An Early Elevated Train In New York 1872

This magic lantern slide came with absolutely no identifying information.

What can you glean from the photograph?

This early boxy type engine runs on steam and is named “Kingsbridge.” It is almost certainly named after the Bronx neighborhood. Many of the early engines had names like “Brooklyn” and “Spuyten Duyvil.”
It is an early morning summer as the windows are wide open with many shades drawn on the three cars. Who knew el cars had window swagged and elegant draperies?

The passenger cars were called shad-belly cars.  The floors between the trucks were a few inches above the rails to overcome passengers’ fear of the cars tipping over. The men aboard the train, the engineer, fireman and a conductor are fully aware their picture is being taken from the opposite track or station.

The name on the side of the lead passenger car can be partially seen – “New York Elevated.” But the rest of the writing is illegible.

The street is nondescript and there are few indications as to the location of the photo. One clue is the Belgian block paved street has tracks for a horse drawn omnibus line.

So where is this?

Robert C. Reed reproduces this photograph in his book The New York Elevated (1978) A.S. Barnes. Reed writes that A.C. Johnson a conductor of the train took the photo. He identifies the location –   “on the right is the road’s Eleventh Street Station and a turnout for trains in Chelsea.”

The only strange thing is that there is no Eleventh Street Station in the list of Ninth Avenue El stations. And Eleventh Street is really part of the West Village rather than Chelsea.

Maybe the information is correct but it is a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it?