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That was the coal-fired PRR power plant in Long Island City near the waterfront that provided third-rail DC power for the PRR from Manhattan Transfer in Harrison, NJ, through Penn Station and up to Sunnyside, as well as the LIRR third rail electrification. The building could be seen across the river...

I always was in favor of reopening and rebuilding the old Stewart line between Garden City and Bethpage. The ROW still belongs to the MTA as successor to the various predecessor railroad companies that developed Long Island. Unfortunately, LIPA high tension electric towers now occupy the ROW and wou...

I still would rather see the old Central line restored between Garden and Bethpage, but that won't happen, even though the old ROW is still there (with some LIPA) towers in it. Too many NIMBYs through Garden City and Island Trees, etc. But it would be much less disruptive to existing service on the ...

I think the 12 was changed to 15 simply by turning the glass lens on the cab signal upside down. The upside-down 2 became a slightly odd looking 5!

The NYC system was an intermittent system. The Pennsy and subsidiary Long Island Rail Road (and the New York and Long Branch) had a continuous pulse-code cab signal system with a whistle and acknowledger. All LIRR locomotives and EMU cab cars were so equipped. When approaching a restrictive signal, ...

It's nine years later and I'm correcting my post. The MP-72s had four 100hp traction motors. It was the MP-54s that had the two 250hp motors. There was a series of books about the passenger cars built by Pullman-Standard a few years ago. With respect to the LIRR MP-72 family, the book was chock full...

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Why do we have to re-invent the wheel? The Budd RDC was marvelous. First, it was a standard railroad passenger car with compatible couplers and air hoses and could be towed by any locomotive. It offered fast acceleration and when operating in trains with ...

I assume these were homemade by the LIRR shops? Each seems to be basically a single MP-54 type motor truck, with a sort of superstructure above it. Barely one truck length!

I suppose those "things" are inevitable on the LIRR. Sad day when ALCO left the Island and EMD took their places. I don't know that the LIRR had much choice. ALCO had thrown in the towel and gone out of the locomotive business in 1968, after building the last eight LIRR C-420s (the ones w...

That new "thing" posted above is in a class of its own and should to be holding the F class designation. That is a direct insult to the legacy of the real F's from the FT to the FL9 and everything in between and rebuilt afterwards. This new crap should have is own class. Such as CCJ- Conp...

You know, there can be winter storms and cold weather, but somehow the railroad is expected to be perfect, infallible and foolproof. And when it's not, people bitch and complain like they didn't get something they were entitled to! But signal problems, it does seem that signal technology should have...

[/i] I well remember the Merrick-Bellmore-Wantagh grade crossing elimination project, too. I was living in Hempstead at the time and I was substitute-teaching at the Shore Road School in Bellmore for a couple of weeks. During the rush hours, traffic was really backed up by the parade of trains on th...

Keyboardkat, maybe you can answer a question that no one else on these boards has been able to do, since you were a Floral Park resident during the crossing elimination project. Word is that your village and the LIRR were seriously at odds during/after the project and that Floral Park is still angr...

While this is an interesting intellectual exercise, I find it hard to believe it will ever happen. The only countries building massive infrastructure are the explosive-growth developing nations. When we were in this category, we did the same thing. Now we can barely afford to maintain our current i...

Interestingly, the old PRR operated the Northeast Corridor (the portion they owned, which was NYP to Washington) at a profit in the '50s and '60s. perhaps the only long-distance passenger line in America that made a profit under private ownership. But that was before all the capital improvements and...