Montauk Branch

=Montauk Branch=

===&nbsp The Babylon Branch is highlighted. Distances shown in miles from New York Pennsylvania Station. The Montauk – Babylon Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km)[citation needed] from Long Island City on the west to Montauk on the east. However, LIRR maps and schedules only east of Babylon; the line west of there is the Babylon Branch, West Hempstead Branch, and City Terminal Zone. [1] [2] ===
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Contents
[hide]*1 Route description
 * 2 History
 * 2.1 Formation and early days: 1860s to 1925
 * 2.2 Babylon electrification: 1925 to present
 * 3 Stations
 * 3.1 Full list, including all former stations
 * 4 References
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[edit] Route description
The westernmost portion of the Montauk Branch in Queens, known as the "Old Montauk" or "Lower Montauk", runs from Long Island City to a connection with the Atlantic Branch west of Jamaica, mostly at street level with grade crossings. This portion of the line sees only two regular passenger trains on weekdays only, which make no stops on the Old Montauk itself. Five intermediate stations in Queens (Richmond Hill, Glendale, Fresh Pond, Haberman, and Penny Bridge) were closed on March 13, 1998[3] due to low ridership and incompatibility with then new high level platform only bi-level coach cars. 88th Street grade crossing over the Montauk Branch; Woodhaven Boulevard overpass in background.Passing over Grand Avenue, QueensThe portion from Jamaica to Babylon has been electrified since 1925. From Babylon east to Montauk, diesel-electric or hybrid electric/diesel-electric locomotives haul trains of passenger coaches.

The Montauk Line has heavy ridership and frequent service as far as Patchogue and commuter service as far as Speonk. In the summer, with travelers going out to The Hamptons, Fire Island and other beaches, additional service is operated to the far eastern terminal at Montauk, such as the Cannonball, a Friday afternoon train departing from Hunterspoint Avenue and running non-stop between Jamaica and Westhampton. The Montauk Branch, along with the parallel Atlantic Branch, spawns three subsidiary branches: the West Hempstead Branch, Far Rockaway Branch, and Long Beach Branch.

The electrified portion of the Montauk Branch ends at Babylon; the electric service to Babylon is often identified as a separate service, the Babylon Branch. Some of the Montauk's diesel trains begin or end their runs at Babylon station, connecting with electric trains there. Other Montauk diesel trains operate into New York City, to Jamaica, Hunterspoint Avenue, Long Island City, or New York Penn Station. The terminal stations in diesel territory, east of Babylon, are Patchogue, Speonk, and Montauk. The Montauk Branch is double-tracked from Long Island City all the way through Babylon, becoming single track at Y Interlocking (located east of the Sayville Station). Most Montauk Branch diesel trains operate west to NYC via the diesel-only Central Branch, joining the Main Line east of Bethpage. Only a few actually run via the Montauk Branch west of Babylon, under normal conditions on the Main Line.

The Montauk was home to the only tower (PD Tower) in North America that regularly used "hooping" train operations, located in Patchogue. "Hooping" is the transfer of instructions to both the engineer and conductor by attaching the folded orders to the "hoop", a rod several feet long with a loop at the end that is passed from the ground to a moving train by catching the loop on one's arm. The last train to get hooped at PD was train 2730 on May 6, 2006.[4]

The Montauk Branch enjoys frequent service and has heavy ridership because it serves the suburban communities on Nassau County's and westernmost Suffolk County's south shore. It is grade-separated on embankments or elevated structures from Jamaica Station to Babylon Station.

[edit] History
Currently, the Montauk Branch intersects with the Bushwick Branch, Bay Ridge Branch, West Hempstead Branch, and Central Branch, as well as the Main Line at Long Island City and Jamaica and the Atlantic Branch at Jamaica and Valley Stream; the Far Rockaway Branch and Long Beach Branch are connected via the Atlantic Branch at Valley Stream. In the past, junctions existed with the Rockaway Beach Branch (a quarter mile east of Woodhaven Boulevard), Southern Hempstead Branch (Valley Stream to Hempstead), Manorville Branch (Eastport to Manorville on the Main Line), and Sag Harbor Branch (Bridgehampton to Sag Harbor). In early times, the Scoot ran frequently between Greenport on the North Fork, "around the horn" on the Manorville Branch, and east to Sag Harbor. In their day, both of those villages were very busy, bustling ports.

[edit] Formation and early days: 1860s to 1925
See also: South Side Railroad of Long IslandThe South Side Railroad of Long Island built the line from Bushwick, Brooklyn to Patchogue in the 1860s, and completed the new line to Long Island City in 1870.[citation needed] With the reorganization of the South Side as the Southern Railroad of Long Island in 1874 and its lease by the LIRR in 1876, this line became the Southern Railroad Division,[5], Southern Railroad of Long Island Division, or simply Southern Division.[6] Effective Sunday, June 25, 1876, all Southern Division passenger trains were rerouted to use the LIRR main line from Berlin Junction (west of Jamaica) to Rockaway Junction, and the LIRR's Rockaway Branch to Springfield Junction, where it crossed the Southern. This change resulted in the closure of the Southern's Berlin, Beaver Street (Jamaica), Locust Avenue, and Springfield stations.[7] The old line between Jamaica and Springfield, which became freight-only, was renamed the Old Southern Road.[citation needed] The Southern was reorganized as the Brooklyn and Montauk Railroad in 1879,[8] and on March 14, 1880, the name was changed from the Southern Division to the Montauk Division.[9] Thus the old South Side Railroad, except between Jamaica and Springfield Junction, was now the Montauk Division.

The LIRR opened the Sag Harbor Branch, including the present Montauk Branch from Eastport to Bridgehampton, on June 8, 1870.[10] On July 27, 1881, after the South Side became part of the LIRR, its line – then the Montauk Division – was extended east to the Sag Harbor Branch at Eastport.[11] The Sag Harbor Branch east of Eastport became part of the Montauk Division,[12] and the old line from Manor (Manorville) to Eastport became the Manor Branch.[13] An extension to Montauk, splitting off the old Sag Harbor Branch at Bridgehampton, opened to Amagansett on June 1, 1895<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13">[14] and to Montauk by September,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14">[15] and the line between Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor reverted to the old Sag Harbor Branch name.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15">[16]

[edit] Babylon electrification: 1925 to present
None of the Montauk Branch was electrified in the first round of electrification, in which the entire Atlantic Division, the Main Line to Queens Village, and many branches were upgraded.<sup class="Template-Fact" style="white-space: nowrap" title="This claim needs references to reliable sources from February 2007">[citation needed] Electrification of the Montauk Division from Jamaica to Babylon was completed on May 20, 1925,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16">[17] and normal operation began the next day.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17">[18] The Central Extension between Bethpage and Babylon was reopened for freight trains that had run via the Montauk Division.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18">[19]

1998 saw the closure of three lightly used stations: Center Moriches, Quogue, and Southampton College. Southampton College was temporarily reinstated in 2004, complete with a steel walkway over Sunrise Highway to the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, during the U.S. Open (golf) tournament. At the conclusion of the tournament, the walkway was dismantled and the station stop discontinued.

The Montauk station was initially near the center of a sleepy fishing village at the north end of Fort Pond (where Austin Corbin built a pier in his unsuccessful effort to have trans-Atlantic ships dock there.) The Great Hurricane of 1938 devastated the terminus area and tore up sections of the roadbed. The population center then moved two miles (3 km) to the south, away from the station.

[edit] Stations
West Hempstead Branch trains split off after St. Albans. Babylon Branch trains terminate at Babylon, while Montauk Branch trains continue beyond.

Jamaica is 10.8 miles (17.4 km) from Penn Station.