LIRR Electric Freight

[daveklepper]

Around ages 5 and 6, 1937-38. I used to watch the LIRR mainline from an uncle's Forest Hills apartment.   In additonal to the usual MP-54 trains, occasionally one would see a string of P-70's or P-54's ("Ping-Pongs") haulded by a DD-1.   I knew about the engine change at Jamaica, and steam on these locomotive-hauled trains east of Jamaica.  A few years later I finally spied a DD-1 on a freight train on the Long Beach branch.   I also once saw the steam-propelled (2-6-0 or 0-6-0) New Haven RR wire train on the Bay Ridge Branch, and saw the 0-6-0 electric AC switchers switching the New Haven carfloates and New Haven trains at the Bay Ridge temrinal and remember these locomotives as clearly lettered Long Island Rail Road, not New Haven or PRR.   The switchers were the same type as the PRR used at Sunnyside, New York's Penn Station, and at 30thj Street.   I remember the designation B-6, but don't remember whether it applies to the very frequently sighted 0-6-0 slope-back-tender steam switcher or the electric.  I also had the privelege of watching an LIRR interchange mvovement in 1948 as the R-10 subways cars were moved from the Bay Ridge branch up the curving interchange tracks to the Macdonald Avenue trolley tracks.   A diesel or an AC 0-6-0 would push them to Avenue H and McDonald Avenuce and then DC steeplecab or a diesel, South Brookly RY, the Transit system;s freight subsidiary, would haul them down Mcdonals Avenue, in the midst the auto traffic and PCC cars using the same track, to the Coney Island shops.  The catenary stopped at one point with two span wires and a metal sign hung down"   AC Motors Stop Here"  while on the second span wire facing the other way with about two feet of space without trolley wire, the was the sign "600V Motors Stop Here". 

Questions:    Was the LIRR freight electric power, both the AC switchers and the DD-1's serviced at Wilmington?

When did electric freight service end on the LIRR?

When did the last DD-1's operate on the wire train and be replaced by ex NYC power?

Note that the transit authority's south brooklyn and the LIRR third rail operatons were not the only 600V dc interchanges for the Bay Ridge electrificaiton.   There were also the New York Dopck Railway and Bush Terminal, which had trolley wire operatons.   Then course the New Haven had an interchange with the NYC south of Woodlawn on a cross-Bronx transfer line that was also occasionally used as passenger train detour between the Harlem River branch to the Hell Gate Bridge and Oak Point Yard and the Harlem Division cut of the NYC.  When I last rode the Harlem line in 1996, the switches and track head east north of Mott Haven were still in place.   Is this connection still in use?

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

The B-6 designation referred to the standard PRR 0-6-0 steam switcher.  The box-cab electric switcher was classified B-1 as a single unit or BB-3 when they were delivered in pairs.

The last DD-1 lasted on the wire train until about 1969, when it was replaced by an ex-NYC T-motor, which lasted into the Conrail era.  The third rail was maintained through the Hudson River tunnels strictly to support the wire train.

[daveklepper]

Thanks for the information.   My understanding is that the third rail is still in use for the wire train in the Hudson Tunnels, but that Amtrak simply borrows some LIRR mu's to use as power.   Is this correct?

 

Still wondering whether the LIRR DD-1"s and B-1's were maintained in Wilmington.

 

I also remember clearly that the pre-diesel Washington Terminal switchers were all B-6's, labeled for Washington Terminal.

[PBenham]

Thanks for the information.   My understanding is that the third rail is still in use for the wire train in the Hudson Tunnels, but that Amtrak simply borrows some LIRR mu's to use as power.   Is this correct?

 

Still wondering whether the LIRR DD-1"s and B-1's were maintained in Wilmington.

 

I also remember clearly that the pre-diesel Washington Terminal switchers were all B-6's, labeled for Washington Terminal.

Amtrak uses high rail vehicles with low emmission engines equipped with diagnostic computers that interface with the power control computer in Washington. And if the computer is in the mood...

As to the shops where the LI electrics were maintained they were done at LIs own shop at Morris Park.

I found my copy of "Electric Heritage of the Long Island Railroad" By Ron Ziel with John Krause. DD-1s were used on freights, primarily Milk traffic from Jamacia to Sunnyside, where it was interchanged with then parent PRR, or moved to the Grandview Dairy in Brooklyn on the Atlantic Branch. New York & Atlantic would be able to get some traffic off the LI expressway, perhaps even make money, but...

[daveklepper]

"...Sunnyside, where it was interchanged with the parent PRR."   Does this mean that this milk traffic ran through the East River and Hudson Tunnels via Penn Sta.?   Because the ONLY PRR pesence at Synnyside was passenger and express, not freight.  However, in addition to the New Haven Railroad through freights over the Hell Gate Bridge, often at night running non stop from Ceder Hill to Bay Ridge, the LIRR defnitely ran local freights on the Bay Ridge branch from Fresh Pond Junction and elsewhere on the system.    I saw both LIRR steam and B-1's 0-6-0 AC switchers on short freight trains.  Possibly the milk business was handles as refrigerated express?

[PBenham]

 

 

Well, The milk traffic that LI sent to PRR traveled as head end traffic in mail/express trains. So, yes the traffic rolled through Penn station as express traffic and at express rates. The crazy part of this? The bulk of this milk then returned to Manhattan for sale from Dairies in New Jersey! Go figure.