The staten island railway* is an FRA railroad. The sir was always a railroad since its start in 1825, it was also for a time owned and operated by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. Passenger service was surrendered to the state of new york under MTA in 1971 around the same time of A-Day when they were allowed to drop passenger service, all the equipment and stations went to MTA/State of New York. At that time the mainline to tottenville was the only line left with any passenger service since the B&O dropped service on the southbeach and northshore branches in 1953. South beach branch was stripped of all signals and electrical equipment (stations left in place). The northshore branch operated freight for a few years and little by little truncated back and back till finally only as far as howland hook terminal in 1991 (served by csx then abandoned)
CSX retained ownership of the land and row's of the northshore and southbeach branches (sold the southbeach branch row to developers in the late 90s and it was turned into townhouses) arlington/northshore branch is intact and is partially reactivated as FREIGHT ONLY at the moment along with the travis spur past the coned plant to fresh kills transfer for the trash trains.
The B&O and later CSX still holds freight trackage rights over all the tracks including the tottenville line (which is why SIR can never be merged with the subway system by FRA policy)
something a bit funny was that there was a huge passenger equipment shortage when the state took over the SIR in 71 and actually transfered LIRR MP72 worlds fair pullman MU cars to staten island for service on the tottenville line (never repainted) only reason why SIR recieved subway styled R44 cars were because the subway system (also under mta) already had an active build order with ST LOUIS CAR CO so they tacked on an extra 70 cars for SIR but with modified designs (heavier frame, stronger body/car ends, trucks similar to an M1. Also all glass has to meet FRA part 23 glazing standards and all engineers are FRA bluecarded and are not motorman, also has a traditional crew of an engineer, conductor and assistant conductor/breakman.
The signals on the SIR still use the B&O signal aspect/color system similar to pennsy
The only thing SIR has in common with the subway is on paper at the administrative level.
CSX retained ownership of the land and row's of the northshore and southbeach branches (sold the southbeach branch row to developers in the late 90s and it was turned into townhouses) arlington/northshore branch is intact and is partially reactivated as FREIGHT ONLY at the moment along with the travis spur past the coned plant to fresh kills transfer for the trash trains.
The B&O and later CSX still holds freight trackage rights over all the tracks including the tottenville line (which is why SIR can never be merged with the subway system by FRA policy)
something a bit funny was that there was a huge passenger equipment shortage when the state took over the SIR in 71 and actually transfered LIRR MP72 worlds fair pullman MU cars to staten island for service on the tottenville line (never repainted) only reason why SIR recieved subway styled R44 cars were because the subway system (also under mta) already had an active build order with ST LOUIS CAR CO so they tacked on an extra 70 cars for SIR but with modified designs (heavier frame, stronger body/car ends, trucks similar to an M1. Also all glass has to meet FRA part 23 glazing standards and all engineers are FRA bluecarded and are not motorman, also has a traditional crew of an engineer, conductor and assistant conductor/breakman.
The signals on the SIR still use the B&O signal aspect/color system similar to pennsy
The only thing SIR has in common with the subway is on paper at the administrative level.
This is the train to: Pumphouse, Turntable and RPO, Please have all tickets out for collection. Thank you and enjoy the ride
**Also agrees with the statement "Jeff Smith Rules"
**Also agrees with the statement "Jeff Smith Rules"
