[this page was separated out from my RAILROAD, LI Rail Road, and LI Railroads pages, et seq.;
you might wish to see them also.]
This site has now been visited
times since the counter was installed.
There are two related topics here on these pages:
(1) The Long Island Rail Road and (2) Long Island railroad information.
There IS a difference!
The Long Island Rail Road is the official name of the oldest Class 1 railroad still operating under its original name and charter (the B&O was older but has been subsumed into CSX). Although there remain some offical documents with the two words combined, the correct name of the LIRR has the two words separately, "Long Island Rail Road"!
There were and are other railroads on Long Island - these also are (or will be) covered on the LI railroads page.
NOTE: To conserve space, I have severely truncated the index on this page; click HERE to go directly to a separate, full LIRR index page.
ALCO-GE-IR BOXCABS
including LIRR boxcabs #401, the world's first production diesel road switcher,
#402 (first and second), #403, and many others.
Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad,
and its successor roads, the New York Cross Harbor Railroad and New York Regional Rail.
Degnon Terminal Railroad, etc.
On the preceding (first) LIRR page:
Long Island Sunrise-Trail Chapter (National Railway Historical Society)
Sunrise Trail Division (Northeastern Region, National Model Railroad Association)
Steam Locomotive #35 Restoration Committee
(Friends OF LOCOMOTIVE #35 INCORPORATED)
Restoration of Pennsy Class G5 Long Island Rail Road 4-6-0 #35
Steam Locomotive #39 Restoration
(Railroad Museum of Long island)
Restoration of Pennsy Class G5 Long Island Rail Road 4-6-0 #39
On LIRR Continuation Page 1a:
LIRR FIRSTS (moved there from LI Railroads Continuation Page on 10 Dec 01)
On LIRR Continuation Page 2:
Odd Incident at Wreck Lead (on the LIRR)
LIRR and LI Railroad Miscellany
Converted LIRR HEP/Cab Control Units
Central RR of LI - moved to Continuation Page 5 on 17 Dec 00.
Dashing Dan and Dottie.
On LIRR Continuation Page 3:
Nassau County Police 2nd Pct. Booth D/Locust Tower
Victorian Stations Still Standing on the LIRR
On LIRR Continuation Page 4:
Blissville and Laurel Hill Sidings, Maspeth Yard, and Fresh Pond Yard
and NY&AR/NYCRR Interchange info.
LIRR MISCELLANY - continued
LIRR HELP
On LIRR Continuation Page 5:
Central RR of LI - moved to its own page 17 Feb 02.
LIRR DE30AC and DM30AC Locomotives.
On this LI Railroads Bibliography Page:
LIRR BIBLIOGRAPHY (moved here from LIRR Page 1a on 01 Mar 02
and there from LI Railroads Continuation Page on 10 Dec 01)
On the LI Railroads Continuation Page:
Other Railroads on LI.
On separate pages:
The New York & Atlantic Railway, lessor of LIRR freight operations.
Brooklyn Historic Railway Association and the legendary LIRR Atlantic Avenue Tunnel.
Railroad Eagles - Penn Station, Grand Central Terminal, etc.
Note: There is also a Long Island Rail Road Historical Society, run by Dave Morrison, just (May 1999) retired as Branch Line Manager - Port Jefferson, Oyster Bay, and Patchogue-to-Montauk Branches, and the reigning expert on the Penn Station (and Grand Central) eagles*; it's an internal LIRR employees and retirees group which can be reached by snail-mail at "Oyster Bay Train Station, Oyster Bay, New York 11771" (where they have an exhibit in the waiting room). They can be reached through Dave. Dave is also the author of a book of LIRR steam locomotive photos (see below, LIRR Bibliography - with a special offer for readers of my RR pages).
Long Island Live Steamers (LILS)
Their site, with their PUBLIC RUNNING SCHEDULE, has been moved to a separate page.
See also HOW TO BOOT A STEAM LOCOMOTIVE or
How to hostle without really tiring -
(Firing up a cold oil burner - 1:1 scale, that is).
"LoC" = Library of Congress.
The definitive LIRR books are those in a 7-volume series, History of the Long Island Rail Road - A Comprehensive History, LoC #61-17477, by Vincent F. Seyfried. All are out-of-print and very few libraries have them any more (they seem to vanish quickly):
[This listing has been updated significantly - no
icons have been used.]
(18 Oct 2009)
[Updated and with full section headings added 17 Sep 2001
in maximum conformance with Mr.Seyfried's Tables of Contents.]
Part One {1961}
South Side R.R. of L.I.
(Limited Edition of 550 copies)
The South Side Becomes a Reality
The South Side Reaches the East River
The Era of Expansion
Operations: 1867-1872
The Hempstead Branch
The South Side Falls to the Long Island
Roster of Equipment
Part Two {1963}
The Flushing, North Shore & Central Railroad
(Limited Edition of 550 copies)
The Flushing R.R. Takes Shape
The Flushing R.R.'s Early Years
The Flushing R.R. Goes Down Hill
The North Shore R.R.
A Rival Road Takes Shape
Operations on the Flushing & North Side R.R.
1868-1872
The Central Railroad of Long Island
The Heyday of the Poppenhusens
Collapse of the Poppenhusen System
Roster of Passenger Stations
Roster of Rolling Stock
Part Three {1966}
The Age of Expansion: 1863-1880
(Limited Edition of 550 copies)
[There is an Errata and Addenda sheet in my copy of Part Three;
for those who do not have it, I have reproduced the text below.]
Oliver Charlick and the Long Island R.R.
The Locust Valley Branch
The Long Island R.R. Reaches Huntington
and Northport
The Long Island R.R. Reaches Sag Harbor
The Smithtown and Port Jefferson Railroad
The Rockaway Branch of the Long Island R.R.
The White Line
Part Four {1966}
The Bay Ridge & Manhattan Beach
Divisions
L.I.R.R Operation on the Brighton
and Culver Lines
(Limited Edition of 600 copies)
The New York, Bay Ridge and Jamaica Railroad
Austin Corbin and Coney Island
The Struggle to Reach Greenpoint
(The Glendale and East River Railroad)
The Kings County Central Railroad
Narrow Gauge Days on the Manhattan
Beach Road
The Golden Age of the Manhattan
Beach Railway (1883-1903)
The Long Island R.R. and the Brighton Line
The Long Island R.R. Operation of the
Culver Line (1893-1899)
The Old Order Yields to the New (1903-1924)
Roster of Locomotives, Engines and Passenger
Cars
List of Stations
Part Five {1966}
The New York, Woodhaven & Rockaway R.R,
The New York & Rockaway Beach Railway,
The New York & Long Beach Railroad,
New York & Rockaway Railroad,
Brooklyn Rapid Transit Operation to Rockaway
over L. I. R. R.
(Limited Edition of 600 copies)
I. Rockaway Beach II. The New York, Woodhaven & Rockaway R.R. III. The Tragic Story of the Big Hotel IV. Operations on the New York, Woodhaven & Rockaway R.R. V. The New York and Rockaway Beach R.R. 1887-1898 VI. The Brooklyn Elevated-Long Island R.R. Joint Service to Rockaway Beach VII. The Beginnings of Electrification - The Ocean Electric Railway 1899-1904 VIII. The Threat to Long Island R.R. Control of the the Rockaway Traffic - The Flynn Cross-Bay Road IX. Electrification of the Rockaway Service 1905-1922 X. The Beginnings of Long Beach XI. The Long Beach Marine Railway XII. The New York & Long Beach R.R. 1880-1904 Roster of Equipment
I Austin Corbin, Portait of a Tycoon
II History of the LIRR as a Corporation 1881-1900 III The Montauk Extension 1881 IV The Cedarhurst Railroad 1885 V The Whitestone Extension 1886 VI The Oyster Bay Extension 1889 VII The New York Bay Extension R. R. 1893 VIII The Wading River Extension 1895 IX The Montauk Extension 1895 X The Port Washington Extension 1898 XI The Oyster Bay Sound Ferry & Boston 1892 XII Track, Track Changes & Right-of-way 1881-1900 XIII Service Facilities for Daily Operation 1881-1900 XIV Passenger Service and Fares 1881-1900 XV Rapid Transit Services XVI Ferry Services XVII The Freight & Express Business 1881-1900 XVIII Rolling Stock, Types, Changes 1881-1900 XIX Switch Towers and Interlocks XX Labor Relations on the LIRR 1881-1900 XXI The LIRR in the Spanish-American War Accident List Locomotive Roster Passenger Cars Roster Private Cars Station List
I The Long Island Railroad {sic} as a Corporation 1900-1916
II The Atlantic Avenue Improvement 1896-1907
III Terminal Expansion at Long Island City & Jamaica 1903
IV Electrification: The Physical Installations
V Electrification: The First Services
VI Background of the Penn Tunnels
VII Digging the Penn Tunnels
VIII The Sunnyside Yards
IX The Jamaica Grade Elimination
X North Side Elevation & Electrification
XI Four Improvements: Glendale Cut-off
Maple Grove Cut-off
Cold Spring Harbor Realignment
Woodside-Winfield Cut-off
XII Holban Yards and the Hollis-Queens Elevation
XIII The Cedarhurst Cutoff
XIV Rails, Roadbed and Extensions
XV Passenger Services 1900-1916
XVI Marine Operations 1900-1916
XVII Fares and Fare Structures
XVIII Freight, Baggage & Express Business
XIX Rolling Stock Changes
XX Towers, Signals & Interlocks
XXI Labor Relations
XXII The Long Island RR in the Farm Business
Accident List
Roster of Non-Electric Passenger Cars
Roster of Electric Passenger Cars
Roster of Locomotives 1900-1917
Station Supplement
[If you run across earlier volumes, snap them up;
full sets, when found, were going for $450-$750 a set as of Oct 2000
but are now up around $2,500 or more (Oct 2009)!
I finally completed my set on 13 Oct 00 for a fair price! What a treat!
Parts Two and Four were on eBay at $76.00 on 17 Aug 02 (times were hard).]
Here's Vince addressing the gathering at the 100th Anniversary celebration of the Oyster Bay station on Saturday, 07 Sep 2002:

The next most authoritative (and far more readily available) are those by prolific writer Ronald P. (Ron) Ziel:
"Steel Rails to the Sunrise - The Long Island Railroad",
Ron Ziel and George H. Foster, Duell, Sloan and Pearce,
New York, 1965, LoC 65-17166; a major history, profusely
illustrated (b&w) and heavily captioned
(newer editions now available).
"The Long Island Rail Road in Early Photographs", Ron Ziel,
Dover Publications, Mineola, 1990, ISBN 0-486-26301-0; photo collection (b&w),
extensively captioned.
"Electric Heritage of the Long Island Rail Road - 1905-1975",
Ron Ziel, with John Krause, Carstens Publications, Newton, NJ, 1986,
ISBN 911868-50-X; photo collection (b&w), extensively captioned
[with Errata Sheet
(now reproduced on my sbiii.com domain as of Mar 2005)].
"Victorian Railroad Stations of L.I.", Ron Ziel, Sunrise Special,
Bridgehampton, New York, Amereon Ltd., ca. 1988, ISBN 0-34880406-6,
and December 1993, LoC 00050630, ISBN 0848804066.
[See Victorian Stations Still Standing on Long Island.]
"American Locomotives in Historic Photographs - 1858 to 1949",
Ron Ziel, Dover Publications, New York, 1993, ISBN 0-486-27393-8
(several plates of LIRR locos).
"Brooklyn's Waterfront Railways - A Pictorial Journey", Jay Bendersky,
1988, Meatball Productions, East Meadow, NY, LoC 88-60327,
ISBN # 0-9620237-0-1.
(I don't know how I could have omitted this great little book;
it's been on my Rail-Marine page!)
For a much older history, the Long Island Division of the Queens Borough Public Library (89-11 Merrick Boulevard, Jamaica) has:
"A History of Long Island from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time", Peter Ross,1903 -
with a definitive history of LI railroads, including LIRR predecessors.
"Long Island Rail Road Steam Locomotive Pictorial: A Collection of Photographs" (paperback), David D. Morrison, December 1987, Cannon Ball Publications, ISBN 0945089007.
"Diesels of the Sunrise Trail - A color compendium of Long Island Rail Road Diesels, Electric Locomotives and Self-Propelled Railcars", John J. Scala, The Weekend Chief Publishing Co., Mineola, New York 1984, ISBN 0-9612814-0-5, LoC 83-91415; photo collection (mostly color), heavily captioned, with history, full roster.
"Long Island Rail Road Memories - The Making of a Steam Locomotive Engineer", Richard J. Harrison, Quadrant Press, New York, 1981, ISBN 0-915276-36-4, illustrated (b&w) history.
"Long Island Rail Road - A Pictorial Record of the Steam-to-Diesel Transition East of Jamaica", Frederick A. Kramer, with photographs by John Krause, Carstens Publications, Inc., Newton, New Jersey 07860, date unknown, ISBN 911868-34-8.
"Change at Ozone Park, A History and Description of the Long Island Rail Road Rockaway Branches", Herbert George, RAE Publishing, Flanders, NJ, 1993 (no ISBN or LoC).
" The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station", Lorraine B. Diehl (e-mail: lbdiehl@aol.com), published by Four Walls Eight Windows, 39 West 14th Street, New York, New York 10011, 1985, ISBN 1-56858-060-6, LoC 96-21056).
"Manhattan Gateway: New York's Pennsylvania Station, William D. Middleton (George H. Drury, Editor), Kalmbach Publishing, July 1996.
Articles from the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society's official publication,
"The KEYSTONE":
{these are major works, profusely illustrated
with photos and maps - SB,III}
"Sunnyside: The World's Greatest Passenger Terminal Yards, Nicholas Kalis. The KEYSTONE, Volume 29, Number 1, Spring 1996 (pp. 15-62).
"The Long Island's Switching Gems - The C51S and C51SA", Michael Boland, The KEYSTONE, Volume 31, Number 3, Autumn 1998 (pp. 39-62).
"Rails to the Rockaways, Part I", and "Part II", Michael Boland, 2-part series in The KEYSTONE, Volume 32, Number 2, Summer 1999 (pp. 11-62) and Number 3, Autumn 1999 (pp. 34-52).
"Long Island Rail Road Double-Deck Coaches", Michael Boland, The KEYSTONE, Winter 1992.
Railpace Newsmagazine, September 1992, cover and pp. 20-31, feature article by
Carl G. Perelman and John P. Krattinger on the New York Cross Harbor RR
(and predecessors such as the BEDT), "The Railroad that goes to Sea".
The LIRR put out a little pamphlet, for its 125th anniversary in 1959, on its history (reissued in hard-cover with an inset medallion in conjunction with the 1962-63 "World's" Fair) which may be available in some library history collections; "The Long Island Railroad Company - 1834-1959 for 125 years...Long Island's Main Line to the Mainland", illustrated (b&w).
See also bibliographies on pages covering more specific subjects, such as the BEDT (Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad), the Degnon Terminal Railroad, and boxcabs.
For motion pictures of LIRR steam in it's (Pennsy) glory days of the '50s, look at Ben Young's old hand-wound 16mm films from the "PENNSYLVANIA GLORY" tapes, Benjamin T. Young, Jr., especially Volume 1, produced and distributed by Herron Rail Video, 2016 North Village Avenue, Tampa, Florida 33612. (URL added 05 Feb 03)
The Library of Congress has a map of the Central Rail Road Extension Company of Long Island.
Addenda -
On 28 Feb 02, retired ex-LIer Paul Hessler sent me some more citations, which necessitated creating yet another page to fit them in:
"Long Island Heritage, the G-5 1924-1955", Ron Ziel, 1979, Railroad Heritage Press, New York, NY.
"Pennsy K-4s Remembered", Frederick A. Kramer, 1992, Bells & Whistles, Westfield, NJ
(Includes a short chapter on K-4s in LIRR service).
[I have these two; how could I have missed them?]
"Next Stop Grand Central", Stan Fischler, 1986, The Boston Mills Press, Erin, Ontario, Canada
(covering all NY area commuter lines - includes much on the LIRR).
"Commuter Railroads, A Pictorial Review of the Most Traveled Trains", Patrick C. Dorin, 1957,
Bonanza Books, New York, NY
(LIRR included in compendium of US & Canadian service).
[Oh, good grief; I have this one also!]
"Change at Jamaica - a commuter's guide to survival", Warren Goodrich, 1957,
The Vanguard Press, New York, NY
(A tongue-in cheek look at life on and about the LIRR from the commuter's point of view).
Thanks, Paul!
Continuing:
"Long Island's Lovable Double-deckers - Photos and a roster of LIRR's
unique commuter cars", Mike Boland, Classic Trains, Spring 2003, pp. 64-69.
(05 Feb 03) and
Because the editor left out Mike's roster and notes, I posted them to my LIRR page 1.
BIG NEWS! - Dave Keller and Steve Lynch have produced a SECOND book of Dave's LIRR photos, many never before seen by the public (20 Sep 05), entitled:
The well-received first volume is:
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
To tour the Long Island railroads pages in sequence, the arrows take you from the first LIRR page to the LIRR index, to this page and on to pages 2 and up, then to the other LI railroads page, this Biblliography, and lastly to the LIRR Historical Society page.
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