Part of the elevated on Jamaica Avenue still exists. Onl the outer part of the line got shifted into the Archer Avenue two-level subway. Archer Avenue has an unusual subway in that the two-track upper level is used by the J line, Jamaica Avenue, East Fulton Street, Broadway (Brooklyn) and the Williamsburg Bridge to Manhatan, Delancy and Essex, Chambers Street (near City Hall) and Broad and Nassau Streets. The lower level is used by the E line, Queens Boulevard, 53rd Street tunnel into Manhattan, 8th Avenue to Wolrd Trade Center. So you can go out one way and come back another for the same fare. But the E-train return is all underground, and I’d spring for a fast ride on the LIRR for the return, non-stop from Jamaica to Penn Station.
Back in the 50’s riding from midtown Manhatten to my granparents in Jamaica most always meant the E out Queens Blvd to Sutphin Blvd., never the the all stops local F; the line went ot 179th St. The BMT Jamaica Ave. EL went to 169th St. First choice for riding was the E train for the 45 minute rather than 60+ minute ride on the F or BMT; of course subway fare trumphed LIRR fare. We still had our share of rides on all lines plus the trolley to Astoria (I think) when certain relatives were to be visited. My mother’s father understood my love of trains and trolleys enough that all lines were chosen and utilized when practical. The walking tours along Liberty Ave. were most enlightening if not dangerous. The four lanes of traffic with no real sidewalk was an accepted trade for a through the fence peek at steam engines on the turntable, a walk north around the west side of the yards up to Jamaica Ave. with a stop at the Bungalow Bar yard…that is the place the local ice cream vendor trucks parked and an attendent was always ready to sell some wares to my grandfather for his two grandsons entow. And it was under the elevated tracks of the BMT and along side the passenger car yard on the LIC branch. DId that walk when we weren’t on the LIRR platforms watching trains and cleaning up the coin slots of the public phones…on a Friday night in the 50’s we could net 5 to 10 bucks in nickles, dimes, and quarters between us…enought to stop the Bungalow Bar truck on the street in front of the house.
There once was was a trolley line to Astoria, the Steinway Lines one on Stteinway street from Queens Plaza. Quit before WWII. But the trolley you rode, the only one remaining in New York State until 1957 after the last Brooklyn PCC lines quit in 1954, was the 2nd Avenue (underground terminal) - Queens Plaza Quennsboro Bridge line, then using ex-New Bedford :Automotive-desgn (similer to Brill Master Units) 1929 lightweights.
Yes, I did ride the Queensboro Bridge line once, a few weeks before the end. But also rode west from Jamaica into Queens toward Astoria to visit a family friend and several other times for some reason…my grandparents lived there near the Jamaica Arena. I was born in 1943 but lived in NJ after 1946, so you can imagine my mind has vivid pictures with no facts!