New York Connecting Railroad
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The New York Connecting Railroad (
Amtrak owns the line north of Sunnyside Junction, which forms part of the Northeast Corridor. From this point to Fresh Pond Junction CSX is the owner, with the line known as the Fremont Secondary. South of Fresh Pond, the line leads into the Bay Ridge Branch, a freight-only branch owned by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) and operated by the New York and Atlantic Railway.
Route description
The line begins at the
After crossing under the
South of Fresh Pond Junction, the line continues south as the LIRR's Bay Ridge Branch to the 65th Street Yard.
The line has 3 tracks to the north of Sunnyside Junction and 1 track to the south of this point (with 2-track sections in some areas).
There is a proposal to connect to the
Operation
CSX serves the line with 1–3 daily round trips, with trains based out of Oak Point Yard. The CSX trains bring general freight to the interchange with the New York and Atlantic Railway at Fresh Pond Junction, in Queens, and return with empties and container loads of solid waste. Providence and Worcester runs three trains per week carrying gravel from Cedar Hill Yard in New Haven, CT, to Fresh Pond.
Origins
The New York Connecting Railroad was incorporated on April 21, 1892, and was jointly owned by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (the "New Haven") and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR).[2] The line opened in 1917 as a connection between the New Haven's Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad and the PRR East River Tunnels to Penn Station and the North River Tunnels under the Hudson River.[3]
The line was dedicated on March 9, 1917 by PRR President
Electrification
The New York Connecting Railroad was
Like the New Haven, the NYCR traction power was distributed using the 2 x 11 kV autotransformer topology. Two wires, the feeder and the catenary (often called the trolley wire), carried voltage of 11 kV to ground, but of opposite phase such that the feeder and catenary were 22 kV phase-to-phase. Six autotransformer stations, spaced an average of 3.8 miles apart along the line, converted power. Each station contained oil circuit breakers for both feeder and trolley buses, bus sectioning switches, and one [6] 3 MVA outdoor autotransformer.
The LIRR portion of the system (essentially everything to the south of Bowery Bay), along with the freight catenary from West Farms over Hell Gate to Bowery Bay, was removed in 1969-1970. By 1986 Amtrak, which had inherited the Connecting Railroad, changed the traction power system over to 60 Hz operation coincident with the Metro-North Railroad re-powering of the New Haven Line at 60 Hz and de-activation of the Cos Cob Power Station. The autotransformer architecture was retained, but the source of power changed from the Metro-North New Haven Line system to the Con Edison-supplied Van Nest Substation (40°50′31″N 73°51′48″W / 40.8420°N 73.8633°W).
Location | Trolley Breakers | Feeder Breakers | Coordinates | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Bungay Street | 5 | 6 | ||
Bowery Bay | 9 | 6 | 40°45′51″N 73°54′19″W / 40.7643°N 73.9054°W | Catenary Bridge C68. Converted to 60 Hz operation circa 1986. Amtrak SS number 45. |
Fresh Pond | 9 | 6 | ||
New Lots | 9 | 6 | ||
Manhattan Beach Jct | 7 | 8 | ||
Fourth Ave., Bay Ridge | 6 | 4 |
See also
- Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad(PRR Tunnel Construction Project 1902-1910)
References
- ^ Anuta, Joe (2015-11-02). "Green space or mass transit? A forgotten South Bronx rail line is suddenly the center of attention". Crain's New York Business. Retrieved 2015-11-04.
- ^ New York (State). Legislature. Senate (1914). Documents of the Senate of the State of New York. p. 448. Retrieved 2018-08-03.
- ISBN 9780988691605.
- ISBN 978-0-670-03158-0.
- ^ Netzlof, Robert (2008). "Corporate Genealogy: New York Connecting Railroad." Adapted from Interstate Commerce Commission Valuation Reports, July 1929.
- ^ All had one transformer but for Fourth Ave, which had two.
- ^ After Morton, 1928, p. 1299.
- Morton, R.B. "Arrangements of Feeders and Equipment for Electrified Railways", American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Transactions of the, Vol 47, Issue 4, pp. 1297–1301, 1928. Discusses both original and 1930s vintage PRR electrification systems along with NY Connecting RR system.
External links
- Media related to New York Connecting Railroad at Wikimedia Commons
- Forgotten New York: "New York Connecting Railroad"
- New York Connecting Railroad Society