South Side Railroad of Long Island
The South Side Railroad of Long Island was a
The main line of the South Side Railroad is now the
History
Incorporation and construction
The South Side Railroad was incorporated March 23, 1860, and organized April 20, 1860, to build from
Construction began in June 1866,[4] and it opened for regular service from Jamaica east to Babylon on October 28, 1867.[3] Extensions opened to Islip on September 5, 1868, Sayville on December 11, 1868,[5] and Patchogue on April 10, 1869.[6]
Obtaining access to New York
It was forced to build its own line west of Jamaica due to the LIRR's purchase of the
The line from Jamaica west to
However, the Flushing and North Side Railroad soon drove most traffic away from the New York and Flushing, leading to the portion east of Winfield being sold to the Flushing and North Side in 1869, and the rest lying unused.[7]
The Hunters Point and South Side Railroad was incorporated on January 5, 1870 to connect Fresh Pond on the South Side with the East River,[9] and opened in 1872 to a point on the New York and Flushing.[10] The South Side thus gained a new freight terminal at Long Island City by rebuilding part of the old New York and Flushing, but passenger service continued to operate to Williamsburg.[7]
Since the LIRR built the Sag Harbor Branch in 1869 and 1870 to cut off the competition, an extension beyond Patchogue was not built.[2] Prior to the acquisition by the LIRR, there was a proposal by the SSRRLI to extend the main line southeast towards Bellport, and then northeast to Brookhaven and Southaven. Rather than the Brookhaven station that existed on the LIRR between 1884 and 1958, the planned station in Brookhaven was to be named "Fireplace" after Fireplace Neck.[11]
Far Rockaway Branch
The South Side Railroad incorporated a subsidiary, the
The Rockaway Railway was incorporated September 5, 1871 to continue from Far Rockaway west to
South Hempstead Branch
The Hempstead and Rockaway Railroad was incorporated in April 1868 to build from Valley Stream on the South Side to Hempstead.[13][14] The New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad was incorporated March 1, 1870, to build from Bay Ridge east to Hempstead,[9] and on August 10, 1871 the two companies merged to form the New York and Hempstead Railroad.[12] The line opened on September 28, 1872,[10] and was leased to the South Side on May 10, 1873.[15]
The South Side entered receivership on November 9, 1873,[15] and was sold on September 16, 1874 to the Poppenhusens, who also controlled the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad. The South Side was reincorporated as the Southern Railroad of Long Island on September 25, 1874. The two Poppenhusen lines were connected at Babylon, and the Southern's branch to Hempstead was abandoned temporarily after only two years of operation.[7][16] The Southern Hempstead Branch Railroad was incorporated on July 1, 1875 as a reorganization of the New York and Hempstead, and the Southern began operating it shortly thereafter.[17] It was however closed permanently in May 1879, since Hempstead was already served adequately from the north (effectively the LIRR's current Hempstead Branch).[18]
Acquisition by the LIRR
On January 26, 1876, the Poppenhusens acquired the LIRR. The line beyond Bushwick to Williamsburg was abandoned February 26, making the line to Bushwick a branch; passenger trains operated over a new connection into the LIRR's
However, the LIRR entered receivership in late 1877,[21] and the Southern was reorganized on November 20, 1879 as the Brooklyn and Montauk Railroad,[22] The Brooklyn and Montauk opened an extension from Patchogue to Eastport to connect to the LIRR's Sag Harbor Branch in 1881, and on October 5, 1889 it was merged into the LIRR.[22]
The majority of the Southern is still intact; only its Hempstead Branch, Bushwick-Williamsburg line, and Far Rockaway Branch west of Hammels have been abandoned. The Far Rockaway Branch from Far Rockaway to Hammels has been part of the New York City Subway's IND Rockaway Line since 1956.[23]
References
- KiB), May 2004 Edition
- ^ a b c Ron Ziel and George H. Foster, Steel Rails to the Sunrise, ©1965
- ^ KiB), June 2004 Edition
- KiB), June 2004 Edition
- ^ KiB), June 2004 Edition
- ^ KiB), June 2004 Edition
- ^ a b c d Peter Ross, A History of Long Island From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time, History of the Long Island Railroad, 1903
- ^ Map showing the route & connections of the Central Rail Road Extension Company of Long Island, 1873
- ^ KiB), January 2005 Edition
- ^ KiB), February 2005 Edition
- ^ Craige & Company's 1870 Southside Railroad of Long Island Map (Arrt's Arrchive)
- ^ KiB), January 2005 Edition
- ^ The South Side RR of LI(Unofficial LIRR History Website)[usurped]
- ^ West Hempstead Line map, 1873[usurped]
- ^ KiB), February 2005 Edition
- KiB), March 2005 Edition
- KiB), February 2005 Edition
- ^ Felix Reifschneider, History of the Long Island Railroad, 1925, reprinted winter 2001 in The Third Rail
- KiB), April 2005 Edition
- ^ AECOM USA (January 2018). "Lower Montauk Branch Passenger Rail Study" (PDF). p. 4.
- KiB), April 2005 Edition
- ^ a b Interstate Commerce Commission, Valuation Report, Long Island Railroad Archived January 12, 2002, at archive.today
- ^ Freeman, Ira Henry (June 28, 1956). "Rockaway Trains to Operate Today" (PDF). The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 20, 2022. Retrieved June 29, 2015.