the South Brooklyn Railway. The BRT filed bankruptcy that year and was reorganized into the Brooklyn–Manhattan Transit Corporation, which still operated the South Brooklyn Railway. City operation The South Brooklyn Railway, along with the other non-rapid transit properties of the BMT, was transferred to the New York City Board of Transportation on June 1, 1940. That year, freight traffic went up significantly due to the start of World War II. The South Brooklyn Railway also got some trucks to deliver incoming freight directly to customers. In 1946, after the war, South Brooklyn Railway purchased two Whitcomb ex-U.S. Army diesel locomotives. Operations were transferred to the New York City Transit Authority on June 15, 1953. Passenger service on McDonald Avenue ended on October 31, 1958, and thereafter the South Brooklyn Railway started using the surface trackage solely for freight. In 1960, two more diesel electric locomotives were bought. On December 27, 1961, the line was de-electrified, due to the high cost of refurbishing the overhead trolley wire. Electric locomotives #4, 5, 6, and 7, which had third rail conduction shoes, were given to the NYCTA for subway and elevated operation. The switches at Kensington Junction were locked so that the branch was completely separated up to the Ninth Avenue & 20th Street Depot, which thereby became an unneeded facility because passenger streetcar operation had ended. At the same time, freight usage of the South Brooklyn Railway declined because of the increasing use of semi-trailer trucks. The McDonald Avenue trackage was no longer in use by 1978, and paved over by 1991. After the closure of the McDonald Avenue tracks, the South Brooklyn Railway's freight operations were moved from the Second Avenue yard to the 36th–38th Street Yard, where it still operates. In 1994, the last non-NYCTA customer on the line closed; the South Brooklyn Railway was then used almost exclusively for subway connections to the LIRR Bay Ridge Branch via the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, Bush Terminal, and Industry City. Current status The South Brooklyn Railway provides one of only two track connections between the New York City Subway and the rest of the American rail network. During the 1988 and 1999 reconstruction of the subway tracks on the Williamsburg Bridge, this connection allowed trains from the , and services, which were otherwise isolated during that period, to travel to Coney Island Yard for major work. At the other mainline rail