July 2013 ERA Bulletin.Pub

The ERA BULLETIN - JULY, 2013 Bulletin Electric Railroaders’ Association, Incorporated Vol. 56, No. 7 July, 2013 The Bulletin IND CONCOURSE LINE OPENED 80 YEARS AGO Published by the Electric Concourse trains started running July 1, ient trolley transfer point. There were railings Railroaders’ Association, 1933, less than a year after the Eighth Ave- protecting low-level platforms, which were Incorporated, PO Box 3323, New York, New nue Subway was opened. Construction cost adjacent to the trolley tracks in the center of York 10163-3323. about $33 million and the additional cars cost the roadway. Four stairways led to the area $11,476,000. near the turnstiles on the subway platforms. Subway construction started in 1928 and The 170th Street underpass was also re- For general inquiries, was completed five years later. Details are built. In the new underpass, there were Bx-11 contact us at bulletin@ erausa.org or by phone shown in the following table: bus stops on the sidewalks under the subway at (212) 986-4482 (voice station. Four stairways provided access to FIRST WORK mail available). ERA’s CONTRACT COMPLETED the area near the turnstiles on the subway website is AWARDED platforms. Third Avenue Railway’s records www.erausa.org. reveal that the Kingsbridge Road underpass Subway Con- June 4, 1928 July 31, 1933 was also rebuilt. Cars ceased operating in Editorial Staff: struction Editor-in-Chief: the old underpass on April 25, 1930 and re- Bernard Linder Station Finish February 13, May 31, 1933 sumed service on February 20, 1931 west- News Editor: 1931 bound and February 25, 1931 eastbound. Randy Glucksman Contributing Editor: Tracks September 16, November 30, There was no underpass at Fordham Road. Jeffrey Erlitz 1931 1932 Opened on October 19, 1925, the center Signals November 18, August 31, roadway of the Concourse was depressed at Production Manager: 1931 1933 Fordham Road. To avoid disturbing this de- David Ross pressed roadway, the middle and northbound Power Equipment October 23, 1931 September 30, 1934 local tracks were built east of the roadway. The southbound track was in a separate tun- Concourse Yard November 21, August 31, nel west of the roadway. 1928 1931 To provide service on the expanding sys- ©2013 Electric Concourse Yard February 15, January 31, tem, the Board of Transportation ordered 500 Railroaders’ Extension 1939 1940 Association, R-4 cars (400-899), which were placed in The original Concourse Yard’s capacity was service on A and AA between February 14, only 220 cars and it extended as far south as 1933 and June 7, 1933, just before Con- In This Issue: Bedford Park Boulevard. To accommodate course trains started running. The R-4s were The Long Island the additional cars required for service in the also operated on the Queens and Brooklyn Rail Road Eyes new Sixth Avenue Subway, the yard was ex- extensions that were opened later in the tended south of Bedford Park Boulevard in year. Meanwhile, the displaced R-1s (100- Manhattan 1939 (see table above). 399) were transferred from A and AA to the (Continued) To avoid delaying vehicular Concourse traf- Concourse. The R-4s were delivered rapidly ...Page 2 fic, most important crosstown streets crossed and placed in service as shown in the follow- th the Concourse in underpasses. The 167 ing table: Street underpass was rebuilt with a conven- (Continued on page 4) JAPAN TRIP—JULY,1 2014: SEE PAGE 8! NEW YORKERA DIVISION BULLETIN BULLETIN - JULY, OCTOBER, 2013 2000 THE GENESIS OF “DASHING DAN” Part Two—The Long Island Rail Road Eyes Manhattan by George Chiasson (Continued from June, 2013 issue) ORIGINS OF THE HEMPSTEAD CLUSTER- to directly serve more than half of its existing patronage PART 1: THE CENTRAL RAILROAD OF LONG base with electrified trains from the major New York ter- ISLAND minals (Penn Station and Flatbush Avenue) to a total of Whereas a current version of the “Hempstead Branch” eight outward destination points. This would still leave survives in 2013 as an essential element of the MTA sufficient terminal capacity to handle a significant por- Long Island Rail Road system, the circumstances sur- tion of LIRR’s far-reaching non-electrified train traffic rounding its largely fragmentary development, and (which would thus be relieved of much of its inward pat- those of the lines with which it was (or is) associated, ronage by the “local” services) in addition to coping with are certainly worthy of description. These chronicles anticipated business from the Pennsylvania’s own lines provide additional background for the overall picture of serving the “Jersey” side of the Hudson River. This ra- the Long Island Rail Road as it was developed in sup- ther challenging consideration was incorporated into the port of the Pennsylvania Terminal project, and by exten- first formal operational plan for the new terminal in sion that system of routes which formerly contained the 1902, but in the end what actually transpired turned out Rockaway Beach Division in its later years. As the to be even more astounding: by 1916 the Long Island Pennsylvania Railroad’s “Board of Engineers” gained Rail Road alone was providing 73% of the ridership at momentum in its planning process (relative to actual Penn Station. construction), a key ingredient of what was perceived The Central Railroad of Long Island was chiefly shep- as a successful operating strategy included utilization of herded to reality through the effort and finances of Alex- the New York Terminal as a major origin and destination ander T. Stewart, a well-known New York merchant of point for the Long Island Rail Road. To achieve this end Irish ancestry. Stewart was instrumental in the growth of there was clearly no alternative but to fabricate a sys- many portions of rural Queens (later Nassau) County, tem of electrified “local” lines using the best available but in relation to “his” railroad (the Central Railroad of technology at the time, and as a result the first phase of Long Island), it was created in 1871 with the express system improvements and electrifications was executed intention of spurring development in portions of eastern between 1904 and 1906 on the “Atlantic Division” (as Queens and providing a means of transportation for extended to Valley Stream), along with the lines serving same through movement of the people, goods, and ma- the Rockaway Peninsula. This enabled LIRR to estab- terials this enterprise required. The railroad’s line was lish an improved and increasingly reliable system of quickly surveyed across what then was little more than (generally) self-contained suburban routes which would a wilderness and construction of the initial segment abet the ultimate objective of extending many of its completed in less than a year and a half. As so much trains directly into Manhattan. time has passed since its existence, the Central’s nor- As a second step (or more accurately in the case of therly alignment of that time is not easy to follow in the the Hempstead Branch a “Phase 1-A” of sorts) the street pattern that survives in 2013, but (as is often the PRR-appointed board and LIRR collaborated on addi- case) its “footprint” remains visible in aerial maps from tional service alternatives that would optimize improve- its origin at “Great Neck Junction” to the Creedmoor ments to the physical plant, including electrification, and Psychiatric Center (former State Hospital) roughly fol- further buttress the costly, all-encompassing needs of lowing Booth Memorial Avenue through Kissena Park, its far-flung terminal lines across Long Island. Ridership Underhill Avenue to the Long Island Expressway, and dynamics were analyzed along with population and resi- (on the far side of Cunningham Park) the aptly-named Stewart Road from Bell Boulevard to the Grand Central dential growth patterns, municipal and academic au- th th thorities consulted, and corporate judgments made. Parkway. The line’s curvature then traces 87 and 88 Through this process were LIRR’s Nassau County Avenues as it comes near to the Creedmoor facility at branch lines to Hempstead and Long Beach selected the far eastern edge of Queens, which was also a limit for infusion with the new terminal, along with the so- for surviving LIRR freight operations many decades af- called “North Side Division” which served the Port ter passenger service had ceased. Known in its later Washington and Whitestone Branches. Though in 2013 years as the “Creedmoor Branch,” the Central’s line continued in an east-southeast pathway along the line these choices would seem obvious, at that time (around th th 1903) many of the same lines were still in a fledgling of 87 Avenue to Commonwealth Avenue, then 87 state, and LIRR had to lay wager that it would be able (Continued on page 3) 2 ERA BULLETIN - JULY, 2013 The Genesis of “Dashing Dan” mond east of the Garden City depot (thus creating the original “Hempstead Crossing”), and curled to the south (Continued from page 2) along the westerly side of Washington Street. They then Drive to intersect Little Neck Parkway, where the rail- continued to a stub-end terminal at Fulton Street road passed into what is now Nassau County at a long, (Avenue) in Hempstead proper, with an associated turn- diagonal grade crossing through a heavily industrialized table and engine house on adjacent property bounded area, which then was all within Queens. The next cross- by Main, Jackson, and Centre Streets. ing at Jericho Turnpike was originally made using a The balance of the Central of Long Island’s main line stone bridge as part of the line’s initial construction in (its so-called “Extension”) was then completed through 1871, which was later replaced twice.

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