Long Island Railroads [with a link to the NYCRR (Hell Gate)]
On separate pages:
Long Island Live Steamers
The New York & Atlantic Railway, lessor of LIRR freight operations.
Railroad Eagles - Penn Station, Grand Central Terminal, etc.
Long Island Rail Road Historical Society.
Long Island Live Steamers (LILS)
A great group of miniature live steam (and diesel and electric) operators running at mostly 1½" scale (also some 1" and rare 3/4") in Southhaven Park at the intersection of William Floyd Parkway (Suffolk County Route 46) and Sunrise Highway (U.S. Route 27); their site with their PUBLIC RUNNING SCHEDULE and some other live steam links, has been moved to a separate page.
Central Railroad of Long Island
(continued)
[Continued from the main CRRofLI page Page,
and the CRRofLI Continuation Page 1]
General Bronze Sidings
General Bronze Corporation made (or intended to make) an agreement with the LIRR ca. 1952 for two sidings behind their plant on the north side of Stewart Avenue and just south of the Long Island Motor Parkway, immediately southeast of Roosevelt Field.
As part of the deal, the LIRR made up a drawing of the trackage, which, unfortunately, does NOT show the building(s) or freight door(s). I was fortunate enough to be given a copy of the drawing (unfortunately, badly crinkled), which measures 12¾" x 23½":
THE LONG ISLAND RAILROAD CO.
OFFICE OF ENGR. M.W.
PLAN TO ACCOMPANY AGREEMENT
WITH
GENERAL BRONZE- CORPORATION
FOR
SIDINGS
EAST OF GARDEN CITY, N.Y.
SCALE: 1" = 100' 10-27-1952
D.E. 2002-B
Note that on this drawing and the ones that follow, the words Rail Road are combined, even though that's wrong (see top of page)!
The notations read:
LONG ISLAND MOTOR PARKWAY
"D" TRACK No. C-20-G-1 LENGTH 800' ±
"C" TRACK No. C-20-G LENGTH 1520' ±
GENERAL BRONZE CORP.
TO ROOSEVELT FIELD --> {north, vertical}
TRACK No. C-20-G-2 LENGTH 430'
POINT OF SWITCH "A" IS 2.08 MILES
EAST OF GARDEN CITY
STEWART AVENUE
L.I.R.R. CENTRAL BRANCH
<-- TO GARDEN CITY {west} {east} TO SALISBURY PLAINS -->
Here is the whole image and a detail of the title:
{That "patch" in the middle is my rough retouching of a target I had to stick
on the tracing in order to get something on which the camera could focus!}
Apparently at least one, if not both, of the sidings were put in.
Bethpage Junction "B" Tower
"B" Tower at Bethpage Junction was originally built in 1925 as a wooden frame structure with mechanical interlocking equipment and replaced in 1936 by the present (now inactive) brick structure with electrical interlocking.
Thanks to Art Huneke, I can reproduce here images from his ARRt's ARRchives. First, two shots of the old tower (in 1925 and 1926, looking west and east, respectively):
Next, the track diagrams from the 1925 and 1936 arrangements:
Finally, the "new" tower (looking east and west, respectively, in 1987):
Here are the old 1925 24-lever mechanical interlocking machine and the "new" 1936 Union Switch & Signal Type F-14 19-lever electrical machine (in 1987):
("B" Tower images courtesy of A. Huneke - all rights reserved)
I had the amazing good fortune to be given a full set of 19 Aug 1935 plans for the 1936 "B" Tower! They are on an odd 22" x 36" format and so must be pictured in full only for reference (below) and then scanned in pieces:
The notations read:
LONG ISLAND RAILROAD
MAIN LINE FILE No G 289
BETHPAGE JUNCTION "B" TOWER
Aug. 19, 1935
46177 S.T.
SCALE 1/4" = 1'-0"
SHEETS 1 OF _, 2 OF _, AND 3 OF _
OFFICE. ENGR. BRIDGES & BLDGS.
NEW YORK ZONE
CORRECT APPROVED
T. Pinaud {?} A. Dawkins {?}
ENGINEER. BRIDGES & BLDGS. CHIEF ENGR.
FEDERAL RD. DIST. Nº 9
STATE N.Y.
FED. AID PROJ. Nº W.P.A. 779-B2
FISCAL YEAR
SHEET Nº 11 {or 12 or 13}
TOTAL SHEETS 16
BETHPAGE PARKWAY INCLUDING SEPARATION
OF GRADES AT LONG ISLAND RAILROAD -
MAIN LINE
{- - - * - - -}
Correct "As Built"
{illegible signature}
Engineer In Charge.
{- - - * - - -}
"B" TOWER
All work on "B" Tower, including excavation,
is included in the price bid for Item No 123,
except as noted on the plans.
Note that on these drawings and the ones that precede and follow, the words Rail Road are combined, even though that's wrong (see top of page)!
These are photos, not true scans; I don't propose to fund a commercial scan of these prints, although I'd be happy to post same if someone antes up. The full sheets and detail shots are just digital snapshots [and pretty sloppy ones in some cases - I may redo them some day}.
[
- the details are lettered in purely an arbitrary fashion and do not reflect detail identity on the sheets.]
Here are the detail shots of Sheet 1:
Here are the detail shots of Sheet 2:
Here are the detail shots of Sheet 3:
One oddity is that the plan (Sheet 2, above) shows the EAST face of the tower at 12' 4¼" WEST of the track centerline (instead of SOUTH as it actually is)!!! Can anyone explain this away? Lest I be accused of idiocy, I assure you that the SOUTH ELEVATION view shows the track centerline to the RIGHT (thus EAST) and have added this enlarged view of image 2c, the SOUTH ELEVATION, above, to prove the point:
(Thumbnail image - click on the picture for a larger image)
Notice that the tower was built (or was to have been built, as of 19 Aug 1935) on a W.P.A. project (779-B2).
Here's a funny how-de-do! I've always "known" that I'd once glimpsed
"B" Tower immediately east of the Seaford-Oyster Bay expressway (the SOB,
I-135) or Bethpage State Parkway, but I'd forgotten which. I've been
pestering people to get me access to the tower (I'm not given to trespassing),
to no avail. Well, I use Bethpage State Parkway northbound about every
month or two but always at night. By sheer chance, I was on my way
home from trying (unsuccessfully) to find remnants of
Frank Buck's Zoo in Massapequa, at about 14:00 on 11 May 2002 and,
being in absolutely no hurry, decided to take BSP north towards home.
Ceremoniously noting the LIPA power lines over the Central RoW (which I
always do) as I approached the LIRR overpass just south of Central Avenue, I
glanced up and to my right through the open sunroof and THERE IT WAS!
"B" Tower! Exactly as I had remembered it, only far bigger!
A quick run up to and around the circle in Bethpage State Park, back down to
Hempstead Turnpike, a double-cloverleaf and back north to the site, where I
risked pulling over and parking on the grass. Up the well-worn dirt path
and here is what I saw, photographed from the path with a zoom lens:
Those are the south and west faces; turning a bit more to the right (east),
here's the signal bridge beyond which is the junction (out of sight), just west of
Merrits Road, where the Main comes SE down out of Hicksville and meets the
old RoW of the CRR (running due E just S of the old
Long Island Motor Parkway RoW), bending left (ENE) while the Central
Branch continues ESE to meet the Montauk Branch in West Babylon:
Turning back to the tower, I took a telephoto close-up of the roof detail:
and then turning even further west, one of the LIRR bridge over the BSP:
Skirting south of the LIRR property and turning 90°, these are the south
and east faces:
Back down to the parkway, and facing north, this is the LIRR bridge from
below; you can barely make out the west abutment of the Central Avenue
bridge under the right (bike path) arch:
One last glance up at the tower from below (what I'd seen so fleetingly at long
last from the car):
and a view southward to show the LIPA power lines over the Central RoW:
Well now! I asked around for more "B" Tower photos, especially of the
inside, and Steve Torborg of Engine #35 came through with élan! These
are a W/B freight, an E/B passenger, a view of the E wall, a view looking W
and one looking E, two of the Model Board, two of the 1936 Union Switch &
Signal Type F-14 19-lever electrical Interlocking Machine, and, finally, two of
the Operator's Desk:
Thank you, Steve!
[This page was added to my CENTRAL RAILROAD of LONG ISLAND page on 17 Feb 2002 (et seq.); you might wish to see that and the main LI Rail Road page, et seq., and the LI Railroads page, also.]
THUMBS UP!
THUMBS UP! - Support your local police, fire, and emergency personnel!
S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
of this series of LIRR pages.
To tour the Long Island railroads pages in sequence, the arrows take you from the previous page to the LIRR index, to the first LIRR page, and on to pages 2 and up, then to the other LI railroads page, and lastly to the LIRR Historical Society page.
© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 2002,
2004
- All rights reserved.
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