Railroad Forums 

  • Northport signals and trackage.

  • Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.
Discussion of the past and present operations of the Long Island Rail Road.

Moderator: Liquidcamphor

 #1502876  by Teutobergerwald
 
Recently saw an old picture of Northport station, pre-1955 end of steam, with two tracks through the station, and spurs visible branching off both tracks in the picture, including a spur serving Karp's Hardware. Karp's is still in business today, but no spur serving it anymore. The only freight to be seen these days is the once a week four to six combination of boxcars & flatcars for Kleet Lumber in Huntington, which first comes to Northport to use the siding east of the station to run-around the train and pull it back west to push it into Kleet.

Anyway, when did the freight service to customers in & near Northport Station end, and when was the trackage through the station reduced to one track, with the switch and siding relocated just east of the crossing of Laurel Rd? Were the signals at Northport ever PRR-style position light signals, or always the pedestal signals visible at both ends of the siding east of the Laurel Rd crossing? Thanks!
 #1502904  by milepost39
 
Yeah I was the one who posted that. The photo came from the public library website. To the south of the station across the tracks along 10th avenue (west of Karps) was the Soper Pickle works. It was served by a spur. It burned down in 1961 and was finally demolished in 1966 to make way for the current parking lot. To the immediate west of the station was a freight depot and a yard. I could never get an answer, but I wonder if some of that trackage remained from when there was a trolley car barn there, and repurposed later for freight? Aerial photos show by 1966 this was all gone, to be replaced by the current parking lot. I assume the second track was cut back at this time also.
 #1502949  by alchemist
 
Mmmmmmmmm Sauerkraut! Soper was later Rothman. In the 1950's when I spent summers in that area you could buy plastic bags of Rothman sauerkraut in many local food stores. While waiting for a train at Northport you got a good whiff of kraut if the wind was from the west.
 #1503019  by Teutobergerwald
 
Great map!!!!!!! Thank you. It appears, back in the day, before the siding was snipped back to just east of the crossing in ENPT, that there were PRR-style signals. Hmmmm....
Last edited by Teutobergerwald on Sun Mar 10, 2019 2:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
 #1503022  by Backshophoss
 
The P/L signal was the Northport Manual block signal,not sure if there was a Block Limit signal mounted on the same mast if
Northport was a part time block station on the Port Jeff branch at some point in time before it was closed and Duke passing siding appeared.

All that's left there is Northport's high level platform at present.
 #1503051  by alchemist
 
It's a long, long time ago, but I seem to remember a semaphore signal close to the station building back in the 1950s. Would that have been a train order signal?
 #1503111  by ExCon90
 
alchemist wrote:It's a long, long time ago, but I seem to remember a semaphore signal close to the station building back in the 1950s. Would that have been a train order signal?
Based on standard LIRR practice it would most likely have been a manual block signal, and with a round-end blade on the arm. The 1957 track plan posted by nyandw shows two P/L signals opposite each other, each governing movement in one direction; they could have replaced two semaphores at the same location.
 #1523556  by Teutobergerwald
 
Saturday, 10/26, welded-rail train, spotted in the siding just east of Northport LIRR station at Laurel Rd. 3-4, maybe 5 E-15s, 171 is one of them.