Atlantic Avenue Brooklyn Terminal

nyandw, that is a very nice timetable cover. During the timeframe of it's issuance, 1880, was the LIRR a horsecar railway on the Atlantic "Division"? I seem to recall reading somewhere that the then, City of Brooklyn, banned steam trains within its jurisdiction. Or am I incorrect?

Built – 1834: Atlantic Avenue Ferry to Rockaway road, Jamaica by the Brooklyn & Jamaica RR Leased by LIRR in 1836
Tunnel built – Columbia St. to Boerum St.: 1844 Tunnel closed: 1861
No service to ferry: 1855-1877 (i.e. through service)
Horse cars operated East New York to Ferry from 1855 – 1861. Cut back to Flatbush Avenue to East New York: 1861-1877
LIRR through service to Brooklyn back in 1877.

There was no direct connection between the Manhattan Beach branch and the Atlantic Branch. The Manhattan Beach branch left the Bay Ridge branch at a junction called Bedford Interlocking, located at just north of the present Avenue J and East 16th Street in Brooklyn. The right of way is presently the MTA Brighton line.
If you look at the Brighton line, which is four tracks, you will see that many of the bridge abutments for the cross streets are wide enough for two extra tracks. The LIRR line ran right alongside the subway line, which was and is a surface operation along there. The LIRR tracks were on the east side of the Brighton tracks. (This is of course after the 1907 elevation of the tracks).
In many locations, row houses have been built in the former LIRR right of way, backing right up against the Brighton tracks.

Publius, just before the curve exiting the Atlantic branch tunnel west of Nostrand ave station, you'll notice a curve built into the tunnel leading to a blocked up wall. That was a cutoff leading to the Manhattan Beach branch. The trains would travel on an el for a distance then drop to grade level. Maybe someone on here can shed more light on this route.

One reason for the Manhattan Beach Branch being abandoned was, the branch was built by LIRR president Austin Corbin to bring customers to his expensive, high class hotels in Manhattan Beach. But once the 5-cent fare trolley cars (and later the 5-cent fare subway) reached Coney Island, bringing in hordes of the "great unwashed," he could no longer maintain Manhattan Beach as a high-class, tony resort for the uppah classes. They stopped coming to Manhattan Beach because the "riffraff" could now access the area.
The other reason was, the branch was connected only to the Bay Ridge Branch. Steam trains could reach Manhattan Beach, originating at Long Island City. But after Penn Station was opened in 1910, and the present main line became the principal route to and from NYC, there was no direct way to access the Manhattan Beach Branch from Penn Station, and even if there had been, the branch was not electrified.
Corbin's two wooden firetrap hotels, the Manhattan Beach Hotel and the Oriental Hotel, closed in the 1920s. There was no real purpose to the Manhattan Beach Branch after that.

Datenail wrote:Publius, just before the curve exiting the Atlantic branch tunnel west of Nostrand ave station, you'll notice a curve built into the tunnel leading to a blocked up wall. That was a cutoff leading to the Manhattan Beach branch. The trains would travel on an el for a distance then drop to grade level. Maybe someone on here can shed more light on this route.

Datenail, since the MB branch was accessed from the Bay Ridge Branch at Bedford Junction, any connection with the Atlantic Branch would have had to be around the East New York station where the Bay Ridge Branch crosses the Atlantic Branch. How did a connection miles from there, at Nostrand Avenue, connect?

I remember the walled off area Datenail mentioned. They told us that it once led to a cutoff to Manhattan Beach. Keyboard Kat, is it possible that the route to Manhattan Beach was changed or moved at some point from East NY? If that walled off cutoff did not lead to Manhattan Beach, where did it go?

Mr. Camphor, the Manhattan Beach Branch was accessed from two locations. One from East N.Y. via the current Bay Ridge Branch and the other from the location you described near Nostrand Ave. leading to the current Bay Ridge Branch and then on to Manhattan Beach. This ROW from Nostrand was abandoned and removed in the 1930's.

The remains of the connection can be seen in the right side (eastbound) tunnel between Flatbush Terminal and Nostrand just before it goes above ground to the viaduct at Nostrand.
Here is a clip from one of the Viddler Cab Ride videos a few years back. Yeah I know, i'ts a lousy clip but the branch off can be clearly? (yeah right!) seen at the right with the Nostrand portal about 1/2 to maybe 1/3? mile ahead. It opens up more ahead. I was riding in the cab (heh) of a MP54 in the 50's through here and asked the engineer where that went. His answer was "It used to go to the beach near Coney Island 20 or so years ago. No More," he said as he added a notch of power for the climb out of the tunnel. This trains is a pig, 6 cars but only 4 powered."
Great guy he was, always full of LIRR history. Only name I ever heard was Jim. May he Rest in Peace.
The Videos:
These Viddler Videos were made by a retired LIRR Engineer or Conductor and I have copies of all 5 of them, cab rides in an M1 to/from various locations.
As I and several others on this discussion board are dedicated to preserving LIRR history I'd like to hand these videos over to a place of safekeeping but I'm not sure of the legal status. Of course they part of the historic record AND released as freeware on the public net. I have not been able to locate any copies on the net.

Advice please? They run from 200 to 400 or so megabytes each.
Babylon - Jamaica - 409mb
Hempstead - Brooklyn 203mb
Brooklyn - Babylon 223mb - this one shows the tunnel connection to Manhattan Beach.
Jamaica - Ronkonkoma 254mb
Ronkonkoma - Jamaica.240mb
The videos run real time station to station.

regards,
vince

I remember they were taken down a few years back. I'd love to have a copy of each for my collection.

Speaking of VD yard... I passed by there today and noticed work on what appeared to be a west portal to the yard. Is that what is being built?

Looked like there are only 4 tracks in the yard at the moment - will more be added later? There's a construction ramp that could be removed after work is done to make space for more tracks.

I'm still curious if there's enough distance to dive down and pass below the entire Barclay and subway complex at a reasonable grade.

No, there is a lead that stub ends without going under the Barclay's Center. It's on Google Maps if you're still skeptical.

I understand that. My question is asking if the distance that the lead takes up is long enough to provide a reasonable grade to dive under Barclay and the subways if they decided to rip it out and replace it with an approach to a tunnel to lower Manhattan.

Maybe, though it depends how deep the subway is.

Chances of anything like that getting built though in our lifetimes is probably less than zero.