Re: (rshsdepot) "PSC Stalls LIRR Shuttle Scuttle"

["Jim Guthrie" <jguthrie_@_pipeline.com>]

Okay -- here's the scoop.

This is referring to the Central Branch -- the former Stewart railroad that
once ran to Bethpage and Babylon Dock (with ferry connection to Fire
Island). On the west end, it crossed the LIRR at Hinsdale and went cross
country to Flushing, where trains continued to LI City via the Flushing RR.

When the LIRR took over the route, Flushing  to Creedmoor service was
discontinued, as was passenger service Hempstead Crossing to Babylon Dock
(the Stewart Hempstead Branch replaced the LIRR's, although the original
LIRR Hempstead Station existed at least into the 1920s, but I digress).

When the LIRR electrified, part of the line had both third rail and
catenary -- and the PRR tested various configurations of locomotives before
settling on the DD1. Even today, one can find a few concrete catenary
support posts if one knows where to look.

To serve eastern Garden City, the LIRR established trolley service (running
on third rail) to Salisbury Plains -- serving stations at Washington St,
Clinton Road, Mitchel Field, Meadowbrook Club and Salisbury Plains.

Washington Street disappeared quickly, and the little Birney-type trolleys
were replaced by a pair of MP41s, equipped with fareboxes at the center
doors. This is what is referred to as the "40 year old" service.

> In the following, what were, where were Newsday and A&P Bronze stations
> (and what did the last name mean) and why wasn't Salisbury mentioned?
> Why was the line called 40 years old?

The LIRR established new stations on the line at the Newsday plant (located
on Stewart Avenue) and at the property line between the A&P Supermarket
warehouse and General Bronze Factory.  Mitchel Field was located on the west
side of Selfridge Road.

There were Several Meadowbrook/Salisbury stations. Originally, Meadowbrook
was located at the east end of Mitchel field, the railroad crossed the
"Meadow Brook" and then Salisbury was at Post Avenue. The former served the
"Meadowbrook Polo Club" exclusively, and the latter was the terminus.

Lots of things changed in WWII -- including the borders of Mitchel Field.
Meadowbrook was relocated as an island platform with 12-car length just east
of Selfridge Road and used for Roosevelt Raceway specials. About 1949, the
shuttles were cut back to Mitchel Field -- with only regular MU raceway
trains going across the street.

The article then refers to this truncated shuttle.

What may be confusing here sounds like one of the old ploys used by the best
of the "discontinuance fighters" which the (ahem) younger folk may not have
encountered. Railroads always thought that both hearing examiners and
protesters were a bunch of country yahoos -- especially the PRR guys who
were always the proverbial "Philadelphia Lawyers" who did all the LIRR's
work.

The LIRR did not sell through tickets on this shuttle. One put a nickel in
the trolley-type fare box getting on the train, and paid a separate fare
Country Life Press to NY. BUT -- troop trains to Mitchel Field (that were
common) required each GI to be accounted for with a ticket -- so, those
"tickets" would be included in the route's "total."

As these hearings were always judicial or quasi-judicial in nature, railroad
witnesses could always be made to look foolish when testifying that "Oh we
don't sell interline tickets on that line" and then be confronted -- TV
Perry Mason like -- with facts to the contrary. "Didn't you sell 12,0000
tickets to Mitchel Field in 1947 alone?!!!?" Answer me, Trustee Wyer, Yes or
No!!!"

At that point, the railroad witnesses credibility would be destroyed, and
the hearing examiner would order continuance of service.

A year or two later, the railroad would come back again, this time better
prepared. But if they were still acting superior to the "country lawyers"
the usual play would be "First Class Tariffs." All railroads maintained
first class tariffs for calculating such things as PV movements (the Circus
train to Garden City Yard travels on such first class tariffs even today, I
believe). So the country lawyer would quiz the railroad exec witnesses on
"First Class" business, show, say, private varnish used at the rate of 18
first class fares  to a station like, say, Mitchel Field -- and again deny
discontinuance of the Nickel MP41s.

An interesting sidelight: Until the MTA takeover, MTA employees would walk
the Central Branch from Flushing to Creedmoor, and Mitchel Field to Bethpage
every year -- along the way -- they'd "close" each highway crossing
and thus maintain the franchise to run trains on the [otherwise] abandoned
railroad "just in case" the LIRR/PRR decided it needed to run trains there
again.  Take THAT you NIMBYS <g>.

Cheers,
Jim

>
> Nassau Review-Star, September 6, 1952
>
> PSC Stall LIRR Shuttle Scuttle
>
> Road Spokesman Points Out Loss on Line
>
>   Attempts by the Long Island Railroad to scuttle the 5-cent shuttle
> service  on its branch between Country Life Press station in Garden City
> and Mitchel Field appears to have hit a snag.
>   Appearing before the Public Service Commission yesterday railroad
> spokesmen tried to prove that the line lost $9,479 during the past six
> months.
>   However, a PSC official testified that most of the people using the
> two-mile run depend on it for transportation to their jobs.
>   Dropping the 40-year-old line would wipe out the Clinton Road, Newsday
> and A & P Bronze stations.
>   Reporting ton a survey last month, Herbert M. Chevalier, PSC
> supervising transportation inspector, told Hearing Examiner Henry I.
> Cherey that the railroad even arranges shuttle schedules to meet trains
> on the main line arriving at Country Life Press.
>   If the shuttle is discontinued, Chevalier said, passengers bound for
> Mitchel Field would either have to go to Hempstead, take a three mile
> walk, and hop a bus for 20 cents. Or else he said, they would have to
> get off at Country Life Press, walk six-tenths of a mile to Clinton
> Avenue and take a bus for 15 cents.
>   Earlier, Sidney Kabalkin, PSC counsel, read the official tariffs filed
> with the commission by the LIRR to show that the railroad was required
> to sell tickets to Mitchel Field from any other point on its routes.
>   William A. Colton, railroad attorney, denied that such tickets were
> sold. He maintained that Mitchel Field passengers buy a ticket to
> Country Life Press, then drop a nickel in the shuttle fare box to get to
> the field.
>   Hearings were closed and Cherey said he would recommend action to the >
commission.
>
>
>


=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #546
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org