FBA - EX Yd

[fender52]

On one or two trips into FBA in the last few weeks, I was remembering the yard downstairs that ran all the way back to the meat markets. I was wondering, how far was the lead to the yard from the station? I guess they bricked up everything now.

I don't remember now, but remember walking back there many a time and in fact using one of the elevators that went up to the street.

[FrankAndCindy]

Hello, It was not very far from the station. There used to be a night freight job that serviced the meat packing place.Thanks Frank & Cindy.

[nyandw]

Might this help: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/flatbush/flatbush.htm

[krispy]

I was posted by an old fart who remembered the EX yard when it existed, but sat unused, and was dark, stinky and "scary". A shame that it couldn't be used to get FBA a couple more tracks. Old Brook tower's model board showed where they existed at one time and the switches and signals that controlled it, but was long painted over. (At the time the track numbers were reversed, what is today's 6 was then 1 track, and so on. I forgot how many were there total if you include the EX Yard) When I started in the mid-90's the space was opened up and used by the TA for parking, etc. I owned a job down there for a while and would fight over parking there, but was told even though it had been LIRR property I was S.O.L. and had to walk from Van Yard. Now we don't even have that.

Now the space is totally enclosed and off-limits to all except the TA, so don't expect to see anything. One thing that's interesting about how much meat traffic there was at one time. Not only what went to EX yard but also what was served on the ramp that went from Van yard up to the meat houses that were on the ground level. At one time there was a nice old apple tree about 2/3 up the ramp from where someone working that job tossed his apple core. Again, all gone now...

[fender52]

After looking at the maps, I didn't realize that the leads to the yard were so far east of the station. My mind is going.

When I worked there in the mid 70's, it was still open space. During the winter you had to walk all the way back to the boiler room by the last track to restart the boiler every other day during the winter when it crapped out. Next to the boiler room was an area where Civil Defense supplies were kept and then came the meat markets. As I said, I used one of the elevators back there once, and only once to go up to one of the markets.

As a side piece, I got the brilliant idea to save the company some money while I was there and had a cleaner go get some of the opened water barrels, cut a hole for a chain and then painted them blue. I used them to replace some of the bad garbage cans we had. The only problem was my boss wanted to kill me and made me put back the old ones. So much for saving money.

One other story, one of the cleaners used to feed all the cats that lived back there. It was another good idea, they kept the rats away, but, we got infested with fleas. I called purchasing for an exterminator. They guy told me to get rid of the cats and I told in no certain terms what to do. He then said get flea collars and put them on the cats. I told him to come down and put them on. He called the exterminator.