Railroad Forums 

  • Anyone have any photos from the old Mineola Spur branch

  • Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.
Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.

Moderator: Liquidcamphor

 #572542  by Noel Weaver
 
I rode this trackage on a fantrip on April 24, 1966. The trip originated at Hunterspoint Avenue and backed west of F where
it reached the freight only Montauk Cut Off where we joined the Montauk Branch at Bliss Tower. We proceeded on the
Montauk Branch east to Jamaica where we picked up late comers. We then went east on the main line to the Hempstead
Branch as far as Garden City where we went "straight ahead" on freight only track. We went east for a distance and
eventually backed up and used a connection to the line to Mineola which at the time according to the trip brochure was
"to be abandoned in the near future when a grade crossing elimination project gets under way at Mineola". We continued to
run in reverse to a connection with the main line and after completing the move we were properly pointed east where we
continued east all the way to Greenport. We had a good number of HW parlor cars and apparently coaches too.
I think the Mineola part of this route was abandoned soon after this trip took place. An old timer told me that the line up to
Mineola was known as the "Tigertown Branch", maybe an old timer on here can confirm that but I have no reason to doubt it.
This particular trip was sponsored by the New York Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts. Funny thing, I remember riding in
the parlor car but I do not remember just what we had for locomotives on this trip, probably one or two 200's.
Noel Weaver
 #572698  by krispy
 
Part of the area along the secondary from Garden to Mitchel Field was known as informally as "Tigertown", an area where bars would be open late for servicemen during WW II, when the post facilities closed. Given the chuckle I got from some of the older relatives, and then their clamming up, it must have been an interesting memory. One of the local schools adopted long ago a tiger as a mascot, so the name lives on in that respect.
 #572804  by Ocala Mike
 
There was at least one other "Tigertown" in Nassau County at Valley Stream. Another name it had was "Rum Junction" because there were lots of bars serving people who had to change trains there to get down the Rockaway branch.
 #573169  by nyandw
 
PW team track wrote:There's some good information here including some detailed maps.

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/mineola/mineola.htm
I am also interested in any photos available as Andrew requested on the "Mineola Spur" and the Central Extension. :-)

Central Extension: Image Photo: Richard F. Makse

A westbound road freight rumbles through Newsday crossover on the Central Extension. The track through the gate on the left leads to the Newsday plant. About 100' to the rear was the site of the former Newsday platform, used by the Mitchel Field shuttle until 1953. On the right is the one box car spot for Mercury Millwork. An absolutely fascinating piece of the LIRR that saw freights, race trains, circus trains and MU's and trolleys during its heyday.

Best,
Steve
 #573888  by keyboardkat
 
That spur was actually the original Hempstead branch. Trains left the main line at Mineola and headed south to Hempstead. At that time, A.T. Stewart's Central Railroad of Long Island parallelled the LIRR main line (It forms today's Hempstead branch between Floral Park and Garden as well as the rest of the so-called Central Extension, and the single track Central Branch between Bethpage and Babylon). The Stewart railroad had its own Hempstead branch and Hempstead station, slightly east of the LIRR's.

When the LIRR lines were consolidated, the LIRR chose to connect with Hempstead from the former Stewart line. But the LIRR branch followed the alignment of the LIRR's own Hempstead branch to a point just east (geographically south) of Country Life Press station.
Today, the S-curve between Country Life Press and Hempstead marks the point at which the LIRR moved over to the former Stewart right of way. The LIRR even used Stewart's original Hempstead station for a time, which was actually south of today's station, on the site of today''s Hempstead Bus Terminal.

I rode that line in September 1959 on a fantrip using the railroad's two Budd RDCs. The train ran Jamaica to Greenport, then back to Mineola, crossed over to the eastbound main, then up the Oyster Bay branch to Oyster Bay, then back to Mineola, then crossed over again to the eastbound main, then down the spur to the former Hempstead Crossing. Only the northeast segment of the former wye was still there, so it put us on the Central Extension facing east. The engineer changed ends and it was back to Jamaica using the Hempstead branch to Floral Park, then the main line. Floral park was at ground level then. The beginning of construction of the grade crossing elimination project was around two years in the future. Bellerose station was a main line station, with a platform for the westbound local track, and a platfrom for the eastbound local track. I was all of 14 years old then.
 #1572594  by Antonio Morrow
 
Good morning everyone.

I do not own the following two pictures I shall mention, nor do I know if they have already been shown or brought up.

There is I believe a photo of a DD1 running freight on the Mineola West Hempstead at the grade crossing of (I believe) Cathedral Ave on Trainsarefun.com.

I also know of some images and video of some RDC Budd's on the spur for what I think was a fan trip.

I'll post when I can locate them.
Last edited by Antonio Morrow on Wed Jun 02, 2021 7:03 am, edited 1 time in total.