Old LIRR Freight sidings in Flushing

Would anyone happen to have a track map or any knowledge of old freight sidings that came off the lirr port washintgon branch in flushing? Specifically I'm trying to figure out what industry used to reside in a siding that was north of the tracks just east of flushing creek, and south of roosevelt av and the 7 line subway.

While looking around that area recently I came across some track that seemed to come off the port washington branch and into a large industrial lot there that is currently being redeveloped. There is a little bit of track in the dead end street there (off to the side where the sidewalk ought to be) and more inside of the industrial property, which is fairly large and spread out with 2 or 3 warehouse buildings in there...

I know con ed had some space in there, and more recently it was the 'flushing light industrial center', but what was it oirignally?

(fyi, the whole site is to be redeveloped as apartments and retail space - big surprise there...)

See if these two links help.

http://www.forgotten-ny.com/SUBWAYS/whi ... stone.html


http://www.dominionrailvoyages.com/jhd/ ... aches.html

If you're talking about just east of Shea, on the south side, that's the Central RR of LI.

just RR east, Geographly North of Shea, right out of the station to the north west was the white stone.

Not the whitestone branch - it's just sidings, on the EAST side of flushing creek, north side of the ROW. looked like at least one track came down, turning north, into the property, then turned left back towards the creek a little bit (though the track in the facility probably had some switches to get to the various loading docks).

(the whitestone branch was on the west side of flushing creek where all the old lirr cars were before going over that bridge well north of where I'm talking about, which ends on a lot just south of the 7 train (that big series of white buildings when looking south just before the 7 goes into the tunnel main st. bound).

I can't think of anything. I've ridden that line over a hundred times, looking out the RFW almost every time. The only spurs in that area that I can think of are the Whitestone going NE of Shea, the CRRLI going SE of Shea, and the little abandonned freight siding further east down the line on the south side.

I'll check my maps and get back to you if anything is indicated there or not.

Dave

Well Dogbert . . . . . It appears you’ve stumbled onto some interesting stuff!

Installed in 1916, a siding branched off east of Flushing Creek towards the NE to access the Lane Boat and Davit Supply Co., later the Hicks-Costarino Waste Paper warehouse. This siding originally continued further N. to access a coal co, but was cut back in 1942.

An additional siding (also 1916 vintage) split off the first siding, on the east side and curved in a horseshoe fashion to the NE, then N, crossing 40th Road, entering the grounds of the Consolidated Edison Co. (Con Ed.). It split at the entry gate to Con Ed, heading N while another spur curved NW, further splitting in two to access Con Ed’s Electric Parts Storage building, warehouse, garage and supply dump/pole yard, coming almost full horseshoe from its start.

The Con Ed site was bordered on the N by the IRT EL over Roosevelt Ave, on the W. by Flushing Creek and on the E. by Laurence Street and on the S by 40th Road.

Branching off the Con Ed siding in the opposite direction (SW), south of the 40th Road crossing, was a third spur siding, accessing the Eastern Steel Tank Co. which was immediately north of the above-mentioned Hicks-Costarino Co. In order to access this siding, a reverse move would have been indicated. This spur siding was installed in 1942, at the same time the earlier mentioned siding was cut back form the coal co, which was no longer in business.

Do some hiking if you’re allowed and not trespassing . . . . try to trace this layout!

Dave

NIMBYkiller wrote:The only spurs in that area that I can think of are the Whitestone going NE of Shea, the CRRLI going SE of Shea, and the little abandonned freight siding further east down the line on the south side.

OK, so we have the branch going NE out of Shea (not too far - IIRC that's where they used to scrap the old LIRR coaches in Willets Point). Then we have what you call the abanonded freight siding further east, which I believe used to lead to the former Taystee Bakery (now a Home Depot, and it has been one for at least a decade - however, I was often in the area in the late 1980s, and saw no evidence of rail service at that time even when the bakery was a going concern), and finally the CRR which traced a funky route from the main line (PW branch) south east to eventually run along Fowler Ave, cross College Point Blvd, and enter the Botanical Gardens grounds on it's way to the Kissena corridor (according to an AMC trip guide).
Maybe that's more or less it for that area, as the Railroad never reached the post-WWII College Point Industrial/Business Park, and Flushing Meadows before the Worlds Fair was pretty much a landfill/dump. Well, OK, I'm sure there were one or two more funky sidings, but perhaps nothing major?

Sir Ray:

Read my post above!

Dave

Sir Ray, the spur to what is now a home depot is the CRRLI spur. The other spur is really more of a siding that runs parallel to the PW line on the south side of the tracks. It is short and used to serve a warehouse which you can see the loading platform of.

CRRLI went via what is now the Kissena Corridor.

NIMBYkiller wrote:Sir Ray, the spur to what is now a home depot is the CRRLI spur. The other spur is really more of a siding that runs parallel to the PW line on the south side of the tracks. It is short and used to serve a warehouse which you can see the loading platform of.

CRRLI went via what is now the Kissena Corridor.

See, that's what's kinda interesting - as I mentioned in my post (which, BTW Dave, I started writing my post before you posted the additional siding info - I guess I didn't realize how long it took to write before I submitted - oops...Oh well) I was on a walking tour of the Kissena Corridor/Botantical Gardens/Flushing Meadow Park (NOT Kevin's Forgotten NY one, but a AMC sponsored one). The guides seemed quite knowledgable about the area and history (including the location of a RR tunnel on the Kissena corridor - now filled in) And they specifically mentioned the CRR coming along Fowler Ave across College Point, through the Botanical Gardens and thence to the Kissena Corridor - this is about 2 - 3 blocks SOUTH of the spur which served Taystee (or at least ran North of the bakery). Now, they may have been completely wrong, but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt until other evidence turns up (like a map of Flushing sidings, which started this whole thread). Actually, maybe I'll try and hunt down such a map tonight if nothing else turns up, although generally if 'trainsarefun' or 'sberliner' don't have it then maybe it's not around to be had...

Sir Ray . . . .

Check our Art Huneke's site at Arrts-Arrchives.com.

He's got a whole section devoted to the junction and the line south to Creedmoor and the connection to the Main Line at Floral Park. He's got maps, blueprints and photos: Old photos and present day ones as a comparison!!

Great stuff.

Scroll down. It's quite a ways down on his site.

Dave

I love the links to that forgotten NY site. Is there a similar site for rail, stations and such on Long Island?

Yikes. lots of good info here. thanks all (buried tunnel in the kissena corridor? first i heard of that one - any more info would be nice...)

Here is a topo map that roughly traces the trackage so far as I could tell - the blue line being the line into con ed -


It's not entirely accurate of course as it doesn't show all the sidings, just how I could guess it would line up from what i saw.

the con ed lot is private property owned by some development company that bought it on speculation and is now developing it for apartments and a big box store (all set to be done by 2007) - though there is a strip of track sticking out of the sidewalk on the north side of 40th road (as of last weekend it was between a plywood wall and the fence to the former con ed lot (you can easily legally walk around the huge gap in the plywood and see the strip of rail protruding from the sidewalk).