Court Street

Court Street was a station on the IND Fulton Street Line. It was served by a shuttle called the Court Street Shuttle, which was labeled HH. It opened in 1936 and closed 1946 due to low ridership, but reopened as the NY Transit Museum in 1976. Hoyt-Schermerhorn Streets is still in use, but with 2 platforms abandoned.

Construction and operation
Court St and Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts were part of the Independent subway system built by the Board of Transportation. Construction of the Fulton St line started in 1929 and it was open to Rockaway Ave in 1936.

The Fulton St subway was planned as a replacement for the Fulton St elevated. It was a four-track main line intended to run eventually almost to the Nassau County line. In downtown Brooklyn, it veers off Fulton St at Lafayette Ave, because older subways already occupied the street. It runs instead under Schermerhorn St, parallel to Fulton St, which was already familiar to many riders because some trolley routes also ran in Schermerhorn St to escape congestion. Fulton St was the main shopping and theater street in downtown Brooklyn.

Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts station was to be the last express and local stop for Fulton St trains. The station also serves the Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown subway route, with four platforms and six tracks. The southern half of the station is under private property since Schermerhorn St is not wide enough for the large station. The station mezzanine is over the north half, under the street.

The Fulton St locals were to run out to a terminal at Court St, the end of the business district. The expresses take a curve into Jay St and run to Manhattan.

When the first part of the Fulton St line opened, the trains from Manhattan made all local stops since they were going only to Rockaway Ave. Court St was opened but used just for a shuttle train running to Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts. Construction of the next portion of the line, to Euclid Ave, was delayed to 1938 because of financial problems during the Depression, and then work stopped in 1941 for the war. Fulton St express service did not start until 1949, and both local and express came from Manhattan.

Court St is so close to stations with direct service to Manhattan that it never had much ridership, and it was closed shortly before the end of the war. Its closing also eliminated any use for the outer platforms at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts.

For thirty years, Court St was almost unused. About halfway through this period, someone finally had the idea of capitalizing on it as a subway station set for movies, and an entrance at Boerum Place was reopened. It was perfect because trains could be put in it, and moved in and out as required for movie scenes, with no interference at all to regular train service.

As part of the Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, the Transit Authority set up what was called the New York City Transit Exhibit, which opened on July 4. The Authority had already begun preserving selected cars with a view to a museum of some sort, and those cars in good condition were moved to the tracks at Court St. Other available items, like a collection of trolley and elevated car models, were set up in the large station mezzanine. Admission was one subway token. It was billed as temporary, but it has continued to the present day, now as the Transit Museum. It is not an abandoned station in the usual sense, but it does not have any regular train service. Special Nostalgia Train tours do operate in and out of the station a few times a year.

The platforms at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts were used again from 1959 to 1981 for Aqueduct Racetrack special trains. An extra fare was charged, and it was convenient to segregate passengers who'd paid it to the separate platform. Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts was the only stop between 42 St at 8 Ave and the track. Coming back from the track, the racetrack trains may have used the regular platform some of the time.

The Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts platforms are now sometimes used as a movie set. The outer tracks are never used in regular service, so, as formerly done at Court St, trains can be run in and out to meet the needs of movie scenes. The noise of other trains is inescapable, so sound for the scenes has to be dubbed later (as is often done anyway).