QUEENS Interlocking hops over the border between Queens and Nassau County, where it switches right before Elmont station. As you can see in the diagram below, QUEENS interlocking is massive, spanning just under a mile long. This shows the impressive length between stations in this area with them being under .3 miles apart each.
While I can't find a diagram of QUEENS, and I don't have time to make one (it's finals week for me and I got a lot going on), here's a birds-eye view of the peak of it just before Elmont. If you’d like to see the rest, I recommend pulling it up in Google Earth and you can use it as a reference as we go through the interlocking.
Before we begin the interlocking tour, it's very important to note that techinally, two routes pass through the interlocking. The Main Line (trains coming onto or off of the three-track Main Line out towards Hicksville), and the Hempstead Branch (trains merging onto or merging of off the Main Line at Floral Park coming from/towards Hempstead).
We'll begin by looking at the Main Line, heading eastbound. As said previously, the interlocking begins just east of Queens Village.
Switches
Let’s start at the eastern end of QUEENS interlocking, and we’ll start by looking at the Main Line considering that’s the route that the majority of the trains run on. The interlocking begins just west of Floral Park, and there aren’t any switches (on the Main Line portion) until a bit west of Bellerose, where there’s a crossover from Mainline 3 over to Mainline 1, then another one shortly afterwards back to Mainline 3. The goal of those crossovers is to take a train onto or off of the third track. They do this during the morning rush hour for some of those New Hyde Park locals that have to run express after there towards Jamaica, they use the first switch mentioned to get onto the third track and bypass Elmont and the other eastern Queens stations. The second switch allows trains that were routed down the 3rd track to stop at Elmont.
So, at this point, we’ve now reached the Elmont platform. We now pass through Elmont, and soon after we leave Elmont, we encounter a series of four switches, each one timed perfectly after another, from Hempstead 1 all the way to Mainline 3. The goal of these switches, before Elmont opened was to bring westbound Hempstead branch trains from the westbound Hempstead Branch track all the way to the westbound Main Line track as to allow for Hempstead Branch trains to stop there. However, when Elmont opened, it basically became the new Queens Village and therefore, as you’ll see in a minute, this move was duplicated before Elmont. After those switches, there’s one final crossover from Mainline 1 to Mainline 3 before we platform at Queens Village.
Now, let’s take a look at the Hempstead Branch routings. Once the Hempstead Branch merges onto the Main Line, things continue normally through Floral Park, until we reach the western end of the platform where there’s a switch from Hempstead 2 (the eastbound track) to Hempstead 1 (the westbound track), before those tracks travel the short distance to Bellerose, and through it, once we get halfway to Elmont station, is where the first series of crossovers (from Hempstead 1 all the way to Mainline 3 that I discussed earlier starts. Finally, just west of Elmont, the Belmont Park Branch splits off heading towards it on the Hempstead 2 eastbound track. It then merges on again later as part of the other end of the spur a couple hundred feet to the west.
So there’s a little general overview of all the different pairs of routings through QUEENS.
Towers
Originally, there was a QUEENS Tower, which controlled the operations of this busy interlocking, but it closed in 2020 and operations were switched over to JCC Interlocking in Jamaica.
So, at this point, we’ve now reached the Elmont platform. We now pass through Elmont, and soon after we leave Elmont, we encounter a series of four switches, each one timed perfectly after another, from Hempstead 1 all the way to Mainline 3. The goal of these switches, before Elmont opened was to bring westbound Hempstead branch trains from the westbound Hempstead Branch track all the way to the westbound Main Line track as to allow for Hempstead Branch trains to stop there. However, when Elmont opened, it basically became the new Queens Village and therefore, as you’ll see in a minute, this move was duplicated before Elmont. After those switches, there’s one final crossover from Mainline 1 to Mainline 3 before we platform at Queens Village.
Now, let’s take a look at the Hempstead Branch routings. Once the Hempstead Branch merges onto the Main Line, things continue normally through Floral Park, until we reach the western end of the platform where there’s a switch from Hempstead 2 (the eastbound track) to Hempstead 1 (the westbound track), before those tracks travel the short distance to Bellerose, and through it, once we get halfway to Elmont station, is where the first series of crossovers (from Hempstead 1 all the way to Mainline 3 that I discussed earlier starts. Finally, just west of Elmont, the Belmont Park Branch splits off heading towards it on the Hempstead 2 eastbound track. It then merges on again later as part of the other end of the spur a couple hundred feet to the west.
So there’s a little general overview of all the different pairs of routings through QUEENS.
Towers
Borders
The mighty QUEENS interlocking is bordered by HOLLIS or HALL interlockings to the west, depending on which track your positioned on it's bordered by NASSAU interlocking to the east if you are heading on the Main and by GARDEN if your routed on the Hempstead Branch.
Anyways, I'm sorry this interlocking walkthrough was so weak and put together at the last minute, I wanted to get something out today but I've been very busy since it's the last full week of school before finals and it's been difficult to find time. I hope you enjoy this read while I'm getting an award at my awards ceremony!