Interlocking Walkthrough: LEAD

In this interlocking walkthrough, ooof, it's been a while, we're taken across the bay to the beautiful enclave of Long Beach, home to one of the most interesting interlockings the railroad has to offer.

Diesel equipment over LEAD 

Shortly after departing Island Park, the line merges into one track before shortly passing over the LEAD drawbridge, which is over the Reynolds Channel. 

Switches

Today's post, however, will focus on the tracks themselves. The interlocking begins just east of the Long Beach grade crossing, where track 2 merges into track 1 to head east. As soon as the tracks merge, the speed limit drops to 30 mph. 

The speed limits into Long Beach are quite brutal, as southbound trains get knocked down a cab aspect signal or two because these trains are terminating, and southbound trains typically get knocked down to 15 on the bridge, and to the even worse 5 mph for the final stretch into the station. Northbound trains, are lucky enough to go on the bridge going 30.

Closeup of the drawbridge

Signals

LEAD consists of your typical Pensy-style position-light signals. 

Towers

LEAD is home to one of the LIRR's only remaining towers! LEAD Tower is a dark brick structure, seen to the side of the drawbridge. LEAD Tower exists due to the drawbridge. While they could possibly control the interlocking via Jamaica, the LIRR likes to play it safe considering when it comes to moveable bridges, it's better to have a human on site making sure there's no technical difficulties because if something malfunctioned, things would not be good.

Well, that should conclude LEAD's Interlocking Walkthrough. For those of you that follow the blog (If you do, I highly appreciate it), tomorrow will be looking futher into the LIRR's beach services (including the Long Beach Branch).

Could More Dual Modes Be A Suitable Substitute For Electrification?

In today's post, I'm going to build on yesterday's post about the Crippling State of the LIRR's Diesel Fleet, by talking more about the future of the LIRR's current diesel fleet.

In the LIRR's most recent 20-year needs assessment (which will soon be getting a post of it's own), the LIRR didn't mention anything about electrification out to Port Jefferson or Patchogue, hinting this is not coming in the next 10 or so years. They did say that they'd analyze it in the 2025-2029 capital program, suggesting it's coming.

While it wasn't mentioned in the 20-year needs assessment, the LIRR once again, for like the third capital program, did mention possible future electrification of the Main Line to Yaphank, along with capacity improvements on the Port Jefferson and Montauk branches. It seams, at least for now, that given the order of up to 66 new locomotives, they're going down the dual-mode route. Even if they weren't to electrify the Main Line to Yaphank, 66 new locomotives would be more than enough equipment to cover service on the Port Jefferson Branch, Montauk Branch, Oyster Bay Branch, and Main Line east of Ronkonkoma. They may also have enough equipment to use it as a supplement to MUs on busy trains on other electrified lines, such as an 8-car MLV set covering a busy westbound Babylon Branch train in the morning, for example.

I believe the LIRR made the right choice with replacement of it's diesel fleet. They bought enough of them to provide a comfortable level of service, where they don't have to worry about not having enough equipment, something they constantly have to deal with now, and they have a little "wiggle room" to expand. I mean, look, it's better to have extra diesels around, which could be used to supplement electric trains during events, or provide emergency service during after major catastrophes (think Long Beach after Hurricane Sandy), then to have too few when electrification projects fall through. 

I'd much rather have a couple of extras lying around, which I guarantee you they can somehow find a way to use, and even if they can't they can always lease them. Some have voice concerns about ordering too many, and then it would "come back to bite them" if they do manage to finish any electrification projects during that timeframe. To me, this is very shortsighted as given the MTA's current track record of getting things done, they typically set a release date and it typically goes over that, sometimes by even a third or half. If they are planning to electrify, then they'll have 25 years before these new locomotives are due for replacement, to finish the job. 

At this point, I think the LIRR should focus on improving service with the current fleet they've got and is getting. While electrification has and probably always will be the ideal option, as it allows for the lowest operating costs, direct service to all terminals, I believe if they truly make the best possible use out of the diesel equipment they have, then they could provide a level of service comparable to the average electric line.  Look at Metro-North, for example, which provides hourly dual-mode service to/from Poughkeepsie (besides the last train of the night from Croton-Harmon.) Those trains are constantly the most popular in the entire system, and are even more travelled than the electric trains are. If the LIRR were to adopt a similar system, they could possibly be even more successful.

I believe the main reason diesel service is so unattractive is because of the gaps. Frequencies are generally fine right now, and if they were to electrify to Patchogue and Port Jefferson, or provide dual-mode service, then they could probably provide hourly service to Port Jefferson and service every 30 minutes to Patchogue. While I believe hourly service is enough for my home section of the Montauk Branch west of Patchogue, if they were to electrify, they'd probably have to provide 30 minutes as a compensation for taking land. Plus they love to spoil this area anyway, so if there gonna electrify, you might as well let them do it. It would bring a lot to my area to have half-hourly service to points west.

Dual-Mode Fever

The massive order of 66 locomotives is more than enough to provide a baseline of hourly service from Patchogue, Oyster Bay, and Port Jefferson direct into Penn Station during pretty much all hours of the day, along with even better peak service than what is provided today. I'd say the biggest improvements would be on the East End, where they could close some of the largest gaps in service and provide more peak options. Look at Metro-North, which, like I mentioned above, provides a baseline of hourly-service to/from Poughkeepsie; that could represent service levels of Port Jefferson and Patchogue. Meanwhile, Danbury would do a great job representing Speonk and Oyster Bay (with roughly bi-hourly to/from HPA), Waterbury would represent the North Fork (with mainly shuttles to Ronkonkoma, possibly with the added bonus of a thru-train every once in a while), and Wassiac would represent service levels on the South Fork. Not only does Metro-North have considerable success with it's dual-mode operations, but, NJTransit's dual-modes are also doing a pretty good job.

If they are so popular, you may be wondering why the LIRR doesn't provide more dual-mode service now. I mean they have the equipment for it, and the demand, don't they? Well, the main reason they limit it is because they really don't have enough equipment to do so, and now that they'll have more equipment, this issue will finally be resolved.

I think the LIRR's main goal with buying these locomotives is mainly not only to expand their diesel fleet, but also to buy time to stall on electrification. Like I mentioned earlier, electrification should be the ultimate reward for these communities, as it provides a level of service that can't be seen using dual-modes, period, if the LIRR does a "free trial" using the dual-modes for 10-15 years, people of the communities in diesel territory will begin to realize the benefits, and possibly be more open to electrification.

In conclusion, yes, if the LIRR actually steps up and decides to make use of the new dual-mode locomotives to provide much-wanted dual-mode service, then, I strongly believe dual-mode service could supplement electification, at least for a little while. 

Included below is a poll. Considering it's going to be another 20-25 years or so before these new coming locomotives are replaced, I'd love to know your opinion on how far you think the LIRR will have electrified it's system by the time 2045 rolls around:

online polls

The Crippling State of the LIRR’s Diesel Fleet

When the beloved, but poorly-designed DE and DM30AC’s first rolled onto Long Island, providing seamless one-seat rides into Manhattan, along with numerous other capacity improvements, long went the tired GP38s, MP15s, and the P72 coaches from the 1950s. The new equipment was one of the LIRR’s first uniform diesel fleets, and with the advantages come the disadvantages as the LIRR then had to convert all low-level stations to high level, resulting in certain beloved, but lesser used stations (especially out on the East End) being closed for good. 

I strongly believe LIRR employees and commuters alike are much better off with the modern equipment, however, while they have their advantages, the locomotives, in particular, have long suffered from chronic reliability issues.

Reliability 

The DE/DMs are not known to be very reliable, and they had terrible teething trouble in their first couple of years of service. While things haven’t gotten to the point where replacement literally can’t be avoided, as they’ve gotten older, they’ve gotten even less reliable.

Recent MBDF (mean distance between failure) numbers have been abysmal for these trains, as they’ve gotten older they’ve gotten even less reliable. While in the last decade or so, MBDF numbers have remained pretty much at a steady rate, they’re still at a very low level. 

As you can see, MBDF numbers lie around the 20-40,000 mile mark. Obviously, things have stabilized slightly, but once again, they seam to be going slightly downhill, and as they’ve gotten older, they will continue to go down. Unfortunately, this graph I found (I can’t find the actual graph for MBDF data, I’ll have to look harder at a later time), doesn’t include the MBDF numbers for the M9s, but I can tell you that they’re numbers lie slightly above the M7s, which are very, very, very slowly starting to show age, at a very slow pace, as they are truly well-made MUs.

As you can see, while the C3’s numbers stabilized for a couple years back in 2016/17/18x they then went up, probably due to the pandemic, then they went sharply downhill following 2022, coming back to the previous state. You’d think it’s a bit odd that the C3’s would be misbehaving, as they have much few moving parts then the locomotives do, and they also don’t have an engine. 

Photo: The LIRR Today

Traditionally, diesels have had much lower MBDF’s then that is seen on MU fleets, as they actually have an engine and typically have the most moving parts. This is a trend that is seen elsewhere across the region as well. 

Capacity 

The second major disadvantage of the current diesel equipment is the fact that there is simply not enough of it. The LIRR ordered just 23 DEs, 23 DMs, and 134 C3’s, to replace a diesel fleet much bigger in size. This would go back to haunt them on summer weekends. At the time, the LIRR only ordered the bare minimum of what equipment was needed to cover the bare bone service they provided at the time, but as we’ve seen, as the communities out in diesel territory have grown significantly since then, and so as the Summer Hamptons ridership, so now we’re stuck in the situation where there’s lots of added ridership, but no way to improve service.

Photo: the_rail_commuter

These days, the LIRR needs about 88% of its fleet in regular weekday service. Yes, you heard that right, 88%! And that’s just in regular weekday service. Imagine what it would be like during the summer months, especially on summer Fridays! During regular weekday service, that leaves a very small shop margin, and that leaves very little room for error.

Obviously, the fleet is stretched very thin in regular weekday service, and when special events add demand for the diesel equipment, the LIRR starts to completely run-out of equipment. On summer Fridays, to provide summer service to the Hamptons, the LIRR is literally stretched to its absolute limits, and they must use every last resource they have and in many cases, they simply have to “Rob Peter to pay Paul”. They simply just cut cars from other trains on the Port Jefferson and Oyster Bay branches to put those cars on the evening trains to/from the Hamptons and Montauk. I’ve even seen them take even more cars from other Montauk branch trains, most notably being train 76 (the 3:10p from Jamaica to Patchogue), which I’ve noticed commonly runs one-car short at 3 cars on summer Fridays, its most popular day of the week.

Luckily, but sadly, new equipment is on the way. The LIRR ordered 44 new dual-mode locomotives from Siemens, with an option for up to 66 locomotives. I’m currently not sure if the option has been exercised- I’ve been trying to comb through the information and figure it out but I’m going to assume they did, considering if they didn’t, they’d be ordering less locomotives then they have now, therefore screwing themselves even more. But at this point, it’s anyone’s guess if they will option the 66 or not.

66 locomotives be a greatly-welcomed improvement, and while I wouldn’t say the Chargers are my number one first choice for locomotives for the LIRR, I truly like their livery, which I plan to do a separate post on soon, and they seam to be pretty promising.

Now onto the C3’s. I personally don’t want to see them replaced, and I’m dreading that day when they finally toot their final goodbyes, as these are my home cars and have consequentially became my favorite ones, too. Unlike their locomotive counterparts, they aren’t aging quite as much, and typically, coaches outlive their locomotive counterparts by about 10 years or so. Therefore, they should have another 10-15 years on them. Now, you may be wondering, if they plan to order more locomotives, but no coaches, how do they fix the capacity issues? That’s a question I’m asking myself and while there’s no official answer it seams the MTA may be trying to order more multilevels, I believe based off  NJT’s new ones, but I’m not sure. I saw a clip from the MTA that had this information, but I can’t find it anywhere and I need to see the full thing to know more.

Look, in conclusion, while I’m really going to miss the DE and DM30ACs, as I’ve grown up with them, and they are truly great locomotives despite being plagued with reliability problems. I sure em going to miss those their horns! But at the end of the day, they are getting older, and it’s getting to the point where every summer is a living hell due to their equipment failures. These locomotives are the major limiting factor as to why the LIRR can’t offer better service out in diesel territory, and that’s hurting ridership and limiting growth.

LIRR Cannonball's First Trip 2025!

Yesterday marked the official start of the LIRR's summer season.  It also marked the first journey of the very popular Cannonball Service from Penn Station to Montauk that i've been on about all week. I saw it yesterday, and quite a good engineer did we have!

Only 2 eastbound trains were delayed notably, those being trains #4 (the 8:18am from Jamaica to Montauk), and train #12 (the 1:11pm from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk). Train 12 was equipped with 10 cars, and seamed to be delayed due to overcrowding. I'm surprised a train leaving Queens at 1pm would be so popular, but I guess during the Summer, people are able to find the weirdest times to leave for vacation. I was able to see that pass by my station, only because my school had an early dismissial plan test, so I was able to get right off the bus and ride my bike up there just in time.

The Cannnonball only got into it's destination, 5 minutes late, and pretty much ran on time, which I predicted.

Many of the later eastbounds also got into Montauk 5 minutes late, probably also due to overcrowding, which is normal fact of life during the summer season.

Surprisingly, the MTA doesn't seam to have documented the official Cannonball departure (or haven't posted it yet), as they normally do, but they did document the Thursday Cannonball's, which isn't as special by any means, but it is interesting to see the crowds and the president greeting the "Hamptons-goers":

As you can see, President Free seams more excited about the Thursday Cannonball then the real Cannonball. This year, it seams people evened the loads out a bit by not just diving through the first open door they see.

If they do release the photos from the first Cannonball then I look forward to seeing that. But, even though we survived Thursday and Friday, Monday will probably be a different story. The most delays typically occur on those days, and I don’t have high hopes for an exception this year! 

Let’s hope for the best!

Late Friday Links 5/23

Happy Friday! So far it's been rather decent smooth sailing into Memorial Day weekend, as only some of the key Montauk trains ran late, and none of them ran over 12 minutes late. We'll have to see as we get further into the weekend, how things go, but I don't have high hopes and I expect a busy summer.

If you can't read the links from Newsday, just disable javascript and you'll be able to read them!

• Person Struck by Train in Amityville Thursday Morning

It was a rough Thursday morning on the Babylon Branch, as a 65 year old man was struck and killed by the 5:24 train to Grand Central east of Amityville around 5:31am

• Newsday Cannonball Article

And Newsday published an article about the "Cannonball", which if you somehow don't know is the non-stop express train from Penn Station to the Hamptons and Montauk on Friday afternoons.

• Metro-North ridership increases

Metro-North ridership is also up, an interesting trend, and no, it doesn't involve the strike, since it was the ridership from March.

Anyways, so far, like I said earlier, OTPs have been fairly steady, but we'll have to see if the LIRR can keep it together as we go through the weekend. I, for one, don't have the highest hopes, and I expect it'll pretty much be a complete repeat of last year.

There's no trackwork this weekend, but, there are some service changes in effect, and if you'd like to see them, click here! 

Have a good Memorial Day weekend!

2025 Memorial Day Weekend Delay Minutes Contest

The Cannonball Set For It’s Inaugural Debut of The Season

Tomorrow will be one of the most important days of the year for the railroad- as they get ready to transfer thousands of vacationers out to their destinations out east. Various trains serve these beachgoers, including some trains that run specifically on Fridays. Most notable of those trains, is the famous Cannonball route, which departs Penn Station at 4:07pm, runs non-stop over the 73-mile stretch to Westhampton, before making all stops to Montauk besides Hampton Bays and Amagansett, arriving in Montauk at 6:56pm.

The Cannonball is one of the LIRR's most popular trains, and the Hamptons Reserve tickets sell like hotcakes. On busy weekends like Memorial Day, Fourth of July, and Labor Day, this train sells out even faster. 

Back in the day, the LIRR used to run the train with a couple of Hamptons Reserve cars. It gave you special perks to buy the ticket such as reserved seating, and snacks and drinks along the way. Following the pandemic, they quietly discontinued this service.

Due to the popularity of this train, you may think it has a relatively bad punctuality. However, [Gavin clears his throat], unlike certain trains (if you know, you know), this train was actually very well-scheduled, and is doing much better than it was pre-pandemic. It's still almost as crowded, but it generally runs on time. Even though it runs express through Amagansett and Hampton Bays, it still takes the longest to get from Westhampton to Montauk, considering it's padded considering it has to make double stops.

Typically, The Cannonball is known for being filled with rich folks heading out to the Hamptons for a nice vacation, possibly in their houses out in the Hamptons.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to go see it at Penn Station, but I may be able to have a buddy go scope out at Penn Station to watch it's inaugural departure, so I can get photos for you guys, but I don't know. However, I will be seeing it at my home station, as it flies by. As I like to say, the Cannonball flying by is one of the official start of summer for me (if school letting out isn't!) 

Photo: Trains Are Fun

If anyone is planning on riding the Cannonball tomorrow, I'd love to hear how it goes!

Transfer at Huntington

 If you've ever ridden the LIRR's Port Jefferson Branch, east of Huntington, then there's a 75% chance that you've had to transfer at one of the LIRR's key intermediate stations and terminal- Huntington.

If you saw my post about capacity at Huntington, you'll know that Huntington isn't the most ideal place to serve as the terminal of the literal second busiest branch of the busiest commuter railroad in North America, but at this point, we're stuck with it.

Most of the off-peak Port Jefferson Branch "scoots" end/begin in Huntington, as the LIRR doesn't want to spend the money to send the equipment all the way to Jamaica, or more ideally, Hunterspoint Av/Long Island City. This is a common theme found on the LIRR, as on the Montauk Branch, many trains from Speonk and Patchogue end in Babylon, offload, then head back east. You also see this with the Greenport Scoot at Ronkonkoma. While many prefer the direct trains over the scoots, in many cases, all the transfer requires is a "across the platform transfer". All that involves is literally getting off the short-turn train, and in most cases, the connection is already to go, or is already arriving, then you board and after a brief wait as senior citizens and people with disabilities board, your on your way. In fact, in my opionion, I prefer this model, in most cases, over the "transfer at Jamaica" model, as at least on my home branch, at Babylon, your almost guaranteed a very speedy transfer as the electric train is typically already ready, same for the diesel in the other direction.

However, Port Jefferson Branch riders aren't afforded this same, speedy transfer as Huntington is set up a little bit different. At Huntington, you disembark from the diesel train (if your heading towards the city), then you stand on the platform while they clear the train of any stow aways (those who fell asleep by accident), before the train is given the clear to leave the platform and head towards North Side Track for storage. Following that literally seconds after the diesel clears the platform, the electric train leaves South Side Storage track to come into the station to take those passengers, before heading off on it's merry way towards Manhattan. All of this isn't speedy, and usually takes an average of 7 minutes.

The same can be said in the eastbound direction, with the electric train coming in, dumping the brakes, then is cleared of passengers before departing a couple minutes later as the diesel train enters the platform to pick up the eastbound passengers.

The LIRR Today has a video showing the move; pretty much perfectly, from a commuters POV and it pretty much sums it up perfectly.

The disadvantage to this type of transfer is it's not only more painful, but also much slower as it's typically afforded 7 minutes in the timetable, meanwhile transfers at Ronkonkoma and Montauk typically take only 4-5 minutes.

There's no real solution to this annoying transfer. It would be very expensive to reconfigure the interlocking to make it a better-transfer station, and, while it would make it faster to turn trains, it really wouldn't bring that much of a benefit beyond that, and with Port Jefferson Branch electrification to Port Jefferson likely around the corner, it's even less unlikely.

As I said in Capacity Issues at Huntington, Huntington wasn't designed as a terminal and does a very poor job at being one. However, one must give it credit for being able to terminate pretty much all the trains on the second busiest branch on the railroad, and doing so in a rather speedy manor. That's something that's pretty impressive, esspecially considering how poor it was designed.

So, until the electrification occurs, we're stuck with this setup. One that's clumsy, but I think we'll make do until they finally electrify this branch. The only solution I can think of is to extend these trains to Hicksville, where they can connect with Ronkonkoma express trains, providing faster runs and across the platform transfers. I've highlighted this in my timetable project, and the Port Jefferson Branch timetable showing how this would work will come out Friday morning.

LIRR Memorial Day Service 2025

As we approach Memorial Day, the day many call the unofficial start of summer (at least for me, when the Cannonball blasts past my station), and the day we honor those who died for our country, and also the day that railfans such as myself see the first runs of all the westbound Montauk trains coming from the Hamptons and Fire Island. 

This time, however, I didn’t get to adding Metro-North service changes, as I was quite busy, and I just couldn’t scrape up the time, but either way the LIRR’s Memorial Day changes are actually much more interesting for once.  On Monday, the LIRR and MNR will be operating on a holiday schedule. Service is as follows:

Friday, May 23, 2025:

• The LIRR will operate on a regular weekday schedule. 
• Friday, May 23, 2025 marks the first Friday in which the typical Hamptons reserve eastbound trains: trains 10 (the express 11:41a from Jamaica to Montauk), 12 (the 1:11p from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk), and 16, the Cannonball (4:07pm from Penn to Montauk) will run.
• In addition, train 66, the 12:05p express Babylon-Patchogue Friday-only relief train for train 10 will make its first run along with #89, the 3:24p express from Patchogue to Babylon. Both will only stop at Sayville, Bay Shore, and Babylon only.
• Train #952, the 3:58pm from Ronkonkoma to Riverhead will be extended to Greenport as train #954 on it’s first 2025 extended run.

Saturday, May 24, 2025:

• The LIRR will operate on a regular weekend schedule.

Sunday, May 25, 2025:

• The LIRR will operate on a regular weekend schedule.

Monday, May 26, 2025:

• The LIRR will operate on a regular weekend schedule.
• Off-peak fares will be in affect the entire day.
• Monday marks the first runs of the typical Sunday fleet of westbounds, running on Monday for Memorial Day weekend. Trains 6095, the brand-new extended version of #6005 to Penn Station will run for the first time ever, meanwhile trains 6007 (the 1:46p from Montauk to Jamaica), 6009 (the 3:25p from Southampton to Jamaica), 6013 (the 4:17pm from Montauk, now extended to Penn Station) and 6017 (the 6:21p from Montauk to Penn Station) will make their first 2025 runs.

Tuesday, May 27, 2025:

• The LIRR will operate on a regular weekday schedule. 
• Train 11, the 7:18am westbound train from Montauk to Hunterspoint Avenue will operate on it’s first westbound run of 2025.

Wednesday, May 28, 2025:

• The LIRR will operate on a regular weekday schedule. 

Have a good Memorial Day!

NJTransit just hours away from averting rail strike

As the possible rail strike looms only minutes away, NJTransit officials are urging customers to work from home and complete their travel by 11:59pm tonight.  As the New York Post describes it, “NJTransit is barreling towards a possible rail strike deadline Thursday night”. This rail strike, which would be one of the biggest in the US, causing problems for over 300,000 daily commuters.

‘It’s going to be ugly’

Photo: CNN

“We, the locomotive engineers of NJ Transit are only asking for a fair and competitive wage” said Thomas Haas, the general chairman of the union on Wednesday night. “We are now almost out of time to solve this problem before a work stoppage takes place. The last thing we want to see that (service) to be interrupted. But we’re at the end of our rope.”

Not only will these service disruptions affect daily commuters, but it will also effect those bound for the Shakira show at the Met Life stadium as NJTransit canceled all train service there in case of the shutdown. Therefore, like the roads going into Manhattan, roads will be even more crowded going there as well.

Photo: CNN

Those who are forced to now drive into Manhattan will still have to pay the pesky $9 congestion pricing toll, too.

If the strike does occur early Friday morning, that would result in a literal halt of all NJ Transit trains, resulting in a systemwide shutdown for rail. 

The union claims NJ Transit engineers earn an average salary of $113,000, which is one of the lowest annual salaries for railroad engineers in this part of the region, at least compared to what is made by Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad engineers, and that they’ll settle for a deal earning them 170,000, a pretty good increase, however, NJTRANSIT disputes this, claiming engineers make a low of $135,000, and some of the highest earners make more than $200,000. As far as hourly pay goes, LIRR engineers start at $49.92, meanwhile Metro-North engineers on $57.20 an hour. Meanwhile, their colleagues at NJTransit where an engineers hourly rate starts at $39.78.

The last time a strike occurred of anything close to this scale was back in 1983. In 1983, a 1-month strike occurred, and also in the 80s, SEPTA also was on strike for 108 days, and Metro-North for 42, and even the LIRR, the busiest of them, had a 11-day work stoppage.

As of this point, while only literally hours away from finding out whether or not service will be disrupted, NJ Transit sent out a “critical service advisory” stating that “Due to a potential rail stoppage, NJ Transit strongly advises all train customers to complete their travels and arrive at their final destination no later than 11:59 p.m on Thursday, May 15th.” Meaning that at exactly 12:01am, all NJTransit engineers will literally just “walk off the job.” 

As of 9:24pm, when I’m writing this, it still shows trains running after 12:01am, therefore, I don’t know whether or not they’ll publish a list of “last trains” till the last minute.

If there is a strike, which is quite likely at this point, NJ Transit will provide a couple of park-and-ride bus shuttles, which you can find more information about on their website. I believe they will also be providing more bus service too. PATH and Amtrak service will also run normal, and those could potentially be used as alternatives, as well. 

As of now, apparently they’re “optimistic”, but with only a couple of minutes left, I’m not too hopeful they’ll be able to scrounge up a deal. 

1998 Station Eliminations

Came the 90s came the modern-post 2000s era of the LIRR with sleek DE and DM locomotives with futuristic C3s hauling them, and gone were the ratty old MP15ACs which many of which still serve in freight service to this day. While EMD and Kawasaki were building the new equipment, the LIRR had to do some preparations for the arrival of this new equipment.

Much like how the M1s worked, the C3s would only be able to platform at high-level stations, therefore, the railroad would have to go around and convert the few remaining low-level stations to high-level stations.

By the 90s, all of the stations on the Port Jefferson Branch east of Huntington had already been converted as the C1 test cars had already begun service however many of the stations on the Main Line east of Ronkonkoma and on the Montauk Branch hadn't been converted.

Therefore, the LIRR sent out crews to begin building these new platforms.

While high-level platforms have many benefits, one of them isn't being cheap, and building more than 30 of them at once would cost quite a bit, therefore, the LIRR constructed many of these 1990s platforms at shorter lengths then seen on platforms at many stations. Platforms on the Port Jefferson Branch and at Bay Shore were constructed with a full 12-car long platforms however the stations on the Montauk Branch were only 4 to 8 cars and the cars east of Ronkonkoma were a measly one car length! That choice has come back to them as summer loading on the Montauk Branch at stations connecting to the Fire Island Ferries and at many of the stations in the Hamptons is very slow. 

And while they didn't go cheap and did construct high-level stations at most of those 30 or so stations, the railroad also did single-out a couple unlucky ones and shortened their platforms to 0 cars long.

A sign informing customers of Quogue’s retirement.

On March 16th, 1998, the LIRR abandoned service at 10 stations with many of those being on the Montauk Branch. Trains on the Montauk, Oyster Bay and Greenport branches made their final stops at Penny Bridge, Fresh Pond, Haberman, Richmond Hill, Glendale, Quogue, Center Moriches, Mill Neck, Southampton Campus, and Holtsville.

The first five of those stations were along the Lower Montauk Branch. The Lower Montauk Branch had long been struggling to keep ridership and it wasn't surprising they cut the cord for these stations.

Penny Bridge was located at Calvary Cemetery near Newtown Creek in Laurel Hill (map), and was a very small station with only a low platform and a shelter. It got it's name from a bridge of same name that linked Laurel Hill, Queens to Brooklyn. The station only had one daily rider when it closed so it's not at all surprising that it did meet it's fate.

Penny Bridge (Photo: Dave Keller Archive)

Haberman was another small station, this one located in Maspeth, Queens (map) like Penny Bridge, it also had a low-level platform. The station had opened in September 2010, and still had manual crossing gates, a guard shack as recently as 1973. It only had 3 daily riders when it closed in 1973.

The next station was Fresh Pond. Fresh Pond was another small station positioned with a low-level island platform that sat at the point where the Bushwick Branch diverged off the Montauk Branch (map). The station was west of Fresh Pond Yard, a major freight yard even to this day.

Next was Glendale, which easily was the smallest of these stations, only consisting of a stool to discharge passengers. As for ridership it only had two of them per day. No wonder this one got closed!

(Photo: LIRR History)

The next and last of the Lower Montauk stations was Richmond Hill, which unlike the others, had a long, elevated, high-level platform. Despite the station having a long, high-level platform, it was only used by one person and was closed in March of 1998. Even though it could have remained open for no cost, it just wasn't worth it considering it was the odd one out on this branch. As you can see the BMT Jamaica Avenue Line passed right over it (map).

When the remaining Lower Montauk Branch stations were closed, this branch was only served by just two Oyster Bay Branch trains, with one in the morning and one in the evening in the peak direction. Others travelled via the Lower Montauk, but none of them stopped at these stations. Train 507 was the final revenue train to travel via the Lower Montauk Branch on a daily basis before it too stopped doing so in October 2012 after Hurricane Sandy.

Mill Neck was the one Oyster Bay Branch station to be abandoned. The station was located between Locust Valley and Oyster Bay (map). The station had lower-level platform, and some 12 to 20 passengers used it before it was eliminated. The station actually survived through quite a lot, being burned down twice in it's history. The station building is now used as a town hall. 

A colorized photo of Holtsville in 1959 (Photo: Trains Are Fun)  

Holtsville was another one of the 10 closed during the 1998 Station Eliminations. This one was located between Ronkonkoma and Greenport on the Scoot. It was located at Waverly Avenue (map). It originally opened in 1843 as Westerly but was then changed to Holtsville in 1897 as did the surrounding area. This station was little-used back in 1998 when it closed, but the area has grown quite a bit since then. I personally think that if they improve service out on the North Fork (not even electrifying), then there could be talks of reopening this one. The Suffolk County Traction Company's trolly line terminated south of Holtsville, after running south from Patchogue. They planned to extend it to Port Jeff, but never finished it as the company went bankrupt.

Center Moriches was located between Mastic-Shirley and Speonk on the Montauk Branch. The station consisted of one low-level side platform on the south side and that was about it. The station had two tracks because of MO siding. Like Bellport which would've been the 11th but faced a lot of local opposition associated with it's closure and ended up being saved, only saw a few riders and even fewer trains.

Some residents in the area have had some interest in seeing Center Moriches station reopened. The Moriches area has grown quite a bit in the past few years, and many believe it could sustain enough ridership to warrant service similar to what is seen at Bellport.

These final two stations were located on the second most remote part of the LIRR- the South Fork east of Speonk. 

Quogue station in 1997 (Photo: Trains Are Fun)

The first of these two was Quogue which was located between Westhampton and Hampton Bays. Quogue was yet another tiny, roadside shack with almost no ridership. Once they eliminated Quogue, most of the Hamptons stations were pretty evenly spaced from each other. I wouldn't say ridership would warrant this station being reopened as there's little development in the area of the original station (map).

And finally, Southampton Campus. This was another little-used, roadside station that opened in 1974, with the goal of serving LI University's Southampton College (map). As attendance at Southampton College declined, so did the station which closed like the others in 1998 (SUNY Southampton closed in 2005.) SUNY Stony Brook took over and is now called "Stony Brook Southampton", and Stony Brook Southampton has covered slightly but I don't think it would warrant it's own station again. Even if they were to reopen this station, they'd probably cheap it out and have it run like Bellport used to with only a limited number of the already limited number of trains that pass by it actually stop there, and you'd get cheaped out when you could go to Southampton which is only five minutes east and is more then plenty to serve this area and college.

At the end of the day, the main reason the LIRR even closed these stations was due to money issues. You'd be suprised at how much the LIRR actually saved by not having to close these stations. The LIRR told The New York Times in 1998 that rebuilding these stations would cost about $260,000 to $2.25 million per station, and to spend $2.25 million for a station which only serve 30 or so people at maximum daily is just not worth it. I'm sure the money the LIRR saved was much better used elsewhere. 

At this point, I think it's mega unlikely the Lower Montauk Branch will ever return, as there's really no good reason to reopen it. Ridership was low in the first place, and there's no good reason to reopen the stations in the first place, and with the IBX, thats even more unlikely. To be honest, if they electrify out to Port Jefferson and Patchogue chances are that Hunterspoint Avenue and Long Island City may close as well as sad as that is. If they ever improve service out on the East End and on the North fork, it may make sense in the future to reopen some of those stations and if the Oyster Bay Branch were ever to be electrified (not that I’m suggesting that), then maybe they could warrant a reopen of Mill Neck but I don’t know.

In conclusion, these stations will always be remembered in LIRR history.

Interlocking Walkthrough: FOX

This interlocking walkthrough takes us through another rather typical Port Jefferson Branch interlocking. This interlocking is located on both sides of Kings Park station.

FOX interlocking, like many of the Port Jefferson interlockings, is split into two parts, FOX 1 and FOX 2. You may wonder why an interlocking in Kings Park is called FOX, and the reason for that is because it's named after LIRR Conductor Walter Fox, a common tradition of Port Jefferson Branch interlockings. FOX 2 was originally called GREEN.

FOX 1

FOX 2

Switches

FOX interlocking is just like almost all the other Port Jefferson Branch interlockings, as it's single-tracked, and there's a switch that brings the total to 2 (allowing trains to pass each other in the station), then after the station the tracks merge back to 1. The interlocking only consists of two switches, one east of the interlocking and one west of the interlocking.

While meets aren't that common at Kings Park compared to some of the other stops, those that due occur typically occur in the morning period. How this works is that an eastbound train would stop at the station at the same time as a westbound, then they both load and depart in their respective directions.

While the switches due get quite a bit of work as they have to flip most times trains come as trains are going onto different platforms, but most of the actual meets occur one station to the east at Smithtown.

Signals

FOX interlocking has typical position-light signals typically seen at the smaller interlockings.

Towers

FOX interlocking's handlings occur at the busy DIVIDE tower which has been the case since December 1963

There used to be a spur to the North going to Kings Park Psychiatric Hospital just to the east (as part of FOX 2/GREEN), but the spur has since been abandoned.

Neighbors

The nearest interlocking, POST lies to the east in Smithtown. Heading west, DUKE is next. 

People’s Attempts at Electrifying the LIRR

Recently, more and more articles have been surfacing about electrifying the rest of the LIRR, including some that call for “catenary power” being used on it, similarly to the New Haven Line. 

Photo: Larry Penner

In the 2020-2024 Capital Program, funding was secured for the electrification of the Central Branch, which while I definitely wouldn't pick as it's main goal is only to provide "flexibility" during the very rare service disruption which has Ronkonkoma trains reverse and go via the Central Branch..... and while I wouldn't pick it, at least their bringing back the idea of electrification, and hopefully this would be the first of multiple electrification projects. 

One newsday article suggests that studies show that by electrifying, the LIRR could save 19 minutes between Penn and Port Jefferson, and 20 minutes between Penn and Oyster Bay. While this would be amazing if it was true, it’s questionable and I have doubt that is true because on the Oyster Bay Branch, the sharp curves limit the speed down significantly for most of the branch, therefore trains “slither” down it and even with MUs it’s not like it would matter much as the acceleration wouldn’t be able to kick in. 

Just unrealistic… 

The study specifically suggested using catenary, which would be cheaper, and would be similar to what is used on Metro-North’s New Haven Line. However, as MTA officials pointed out, it would be costly to buy new fleet that can handle the catenary and to pay for maintenance costs. Speaking of costs, the study suggested electrifying the entire LIRR, from up the Oyster Bay Branch, to the eastern tip of Long Island in Montauk would cost the LIRR a grand $11.9 to 12.9 billion, and thats not including the costs associated with buying new cars that can handle the catenary, and if they were to use the M8s, the cars used on MNR and can switch between catenary and third rail would cost about $5.4 million. The study suggested that 300 to 400 cars would be needed, estimating for a grand cost of 2,000,000,000 for all 400 cars. 

The chairman of the LIRR commuter council called this study “just unrealistic” stating that while it “seams fine in theory” the size, scale, and scope of it is just not feasible. And to be honest, this is understandable considering how much it would cost. The North Shore or the East End?

Debates have gone on about whether to prioritize electrification the North Shore to Port Jefferson, or to prioritize electrification to East Yaphank, which will be the site of a new station near Brookhaven National Lab. In my opinion, electrification to Port Jefferson would be the easily most logical first choice and make the most sense as it would finally bring electrification to communities that have long requested it, there’s a yard in Port Jeff already, and it would bring the most benefits there. Electrification to Patchogue along my home segment would make the second most sense as this is the most well-travelled portion of the line. However, some issues arise in terms of storage space as there’s very limited space to store trains and it would be difficult to tear up land out there for a yard given the close proximity to houses in the area. 

While many believe electrification to Yaphank should be studied, I personally believe it makes a ton more sense to electrify to Riverhead. Riverhead is the most logical end-point in my opinion as it’s the cut-off line where population really starts to get down to rural levels, and the town of Riverhead as quite a bit to offer with the courthouse and the Tanger outlets. They could build possible infill stations in Camp Upton, Calverton, and Holtsville to provide a pretty good hourly-service out there.

I personally think Oyster Bay is less of a priority then Port Jefferson, Patchogue, and Riverhead because the line is so slow anyway, and unless they were to sharpen out those curves then it really isn't going to make too much of a difference either way. 

A poll done by Newsday back in 2017 found that 70 percent of Long islanders would like to see electrification to Port Jefferson, Patchogue, and Riverhead and that 7 out of 10 respondents were either “in favor” or “somewhat in favor” of the proposal. 

“Rip the band-aid off”

I will be talking about electrification much, much more in upcoming posts, but in conclusion, I personally think Port Jefferson easily makes the most sense as unlike the other too, it already has a yard, has the most ridership potential, would benefit the most from time savings as it’s marginally slower then the Montauk and Ronkonkoma branches are and has the most support. While many suggest looking into dual-modes and other alternatives, full electrification is the holy grail and nothing else can replace it. Only the best service can be provided through it and it provides the greenest service and the LIRR is going have to look to do the work associated with it in order to provide the most up to date service. The LIRR will just have to rip the band-aid off and get it done no matter if they like it or not.

What The Long Beach Branch Timetable Could Look Like

Our last post focused on the Ronkonkoma Branch and now we're going to move on and take a look at a revamped Long Beach Branch Timetable. The Long Beach Branch is a rather short branch, with only a limited couple of stops, however, it sees a fair amount of riders, especially from it's eastern terminal in the city of Long Beach.

Included in the linked PDF file below is the Full Sample Weekday and Weekend Long Beach Branch timetable. Peak, off-peak, reverse-peak, and special-event trains are all included. Note that this is a new and improved timetable design.

The timetables have yet to include the deadhead/non-revenue moves, which will be planned out along with crew and equipment rotations as well using AI and will be written down on paper. They’ll be included on a separate page in the attached PDF. I tried to mostly minimize deadheading as much as possible, since it’s essentially wasted time, crew, and equipment hours, but in some cases it was unavoidable to make the most out of the resources available.

Like was said on the Introduction Page, before we can begin talking about the actual schedule “Key Assumptions” and “Service Guidelines” needs to be taken care of and mentioned before this project can become totally feasible since I’ve built the timetables off of it. I’ve tried my best to make these schedules able to be done with these projects completed or not, but in some cases that isn’t possible.

Key Assumptions

• The current infrastructure on the branch will remain the same or similar to what it is now.

Service Guidelines: 

• During peak hours, for the majority of the peak, service operates on a "clockface" schedule and headways allow for trains up the branch every 20 minutes or so. I was successful at giving every train at least one train to all 3 city-terminals per hour at a minimum. Back are the highly missed "flyers" with one to Penn Station and Grand Central.
• Lynbrook will now be served exclusively by Long Beach Branch trains, Babylon Branch trains will no longer stop there except for a couple of exceptions.
• During
• During the morning reverse-peak period, additional trains are ran in the reverse-peak direction from Atlantic Terminal to provide service roughly every half-hour during reverse-peak time. Many of these trains turn off of other Far Rockaway and Long Beach Branch trains, allowing for appropriately sized consists.
• On weekends, service is increased during the busiest times (specifically 8:30am to 11:30am WB 
• On summer weekends, and winter Saturdays, a non-stop express trip will operate to/from Long Beach with additional express trains to/from Penn Station and Grand Central.

Link to Long Beach Branch Timetable

When setting up peak hour service on this branch, I tried my best to provide hourly service (at a minimum) to all 3 city terminals. During a majority of the peak, trains also run on a “clockface” schedule. The evenly (or even semi-evenly spaced service) allows for additional off-peak service to be snuck across LEAD drawbridge in times of need, therefore, giving half-hourly (or better) off-peak service at times. 

While the fancy 15-20 minute headways may seam like a lot at first, it’s important to remember that many of these trains will take on additional stops west of Lynbrook (especially on Jamaica - New York section, therefore, giving other trains faster running times.) 

Service during off-peak hours consists of hourly departures into and out of Long Beach, and that matches current service levels. Increasing service to half-hourly can be done if need arises (I’d have trains alternate between Penn Station and Grand Central because I don’t think it personally make sense to provide half-hourly service to Penn Station on this branch.) But, until demand is met, the Long Beach branch will continue to call Penn Station it’s home. 

During times of the weekend when travel is typically higher, service has been included to include some additional trains into and out of New York. In my experience, such trains should be able to sustain themselves year-long, however, if ridership patterns disagree, than they can be cut to run from Memorial Day through New Years. 

Currently, the LIRR runs an extra round-trip departing Penn Station around 9:35am and running non-stop to Jamaica and Long Beach, with the westbound departing around 4:35pm. In my schedule, I have these trains continue to run close to their current schedule, however, they will skip Jamaica and will run on Winter Saturdays, too. 

In conclusion, I know some of the Long Beach Branch service may seam ambitious, I think with all the added stops west of Lynbrook, I think the service should be able to support itself.

Whatever happened to DM30AC #503?

In a post earlier this week, I wrote about DM30AC #507, and while that was an interesting story, this is the more well known one and the LIRR got lucky with their already limited fleet for this to be the only of the DE/DM's to actually have been fully retired so far.

The LIRR's fleet have all stayed in service, and with the only other exception being #507 which as I wrote in Friday's post, got renumbered to #423 and is now a DE30AC, DM30AC #503 is the only of the LIRR's locomotives to be retired early. The story goes as told. On a normal October 22, 2003, Engine #503 was on a typical dual-mode run on train #658 (the old 4:19pm from Penn to Port Jeff) when the lead engine struck a hobo's shopping cart in Huntington. The cart left on the tracks caught the third rail and the metal engine shell causing a 750-volt short to ignite, igniting a fire underneath the engines, and as some railfans describe it "turned the cab into a thunderstorm." The engineer was able to get the train safely to the station and all passengers were evacuated before the FD came and put out the fire. 

The engine then sat in Morris Park for a while (um, actually 13 years), stripped of all useful parts, before the LIRR decided it was un-salvageable and then it was subsequently scrapped. It's unfortunate to see an engine that was only a couple months old meet it's end so quickly, and it's even more unfortunate that very few photos exist of this engine in it's original form. From what I know, it seams the engine is no longer in Morris Park, but if anyone knows for sure I'd love to know.

Taken in 2009.

#503 in 2011

503's cab after the incident.

Also taken in 2009.

In conclusion, #503's retirement from service brought the already struggling diesel fleet down one more locomotive, especially a much-needed dual-mode, thats literally the worst part of the disaster, however in the grand scheme of things, we've survived 22 years without it and I think we'll be able to survive another 10 more. I hope you enjoyed!