Their abandoned tracks are what inspire Robert Mohowski of Franklin Lakes.
Richmond Hill, too, has abandoned tracks, running along its western edge, part of a line that used to run to Rockaway Beach.
At the southern end of the QueensWay site, near where the A train goes by, the last stretch of abandoned tracks is elevated.
But he said nothing about the wildflower beds weaving through the abandoned tracks, yearning instead for the addition of "vegetable gardens or chicken coops".
On a stretch of abandoned track, 100 metres away from the platforms they sort through their findings - snatched purses and half-eaten train meals among the rubbish.
The Chelsea version, which was the idea of Robert Hammond and Joshua David, was designed with amazing sensitivity to the site, down to the hardy plants that thrive along abandoned tracks.
Killed by the ascendant automobile, the very success of the private car is fueling the trolley's return, often on the very same abandoned track beds.
Overburdened with regulation and often displaced by barge traffic on government-maintained waterways, trucking on interstate highways, and jet aviation, railroads measured their misfortune in lost market share, abandoned track, bankruptcies, and unemployment.
At the same time, the line of these abandoned tracks is enough to suggest over a century of exploitation, not just by rail, but by generations of prospectors and developers who have mined, forested, overbuilt and exhausted the country's natural resources.
That means alleys, bathrooms, and abandoned tracks, where they are extra vulnerable to theft, attack or lonely death.
Is it the northernmost part of the High Line, the popular elevated park Ms. Diller helped create on a set of abandoned rail tracks?
