Pantographs in Glen Cove

At the Glen Cove Library, the Long Island History room is open Mondays, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. There yesterday, I came across seven photographs of streetcar operation on Glen Street and thereabouts. I presume that for many of you the existence of streetcars in Glen Cove a hundred years ago is not news, and I vaguely recall reading about this some years ago (forget which volume) and perhaps seeing the same photos. Shades of modern light rail! The overhead wiring was better than most trolley-pole operations, with an auxiliary wire about 3 inches above the contact wire and clips in between. The library index and the photos have brief captions, such as "Trolley." The only close-up was of open car 3(?)01, with 7 benches in the compartment and one on the platform. Four-wheels, one large pantograph overhead. Another photo on Glen Street clearly shows the wire. Another photo seems to have been taken from the hillside of Sea Cliff looking at a four-tracked curve towards Glen Street, St. Patrick's church (built 1899) where it is now. A streetcar is on the leftmost track, an eastbound freight on one of the "steam" tracks.
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How far south or east did this service go? Flushing? Does anyone recall which book includes a history of this line? Many thanks.

I'll see what I can dig up for you.

Dave

Bellstbarn:

You’re talking about two (2) trolley lines in that area:

The Glen Cove Railway, in service 11/16/05, abandoned 11/15/24

The Nassau County Railway, in service 7/2/02, abandoned 12/31/24

Get out a street map and follow along . . there’ll be a test!

The Glen Cove Ry. had an interchange track with the LIRR west of Sea Cliff station, went behind the depot and continued on to Cedar Swamp Road at Glen Cove, Glen St. Station, then turned left and headed north. It then turned right on School Street,
turned left on Cottage Row
left on Landing Road
left on Hill St.
right on The Place
right on Prospect St.
left on Clement St.
right on Carpenter St.
left on Landing Road (Main St.) and stubbed out at the town dock at Glen Cove Landing.

There was a 2-car barn on the west side of Sea Cliff Avenue and two (2) passing sidings, one behind the Glen Cove, Glen St. depot and one behind the Sea Cliff depot. The middle of the passing siding at Sea Cliff was the dividing line of the two trolley companies.

The Nassau County Ry. started at the passing siding behind the Sea Cliff depot, headed a short distance west and turned right (north) up Sea Cliff Avenue, where it turned west on Glen Cove Ave.,
North again on Glen Ave.
East on Main Ave.
North on 12th Ave.
Crossed Prospect Ave. and stubbed out in front of the cable house of the Sea Cliff Inclined Cable Ry. Co., just short of the Sound.

O.K. Number your paper from 1-20 and put your name and homeroom at the top!

Dave

Fabulous, Dave! I am going to have to explore each route. Joe McMahon

Have fun exploring!

Dave

I'll probably head over there tomorrow or sometime this weekend and get some photos

This photo is courtesy of J. J. Earl. It is of the Glen Cove R.R. trolleys photographed behind the Sea Cliff depot.

It clearly shows the pantographs which were unusual for streetcars of the day. Most cars usually only had trolley poles, or, as in the case of Manhattan, were powered by a conduit cable system in the street between the rails. Some other roads, such as Suffolk Traction Co. were all storage battery cars.



Dave

Thanks for that photo.

Thanks for posting that for me, Dave.

My pleasure!

And thanks to my friend Dick Glueck for hosting it on his webpage so we COULD post it for others to see!

Dave