The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part One: South Side R.R. of L.I./Roster Of Equipment
Roster of Equipment
ENGINES
1, 2, 3, Hinckley, 1865. The Hinckley records state that three engines numbered 1, 2, 3, were sold to the South Side R.R. Nothing further is known about them.
CHARLES FOX, Mason, spring, 1867; Operating in July on construction trains; later LIRR 16.
DANIEL T. WILLETS, Mason, 1868; Arrived in Jamaica on April 4, 1868; later LIRR 18.
ALEX McCUE, Mason, 1868; Arrived in Jamaica on May 23, 1868; later LIRR 23.
JOHN TAPPAN, Mason, 1868; Arrived about May 1, 1868; later LIRR 20.
J. B.JOHNSTON, Grant, 1868; Arrived about May 1, 1868; "Weight twenty-six tons; patented gas-consuming boiler"; later LIRR 41.
R. O. COLT, Mason; Arrived in Jamaica May 23, 1868; later LIRR 21.
PEWIT, Danforth & Cooke; Arrived August 1869; Built originally for the Central RR of New Jersey. Built 1860.
FIRE FLY, Danforth; later LIRR 19.
A. J. BERGEN, Danforth; about April 1870; later LIRR 17.
FRANCIS B. BALDWIN, Grant; late 1869 or early 1870.
A. McLEAN, make unknown; mentioned once in July 1871, perhaps bought in 1870. Possibly a rented engine from the U.S. Rolling Stock Co.
SOUTH SIDE, Rogers (?), probably spring of 1872; later LIRR 26.
SPRINGFIELD, Manchester; probably spring of 1875; later LIRR 27. Built for the Southern Ry. as No. 9.
MASSAPEQUA, Grant; arrived August 1870; weight 35 tons; made speed run of sixty-five miles per hour in September 1870.
MERRICK, The Charles Fox, renamed to Merrick by the Shipherd management. LIRR 16
NORWOOD, make unknown; delivered probably about 1872, involved in July 1875 wreck.
ISLIP, Brooks; delivered probably April 1873; later LIRR 14.
PATCHOGUE, Brooks; delivered April 1873; later LIRR 15.
MONTAUK, Schenectady; deliveredMay 1873, Renamed the Creedmoor by the Poppenhusen management as early as September 1878; later LIRR 32.
RENTED ENGINES
CANTON, owned by Louis Broad, the contractor on the New York & Hempstead RR at Bay Ridge; taken by the South Side RR until Broad's widow, Martha, sued the railroad for repossession, and recovered it in April 1874. During periods of peak traffic the SSRR rented both engines and cars from the United States Rolling Stock Co.
ESSEX, Probably rented from the United States Rolling Stock Co. Mentioned as derailing at Richmond Hill in July 1872.
DUMMY ENGINES
CITY OF BROOKLYN, Schenectady Loco. Works; placed in service on July 31, 1869. Used until February 1876.
CITY OF BRESLAU, Schenectady Loco. Works.
NAMES UNKNOWN, three built also by the Schenectady Locomotive Works; No. 1 built April 1870. No. 2 in Sept. 1870, No. 3 in May 1871, and No. 5 in June 1873. A dummy engine sold on December 28, 1871,in the yard of the Bushwick depot.
COACHES
The builders and number series of the passenger coaches purchased between 1867 and 1873 are unfortunately unknown. For the final large purchase made in 1873 we have some slight information: Sixteen coaches were bought from the New Haven Car Co. These had elaborately frescoed ceilings, panels of satinwood and seats upholstered in velvet. The undercarriage was provided with double truss rods and truss beams, also self-coupling Miller platforms.
NEW YORK AND HEMPSTEAD R.R.
ENGINES
WILLIAM L. WOOD, built by Grant in 1870. The boiler blew up in 1871 and the whole engine was badly wrecked in the accident at Norwood in February 1875, but the locomotive was rebuilt.
COACHES
Two coaches built by Jackson & Sharp in 1870. Both were taken over by the South Side RR in September 1874 and transferred to the Central RR of Long Island.
RAILROAD STATIONS
South Eighth Street: Built September 1868 and opened for service November 4, 1868. In July 1869 the station must have been adequate for two or three trains, for, in a letter of complaint, we read: "… the intersection of South Eighth Street and Kent Avenue is impassable … by reason of the frogs and switches and the crossing rails of the South Side RR. The company has abolished the sidewalk and occupy the space with trucks and wagons unloading directly into their depot."
In April 1872 the depot was enlarged by an extension of the roadbed on heavy framework resting on piles to the bulkhead line of the river, nearly 100 feet in length, and giving standing for several additional cars.
In a description of the waterfront in 1872 we read: "The South Side Railroad depot is deserving of mention; it was originally a depot building two stories high, in which are sitting rooms, freight and ticket offices on the first floor for the accommodation of passengers, while on that above are the several offices of the corporation. Early in summer a covered depot to shelter the cars was erected and has just been completed. This rests upon piles and partly extends over the ferry piers."
South Eighth Street station was abandoned on February 29, 1876, the last train pulling out on the twenty-sixth. All rails were removed during May 1876. Part of the old depot buildings were still standing in 1922.
Bushwick: Opened July 18, 1868. The South Side RR used the old Schenck farmhouse of Revolutionary vintage for its office; a large marshalling yard was laid out but no depot was erected during South Side days. No effort was made to improve Bushwick station until it became the new terminus in March 1876. The company then planned a large covered passenger depot, additional freighthouses and side tracks to permit horse cars to drive into the covered station area and unload passengers. In 1876 toward the end of South Side days, the Eagle remarked: "The depot, as at present it appears, is an unprepossessing object, and were it not for the tracks, trucks and railroad carriages in the vicinity, might be mistaken for a dog kennel, for a dog kennel would most unjustly suffer by the comparison. It is the meanest of many mean buildings in the neighborhood and its size dwarfed by an ordinary railroad car; it has brown weather-beaten boards; in front of it is a little platform, and alongside this the train stands. Altogether it might do for a wayside station ."
Changes in management postponed the planned improvements, but rebuilding began in May 1877 under the Poppenhusens.
Hebbard's: Appears as a station only on the timetables of May, June and August 1870. There was probably no depot building. Named after the Hebbard farmhouse on Flushing Avenue at about Fifty-second Street. This district was known at the time as Metropolitan or East Williamsburgh. The name is often misspelled "Hibbard's."
Fresh Pond: Nothing is known about the date of erection of the station; it does not appear on the timetable until June 1869. The original wooden building was still standing in 1923.
Glendale: First appears on the timetable of June 1869. Nothing is known about the presence or absence of a station.
Richmond Hill: First appears as "Clarenceville" on timetables of July 1868. Station building put up during April and May 1869, partly with funds raised by the citizens, and many shade trees were added to beautify the grounds. Beginning July 25, 1869 President Fox and the directors permitted the building to be used as a chapel on Sundays. The name of the station was changed to Richmond Hill in October or November of 1871. The original depot building survived until the grade crossing elimination at Jamaica Avenue in 1923–24.
Van Wyck Avenue {Berlin): First appears on the timetables of June 1869. A station building was erected in July 1870. Name changed to "Berlin" on timetable of May 1871. Discontinued in June 1876 by LIRR on assuming the South Side RR management.
Jamaica: The original South Side depot was located between the Long Island RR on the north and Beaver Pond on the south, or, in present-day terms, on the north side of Beaver Street at 151st Street. A newspaper comment of November 1869 remarked on the poor appearance of the station and the area; the approaches were poor and the station itself seemed a temporary affair with a hut beside it for handling freight. The company declined to do more unless assisted with public funds. In September 1871 a public subscription was under way and a larger building planned. As built, it was 22 × 48 (14 feet high inside) with two rooms, ticket office, etc. The cost was roughly $2000 of which $700 came from the village donations. On Christmas morning of 1871 the new building was opened and the original sold for $180 to a resident.
In May 1877 the Long Island RR moved the South Side station into its yard just west of the Long Island station. In the third week of July 1877 all trains ran into the Long Island depot at Jamaica, and the South Side facilities abandoned.
Locust Avenue: First appears on the timetable of June 1869 presently Locust Manor station at Baisley Blvd. Abandoned by LIRR June 1876 on taking over the South Side R.R. management.
Springfield: One of the original stations. Located at Springfield Boulevard east of the road and north of the railroad. There was probably a station building here. The settlement lay to the north near the Merrick Road. Station abandoned by LIRR in June 1876 on their taking over the South Side R.R. management.Foster's Meadow (Rosedale): First appears on the timetable of May 1870. Located at the present Hook Creek Blvd., just east of the present Rosedale station. The station building was begun on June 20, 1871 and finished about a month later. Village name changed to Rosedale in 1892.
Valley Stream: First appears on the timetable of June 1869. A wholly new community personally developed by Electus B. Litchfield of Babylon, who acquired the land in the fall of 1868. Post Office opened April 1870. Plans were laid for a depot in August 1869, and in the summer of 1870 several prominent residents offered to put up half the cost of a station, but then reneged. The men who were at work on the building at the time rioted at the news, and to restore peace, the South Side RR paid the whole cost of the station itself. The building was located between Third Street and Rockaway Avenue on the south side of the tracks.
Pearsall's (Lynbrook): One of the original stations. First "Pearsall's Corners" until April 1875, thereafter simply Pearsall's. Located between Hempstead Avenue and Forest Avenue on the north side of the railroad. In January 1870 the citizens voted to change the name of the village to Pearsailville. In 1893 the village changed its name to Lynbrook.
Rockville Centre: One of the original stations. No details of the depot are mentioned in old sources. Station located on the east side of Village Avenue and north of the railroad. Place originally was referred to as Rockville after the "Rock" Smiths who settled there, but by late Sixties name Rockville Centre was in use.
Baldwins: One of the original stations; appears as Baldwinville and Baldwinsville beginning in 1869 and continuing through 1871. On the table of July 1872 it is first listed as Baldwins and so continues into the Twentieth century. Depot building erected by townspeople in February 1868, a "commodious building and creditable to the place." During the summer of 1868 the village name was officially changed to Foxborough to honor President Fox, but this did not last. Later, about 1890, Austin Corbin, LIRR President, pushed through a change of name to "Milburn," but after his death the name of Baldwin was restored.
Freeport: One of the original stations. There is no account of the building of the depot in any of the old newspapers, but construction probably took place in 1867–68.Merrick: No account is preserved concerning the erection of a depot, yet this station must have received special attention, for both President Fox and Superintendent Whitelived here. There was also located here a siding, engine house, and freight house. Between 1869 and 1876 several trains terminated their runs at Merrick station.
Bellmore: Charles W. Hayes, a real estate promoter of Williamsburgh, owned in 1869 considerable land in what is today Bellmore. Through his influence with President Charles Fox, the new station of Bellmore was erected in October 1869. By December the wilderness was cleared and streets had been opened and graded. The timetable of May 1870 is the first to list the new station.
Wantagh: One of the original stations on the road. From the beginning in 1867 down to 1891 the station is listed as Ridgewood. In July 1875 the residents subscribed a sufficient amount of money to erect a depot and the site was donated by a Mr. F.R. Rogers. The village has changed its name four times. It was first referred to as Jerusalem South, but came to be constantly confounded with Jerusalem Station. Then the name was changed in the Seventies to Atlanticville but it was soon discovered that a village in Suffolk County already bore this name (now East Quogue). Again the name was changed to Ridgewood, but by this time Ridgewood in Queens County had begun to use that name. Finally, in desperation, the residents in May 1891 changed the village name to Wantagh, after thesachem of the Merrick Indians in 1747, and so it has remained.
Massapequa: The locality was originally known as South Oyster Bay, because that township owns the narrow strip on the south shore enclosing the present-day villages of Seaford and Massapequa. This was one of the original stations in 1867. In April 1870 a German real estate society laid out 1500 acres and named it Stadt Wuertemberg, a boom made possible by the railroad. The depot is supposed to have been donated by the Floyd-Jones family, who owned all the land in the area.
Amityville: The depot building was erected in November–December 1868. The village was one of the original stations on the road.
Lindenhurst: Thomas Wellwood, a real estate promoter, bought the village land in 1861, and was joined by Charles S. Schleier in October 1869, who renamed the new development after his native Breslau in Prussia and boomed it as a German colony. The village first appears on the timetable of September 1, 1868 as Wellwood and so remains through 1869. In May 1870 the station appears as Breslau. In June 1891 the Hon. Benjamin F. Tracy, owner of much of the shore-front acreage, successfully lobbied a petition through the Post Office Department to change the name to Lindenhurst, and the railroad station was so changed on July 14, 1891.
Babylon: Original terminus of the road. During the summer of 1868 the village succumbed to a brief fad and renamed itself Seaside (and so appears on the July and September 1868 timetables) but the old name returned in 1869. The old South Side station was replaced with a new structure in 1881.
Bayshore: First appears under its old name of Penataquit on timetable of May 20, 1868.In July 1868 the name Bayshore first appears.
Islip: First appears on the timetable of May 20, 1868 as the terminal of the road and so remains until September 1 timetable. Between December 1, 1868 and June 1869 a second station was maintained at Islip Centre, probably the present Brentwood Road, but on August 19, 1869 the railroad loaded the little 20 × 30 feet depot on a flat car drawn by the engine Pewit and carted it eastward, leaving Islip the sole station in the village.
Club House: First appears on the timetable of May 1870. Inside the present Bayard Cutting Arboretum grounds, on the west bank of Great River and south of the Montauk Highway. The station was maintained for the South Side Sportmen's Association for many years, and stood midway between the present Great River and Oakdale stations.
Oakdale: First appears on the timetables of December 1, 1868. Nothing is known about a depot.
Sayville: First appears on the timetable of December 1, 1868. In December 1868 an engine house was completed at the station. In October 1869 a freight house and wooden station platform were erected at Sayville station.
Bayport: First appears on the timetable of December 1, 1868. In March 1869 the local residents built the depot building themselves with materials supplied by the railroad.
Blue Point: First appears on the timetable of May 1870. The Bayport post office was located in Blue Point in 1870. The South Side Signal of June 27, 1891 says the station was opened February 1, 1870 and was closed June 1, 1882.
Patchogue: Depot building put up in July–August 1869 by William Homan, the road's master carpenter. It was 220 feet in length "large and commodious and in appearance an honor to the company and an ornament to the place."ROCKAWAY BRANCH
Cedar Grove: Appearsonly once on the company timetables: June 1869. Older name of Hewletts.
Hewletts: First appears in October 1869. Nothing is known of the depot here. During the Nineties it was for a time called "Fenhurst."
Wood's Station or Woodsburgh (Woodmere): First appears as Wood's Station on table of October 1869, but thereafter as Woodsburgh. The village was laid out in 1869 by Samuel Wood, who built the depot, houses, streets and a hotel called the Pavilion. In the early nineties there was a movement to change the village name to "Glenhurst" but nothing came of this.
Ocean Point (Cedarhurst): First listed on table of October 1869. No depot building existed at first, but in 1873 Mr. Thomas E. Marsh, owner of several hundred acres of land at Ocean Point, cleared and laid out a village, and built the railroad station in July 1872. Station abandoned by the LIRR in June 1876 when it took over the South Side R.R. management.
Lawrence: First listed on timetable of June 1869. The village was developed at the time of the railroad extension and was named for Newbold and Alfred Lawrence, its promoters. No details are known about the depot.
Far Rockaway: First listed on the timetable of June 1869. No information on depot facilities in contemporary newspapers.
Beach, or Beach House, or South Side Pavilion: First listed in May 1870. On the timetable of July 1872 the name is changed to South Side Pavilion. In 1876 this seaside terminal building was sold by the railroad. The old depot appears to have been located very near the water at about Beach Thirtieth Street.
Eldert's Grove: First listed in July 1872. The recent Hammel's station at Beach Eighty-fourth Street operated until the end of LIRR operation.
Holland's: First listed July 1872. The present Holland's station at Beach Ninety-Second Street.
Sea Side House: First listed July 1872. The present Seaside station at Beach 103rd Street.
Neptune House: First listed May 1875. The present Rockaway Park station, Beach 116th Street.
Atlantic Park: First appears in May 1875, being listed after the South Side Pavilion station, and continues to the end of South Side RR days. Probably at a point along Atlantic Avenue midway between the present Far Rockaway and Edgemere stations.
HEMPSTEAD BRANCH
Bridgeport: At Franklin Avenue, Malverne. No station building here
Norwood: Hempstead Avenue at Cornwell Avenue. No station building here.
Hempstead: On west side of Greenwich Street midway between Front Street and Peninsula Boulevard. After abandonment of the station in May 1879, the depot building was converted into a skating rink, but it burned to the ground in early July 1888.