HICKSVILLE-RONKONKOMA ELECTRIFICATION 1987-2007 20 YEARS!

There's 20+ M3 cars that are permanently out of service. A pair has already been sent to an Ohio scrapyard.

and yes 9775 is in use as E775 sandite/alcohol.

Then there are approx. 154 M-3's remaining in-service? Is that correct?

Head-end View wrote:Then there are approx. 154 M-3's remaining in-service? Is that correct?

As far as I'm concerned of the 174 M3's made, at the maximum 154 are still in use. He said 20+ so that has me thinking that the number is less than 150 maybe 140 that are still in service. The M1 car that was damaged, I didn't know it hit a crane, I don't recall that, but a few M1 cars were destroyed in the late 1980's when a diesel from Port Jefferson hit a flatbed truck at the Park Avenue crossing just East of Huntington, knocking them off the linear storage track where one ended up looking like it was peeled by a can opener.

The bottom line is that electrification became a victim of its own success and required added capacity. Had the Main Line been double tracked in 1986-88 and wired with third rail at the same time, it could have been the winning ticket in capital projects.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:The bottom line is that electrification became a victim of its own success and required added capacity. Had the Main Line been double tracked in 1986-88 and wired with third rail at the same time, it could have been the winning ticket in capital projects.

During the electrification, they actually double tracked three distinct areas of the line. They double-tracked from JS West of Deer Park to BRENT just East of Brentwood, CI1 to CI2 to the West and East of Central Islip, and finally at Ronkonkoma itself. At the time they were also double-tracking from AMOTT in between Syosset and Cold Spring Harbor all the way to just West of Huntington.

I wonder if I will see an electrification project happen in my lifetime? Most likely it would be the Central Branch, or from Babylon to Patchogue or even to Speonk.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:The bottom line is that electrification became a victim of its own success and required added capacity. Had the Main Line been double tracked in 1986-88 and wired with third rail at the same time, it could have been the winning ticket in capital projects.

R36: As I have mentioned previously about this subject the MTA had two choices with the amount
of funding that they had available back in the middle 1980s: Fully double track from Republic to
Ronkonkoma and retain diesel service -or- the electrification of the route along with the added
passing sidings as we have known the route for the past 30 years. The MTA made the right
choice then with what resources that they had.

The 174 M3 cars were not just to be for the Hicksville-Ronkonkoma Electrification - they were to
add on to the MU fleet to address a steady increase in ridership in much of the LIRR electrified
territory - and perhaps that even included the thought of a Huntington-Port Jefferson extension.

This topic has strayed too far off its original Hicksville-Ronkonkoma Electrification subject.
Let's get back "on track"...MACTRAXX

This topic has strayed too far off its original Hicksville-Ronkonkoma Electrification subject.
Let's get back "on track"...MACTRAXX

Updating this old thread, here are some more photos of April 30, 1987

BM and Everyone:

Good pictures from the west end of Platform A at Farmingdale Station.
Were the gentlemen in the picture Farmingdale Village and LIRR officials?

That lithograph of the M3 cars is interesting - I recognize the picture used which was taken
at the Shea Stadium Station maintenance facility yard tracks - what was the Singer Bowl is
on the right near the cab end of the facing M3 that is now part of the USTA Tennis Center
at Flushing Meadow. A picture of an MU test train at Farmingdale would have been more
appropriate - but with the short time (less than two weeks I think it was) that the newly
extended electrification was being tested pictures at Farmingdale Station would be hard
to come by let alone use as a first day service commemorative photo...MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX wrote: Good pictures from the west end of Platform A at Farmingdale Station.
Were the gentlemen in the picture Farmingdale Village and LIRR officials?

I would think so. Not sure, I was busy with the camera.

To go back in time: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/Ronkon ... cation.htm
Ronkonkoma Electrification Project completed December 28th, 1987

Dave Keller Photo 1987


33 Years Later




Ronkonkoma yard is being expanded with additional tracks being added to the existing yard. With no real expansion of service anytime soon, the latest plan I heard was to re-locate the M3's that are collecting dust in Hillside Yard, over to Ronkonkoma, to free up track space in Hillside Yard.

Are any M3's being equipped for PTC, or getting the ventilation upgrades? If not on #1, and probably #2, I guess we should not expect to see any more revenue runs after Dec 31, and probably even before that.