Spur trackage along 30 St. @ Borden Ave. in Queens

Yesterday I had to take a detour to the LIE that took me down 30 St. to Borden Ave. and the elevated portion of the LIE. This stretch of 30 St. is "one-way" southbound. I happened to glance to my right and saw tracks, two spurs, in fact, alongside the brick industrial building. The tracks were overgrown with saplings and bushes, and cut-off from the outside world at the sidewalk along Borden Ave. Anybody know anything about this trackage? I could'nt see a name on the building, but across the street on the east side of the street was a company called Ideal Steel. Thanks in advance. I'm sure Clem, Jay or the Duke will know what I'm talking about.

"Tenth Legion! Follow Marc Antony and make the Teutons feel the wrath of Caesar, the Senate and the People of Rome! Forward!!!!"

When Caesar conquered France, he had a lot of "Gaul."

I'll see if I can find anything in my maps. (about the tracks, not about Gaul)

Dave

Dave:
Caesar was just one of many to conquer "Gaul". The last time Gaul was conquered, in 1940, the descendants of the Teutons accomplished it in a month, a lot less time than it took Caesar.....

From what I can make out, there was a siding (more like a spur) that branched off the Montauk cutoff and, according to Bob Emery's notes, ALL sidings branching off the Montauk cutoff in this vicinity were referred to as "Kearney Sidings."

It curved around with various tracks branching off to service various warehouses. It crossed Borden Avenue eastbound at grade, went under the LIE and crossed Borden Avenue westbound at grade, right at the corner of 30th St. and Borden Ave.

The siding curved with another branching off and both crossed 30th St., entering the warehouse for Thypin Steel at the time. (Thypin Steel paralleled 30th Street.)

These sidings were installed in 1950 and Thypin Steel was built in 1950, so everything was probably built at the same time. One of the two sidings went completely through the Thypin Steel warehouse, crossing 30th place and servicing the Hiram Walker Co., new in 1956, then crossing 31st Place and servicing a roofing supply warehouse, Patterson Sergent Co. and Egleston Steel, eventually curving around and stubbing out at Borden Avenue again, just shy of Van Dam Street.

In 1955, additional sidings were installed branching off the two sidings entering Thypin Steel at 30th St. and headed back west again. They serviced Radio Engineering Co., Norge-York Appliance Co. and Standard Bag Corp.

Good 'nuff stuff?

Dave

I believe the spur you may be referring to is the Case Paper siding that runs parallel w/ the "C" Secondary. I believe this track was used to service Case Paper by the New York and Atlantic up until a few years ago.

These could'nt have been served in a long time. The saplings are ten to fifteen years old in height. Clem, Jay or the Duke will have the answer....

Here's a link to the S. Berliner page discussing the LIRR in LI City in general, and the area of interest in particular, maps and all: http://home.att.net/~Berliner-Ultrasoni ... ml#Kearney

Legio X:

Something wrong with my physical description?

BTW: I've also confirmed this data by checking my OFFICIAL LIRR freight sidings map of the area, dated 1966. The tracks are where Bob Emery's maps place them back in the 1950s and most of the same companies were still serviced at that time (1966):

Thypin Steel, Hiram Walker, Egleston Steel., etc., etc. were all listed on this official map.

Also, there was a note on that official map confirming that these were referred to as "Kearney Sidings."

Look at a copy of this map. It's the only sidings that were at Borden Ave. and 30th Street.

Dave

Dave:
I was responding to Brakepipe160's post about NYA having served these tracks up until a few years ago. Your response was right on. Thanks.

OH . . . OK!

Thought maybe I might have missed something.

And you're quite welcome as always!

Dave

Legio X,

The map, above mentioned by Mr. Keller, can be linked hereDegnon Terminal/Kearney Siding
You can also click to expand it for a closer view of streets and customers.

Didn't know Steve Lynch had the map posted on his site. Very convenient!

Exactly as I've described.

You can see the track curving to the right, going through the two buildings. There were originally two back in 1950 when they and Thypin Steel were constructed. They both stopped inside the building. some time later, the northernmost one continued on to service those other warehouses and curved back around as shown. My 1958 map does not show it going through the 2nd building (Hiram Walker), so that building must have had an addition in later years, covering the siding at that location.

The 2nd siding into Thypin steel was removed, per this website map. No idea of when it was eliminated.

The two sidings curving to the left were placed in service in 1955.

Dave

What a great map of the area. When did the LIRR cease servicing the area and cut the connections? I guess SW-1001's were the power for the jobs that serviced the area, but did they ever use Alco C420's or the MP-15ac's?

The question was asked what kind of power would have been used on these sidings. Based on the time they were put in, power would like have been Alco S1s maybe RS3s, Baldwin Switchers and possibly FM switchers.

It's possible but unlikely that Alco C420s were used on these spurs as they were in demand for passenger trains and longer haul trains. Trackage such as this would more than likely have been handled by switchers built in the '40's and '50's.

Didn't Domino sugar have a plant in Long Island City? There was a serious explosion at one of those plants. Not sure which one it was.