Greenport Branch Track Work Effective February 26

BTW LI Bus is doing the scheduled bustitution. I used it to get to Riverhead today.
I was going to go to PJ and get the Suffolk Bus there, but I got stuck in Huntington and decided to backtrack to Hicksville and then the 8:26am train to Ronk. It was only one bus, and it was only half full. Pretty quick ride.
Actually I think it was faster than the train.

I noticed about 6-8 months ago that there was a drop of continuously welded rail all along the main line east of Ronkonkoma. As of today, in the riverhead, calverton and manorville area, the CWR is still laying on either sides of the currently installed track. Is the cwr for the mainline here or just being stored there for another project? I did notice east of riverhead that there was no cwr dropped. Maybe just for Ronkonkoma to Riverhead?

The Main Line east of KO still stick rail, or CWR installed a long time ago?

It is CWR all the way to Greenport. I do believe some of it may have been former stick rail as it dates back to the Forties through Yaphank.

The Tenth Legion wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 5:23 pm The Main Line east of KO still stick rail, or CWR installed a long time ago?

EdwardHand wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:21 pm It is CWR all the way to Greenport. I do believe some of it may have been former stick rail as it dates back to the Forties through Yaphank.

I dont know much about KO to Yaphank, but east of Yaphank, it is still stick rail all the way to Greenport. That why i was curious when i saw the CWR rails laying to the sides of the main line track all throughout the manorville, calverton and riverhead area.

I should have said it is primarily welded rail with splices. Especially near road crossings and turnouts. Thanks for the incentive to go out east.

noupf wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 2:19 pm

The Tenth Legion wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 5:23 pm The Main Line east of KO still stick rail, or CWR installed a long time ago?

EdwardHand wrote: ↑Wed Mar 13, 2024 6:21 pm It is CWR all the way to Greenport. I do believe some of it may have been former stick rail as it dates back to the Forties through Yaphank.

I dont know much about KO to Yaphank, but east of Yaphank, it is still stick rail all the way to Greenport. That why i was curious when i saw the CWR rails laying to the sides of the main line track all throughout the manorville, calverton and riverhead area.

NOUPF: INCORRECT - Welded rail was installed between Ronkonkoma and Yaphank in 1984...
Welded rail was installed between Yaphank and Greenport in 1985...
For the record this section was the last LIRR line to have welded rail installed - the program ran about 10 to 12
years 1973 to 1985 to replace jointed rail on all LIRR main track segments...

When was the last time that you rode the Ronkonkoma-Greenport Scoot?
It is actually easy to tell the difference between welded and jointed rail just by the ride of the equipment...

The new welded rails that have been dropped may be to replace this 1980s era welded rail during track work...
MACTRAXX

rail east of YA (yaphank)may be welded but it is certainly not new with the exception of crossings at grade.every crossing east of LD(riverhead) have transition joints because it is mostly 100lb rail.fun fact the siding in K (mattituck) has 85lb rail with a date stamp of 1884.

My apologies everyone, I'm not a super knowledgeable rail fan here. If it is cwr out east here, it must not be long lengths of cwr rail. I feel like there are many spots along the line where i see a lot of rail joints ( and not just by grade crossings ) and there for assumed it was stick rail along the line still.

To my eyes, the new cwr that was dropped a few months ago looks like very very long pieces of rail. Would the lirr have used shorter lengths of cwr back in the 80's when the rails were upgraded? Maybe that's why i see more rail joints than i expected with cwr that is currently in place.

EdwardHand wrote: ↑Thu Mar 14, 2024 4:03 pm I should have said it is primarily welded rail with splices. Especially near road crossings and turnouts. Thanks for the incentive to go out east.

This may be why i see a lot of rail joints and assumed it was not cwr out here. Thanks for the info.

With apologies, I should have used the phrase RE (Relay Rail) has been used before. The Rail from KO to GY dates from 1896 to 1960ish. The fish plating is due to track circuits, changing between 100, 115 and 135 LBS rail, spacers as in model RR snap track and broken rail repair. There is no clickety clack down the LIRR track.

Srnumber9 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 01, 2007 6:58 pm In that case it's good to know they still have a sense of their heritage.

The whole thing got me to thinking: is it still possible to take the LIRR on a trip to Boston? It turns out that Suffolk Bus will get you from the Greenport station to the Orient Ferry. Amtrak runs from New London to Boston too!

After that it's a matter of getting all the schedules to mesh.

It's certainly possible. It would be a longer trip then going to NYC and hopping on an Acela there. However if the trip is truly a part of your journey, the mixed modes will add a fun element. Bar on the ferry. Frequent NEC service (with another bar.) Boston (more bars.) Sounds like a perfect St. Patty's gig.