The Mitchell Field Ext.

Long Island 7285 wrote:ther is a area where you can drive on to the dirt, if you go on to the dirt, you will be on where the ROW used to be. as of last saturday night, there was still concret piled up along the mound of dirt. that concrete is what once was the TOFC ramp.(

I remember seeing that ramp used once, before the 1998 Goodwill games - Not rail of course (not sure if the rails ever did cross the modern Charles Linbergh blvd., perhaps taken out when whatever road was there was rebuilt, but I do remember the tracks being on either side - the tracks on the North Side was where restoration on 35 was begun many years ago (late 1980s[?]).
Anyway, the Marines at the nearby Marine Station on stewart avenue used the ramp to load a HUMMV into a flatbed truck - it was interesting to watch, don't recall how well the fletbed truck matched the height of the ramp (I guess pretty well)...

Just remember, the U.S. Marines can do anything....if at first the ramp was'nt working for them, they'd make it work.

OK..

lets put it like this, THERE WAS rail and TIES up to the ramp untill may 2005 when it was bulldosed out of there, rails bent like match sticks and ties like huge splinters, spikes and tieplates all over,

I dicided to salvage a 3' section of rail and 2 tieplates and 2 spikes from this location as there not going to be there much longer.


the TOFC ramp is now all gone

i think modern charls lindberg blvd is paved right over the tracks, as the rails go under the dirt and thats all that i can see.


its shame full. thats all i can say.

more of our LIRR and military history sees the dust and shall only be a memory to thoes whom remember it

I just hope that they make it a parking lot and NOT a building.

Guy, my bad

I had some time tonite so i took a ride over to Mitchell feild

I drove onto the construction sight and all the rails that were visible in may are gone now and or burried under piles of drit and cement,

but low and behold, the cement that i seen last week was NOT i mean was NOT the TOFC ramp. the ramp lays proudly at the end of the spur with no tracks or anything behind north of it. its a loan rellic of what once was somthing that was something in another time.

maby we should have it moved to the 35 sight where it can be installed there

hey it would look cool and would not be lost in time.

im going to get some photos.

NIMBYkiller wrote:I just hope that they make it a parking lot and NOT a building.

This might be part of Suzzoi's 'Nassau Parks Are Coming Back' campaign, which is a whole 'nother issue.
Not sure what plans they have other than 'Beautification' or some such nonsense - if it was gonna go, it'd have gone in 1998 when Mitchel field was completely reconstructed for the Goodwill Games (man, that was 7 years ago, time is really flying) - that's when the new track and bleachers complex was rebuilt (tearing down a newish garage built only two years before), the new admistration building (OK, that replaced a temporary 'double-wide' trailer building). and the big 'Butler Building' (modular metal building) was erected across from the new admistration building. So why tear it down now, unless there are other plans for that area?
Of course, if they were smart they could have paved the area from Lindberg Blvd, and continued to unload flatbeds via the ramp (although probably anything that they would use at Mitchel Field is forklifted off, or comes on trailers with their own ramps/unloading equipment.

Can anyone tip me off to the exact location of the F unit? I wouldn't mind visiting it when I'm back seeing thefamily in Quuens this week.

Pete in NJ

One of One-Sixty wrote:There is a building which I am guessing is an old maintenance building for the LIRR behind the LICM (it has a Subway sign on it) where there is a rusted shell to what looks to be an old F unit and an old truck where you can clearly still see the Keystone painted on it

Which LICM building are you referring to? Both the original one on Stewart Ave. and the new one at Mitchell Field back up to LIRR property. I would also love to go and take a look at these things, so any guidance you can offer would be appreciated.

Lirr168 wrote: Which LICM building are you referring to? Both the original one on Stewart Ave. and the new one at Mitchell Field back up to LIRR property. I would also love to go and take a look at these things, so any guidance you can offer would be appreciated.

I am talking about the one on the Blvd, next to the Cradle of Aviation Museum, if your driving behind it like your going to NCC main campus there is an empty lot next to an old brick building with a Subway sign (as in the subway restuarants) on it, the shell is in the empty lot, it a bit back past the old LIRR maintenance truck with the LIRR/PRR Keystone on it still faded, but its still there.