Hillside (LIRR station)

Hillside, earlier Rockaway Junction, was a junction and station on the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line and Montauk Branch in Hillside, Queens, New York City, United States. It was located at the place where the Montauk Branch now crosses over the two eastbound passenger tracks and the two freight tracks of the Main Line, just west of the Hillside Facility.

[edit] History
1909 map, showing the station on the south side of the Main Line tracks at 178th PlaceThe junction was formed in 1871, when the LIRR's Rockaway Branch (now the Montauk Branch) was built south from the Main Line.[1] It was not a station until June 24, 1890, when the local Atlantic Avenue rapid transit trains were extended from Woodhaven Junction through Jamaica to Rockaway Junction, their new terminal. (The Canal Street station opened at the same time.)[2] By 1897, these local trains continued along the Main Line to Hempstead or the Montauk Division to Valley Stream.[3]

Electric service to Rockaway Junction began on August 29, 1905.[4] At some point, it was renamed Hillside.[citation needed] A new station house replaced the old one on May 15, 1911, and the junction was eliminated on October 1, 1930, when the Montauk Branch was elevated. The station closed on July 1, 1966.[5] Twenty-four years after the station closed, the Rockaway Junction site and nearby Holban Yard became the site of the LIRR's Hillside Maitenance Facility.