Old spur west of Smithtown by the lumber yard

Taking the 1:10pm from Port Jefferson today I happened to notice an old disconnected spur just west of Smithtown by the lumber yard on the north side of the right of way. It is overgrown, and ends in the woods at what appears to be a concrete bumper. Anybody know what this spur served, perhaps the lumber yard at one time? When was it cut off from the main line?

My 1966 freight map shows the siding belonging to Smithtown Lumber. Capacity 10 cars.

Don't know when the swtich was removed, but it might have been when they made the line 261.

Jay

I remember spur still in use in 1977. I saw a forklift carrying plywood on Main Street from the spur to the store (over 1/4 mile). I am not sure when it stopped after that, perhaps as late as 1981.

As late as '85 I believe. The tracks actually connected the branch till that time. By '83 the branch was 261 through Smithtown, then 251 east till '91. Also in '85, the branch through Smithtown got its stations all high platforms, then east of Smithtown in '88.

I wonder if NYA has tried to interest the lumber yard in returning to rail freight service?

Nassau Suffolk and the NYA would not want it. I wish they would, but the number of carloads would not be worth the cost of the switch. Nassau Suffolk is a customer already at both Huntington and Port Jeff. The number of carloads per week to Port Jeff seems to be only about 3, maybe 4.

I don't think there's even a lumber company there any more. Last I checked, it was an empty lot.

Jay

Jay, I think it's 84 Lumber. The spur is just west of the lumber yard, going into the woods.

I found out that Smithtown Lumber used that area to unload cars and possibly store lumber. That Smithown Lumber store was located where Nassau Suffolk Lumber is today about a 1/4 mile east of the switch location. My guess is they pulled the switch around 1981 when the LIRR installed new continuous welded rail. 84 Lumber and Nassau - Suffolk both serve the area, but have no rail sidings here.

If memory serves me right, the LIRR was going to charge the lumber company an outrageous sum to reinstall the switch as they put in the welded rail. they did a good job of killing off the freight business on the Port Jeff branch that summer of '81. They staged the welded rail trains in St. James and used buses for off-peak service. The suspension of daytime service for welded rail installation meant no freight service to the feed place in Port Jeff stopped getting cars (they used to get bagged feed in cool-looking 40' ivory-colored Atlantic & Western boxes). Why bother to run all the way out for a car or two a month. The only thing left east of Huntington after '81 was the unit coal trains to Kings Park and the seasonal unit salt trains to Setauket. The last traffic I recall going to the double team track in Setauket (by the sand mine) were loads of bentonite being used to line the beds of new landfills. There was some shipments of flyash in gons (covered in black plastic) from the some place.