graphics by railpipe at Slogans International

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On a cold Tuesday in late January, New York City awoke to a surprise nor’easter snow storm. Seeing a rare opportunity for fine footage, RailNutterNews rang its intrepid rail potato-journalist at the crack of dawn. "Get out there and shoot the subways in the snow," he was told. "You’ve got to be kidding," he said (well, that’s not what he really said, but this is a family website). By noon, Boaz, a.k.a. railpipe, had crawled out of bed and bundled into arctic fur and leather to waddle out into the cold with camera and film. It cheered him no end that by then the snow had turned to icy pelting sleet and freezing rain.

The location of the shoot was one of the few above-ground rail transit crossings in The City: the dual 61st Street and Woodside Stations in Queens, where the Elevated Number 7 Flushing subway line crosses over a main line of the Long Island Rail Road at a bifurcated train station.

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Keeping a wary eye out for Transit Kops and muggers eyeing his Minolta, Boaz slogged through the snow piled on the platforms, his fingers freezing because he could not press the shutter release with his mittens on.

LIRR Woodside, Queens

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Our heroic faithful train-spotter stood shivering, sniffling, and sniveling on the LIRR platform for 20 minutes muttering to himself, waiting for the dual-mode diesel to dash by. When he gave up and climbed the stairs to the elevated mezzanine, the double-decker appeared racing rear first inbound. He made it to the top of the stairs just in time for the snowy shots of the engine below.