least, during one point and time during the hundred-plus year-old history of the New York City subway. And though I was ejected moments later by two very gruff and rude members of the Transit Police, my search for the truth will continue!
I apologize for my lack of updates. Rest assured that quest to uncover the truth about the G Train continues unabated. In fact, it is because I was so mired in my research that I was unable to inform and educate my reading public about this mysterious and misunderstood subway line.
This platform claims to lead to the G Train...but does it?
I spent all of April and the better part of May of this year living beneath the surface of this fair city. Hunkered down in in the Long Island City/Court Square station, equipped with a digital video camera and an ample supply of canned goods, I intended to wait out the elusive G Train and ultimately either capture proof of or definitively deny its existence. I chose this station because I believe it is one where one is highly likely to see a G Train during its operational hours, if said hours exist, and because of its proximity to 5 Points Graffiti Museum, which I think is cool.
I had forgotten both the battery charger for my camera and a can opener, which seemed to doom my project on the first day. However, I refused to give up so easily and decided that my own eyewitness accounts or findings would be ample proof for my fellow G Train hunters. At no time have I attempted to glorify this dangerous and often urine-soaked mission, nor have I sought fame and glory in my commitment to such. Therefore, to think I would fabricate or misinterpret a sighting would imply that one thought I was crazy.
This is the last picture I took before the battery in my camera ran out.
I subsisted on discarded food and drink encountered in the train station, which was actually more than sufficient. One day I found and entire uneaten lobster thermador and a mixed salad laying next to a garbage can near where the G Train station connects with the 7 Train. Another time I pulled an unopened and chilled(!) bottle of champagne from a garbage can. To be quite honest, I ate better from subway refuse than I do above ground.
I thought I had only been in that station for two weeks, but it turns out that due to an erratic sleeping pattern where I slept two hours some times and fifty-three hours other times, I stayed in that subterranean cavern for over six weeks, emerging only two days ago after I had the most startling and life-changing experience of my life.
Fellow G Train hunters, I saw an actual G Train with my own eyes!
It was on the fateful evening of May 18th of 2008 that I woke up from a ten-minute nap (that I figured later must have lasted in the neighborhood of ten days) to hear the slow shuffle of a subway train pulling into the G Train station. Until that time, I had heard the familiar click of the track brakes and the gentle hum of an approaching train a few times, but never saw the mythical subway cars materialize. And now, my eyes still bleary and bones weary from having used a soda can for a pillow and a slimy concrete slab as my bed for ever a week, I saw a train pull into the station. I rubbed my eyes, and saw a green circle on the front. I blinked, and confirmed a sans serif letter G emblazoned within this circle. This was it, ladies and gentlemen: the holy G-rail.
Leaping to my feet, I ran down the length of the platform to get a closer look. Almost beside myself with glee, I jumped onto the train with reckless abandon in hopes of traveling with it to its nefarious destination. But alas, as my senses began to fully clear, I realized I was not on a passenger subway car at all, but a work train, as evidenced by a row of lockers and three very confused uniformed transit workers looking up at me.
I didn't get a picture of the actual transit workers, but perhaps they were involved in this 2006 strike.
The three of them shrugged their shoulders, then stood up and began to file out of the car. I followed them and found they were in the station to tape some "WET PAINT" signs to several supporting girders, without applying any paint. Their task done, they entered the solitary car coupled with the G Train engine car, the doors closed, and the train shuffled off to parts unknown.
It was then that I realized I had not seen a G Train, but an engine car pulling a work train along the track. However, the very fact that the G Train was advertised on the front leads me to believe that the G Train existed, at least, during one point and time during the hundred-plus year-old history of the New York City subway. And though I was ejected moments later by two very gruff and rude members of the Transit Police, my search for the truth will continue!
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