KLCS:
I tried to post this earlier (9:30 am), but a power failure at work knocked us off the internet!
Regarding the old B&W photo of Jamaica (looking north), the tracks are not in the street. What you are seeing is the entire track area planked over. This allowed passengers and crew to walk across the tracks to the various platforms that were erected over the years without tripping over the rails or getting their feet caught between ties, etc. This was a typical practice used at many terminal areas in those days. (Railroad crossings were also planked.)
The track configuration at "Old Jamaica" was much different before the elevation. The site of "New Jamaica" was once a large lay-up and storage yard. There was even a turntable where Washington Street crossed the tracks via one of the many iron bridges.
When the tracks were finally elevated and the new facilities opened in 1913, the site of "Old Jamaica" became the Union Hall Street station to appease the residents of that area who now had lost their depot.
While Jamaica was elevated, UHS remained below grade with the tracks being crossed by the previously mentioned iron bridges at grade and stairs leading from the bridge down to the platforms. It was not until the Jamaica Improvement East Project of 1929-30 that everything out to Hillside was elevated.
Yes, there was 3rd rail through "Old Jamaica" starting with the inauguration of electric service (1905) of lines that HAD to pass through Jamaica (i.e. Flatbush Ave. to Rockaway Park, Flatbush Ave. to Jamaica, Jamaica to Belmont Park, Jamaica to Queens Village and Jamaica to Valley Stream in order of progress that first year.)
Between 1905 and 1913 additional electric service was inaugurated.
BTW: That depot at "Old Jamaica" was actually the South Side Railroad's Jamaica depot, located south of the LIRR main at Beaver Street. The LIRR had a smaller depot in use on the LIRR Jamaica site and when they acquired the SSRR, moved the South Side’s larger Jamaica depot from Beaver Street to a short distance adjacent to the LIRR's smaller Jamaica depot (May, 1877), discontinuing the SSRR’s duplicated station stop at the same time.
Both structures stood side-by-side for a number of years, the larger depot also serving as a lunch room and bar. Over the years, the smaller depot was removed or razed. By the time 1913 arrived, the SSRR’s depot was THE main LIRR depot in use.
Dave Keller