Possible Reactivation of the Wading River Branch?

If you know the Port Jefferson Branch, then, chances are you know that it ends in Port Jefferson. But, did you know it actually originally ran to Wading River? Yes, you heard that correctly, originally Port Jefferson was an intermediate point along a very little-used branch line along the North Shore into Wading River. 

The branch originally opened in 1893 as a short 10-mile extension of the "North Shore Branch" to Wading River, with intermediate stops in Miller Place, Rocky Point, and Shoreham. It was originally supposed to eventually continue and rejoin the Main Line at either Riverhead or Calverton, but eventually closed in 1938 instead due to a hurricane and ridership dropped off significantly after it.

Map of the old Wading River Branch

Rocky Point station (Photo: Trains Are Fun)

I believe that once the LIRR eventually electrifies out to Port Jefferson, they should study reopening the line back out to Wading River. It would require them to pretty much rebuild the line from scratch, as all of the tracks are gone, but most of the right-of-way had been sold to LIPA (Long Island Power Authority) to run their powerlines so they could in theory reopen it.  There's also a rail trail there but they could restore a two-track line while keeping the bikepath.

The line would continue to have intermediate stations in Shoreham, Rocky Point, and Miller Place, along with an added stop in Mount Sinai.  I firmly believe an added station in Mount Sinai would be worthwhile, as Mount Sinai has pretty much the same population as Miller Place does, and I see a lot of intra-island/reverse-peak service opportunities as there's quite a bit of medical employment centers out in this area. In fact, I wrote the first part of this post while at my annual eye-doctor appointment in Miller Place! The area has grown quite a bit since when it was abandoned and many believe it could definitely support rail service again.

Miller Place Station (Photo: Trains Are Fun)

If they were to reopen the line, I think a 2-car shuttle (like they do currently on the Greenport line) every hour or so between Wading River and Port Jeff would be sufficient. It takes about 20 minutes for a train to complete the trip and since the line is so short that if they double-tracked, delays would be infrequent so they could probably only need two sets to run hourly-off-peak service with maybe some thru-service to Hicksville, Jamaica, and Hunterspoint Ave during peak times.

And, I've had this odd dream that seams to have taken place 20-25 years from now when C3s have been replaced and Alstom multilevels are the norm in which I'm on a train, headed towards Wading River, at around 8am and I'm travelling on a C3. I think once the LIRR gets the new equipment, instead of retiring the C3s they could run a couple sets of them on this line to live out the last couple of years before real retirement. This would save the newer equipment for the busy Montauk Branch and for the East of Ronkonkoma and Oyster Bay lines and would allow the C3s to run a very easy short slow branch line before full retirement.

Wading River station

In conclusion, while I doubt the Wading River Branch will ever see the light of day again, at least not any time, now you know it did exist, and that they could possibly study it to bring it back one day.

The LIRR's Named Trains

A while back I received a couple of older Montauk Branch timetables from back in the 80s and one thing I realized is just how many similarities there were to our schedules in terms of service patterns.

I decided the best way to display these old relics is to list out each one's name, when it ran, and it's departure/arrival time. Now, there are two sets of trains I was able to group them into with the first one being trains that ran only to/or ended before World War 2, and the second group being ones that ran into the MTA years after the MTA was formed in 1966. I hope this makes it slightly easier to distrugish them.

Before I start, I’d also like to say that I cannot guarantee accuracy on these trains. While I tried to factcheck, I cannot guarantee that everything said about each of these trains, specifically pre-World War 2 is fully accurate. This is due to their being limited material to work with, and little timetable evidence. You must remember that most of these trains ran over 100 years ago. I included as much information about each train as I can find.

Named Trains - Pre World War 2:

"The Greenport Express" - Summer Friday-only from New York to Greenport, all parlor- car, left New York at 4:01pm, made Jamaica then ran nonstop to Calverton, before stopping at Aquebogue and all stops to Greenport arriving there at 6:48pm.

Inside parlor car from Greenport

"The Block Island Express" - Summer Friday-only from Long Island City to Montauk via the Montauk Branch with connection to ferry to Block Island.

“Cannon Ball” - “The Cannonball” is old remnant of the old Summer Friday-only all-parlor car “Cannon Ball” train which ran from New York to Manorville, where the train split in half with one portion going to Greenport and the other to Montauk.

“The East Moriches Special” - Summer Saturday-only train from Long Island City to East Moriches. Likely targeted for fisherman.

“The Fisherman’s Special” - April-October-only train from Long Island City to Canoe-Place and Montauk. Left early in the morning to allow a full day for fisherman. Ran to Canoe Place in April, then made an added stop in Montauk in May. Interestingly, on the return trip, they actually provided a dedicated railway express agency car to store and ice the newly-caught fish. Isn’t that neat. Another thing to note is that I didn't include the actual dates these trains ran as they’re so unreliable.

Fisherman's Special (Photo: Trains Are Fun)

“The Hampton Express” - Summer-only train from New York to Montauk, left Penn Station at 9:49am, arrived Montauk at 1:40pm

“The Long Island Seabreeze” - Sunday-only train from New York to Montauk with boat connection to New London

“The Montauk Express” - Summer-only train from Montauk to Long Island City

“The Montauk Special” - Summer Friday-only train from Pittsburgh to Montauk via New York (2:05pm) making Southampton and Montauk only arriving at 4:05pm. Return-trip left Montauk at 7:45am, made Southampton, before New York at 10:30am.

“The Moriches Special” - Summer Saturday-only train from Long Island City to East Moriches, later renamed “East Moriches Special”

“The New York Express” - Ran westbound from Montauk to New York, left Montauk 2:06pm, and made all local stops to Patchogue (besides Golf Grounds), before Jamaica and New York arriving at 6:12pm.

Interior of push-pull parlor cars (Photo: MTA)

“The Patchogue Express” - Summer-only train from Long Island City to Patchogue.

“The Patchogue Express (Brooklyn Section)” - Summer-only train from Flatbush Avenue to Patchogue, originally “The Patchogue Special”.

“The Saturday Special” - Saturday-only train from New York to Montauk/Greenport. It was then split into two trains, “The Peconic Bay Express” which went to Greenport and “The Shinnecock Express” which left Penn Station at 12:55pm, then ran non-stop to Speonk before making all local stops to Montauk arriving there at 4:25pm.

 (Photo: Richard Glueck/Trains Are Fun)

"The Shelter Island Express" - Summer Friday-only, extra-fare train from Long Island City to Greenport.

“The South Shore Express” - First-class, all-parlor car train from New York to Montauk

“The South Shore Limited” - Little is known other than it running from Long Island City to Eastport via the Montauk Branch.

“The Special Limited” - Summer Friday-only, all-first class train from Long Island City to Montauk. Originally known as "The Hamptons Limited".

The Sunrise Special in 1927

"The Sunrise Special" - Summer-only, all-first-class, extra-fare train from Long Island City to Montauk on Fridays, and back on Mondays. 

Let’s now take a look at trains that ran after World War 2. These named trains are some of my favorites.

Named Trains - Post World War 2:

Railfan Extra w/Parlor Cars (Trains Are Fun)

"The Hampton Express" - Summer Friday-only train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, left HPA at 3:24pm and arriving into Montauk at 6:13pm

"The Cannon Ball" - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, which left Hunterspoint Avenue at 4:12pm, made Jamaica, then Westhampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Montauk arriving at 6:59pm.

“The Sunrise Special” - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from from Jamaica, which left Jamaica at 6:13pm then ran nonstop to Westhampton, then making Hampton Bays and all local stops to Montauk, arriving at 8:50pm.

The Friday Hamptons timetables were revamped in the 1980s, and by the end of 1989, they looked more like this, 

"The Hampton Express" - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, which left Hunterspoint Avenue at 2:07pm, made Jamaica, before operating non-stop east to Westhampton before making all local stops to Montauk besides Southampton Campus, arriving in Montauk at 4:50pm.

 (Photo: Retired Railfan Horn Guy)

"The Montauk Light" - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, which left Hunterspoint Avenue at 4:12pm, making Jamaica, Westhampton, Southampton, Bridgehampton, East Hampton, and Montauk, arriving in Montauk at 6:38pm. This literally ran on the Cannonball's schedule and I guess this was the replacement name for the Cannonball during this time. It's unfortunate that such a great train name "The Montauk Light" had to be used to replace the most famous name of them all. 

“The Sunrise Special” - Summer Friday-only parlor-car train from from Jamaica, which left Jamaica at 6:13pm then ran nonstop to Westhampton, then making Hampton Bays and all local stops to Montauk, arriving at 8:50pm.

"The South Shore Express" - Summer Friday-only 7:05pm parlor-car train from Jamaica to Montauk making Bay Shore, Sayville, Patchogue, Mastic-Shirley, Westhampton, Hampton Bays, and all local stops to Montauk arriving around 9:40pm.

"The Cannonball" - Summer Sunday-only 6:30pm parlor-car train from Montauk making East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Southampton, before Westhampton and operating non-stop to Jamaica arriving at 8:50pm. 

 

“The Beachcomber” - Summer Sunday-only 8:30pm parlor-car train from Montauk making East Hampton, Bridgehampton, and Southampton, before Westhampton and operating non-stop to Jamaica arriving at 10:50pm.

“The Wall St. Special” - And last but not least, my personal favorite, the Wall St Special which was the 7:00am Summer Monday-only parlor service from Montauk to Jamaica which made all local stops to Westhampton before Jamaica. This train still runs to this day except it’s not called this anymore and it makes more local stops unfortunately.

And finally, let's take a look at the current named trains that still exist to this day starting with the famous Cannonball train from Penn Station to Montauk.

Current Named Trains:

"The Cannonball" - Summer Friday-only from Penn Station to Montauk, departing New York at 4:07pm, arriving in Montauk at 6:56pm.

"The Cannonball West" - Summer Sunday-only from Montauk to Penn Station, departing Montauk at 6:21pm, arriving into New York at 9:10pm. Note that it's no longer noted as this on the timetable.

UNOFFICIAL -"The Advance Cannonball" - Summer Friday-only from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk, departing Hunterspoint at 1:11pm, arriving in Montauk at 4:14pm.

And that concludes the list. I hope that the LIRR will make an effort to bring back more of the old train names, especially as they get new diesel equipment and can improve service east of Babylon. It pays tribute to those who spent years working on the railroad, and pays tribute to all the expansive history the LIRR has had through it's three decades in operation! This is something I'll work in on my later versions on my Montauk Branch/South Fork reworked timetables.

While researching for this post, I realized how much I wish I could go back in time and see these all parlor-car trains flow down the Montauk Branch myself. If you study the actual timetables, you'll notice that a lot of the trains that ran back 100 years ago from today still run to this day under similar schedules. It's crazy to think that the same trains people rode 100 years ago still exist to this day. I don't know whether to say that's a good thing or not!

As always, if you have any questions/comments/thoughts/suggestions/etc, feel free to leave a comment down below, I'd like to keep this list accurate so if I forgot any please let me know!

Interlocking Walkthrough: JJD

Today we'll be checking out the interlocking in Mastic-Shirley. This interlocking is known as JJD, and is a relatively simple interlocking consisting of a pair of switches forming a passing siding, similar to many of the others out here on the Montauk Branch. While it's pretty simple, that doesn't mean it doesn't get a good bit of use and this is one of the more well-used interlockings on the Montauk Branch with a parade of scheduled meets.

Train waiting on passing siding. (Photo: MrMaster767)

Seen here is a train waiting on the passing siding. This meet was the common feet between trains 2706 and 2707, which now continue to meet here around 1pm as 8 and 13. This siding gets a decent amount of use as trains 47 and 46 and 26 and 49 also meet here in addition to trains 2 and 3. 

On weekends, trains 6006 and 6001 meet here around 8:30am, followed by #6054 and #6037 around 12:19pm, #6038 and in the summer time, #6009 around 4:00pm, #6040 and #6019 around 9:25pm, and finished by #6014 and #6049 around 11:40pm at night.

As you may be able to tell in the photo below, the siding is 12-cars long, and the reason why they did this was because it needs to be able to accommodate the long Summer Hamptons trains as well.

It's controlled by BABYLON tower which has controlled it ever since PD tower closed in 1980.

Addressing the LIRR's summer beach services, especially off the South Fork

Through this year's summer schedule changes, the LIRR continues the trend of bringing little to feed summer ridership, something which has been growing rapidly in the last several years.

When they opened East Side Access, instead of looking for ways to improve off-peak travel options for the average traveler they continued to provide the same old hourly headways on the "minor" branches. Instead of looking to improve the single most growing area of ridership on the railroad, they instead continued to overlook the diesel branches, and not try to find ways to rework the schedule to benefit more commuters and leisure travelers alike.

If you've been a regular reader of the site, then you'll know that I talk a lot about summer service on the South Fork and all the improvements that can be made. And while I'll be honest and say the LIRR does provide a pretty good selection on the South Fork, there's still a lot that can be done with existing equipment to help with the extreme South Fork crowding. However, in today's post, I want to focus on the LIRR's disapointing summer service, specifically out on the North Fork and Long Beach, areas that both can see much more improvement then what can be seen on the South Fork, but continued to be pretty much ignored outright. In a future post, I'll be detailing exactly what improvements can be made to summer service on the South Fork, as well.

Long Beach

One of the more aggravating parts that have been continued in this year's summer schedules is summer service on the Long Beach Branch. 

This year, they once again changed the departure times of westbound Long Beach Branch trains on weekends, this time they changed it to :38 past the hour. Then, they made the move to have the only westbound express train to serve Long Beach depart at 4:28pm, which makes no sense since there's only a 10 minute gap between trains.

And, to be honest, this is one area the LIRR can actually do a lot to improve. Summer conditions on the Montauk Branch are kinda set in stone until the LIRR receives more equipment, and while I don't mean they can't make any improvements, it's very limited in what they can do. However, the same can't be said with the Long Beach Branch as there's a surplus of electric equipment that just sits around in yards on weekends, and during the middays when people are most traveling to the beach.

 Example of seasonal Long Beach service

And Long Beach ridership is really at the point where it could sustain half-hourly service. Far Rockaway Branch ridership is roughly half of what Long Beach sees, yet it receives the same plain-old hourly service. It’s almost at the point where the Long Beach Branch could warrant an upgrade to half-hourly service, at least during the summer months and during the winter for winter shopping from May to September. To be honest, the LIRR really should think of investinf

The LIRR likes to use the excuse that they can’t provide any more trains into Penn Station, forgetting that they just built an over $11 billion dollar new terminal, also located in the heart of Manhattan. While Grand Central may not be located in downtown, it's still a busy area and I'm pretty sure with all those subway and bus connections it would be well-used. 

I’ve heard many people who’d prefer to use Grand Central in order to get out to the beach, and I think it could be a popular service in both directions. I think hourly Long Beach-GCT trains during the peak direction on summer weekends could actually be a decently popular service and they could try that for a summer. They have enough equipment to do it, why not give it a try?

North Fork

Similarly overlooked, the new schedules continue bring very little to the North Fork. Stuck with the long forgotten and overlooked scoot, the non-electrified Main Line receives less service than it did 40 years ago. While I can't blame the railroad for not adding too many more trains, considering they have failed to install PTC, therefore, they have to run very limited schedules on it, I do blame them for getting out of installing PTC in the first place and I believe they can still make some improvements to at least make this branch "workable" until further improvements can be made along the branch.

In it's current state, this line literally has no potential to grow. Stuck with one lousy AM peak train, that departs Greenport before even the rooster wakes up at 5:21am, running even earlier than the first peak train from Montauk, and it's already a bad start considering if they shift this train back another 25 minutes or so, it'll be of at least some use to people, getting into Penn slightly later. 

In order to make use of the little equipment and space we have, I believe after arriving at Ronkonkoma, it should immediately turn around and head out to Yaphank, and then represent another peak run back to Ronkonkoma, to at least provide a later option for people. It would then head out, once again, a bit later, as the normal morning train to Greenport. This will make the early train to Greenport a bit later, hopefully of slightly more use to summer travelers. While none of this is ideal, until we install PTC, get more equipment, this will at least make use of the little infrastructure we have. We should also convert the early, early morning equipment train out to Greenport to revenue service, as while I believe few would use it, it would be a zero-cost improvement and we should not ever be deadheading on this line, zero excuses, and hey, it could be considered a fisherman's train. Who knows!

And not to mention that if you want to spend a daytrip out in Greenport on a weekday, the options are extremely limited. You could either take a 5:40am out of Penn, and connect with the 7:25am out of Greenport, getting you there around 9am. And while I'm not doubting that train is useful for certain reverse-peak customers, with the limited equipment we have, it should be geared more towards summer crowds on weekdays and it should be really shifted back about an hour and a half in order to provide a better option. And while it would deny an early reverse-peak option, reverse-peak travel out there is so limited anyway that it would do much more good than it would do harm to run it later. 

I was planning on taking a daytrip out to Greenport today, Juneteenth, but since the options are so limited with a 7:25am departure out of Ronkonkoma, which is way to early! I'm just going to go this weekend instead since there's more options. It sometimes feels like the LIRR is almost sabotaging summer service altogether on this branch.

(Photo: MTA)

I mean look it's getting to the point where it was easier to get to/from Greenport 62 years ago then it is now. And if in railroad, service now is worse than 62 years ago, then that should mean there's a huge problem. Take a look at how service was provided in the 1980s and compare it to today, service then was much better structured and convenient, and that's with true busses to supplement it! 

Summer Fridays

Continuing the trend that they've done for years, the LIRR continues to provide a second eastbound train to Greenport on Friday afternoons in the summer (extending the train that would otherwise turn at Riverhead), and use that opportunity to swap out the equipment. When the second eastbound train gets out there, the crews swap equipment with the old set going back to Jamaica Storage Yard to be refueled, serviced, while the new set begins it's run on the Scoot. 

(Photo: The LIRR Today)

There's nothing wrong with that. However, the LIRR runs that second set of equipment all the way from Jamaica Storage Yard to Ronkonkoma, empty. The LIRR could easily take this opportunity to provide an express run out to Greenport, for zero cost, and not only would this for the first time in years provide a direct express train out to the North Fork, but it would also most likely take some load off the Ronkonkoma Branch, which it's trains are quite busy on Fridays at this time of day. 

The truth is... they should've done that years ago when they first ran that second equipment out but instead they continued to do it this way. Of all the times they could provide a direct ride out there, this is one of the best and most popular times of the week to provide time savings to these travelers. 

I mean look, I think we can all agree Montauk is better, but how come Montauk gets hourly service out to there, yet, Greenport, on the other hand, doesn't even a direct train, when it could using already available equipment. 

With a branch like this that has so little service opportunities, the LIRR should jump at any idea to improve service, especially at no-cost to riders. This would give people a faster ride and would take stress of busy Ronkonkoma trains on summer Fridays, and would at least make it look like they tried to improve service.

Now, I will be showing off what I believe the LIRR can do with the North Fork more long-term in a future post, but, for now, I think there's a lot the LIRR can do to improve service just a bit.

Boland's Landing

If you were asked to name every LIRR station, the one you’d probably be most likely to leave out is Boland’s Landing. To be honest, I wouldn’t even be surprised if you haven’t heard of it in the first place. Anyways, Boland's Landing is one of the two lesser-known, and lesser-served employee stops, with it's eastern partner, Hillside, serving the much larger Hillside Maintenance Complex, and therefore, seeing more riders and many more trains then it's eastern partner.

Boland's Landing, which exists with the purpose of serving the Morris Park diesel shops, is one of the oddest, and most obscure of stations on the LIRR. Firstoff, unlike any of the other stations on the railroad, including, Hillside, it doesn't have an actual concrete platform, as instead, it has a wood platform, similarly to Hollis. This station is very lowly-used and since all of the people using it are employees anyway, it's not the end of the world that it's still just a wooden slab. Secondly, It's also the only station on the railroad to only see service on weekdays (I guess excluding Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City). 

Thirdly, if you go onto TrainTime and try to buy a ticket/plan a trip to Boland's Landing, you can't do so. This is unusual and this is only seen at this station as even at Hillside where you can't buy tickets, you can still plan a trip there. Therefore, the only way to even see what trains stop there would be to go onto the timetable pdf itself.

Fourthly, Boland's Landing is the one and only flag stop on the railroad. Since so few trains are actually scheduled to bother stopping there, it's a general rule of thumb that an engineer will watch and if he or she sees someone on the platform they'll stop the train and pick them up. This isn't the case at Boland's sister station, Hillside, where trains must stop there, and this is a big NO-NO anywhere else in the system, and, this is a unique trait to Boland's Landing. By the way, you'll be surprised to know that that photo is the only known photograph taken directly on the platform.

And last but not least, fifthly, Boland's Landing doesn't properly appear on the M7's ASI system as when the annoucement "Boland's Landing" is said, it actually appears as Bolands-Employees, and that's an interesting little quirk about the ASI system. Boland's Landing is a 2-car platform, making it the shortest platform (in electric territory from what I know) and the doors typically only get keyed open in the first car anyway, so it's really, really short too!

The LIRR does however publish the schedule for this station and for the other employee stop, Hillside and while passengers aren't allowed to board/detrain here, it's a great tool to pick a train that may actually stop here so you can check it out. Just note that this timetable is updated to when this post was written.

I believe there may be talks to reopen the Woodhaven station which is located undergound near this location, and that may spell the end to this station, I'm just theorizing here, but if that were to be the case that would spell the end of flag stops on the Long Island Railroad. 

Montauk or Mainline? Which is it?

If your a regular (or semi-regular) Montauk Branch rider such as myself, and you take through trains to Jamaica, or further west, then you may not be able to help wonder why they sometimes take one route and some take another. This is a unique feature of the Montauk Branch that, in disaster, gives it one line of defense against extensive delays that could occur on either of it's possible Montauk Branch route options, the rest of Montauk Branch itself, or the Central Branch/Main Line. In an event of a disaster, Montauk Branch trains get the little known advantage of being able to "advert disaster" by choosing the other and completely bypass the chaos. It's rare that in the LIRR is there a time where you can take two routes to get somewhere, and taking about the same amount of time, either way.

Passengers like me who travel on the Montauk Branch east of Babylon get not only 1 or two routes, but three routes that their train can take. Westbound trains can either diverge just west of Babylon onto the Central Branch, taking them up to the Main Line, allowing them to flow through communities such as Westbury, Mineola, New Hyde Park, and through the eastern layer of Queens before coming into Jamaica, or, they can travel along the South Shore flowing through all those flowing communites, at near 80, if they were to travel this way, once they get to Valley Stream, they get two options to get them to Jamaica as they can either take the Montauk Branch (via St.Albans), which is the route they typically take, or if there's some sort of service disruption, they can take the Atlantic Branch, getting them into Jamaica around the same time. This gives Montauk Branch riders a secret advantage that wouldn't be seen on the other branches, as if there was issues on the Main Line, the other two diesel branches would be suffocated, and meanwhile, we'd be able to sail through.

With only a couple of exceptions, almost every Montauk Branch train can travel via the Main Line or Montauk Branch. With the exceptions being westbound trains 35, 37, and 7, and the eastbound ones being 76 and 80, all other eastbound trains can easily take either line. While generally speaking the LIRR plans out which trains take which, and trains typically stick to that order, in an event of a service disruption, track work, or some other planned/unplanned event, these trains could take either line. This allows the LIRR to avoid having to substitute. in other ways by giving them two options to get to Jamaica. This also gives them much more rush hour capacity as this allows them to have two options to run trains and typically given the third track, the LIRR tends to run the rush hour trains via the Main Line as there's more capacity up there (the only exception to this is train #5 which typically takes the Main Line, most likely due to the higher concentration of trains on the Main Line at that time.) I complied a document showing the train number and which route these Montauk Branch trains are scheduled to take on a normal day.

Montauk Branch Train Routings

With things like a railroad, there's rarely as an always, but generally, these trains stick to these routes. Of the trains that deviate their scheduled routing, I'd say the most common one must be train 8 to Montauk, which of them, most commonly gets deviated as #8MTKXX and runs via the Montauk Branch. In terms of the train that most sticks to it's routing, that award almost definitely has to be given to the Cannonball, which has done a better job sticking to it's Main Line routing then some of the trains that stop on there in the first place! 

I didn't include weekend trains, as I can't access their routes on a weekday, but generally, more of them then not take the Main Line. Still, there's a decent selection that take the Montauk Branch and even more so then on weekdays. I've noticed that more of the Sunday Hamptons trains have been taking the Main Line as last year only #6015 really did, but I guess this year they changed that as they become more comfortable with the third track. If you really dive in, you'll notice a couple of patterns, such as these trains taking the Montauk Branch at night in almost every case. My best guess for this is because generally taking the Montauk Branch is the better choice, it's slightly faster, there's no grade crossings involved, etc, etc, but during the day, given the high velocity of local trains on the Babylon Branch, it's difficult to get these trains up to speed when they could sail down the Main Line 3rd track.

As far as distances go, if trains travel via the Montauk Branch, it takes them 27.3 miles, meanwhile by taking the Babylon Branch, your traveling 28.1 miles. Generally, since it's a slightly shorter distance, and the speed limit is higher for a longer portion on the Babylon Branch, trains taking the Montauk Branch can generally make the trip 3 or so minutes shorter. In my opinion, the Main Line is more prune to delays, as more trains run on it, and there's also the grade crossings to deal with on the Central Branch, but, the Babylon Branch, during rush hours, can be much more tightly packed then the Main Line, and if there's one delay, then the parade of trains behind it will be impacted instead of being able to sail by on the third track. There have been multiple times that when trains have taken the Main Line they've been caught up with some short of shenanigans on the Main Line when if they took the Babylon Branch it wouldn't of been an issue, but, oh well. 

Montauk is typically the preferred routing, but the LIRR tends to gravitate towards the Main Line and I don't think there's truly a better option, I think it depends on certain circumstances such as how many trains are running and if there's any congestion or not. 

Massapequa Pocket Track

In today's post, we'll take a look at one of the most vital pieces of infrastructure on one of the LIRR's busiest lines- the Massapequa Pocket Track. Following the start of the Massapequa Station Rehabilitation project, the LIRR also began a project to build a 12-car "pocket track" just east of the Massapequa Station. In railroad terms, a pocket track is basically a storage track where trains can short-turn, so that they can more easily run trains that start mid-branch. 

This project was one of the many projects the MTA misjudged how long it would take to complete, therefore, it came out 4 years late. But hey, in my opinion, for a "megaproject" like this that only required total of three switches, five signals, and 1,000 feet of track, 4 years late can't be too bad! It ended up taking 8 years and over $19.6 million to complete. The project was constantly disregarded as construction for ESA was prioritized, making it difficult to get it done.

 (Photo: The LIRR Today)

Since the 1970s, the LIRR has operated "zone service" on the electrified portion of the South Shore. This broke the south shore up into four "zones".

• Babylon, Lindenhurst, Copiague and Amityville
• Massapequa Park, Massapequa, and Seaford
• Wantagh, Bellmore, and Merrick
• Freeport, Baldwin, and Rockville Centre.

Generally, during peak periods, express trains would make stops in one or two of these zones (ex. an express train making Babylon, Lindenhurst, Copiague, Amityville then stopping at Wantagh, Bellmore, and Merrick before going to Jamaica). And, during the peak of the peak where service is needed most frequently, many of these trains would run express after there intial zone (ex. the old #1013, which was the 7:11am out of Massapequa Park making Massapequa and Seaford only.) 

Since all four of these station groups had similar ridership levels, it made it very easy to provide a reliable skip-stop service and this made it easy to provide reliable service to everyone while still providing an assortment of express runs to all customers along the different segments along the branch.

However, there was one problem that made it a pain to short-turn trains, no place to store them. Given that there was no "pocket track" on the line, and only a pair of crossovers just east of the terminal of the line plus an extra set between Rockville Centre and Baldwin, it  made it a real pain to turn them, and unless they wanted to turn them on the Main tracks which is something they rarely did as it held up the entire line, this meant that they had to run all the Babylon zones trains all the way to Babylon Yard to turn them, and this meant for it being even more difficult to run trains during rush hours. Besides two trains (the old 1001 out of Massapequa Park and the old 1021 out of Wantagh), which both turned on crossovers along the branch. The only other exceptions to this were Freeport, which has a little yard, but under the current schedule, most trains don't start there anyway.

While it may not seam to bad to run an extra 10-15 minutes to the yard facility, during rush hours when equipment is constrained, that may make the difference between being able to make a second useful run back into the city or from the city or not, and either way, it is much better use of crew resources then to have them be paid an extra 20 minutes to deadhead to Babylon. In addition, during service disruptions that impact the line east of Wantagh, without the pocket track, rush hour operations as a whole would be jeopardized. By feeding the entire South Shore from one yard, it creates the potential for backups and congestion at the station, something that could impact revenue service as well as equipment trains.

However, with the elimination of zone service on the branch, this simplified service patterns to include two portions during rush hours:

• Rockville Centre, Baldwin, Freeport, Merrick, Bellmore, and Wantagh
• Wantagh, Seaford, Massapequa Park, Massapequa, Amityville, Copiague, Lindenhurst, and Babylon 

And while this was good in some ways, and offered good load distribution during a good portion of the rush hour, I don't totally agree with zoning it this way for the entire rush hour,  but that's a topic for another post.  

See how tracks are platform-length apart? 

While if I were running the railroad, I would've personally chose Wantagh as it's the actual startpoint of most of the trains that use the pocket track, I do see why the LIRR chose Massapequa instead given that the tracks were platform-width apart, making it easily the most convenient as they can basically just "stick" the new track in there. It also does allow the LIRR more flexibility in where it can start trains, and since ridership tends to build up west of this point, it is a great place to start some off-peak trains, like the ones seen headed towards/from Grand Central on  weekends, and since the trip is only 6 minutes I think between the pocket track and Wantagh, it doesn't add too much time.

Great photo of the pocket track by The LIRR Today

You may think that pretty much every LIRR train that ends in Merrick, Wantagh, or Massapequa uses the pocket track, however that's actually not the case, as there's actually more than enough instances where this isn't the case. You'd be pretty surprised to hear that of the Babylon zone trains, in the morning, only 6 out of the 10 of them turn off the Massapequa Pocket Track, and things really aren't much better in the evening as only 

As you can see, another disappointing aspect of these ESA timetables have been the lack of reverse-peak opportunities on the South Shore. One advantage of a pocket track is the reverse-peak potential. In Babylon, many of the trains there have been stored there overnight, therefore, they aren't running in the reverse-peak direction, but, since any train that turns on the pocket track must come from somewhere west, it adds the potential to provide steady reverse-peak service, allowing for improvements, especially earlier in the rush hour.

In my opinion, Massapequa is a perfect place to turn reverse-peak trains, as it ends the main portion of reverse-peak travel along the branch. It's really not that difficult, on a two track branch, to run a train that is already running anyway add a couple of stops to it. And, they don't even have to run it local; they can have it pick up a couple of stops with another train making a couple more to speed up it's travel time, and this could even allow some of the reverse-peak Babylon-bound trains to skip some of these stops, speeding up travel times for those going to the more eastern zone.

While the service plan did offer a modest increase overall in reverse-peak service, for the busiest line, there is still lot's of improvements that can be seen, and I think this pocket track has much more potential with reverse-peak service.

In conclusion, while I think the Massapequa Pocket Track offers a lot of benefits, the LIRR needs to step up and provide even more robust peak service and a better more reliable line of reverse-peak trains to serve the riders growing needs on the busiest portion of the busiest branch of North America's busiest commuter railroad the Long Island Rail Road.