Freight service to the Hicksville Post Office

The long spur that runs along the north side of the Main Line between the Hicksville NYA freight yard and the LIRR passenger station appears to have once entered the property of the Hicksville Post Office. If you're on a passing LIRR train and look closely at the rear parking lot of the P.O., you can see rails in the pavement curving away to the west side of the building. The spur itself is severed from these rails a little bit west of the P.O., and ties are laid across the spur as an improvised wheel stop. So, when did the LIRR serve the P.O., and when did the service stop and the spur get cut off? Was it a daily job?

I don't know about prior service to the Hicksville P.O., but a while back there was talk of Amtrak handling mail storage cars out of there, possibly using motive power from the Morristown & Erie.

Actually, the rails in the pavement behind the red brick building is FedEx, not the post office. Not sure if there was a spur to the post office or not, I don't see any evidence or course I never looked that closely. I'm curious to know what the building was before FedEx that got rail service.

The track in question is known as Atlantic Pipe. My guess is that the building that the track once served and is now used by Fed Ex was once a factory for Atlantic Pipe.

I believe Bluebelly is correct on that one.

There was talk a few years back of NYA doing a mail train to the site in conjunction with Amtrak. I never heard anything of using M&E engines. The plan was scrapped once David Gunn took over and mail and express was (for the most part) considered a failure.

Jay

My maps show no siding to any Postal facility at Hicksville in 1959 and earlier.

They do show the siding into Atlantic Pipe, on the north side of the tracks.

It was constructed c. 1928 and had a capacity of 6 cars, paralleling the Main.

It was extended sometime in the 1950s further north and east towards the factory (it curved around in a northeasterly direction.)

Dave Keller

There was once a great deal of mail handled on the Island, before the USPS cancelled all of the rail contracts sometime before 1970. Now, I've wondered if the USPS had distribution centers at Hicksville (and also at Garden City, on the secondary north of Mitchel Field) during the time the LIRR served the USPS or not. If so, then I have no doubt that the did at one time. There was a great deal of sidings both to the north and south of the tracks at Divide, and Atlantic Pipe siding had more than one customer. Perhaps JJ can weigh in with a definite answer.

Penn Station and Jamaica both had platforms dedicated for USPS and they were called the Mail Docks, Jamaica's was in the Advance Yard close to Mainline 4, and Penn's is curving out towards A yard in A interlocking. The mail was sent upstairs to the Farley building and saw service until last year or so, until the end of Amtrak's Fast Mail train as mentioned earlier. Nearly every station had something to do with the Mail at one time or another in the past...

I am not sure when the Hicksville center was built but, the GC center is on property that was once part of Mitchell Field and was not built til the late 70's early 80's which is certainly after the last mail contrtacts ended. If you look at the GC site, no provision for rail service was made when the center was built eventhough it's a stone's throw away

It's possible there was rail service via siding to mail facilities at Hicksville.

I only mentioned the fact that there was nothing in existence there, officially designated for postal service, up to and including 1959.

Anyone got any siding stick maps from the 1960-1965 era? It would show there. I believe 1965 was the last date that mail was carried on the LIRR. There's an RPO cancellation printed towerds the back of "Steel Rails to the Sunrise" showing the last RPO date on the LIRR.


Dave Keller

This is the type map I mean, only this is 1966, after mail service was over.

http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/mineol ... la1966.jpg

Dave Keller

Dave Keller wrote:It's possible there was rail service via siding to mail facilities at Hicksville.

I only mentioned the fact that there was nothing in existence there, officially designated for postal service, up to and including 1959.

Anyone got any siding stick maps from the 1960-1965 era? It would show there. I believe 1965 was the last date that mail was carried on the LIRR. There's an RPO cancellation printed towerds the back of "Steel Rails to the Sunrise" showing the last RPO date on the LIRR.


Dave Keller

Checked me copy. It's on page 309.

"Mont & N.Y."
TR 37
Jun 18
1965
R.P.O."

Since Krispy calls upon me once again to clarify an issue, I will try to oblige.
I didn’t work too much in the Hicksville area but when I did, in 1963, Atlantic Pipe track was used mostly for building up our westbound train.
You mention the Mail Dock in the Advance Yard.
I owned a job, in 1960, that went to work at 11:30 PM at the Mail Dock.
Three cars were spotted there,
Two MUBM or RPOs for loading and a PBMU sleeper/rider/horse.
About 1:30am, we were rudely awakened with a loud kick on the side of the PB and we ran the cars into the station to add onto the head end of trains headed east.
Cars were then picked up from Johnson Ave Yard and taken back to the Mail Dock to be loaded.
The previous scene was repeated about four am.
The tricky part came when our single rider was sent through 5 Station to return to the Mail Dock.
Running uphill with a single MU car required cutting out the speed control and hanging halfway back in the station before getting the signal to run over the ten car gap.
This single car was added, I believe, to a Hempstead train about six-thirty.
During the night, a passenger crew was busy gathering up MU mail cars from various terminals around the railroad and arrived in Jamaica about five-thirty.
Cars for Jamaica were switched out and cars carrying westbound mail were added and the crew was sent on their way to Sunnyside Yard where they were sorted at the Post Office there.
Hope this is of interest.
JJ Earl