Last week, while we waited on the temporary middle platform at 4th Avenue and 9th Street for a Coney Island bound F train, we watched the destruction of the southbound local’s old track bed.  We were impressed by the destruction, because it was taking only two men to jack-hammer several hundred feet of track bed — and they were doing it with ease.  Here was their M.O. — one stood on the platform and watched, while the other did the jack-hammering by way of a robot!

We decided to name the robot “Robbie the Robot” and it has four legs, one jack-hammer, walked like a centipede, and was operated by top of the line mid-1980s VCR remote control technology — a remote control that had a long hardwire connected to the machine.  WAY COOL!

Now, let’s just hope that Robbie the Robot doesn’t turn on us and break free.  We don’t need any Planet of the Robots type of future.