Interlocking Walkthrough: KO

Our next interlocking to be featured in this series is the well-known KO interlocking. Located at Ronkonkoma station, this is actually the easternmost interlocking on the Main Line located an ever-impressive 49 miles from Long Island City. KO is split into two separate interlockings, KO 1 and KO 2 with KO 1 west of the station and KO 2 east of the station.

Switches

KO interlocking begins just east of the Pond Road crossing. Just after the crossing, the certified north siding splits off Mainline 1. That siding doesn’t get all that much use, I’ve seen it be used to house tiny equipment trains, and that’s about it.

The certified north siding then merges back a bit later, then there’s one last crossover from Mainline 1 back to Mainline 2 before Mainline 2 diverges from Mainline 1 to enter Ronkonkoma’s 3 station platforms.

Almost right after Ronkonkoma’s station platforms is the start of KO 2.  Mainline 1 and 2 come much closer to each other, as a third track spurs off Mainline 2 called the WASH track. This track is essential as it houses the trianwash which is what they use to clean the trains. They have few of these left, only here, Babylon, and Richmond Hill. Following the end of the car wash, there’s a pair of two switches, first from Mainline 1 to Mainline 2, then from Mainline 2 back to Mainline 1. These switches allow trains on either tracks to go to the hard, or to continue on Mainline 1 east of Ronkonkoma.

We now reach Ronkonkoma Yard, also referred to as Mid-Suffolk Electric Yard.

I also forgot to mention that a 20 mph restriction is in place thru  KO 2 is restricted to 20 mph.

Ronkonkoma Yard has 23 tracks, broken into two clusters, in which 11 of them were added to support additional train service after East Side Access. It goes as follows:

Ronkonkoma Yard is fully electrified, and during the nighttime, for the most part is pretty much full of almost everything you can see, plenty of full 8, 10, and 12, and even some 6 car consists make an appearance being stored here for the morning rush.

I feel like it's easier to show a diagram of the yard, rather then to explain every little switch in the yard, so here's a diagram of it I found on Trains are Fun:

 

The eastern limit of KO 2 is right before Lincoln Avenue, and at that point, KO interlocking officially ends and the 20 mph speed restriction is dropped for a slightly better 45 mph speed limit all the way to Riverhead.

Well that concludes KO interlocking!