Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Boring Morning In Queens

This morning, after I got off E-170, after a great evening working with Captain Vicari and Frankie "Fireman" Lacalamita, I drove Kris down to the LaGuardia Marriott for a short business meeting she had there. During the hour or so, me and my camera decided to pass the time by hunting out anything plane, train, truck, or boat. The weather was very blah, and we didn't have much luck. But here are the results anyways.

I found a neat, seemingly forgotten about NYC park that sits right below the Laguardia arrival path directly before planes touchdown on the runway, adjacent to the Grand Central Parkway. It's called "Planeview Park", a very fitting name. Due to the weather and planes moving very fast, I found it difficult to shoot, but managed to get some shots anyways. It's fun to sit and watch, the planes come in close and there are several different vareties. I hope one day to find the JFK departure version of this park, and maybe when I do my friend the sun will be out.


Across the street from Planeview Park (which, by the way, is at 85th St. and 23rd Ave. in Astoria) is the LaGuardia bus depot. I was suprised how old the Queens MTA bus fleet was, compared to the relatively younger Manhattan fleet. It was also interesting to see all the different types of buses under the MTA banner that they inherited from the private lines they took over.


While tooling around trying to see what else I could find, including the NYC*DOT yard with Mack Granites that apparently has no entrance, I found a really coo sanitation operations center (College Point Yard) that had all kinds of Sanitation trucks, including my favorite, the Orange Sander/Plows. It also had heavy shops for repair. I also saw a truck with a dual packer, I wonder what those are for? Also, I found it cool that Mack makes the chasis for the Sanitation packer trucks, I never knew that. It's actually a custom built for NYC (although there are some Peterbuilts, from what I understand)

And the only other thing I spotted during this short jaunt was an NYPD Queens North Command Post


Well, boring morning and dreary day, and off to work E-170 tonight. Only a couple more days before another awesome trip to LA begins, this time with Kris by my side, I am SO excited!!