The Southern Hempstead Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road from Valley Stream to Hempstead. It was abandoned before 1900 and is not the same route as the current West Hempstead Branch.
Hempstead residents were annoyed with the bad service provided by the LIRR on their Hempstead Branch, and planned the New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad, which was to cross the South Side Railroad at Valley Stream and end at the 65th Street Ferry in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, but only built east of Valley Stream. There were also plans to extend the line eastward into what is today North Massapequa.[1] Reliant on the South Side, the two companies often shared equipment. A railroad supplier named Pusey became president in 1871, but failed to do what he had promised and was soon discharged. Without notifying the company, the bondholders illegally appointed receiver Seaman Snediker, a friend of Pusey's, under foreclosure, and they took the railroad on January 8, 1872. The owners discovered this the next morning and took control of the railroad's only locomotive. The South Side leased tho NY&HP in June 1873.[2]