The Hamptons Subway: Week of August 16–22, 2013
Riders this past week: 11,812
Rider miles this past week: 125.999
DOWN IN THE TUBE
Madonna was seen on the subway heading from Water Mill to Bridgehampton, apparently on her way to her horse farm. The rumor is she’s planning to enter the dressage competition at the Hampton Classic Horse Show.
MOTORMAN WALKS OFF, 55-MINUTE DELAY
A longtime employee of Hampton Subway, Horace Motorman, walked off the job in the middle of his shift when he brought the train he was driving to a halt in the Southampton station at 3:42 p.m. last Monday. It took nearly 30 minutes to find a new motorman from among those off-duty but on emergency call, and another 25 minutes to get him into the station, down to the platform and the motorman’s booth in the front car where he put on the leather harness, started the engine and get the train underway again. The hero of this story is therefore James Motorman of Quogue, a cousin to Horace Motorman. Motorman said:
“My cousin has since told me he was just tired of being a motorman,” Motorman told a Hampton Subway Newsletter reporter. “After he walked off, he walked down to his father’s bar, the Motorman Tavern on Windmill Lane, and said he had been a motorman for four years and he’d had enough. Many people were rude to him, he said. They’d say, ‘where’s that motorman?’ He’s not a ‘that’ and he’d just had it. He’s also pretty fed up with the family. He’s planning to move to New Zealand, where there are no subway motormen or people named Motorman.” Attempts to contact Horace Motorman were not successful. His wife, Edna Motorman, said he was not taking calls.
ONE LAST SNAKE
A harmless garden snake was found on Hampton Subway in the air-conditioning system of one of the cars out at the Montauk Yards last Thursday. According to Wendy Aspinall, the college age daughter of our commissioner, William Aspinall, this is positively the last snake that there could be on the subway system. Wendy filmed Snakes on the Subway several weeks ago as a project for her film class at East Manhattan Film School. According to her, 52 snakes auditioned and 38 were chosen. The shoot took place at night when the system was closed for maintenance. She apologizes to all riders who might have been scared by the three snakes she had not rounded up at the end of the filming. “I was worried. I had rented them. They needed to be returned. I was particularly concerned about the python and the rattler. But all’s well that ends well.” The showing of her 30-minute film held last Friday at her father’s house in the private movie theatre was well attended. We give it 5 stars.
NO MORE SAFETY SPEECHES
As most riders know, beginning July 1, Hampton Subway required all conductors on the trains to give short speeches at every stop about hanging onto the overhead railing, about the oxygen masks that will come tumbling down in a collision, about the emergency exits and the inflatable slides to get people out. But too many customers complained it delayed the service. It was also too noisy for the conductors to be heard, and at least four were injured during the six weeks the program was in effect, one seriously.
COMMISSIONER ASPINALL’S MESSAGE
Other than the one delay this week, things went well. Mr. Motorman’s days employed here are over, of course. We are allowing him to keep his company pocketwatch, however, in appreciation of all his years of service. A fond farewell, Motorman.