The ERA BULLETIN - MAY, 2012 Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 55, No. 5 May, 2012 The Bulletin THIRD AVENUE’S POOR FINANCIAL CONDITION LED Published by the Electric TO ITS CAR BUILDING PROGRAM 75 YEARS AGO Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated, PO Box (Continued from April, 2012 issue) 3323, New York, New York 10163-3323. Cars 626-685, an improved version of the Brakes were kept applied when the treadle 100s and 300s, were the best cars that Third door was open, and could not be released For general inquiries, Avenue built. These cars weighed 37,450 until it was closed. contact us at bulletin@ pounds, slightly less than the 38,190-pound The Huffliners and the 626-685 cars were erausa.org or by phone at (212) 986-4482 (voice 300s. Operation was smooth and quiet. With equipped with a 12-volt system, which con- mail available). ERA’s four 35 horsepower 600 volt motors, their trolled the entrance and exit doors, heater website is estimated speed was more than 35 miles per contactor, passenger signal, and defroster www.erausa.org. hour. Cars were equipped with dynamic motor. A 12-volt generator under the car, belt brakes, which could retard the speed of the driven by the air compressor motor, charged Editorial Staff: Editor-in-Chief: car if the air brakes failed. the battery, which supplied the 12-volt power. Bernard Linder Third Avenue selected Brill’s 77E truck with This system was interlocked with the revers- News Editor: 27-inch wheels. This well-designed truck was er drum on the controller and operated only Randy Glucksman lightweight and simple in construction, requir- when the reverser drum was in the forward or Contributing Editor: Jeffrey Erlitz ing low maintenance and possessing good reverse position. The battery was disconnect- riding qualities. Third Avenue’s engineers ed when the car was not in service. Production Manager: modified the 77E truck by replacing steel bol- Lighting was provided by twenty 30-volt David Ross ster springs with rubber springs. This rubber- bare bulbs connected in series. If one bulb spring truck, designated as Third Avenue burned out, it short-circuited internally and Special, was as quiet as a PCC truck. The the other bulbs were slightly brighter. This company tried again to eliminate noise by was a better arrangement than the five 130- installing herringbone gears and pinions in all volt bulbs connected in series in the older ©2012 Electric cars and rubber insert wheels on cars 626- cars. If one bulb burned out, the other four Railroaders’ 645 assigned to 59th Street. These rubber bulbs were also dark and the car was Association, Incorporated insert wheels were later replaced by steel gloomy. wheels. CAR ASSIGNMENT The cars were equipped with full safety car We saw the first car, 626, on January 8, straight air brake equipment, omitting the 1939 and the last car, 685, on February 4, “dead man’s” controller handle. A self-lapping 1940. Cars 626-645 were originally equipped brake valve was housed in a spring-loaded with plows for operation on the underground In This Issue: pedal-operated mechanism. When the pedal conduit system in Manhattan. When buses Development of rose, brakes were applied and power was cut replaced the street cars in June, 1947, they the Long Island off to the motors. Brakes were released by were converted to overhead trolley operation Rail Road in the depressing the foot pedal, which served as a and transferred to the Bronx. They operated Rockaways “dead man” control and also closed the en- on the following lines: trance door. (Continued on page 4) ...Page 2 NEXT TRIP: VALLEY RAILROAD,1 SATURDAY, JUNE 2 NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN - MAY, OCTOBER, 2012 2000 DEVELOPMENT OF THE LONG ISLAND RAIL ROAD IN THE ROCKAWAYS by George Chiasson FOREWORD: RESEARCH CREDIT between 1990 and 1992. AND COMMENTARY The end product, a first portion of which is hereby present- As historians in the contemporary world will inevitably ed, represents, in the author’s opinion, the best resulting text discover, a typical journey of knowledge today will generally that can be derived from this accumulation of effort. Again, start on the internet and end on the hard drive of a computer. the author owes a great debt of gratitude to those individuals This effort was and is no different, though along the way such who have graciously agreed to participate and provided in- learning requires that everything be questioned, analyzed and valuable feedback. Like any such endeavor this work does not back- (if possible, fact-) checked before any attempt is made of itself profess to be either comprehensive or definitive. It to formulate a text from the ultimate findings. With particular may ultimately be proven incorrect in whole or in part, but regard to the Long Island Rail Road, Vincent Seyfried’s seven across time appears to be the best available assemblage of -volume “Comprehensive History” has long been looked up- information and this author, as always, will gladly accept on as the ultimate source of historical information. That se- corrections, clarifications and other pertinent commentary ries was published on a privately-produced, limited basis, in for later incorporation. stages between 1961 and 1984 and is no longer available to With that: Enjoy! the reading public, unless in the context of rare book collec- THE SOUTH SIDE RAILROAD tion. This is most unfortunate for latter-day researchers who Strangely enough, the story of suburban railroad ser- seek to learn the basic historical framework of the railroad, vice to the Rockaway Peninsula originates not with that but through the beneficence of Wikipedia, Volumes 1 and 2 of long-regarded instigator of residential growth, the Long the Seyfried series (dating from 1961 and 1963, respectively) Island Rail Road, but rather with one of its competitors, are publicly available, in-full, through Wiki source. The au- the rugged little South Side Railroad. The South Side thor also expresses his sincere gratitude to various individu- waded indiscriminately into what was then a rich man’s als who were in possession of Volumes 3 through 7 and gra- game of geographic chess, using the railroad as a tool ciously consented that they be used as a resource. Neverthe- to reach the pine barrens and sand bars of Long Island, less, as has been discovered during the broad research phase mile by mile, so as to gradually transform them into well of this ongoing work, while the Vincent Seyfried series can -populated villages filled with lucrative real estate devel- indeed be considered as comprehensive as its titles suggest, opment and also to cater to the summertime crowds its interpretations can be less than definitive for certain from the city in search of sun, sand and surf. The South events. Side was incorporated in 1860 and chartered to build a The content of the adjoining text was formulated based on railway line from Brooklyn to Islip in Suffolk County, numerous information sources, most of which were ultimately rights which were expanded all the way into the Hamp- checked against the appropriate volume of the Seyfried series tons a few years later. Actual construction finally began for expansion, clarification or amplification. The effort also after the Civil War in June of 1866, and initial service includes insight from several informal web sites that are dedi- commenced from its own station in Jamaica, Queens cated to LIRR history (for example, Art Huenke’s infamous County (tucked against LIRR’s line and four blocks east “Arrt’s Arrchives”), various assemblages of private infor- of the present Jamaica complex) as far as Babylon on mation (both generally available on the internet or graciously October 28, 1867. made available to the author) and the availability of first- As its name implied the South Side struck a south- hand geographic resources (maps, atlases, etc.) that, again, eastward course from Jamaica, virtually in a straight can either be studied via internet or were obtained first hand. line to the Sunrise Highway (as it was known then and The only other previously-published research material to be now), then closely paralleled that major artery for the thoroughly scrutinized prior to creation of the main narrative remainder of its run to Babylon. The railroad established was a two-part article, “Rails to the Rockaways, Parts 1 and stops at all organized villages that then existed, with 2” by Michael Boland, which was featured in the Summer additional stations added as development (both real and Autumn, 1999 issues of the Pennsylvania Railroad Tech- and projected) progressed. Though that early list of nical & Historical Society’s periodical, The Keystone. Some names is now a bit cryptic, some of its locations never- insights were gained through companion studies of rapid theless survive to some degree into 2012: Springfield; transit evolution in Greater New York; some through a gen- Pearsall’s, since 1893 better known as Lynbrook; Rock- eral knowledge of the (more or less) present-day MTA Long ville Center; Baldwin(s); Freeport; Merrick, which was Island Rail Road that the author gained through three sum- an early short-turn point; Ridgewood (now Wantagh); mers of regular exploration and photography of the system (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN - MAY, 2012 Development of the Long Island Rail Road in the were installed all the way from a point west of Fresh Rockaways Pond to Pearsall’s by 1872 which facilitated passing moves. (Continued from page 2) The construction of a branch from Valley Stream to Far Rockaway was undertaken by a subsidiary known South Oyster Bay (now Massapequa); Amityville; Well- as the Far Rockaway Branch Railroad Company during wood, later Breslau and now Lindenhurst; and finally March of 1869.