Well, actually more about the colour (or "color" in the standard American spelling) than the shape. I just wanted to use the title of a Foo Fighters album in the post title.
Anyway, here's a list of random thoughts.
A. I added a link to my Links section. It's actually a pretty cool link. Have you ever looked up at the Empire State Building and wondered why it was showing a certain color combination? Sometimes, it's obvious (like red and green around Christmas, all red for Valentine's Day, or red, white, and blue for Independence Day), but other times, it isn't. That's how
What Color is the Empire State Building came to be. It takes the information from the
ESB's official site and presents it in a graphical form.
B. I had a similar idea, but I probably would have used only a graphic of the top of the ESB instead of the whole thing, and made it a
Konfabulator Yahoo! Widget Engine widget instead of a Dashboard widget, which is only available on the Mac. However, I googled a bit and found another blog with a link to the site, so there it is. They stole my idea before I even thought of it. But they did a good job.
C. One of the biggest things that irks me is when people refer to lines in the New York City Subway by color. What's worse is when the colors are used in giving directions. If someone were to walk up to me and ask, "Could you tell me how to get to the Red line?" I'd direct them to go to Penn Station and get on the next Amtrak train to Washington, DC or Boston. That's because to me, there is no Red line in New York. In fact, a lot of long-time New Yorkers would agree with that statement. Colors on subway maps first appeared with Hagstrom's 1936 map, which showed lines in each division (at this point seperate operating companies) as a distinct color. The lines of the IRT were in blue, those of the BMT were yellow, and those of the IND were red. Subway maps of the 1950's followed this scheme, but used black and green in place of blue and yellow respectively. Individual routes were well established, and had letter or number identifiers, but each line was under one of three color groups. It wasn't until 1967 when each line was represented by its own color. In that map, each line, including shuttles, was one of eight colors: Red, Orange, Light Blue, Magenta, Green, Black, Blue, and Yellow. In 1979, the color scheme changed yet again to the familiar color scheme that's still in use today, according to the trunk route it used in Manhattan. For the IRT lines, the colors ran as follows: 7th Avenue: Red, Lexington Avenue: Green, Flushing: Purple. For the IND lines, 8th Avenue: Blue, 6th Avenue: Orange, Crosstown: Lime, JFK Express (Discontinued in 1990): Light Blue. For the BMT lines, Broadway subway: Yellow, Nassau Street: Brown, Canarsie: Gray. All shuttles are represented by black on the maps, and dark gray on station and car signs. Many subway lines had letters and numbers before they had colors. Even in Brooklyn, the four BMT lines to Coney Island are still referred to on signs on even the newest of equipment. Example: the new R160 cars on the N say, "SEA BEACH EXP" to refer to the portion of the line in Brooklyn, though technically, "Sea Beach Express" would not match the service provided, since it makes all stops on the Sea Beach line, but it does run express along 4th Avenue in Brooklyn.
Anyway, my point is this: If you continue to refer to New York subway lines by color, you should be shipped to a city where it's acceptible to call that city's subway lines by color, because New York is certainly not such a city. The acceptible substitutes have existed long before colors were put to lines on a subway map. Another acceptible substitute is stating each line of the trunk route you wish to travel to. A word of caution with this one. Each line should be stated as an individual, not as a group (CORRECT: "Four, Five, and Six"; "B, D, F, and V" WRONG: "Four Five Six"; "BDFV"). In other words, the proper conjunction ("and" or "or") must be used when specifying the group.
Further examples:
WRONG: "I was riding on the R/W train last night…"
CORRECT: "I was riding the R train last night…
OR: "I was riding the W train last night…"
You were riding on either the R or the W train, not on both the R and the W simultaneously.WRONG: "Take the BDFV to 34th Street…"
CORRECT: "Take the B, D, F, or V train to 34th Street…"
You have a choice of trains to take, any one of those will stop at 34th Street, and all of them will be (or are supposed to be) carrying EXACTLY ONE of those letters. Usually the first train to arrive will be the first train to arrive at 34th Street.WRONG: "Take the One-Nine train…"
CORRECT: "Take the 1 train…"
The 9 train was eliminated over 2 years ago, and some people STILL refer to it, despite the fact that waiting for the 9 train now will result in an eternal wait… until you give up and take the 1.D. While referring to lines by color in New York is frowned upon, apparently in Philadelphia, it's becoming accepted. The Broad Street subway (Orange), the Market-Frankford line (Blue), and the Subway-Surface trolley lines (Green) all have their respective colors.
Well, that's about it.
I had often seen R62 subway cars, usually mid-train, with a blank displayed on their rollsign, though sometimes, the blank sometimes appears at the end of the train! Anyway, I had thought that there was a blank space in between each indication, to allow for a person changing the sign to easily blank it, in preparation for placing the car mid-train. However, what I'm about to show you will blow that idea out of the water.
Someone was actually selling an R62 rollsign on eBay! Now, this wasn't a part for a vintage subway car no longer in service. This is something that you could go into a subway station and likely see on a train as it passes through! There are only 11 out of a total of 1,150 cars (1366-1370, 1435-1437 1439, 1440, and 1909) that have been retired prematurely, due to damage beyond repair (the ones in the 1435-1440 range were involved in the gruesome Union Square derailment of 1991). This means that a maximum of 22 could theoretically be made available, and they would most likely be used to replace rollsigns that have been broken on other cars. These would be extremely difficult to obtain, unless the MTA puts them up for sale as surplus materials. That's why it's such a surprise to see one for sale on eBay.
All of the usual suspects are in this lineup, but there's something peculiar between the diamond 5 and the circle 6. It's a blank space. Not only that, it's one of two blank spaces that I thought was between every indication. The other is to the left of the 1. Those blank spaces have their own positions on the sign. And now that I think about it, it makes sense to put them there. If there were many blank spaces, the length of the curtain would be well over the 50 feet that the eBay listing lists it as, probably somewhere between 75 and 100 feet.
With the fare hike coming up on Sunday, I thought I would share some thoughts about it.
The MTA is issuing surveys for subway service. The first is the for the 7 line, which I use most frequently. 
