Long Island Rail Road: Port Jefferson Branch

By David D. Morrison and David Keller

The Long Island Rail Road is the oldest railroad in the country still operating under its original name. As the busiest railroad in North America, it carries 265,000 customers each weekday aboard 735 trains on 11 different branches. The Port Jefferson Branch serves 10 stations from Hicksville to Port Jefferson and carries nearly 20 percent of the railroad s passenger traffic over its 32 miles of track. Hicksville Station is the site of the October 8, 1955, End of Steam Ceremony, when steam locomotives were retired from service. The oldest surviving station building constructed by the Long Island Rail Road is on this branch at St. James. Between 1895 and 1938, the branch extended 10 miles east to Wading River. The branch was not electrified until 1970 and that was only to Huntington Station, east of which is served by diesel and dual-mode locomotives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Oct 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781439644218

David D. Morrison

David D. Morrison is a retired branch line manager and railroad historian. Author of seven other books in Arcadia's Images of Rail series, he is a major contributor to the website trainsarefun.com. He is a charter member of the Railroad Museum of Long Island as well as cochair of the Oyster Bay Railroad Station Restoration Committee. Long Island's major newspaper, Newsday, often seeks him out for historical railroad information. He has given countless presentations to libraries and historical societies and continues to enjoy doing so. He is a longtime member of the Long Island Sunrise Trail Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.

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INTRODUCTION

The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR), chartered on April 24, 1834, is the oldest railroad in the country still operating under its original name. The purpose of the LIRR was to serve as a connecting railroad for persons traveling from Washington, DC, to Boston, Massachusetts. At the time, it was considered impossible to construct a railroad along the Connecticut shoreline due to the numerous marshes and rivers. Engineering was not advanced to the point of constructing bridges of sufficient strength to support heavy locomotives and cars.

A railroad on Long Island would permit persons to travel by rail from Washington to the New Jersey shoreline, by ferryboat across to Brooklyn, by LIRR to Greenport, another ferryboat to Stonington, Connecticut, and then by rail to Boston. This route would be faster than traveling by sail or steam-powered boats.

The LIRR was opened to Greenport on July 27, 1844, and the system worked well for about four years. Then, in 1848, bridges were constructed along the Connecticut shoreline, making a rail route possible, after which the LIRR entered a period of disuse.

Long Island’s populated communities on the north and south shores were served by ships. The LIRR ran through the basically barren center of Long Island. Once the construction of a railroad along the Connecticut coast erased the basic purpose of the LIRR, it was realized that the line would have to branch off and serve its shore communities. The need was there because, in winter months, travel by ship was sporadic and hazardous.

A short branch line had been opened to Hempstead in 1839, but that branch did not serve any shore communities. In 1854, the LIRR extended tracks eastward to Syosset in an effort to reach communities on the north shore. Eventually, track was extended to Cold Spring Harbor, Huntington, Northport, and Port Jefferson, where the branch terminates today. Between 1895 and 1938, track was extended east of Port Jefferson to Wading River, but service on that extension proved unwarranted.

The opening of New York’s Penn Station on September 8, 1910, ushered in an era of expansion on Long Island. With direct rail access into Manhattan, rather than having to board a ferryboat at Long Island City, people moved from the city out to Long Island in rapidly increasing numbers. In 1910, the population of Long Island was 2,098,460. Within a decade after Penn Station opened, the population jumped to nearly three million. The increase was accentuated in those sections that had been most affected by the easy access to New York City provided by the LIRR. Communities on the Port Jefferson Branch were among those rapidly expanding sections.

The Port Jefferson Branch is an unusual LIRR line in one respect. Of its 10 station buildings, four are over 100 years old. This does not include the 1873 Stony Brook station building, which was remodeled to its present look in 1917. In essence, half of the buildings on the branch are centurions. One branch building was moved and is now a private residence, and another on the Wading River extension is now an office in a lumberyard complex.

There were 56 curves between Hicksville and Wading River. Until 1942, the line from Northport to Port Jefferson ran nearly all through the woods, the only houses being at St. James and Flowerfield. There were four wooden trestles on the line, which were replaced with steel trestles by 1901.

Trolleys once served three branch stations. There are two abandoned spur tracks and an 11-mile abandoned right-of-way. There is also an abandoned section of graded right-of-way upon which tracks were never laid.

There is something special about the waiting rooms on the branch. Three waiting rooms are furnished with potbellied stoves. The stove inside the 1873 St. James waiting room is the original. LIRR employees have donated stoves at two other stations in recent years. Although the stoves do not function, they provide a charm to the waiting rooms reminiscent of days gone by.

The branch has seen a variety of locomotives and cars through the years. Steam locomotives, trolley cars, gas cars, diesels, as well as MU (multiple unit) electric cars and dual-mode locomotives, have all operated on the branch. From ancient wooden coaches to model bi-level cars, the branch has seen its share of varied equipment.

This book covers the history of the Port Jefferson Branch. A good overview of the LIRR may be found in four other Arcadia publications in the Images of Rail series: Long Island Rail Road Stations (Morrison and Pakaluk), Jamaica Station (Morrison), The Long Island Rail Road: 1925–1975 (Keller and Lynch), and Revisiting The Long Island Rail Road: 1925–1975 (Keller and Lynch). Maps, drawings, and other types of images supplement high-quality historical photographs. An effort has been made not to duplicate images found in other Arcadia books, but, in a few instances, duplication was warranted because of the scarcity of particular images.

Besides the four LIRR books in the Images of Rail series, there are other Arcadia books that cover communities on the Port Jefferson Branch, including Hicksville, Syosset, Greenlawn, Smithtown, St. James, the Setaukets, Miller Place, Port Jefferson, and Shoreham/Wading River. Again, an effort was made not to duplicate images. Some contemporary photographs are included in this book, intended to show the dramatic difference between an earlier time and today. But this is certainly not a then and now book.

The railroad station in many cases helped develop the community that it served. Many of those communities are proud of their station building and its historical significance. This is clearly illustrated by events that have occurred through the years on the Port Jefferson Branch. In the past few decades, railroad anniversary celebrations have been held at the following stations: Greenlawn (100th), Huntington (100th), and Port Jefferson (125th). St. James celebrated the historical restoration of its 1873 station