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Page 4
Consumers
Park
Leaving Botanic Garden on our way to the southern terminal,
Prospect Park, we passed an area that I viewed off to the left (east) that
I found a bit peculiar. There was an open patch of embankment that looked
like there was once a station or rail spur going off toward what looked
like an old warehouse-type structure. I later found out that the area I
saw was in fact the old Consumer's Park station location. In the late
1800's the location was a brewery outlet that included a small station. It
was a flag stop, meaning trains only stopped if an on-board passenger
notified a conductor, or if someone was waiting on the platform.. The
Consumer's Park Brewery lasted only into the early years of the 20th
Century, but the original building that housed the brewery facility and
the remnants of the rail-spur facing the shuttle ROW are still there.
A few hundred yards
outside of Prospect Park, the R-68 made the switch onto the old northbound
track of the Brighton local to its connection with the Brighton mainline
at Prospect Park. It was eerie passing the tunnel wall that was the
location of the infamous Malbone Street disaster of 1918.
Continued on page 5
The
Old Consumers Park Brewery building still stands at this location
just yards from the tunnel portal where motorman Luciano's five-car
elevated train met its fate at Malbone Street (now Empire Boulevard). The
clearing for the former northbound station platform and spur is
clearly visible. The little-used station was closed when Botanic Garden
station was opened.
It probably wouldn't be
accurate to say that Botanic Garden "replaced" Consumers Park. The stations
are not very near each other. Consumers Park is a short distance from Prospect
Park station and might have served Ebbets Field except that it could not
reasonably handle the huge crowds at game time. Douglas Diamond photo
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The folks who made it happen.
Without the commitment of the community and the active work of
elected officials, the Franklin Shuttle would have gone the way of
the Culver Shuttle, the Myrtle Avnue Line, and other services
abandoned over the years.
Here, a "test run" is enjoyed by
(clockwise, from left) City Council member Mary Pinkett,
Assemblyman Al Vann and Borough President Howard Golden
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Certainly one of the scarcer
Brighton Linr souvenirs, this bottle from the Consumers
Park Brewery is in the collection of Bob Diamond, who also take this
photo. The sharp-eyed can make out the bottle inscription "CONSUMERS
PARK BREWERY BROOKLYN N.Y." |
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