Railroad Forums 

  • CBS News Story on BRT

  • Discussion related to NYAR operations on Long Island. Official web site can be found here: www.anacostia.com/nyar/nyar.html. Also includes discussion related to NYNJ Rail, the carfloat operation successor to New York Cross Harbor that connects with NYAR.
Discussion related to NYAR operations on Long Island. Official web site can be found here: www.anacostia.com/nyar/nyar.html. Also includes discussion related to NYNJ Rail, the carfloat operation successor to New York Cross Harbor that connects with NYAR.
 #1050319  by jayrmli
 
The local CBS News Channel 2 will have a story on the 5PM broadcast today regarding the Brookhaven Rail Terminal - specifically covering their new customer, Wenner Bread, which is now taking carloads of flour in Yaphank.

I'm not aware if it will be recovered on later broadcasts, but may be posted on their website for viewing after it airs...
 #1050603  by jayrmli
 
Unless they decide to run more extensive coverage on Mayor Bloomberg's planned ban on Super Size sugary drinks, the piece should air today on the 5PM broadcast...
 #1050725  by NYCS
 
The video is here, but doesn't seem to be working properly as of this moment. Hopefully they'll fix it...

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/video/73537 ... or-trains/

Or maybe CURES intentionally brought down the video via an inside job? haha
 #1050787  by Backshophoss
 
Blame Honda instead,that is what loaded in front of the video report,or
it's Geoblocked.
Some of CBS's content ,Radio or TV,may be geoblocked by the network.
 #1050835  by NYCS
 
Well, the video was having trouble loading in the beginning and is no longer being served from the CBS website. What a shame... Did anyone record this segment and can convert into a video we can all watch? (i.e. upload it to YouTube?)
 #1079777  by freightguy
 
In an ironic but not shocking twist the residents of Glendale, Queens are trying to fight the proposed expansion of the Yaphank(Brookhaven) Rail terminal. This is 60 miles east of their homes in Queens. The article was in today's 9/6/12 Newsday. Gotta love the nimbys. They fear more rail traffic through their backyards.

News flash you bought your home next to the railroad tracks that have been there since the 19th century. This is probably a more of a ploy of the politicians and two far apart civic groups joining together for the same cause.
 #1079785  by mikey cruz
 
@ Freightguy WOW that's the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a loooong time, wth is happening to NYC? Progress.............naaaaaa we don't need it LOL.
 #1079820  by DogBert
 
*facepalm*

These people are idiots, pure and simple. If you live in that part of queens, chances are you need to own a car to commute or for choirs. Your nearest highway is the LIE, and it's packed with trucks. You would think these people would want less trucks, for their own safety. A few more boxcars on the train ain't gunna hurt anyone. If they're worried about pollution, let them put up the cash for a set of gensets to work the yard... basically, put up or shut up.
 #1216564  by freightguy
 
It was on Newsday on 9/21 that Brookhaven Rail will be receiving a 2.5 million grant as part of a 6.5 million transportation LI transportation grant. It said it would be for track work. That is a good chunk of change for track. On a side note LIRR received 1.3 million towards a grant to retrofit the diesels to lower the exhaust emissions.
 #1216792  by DogBert
 
If I recall right the plans for expanding BRT called for a significant amount of new track to be laid.

Speaking of - have they started working on expanding?
 #1220772  by saucejstuder
 
No new track work yet, no. The intent, to my understanding, is to run the track over to the east side of the parcel and put in a loop track.
 #1258182  by Sir Ray
 
saucejstuder wrote:No new track work yet, no. The intent, to my understanding, is to run the track over to the east side of the parcel and put in a loop track.
This was filed this past Friday (March 14, 2014) by the Town of Brookhaven with the STB:
We are special legal counsel for the Town of Brookhaven. This letter concerns the
Brookhaven Rail Terminal (BRT), located in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New
York, which over the past seven years has had a controversial history before this Board
<snip>
As shown below, such action by the Board is especially urgent here when, under the
guise of constructing a supposed "spur" line extension into the adjoining 100 acre site with
minor clearing and re-grading along the track line, BRT has recently excavated a vast swath of
the 100 acre parcel with tremendous and unapproved excavation activities deep below grade,
which can only be described as illegal soil mining.
...
The Town believes BRT and the owner of its property who is in the business of using and selling construction materials and constructionaggregate, Sills Road Realty, LLC, are in whole or in part conducting non-railroad activities at the site, are illegally selling the excavated soil for profit without complying with law, and are
using the claim of a spur track extension as a subterfuge to avoid application of the full brunt of
the Town Code restrictions on tree and vegetation clearing, soil removal and excavations, and
other restrictions. Additionally, the Town believes BRT is also unlawfully using the combined
sites for the unlawful burial of construction debris
<snip>
The BRT's website describes its current expansion plan as vastly different from the
terminal approved by the Board:
...
In a recent February 6, 2014 letter from the BRT's construction manager, Gannett
Fleming, Inc., the current expansion project is described as:
The existing Brookhaven Rail Terminal is a 28-acre parcel with
approximately 12,800 linear feet of rail track and a connection
with the Long Island Railroad. The proposed expansion would
involve extension of the facility onto an adjacent approximately
93-acre site and involve construction of an additional 12.500 linear
feet of internal track to support future warehousing/manufacturing
and cold/dry storage facilities
<snip>
reveals hints at what activities Sills Road (the non-railroad carrier which deals in
construction aggregate and other materials) or others, plans to conduct on the 28 acre and 100
acre parcels, including the "manufacturing" activity which Gannett Fleming's letter had
passingly referenced. That document shows, among other things, (1) a "POLYMER PLANT" on
the 28 acre parcel; (2) an "ASPHALT CEMENT TERMINAL" on the 28 acre parcel; (3) an
"AGGREGATE STORAGE AREA" on the 28 acre parcel; and (4) a 262,500 square foot
"PROPANE TRANSFER ST A TION" on the 100 acre parcel. A reduced-size copy of that
"FIRE SAFETY ANALYSIS" document is provided as Exhibit B, wherein we highlighted in
red-lettering features which the plan reveals.
There is more info in the filing, linked to in my first paragraph above,
The filing also includes several aerial images of the site, which do seem to show signs of sand mining, and a site plan of future site development, which may be as real as the original "spaghetti-bowl-style" track layout with loops within loops, which of course never came to pass.