Mitchel Field

Was the old Mitchel Field located by Selfridge Ave.?

The property of Mitchel Field, also known as Mitchell Field extended a short distance east of Selfridge Avenue.

Called Mitchell Field after 1918, it was called Camp Mills from 1917-1918 and Camp Black from 1898 - 1916.

Selfridge Avenue was once called "USAF Crossing."

The LIRR station was a low platform with wooden shelter shed on the north side of the tracks and on the west side of Selfridge Avenue.

Here's a shot with the shuttle consisting of MP54 cars letting off passengers in 1950. This would be looking east towards Selfridge Avenue:


Dave Keller

I have some pics of what remains of a platform on the north side of the tracks between endo blvd @ the east and selfridge and the west.

PM me if you want to see. i dont have a site to upload to for me to post them here. its deteraiting worse each year, and the wood retaining bords contunue to surcum to the wrath of nature.

I was wondering about the system in place for road crossings for the MP-54's on the Mitchell shuttle runs. Looking at the time tables, how did they manage to get from Mitchell to Country Life as quick as they did without any crossing gates? I remember there was a shed at Washington Ave and they used to post men there to stop traffic for the race trains in the 60's. We're talking at least 4 road crossings (Washington, Clinton, old Vanderbelt race road, & the main drag for the base), 3 of which were pretty busy, did they have men posted? It doesn't seem like the trains would have stopped at each street and have the conducter do traffic control, they wouldn't have been able to do the runs as quick as they did.

Washington Street and Clinton Road were crossings protected by a crossing watchman in a crossing shanty.

The old Vanderbilt crossing was, in the 50s, considered a private road and most probably wasn't used all that frequently except for government business.

The shuttle to Mitchell Field did not cross Selfridge Ave. There were double crossovers between the eastbound and westbound tracks in front of the station. The government had gates put in across the tracks to prohibit access east of Selfridge Avenue.

So, there were really only 2 crossings with which to be concerned and they were protected.

The platform of which you speak was a 780 feet long low platform north of the tracks and just east of Selfridge Avenue. This used to be the station stop for "Meadowbrook-Roosevelt Raceway."

When those trains ran, the gates would be opened east of Selfridge Avenue to allow access.

The tracks ended on the west side of Meadowbrook Parkway after 1956.

Dave Keller

Dave Keller wrote:The property of Mitchel Field, also known as Mitchell Field extended a short distance east of Selfridge Avenue.

Called Mitchell Field after 1918, it was called Camp Mills from 1917-1918 and Camp Black from 1898 - 1916.

Selfridge Avenue was once called "USAF Crossing."

The LIRR station was a low platform with wooden shelter shed on the north side of the tracks and on the west side of Selfridge Avenue.

Here's a shot with the shuttle consisting of MP54 cars letting off passengers in 1950. This would be looking east towards Selfridge Avenue:


Dave Keller

Wow that looks like Bradley Hall from NCC in the background!

Wow that looks like Bradley Hall from NCC in the background!

i have to qestion if that is the NCC "bradly hall"

it looks to be to far east i will man the area this week since its easy access and grab some pics of the place and see if that helps.

there is still (remains) east of selfridg ans west of endo where the low level wood framed platform remains. last year the LIRR seemed to dump balast on the platform and immeadite row north of the rails. its totally driveable at this time. (more balast on the dirt road then on the railroad in that area. many ties are burried).

Thanks for the info Dave, as usual your a UNIVAC. If you go to Arrt's Arrchives (central shuttle service) you'll see a Mp-54 getting ready to cross Clinton with a conductor (they seemed prettier back then) stopping traffic, had to be around 1950, looks like a 1950 Packard and they replaced the MP-41 with the 54's around this time. I was just thinking that the conductors must have gotten quite a workout. You figure they made 11 round trips a day (with the MP-41 a couple less in the 50's), and in 1939 they removed the wye and tower so the crews had to throw thier own switches to go on the Hempstead main, make 3 stops (A&P, Newsday, & Clinton), dodge the frieghts working the secondary, and they did this all in 10 minutes! Impressive! The conductor in that picture looks pretty senior, I'm assuming seniority got you your pick of routes back then, so there must have been something nice to it. When you go back even earlier with Salisbury, Meadowbrook Hospital, and Plainedge, it must have been even hairier. Also I noticed that Clinton Ave looked pretty wide, I wonder how they managed to get a single MP-41 accross there without loosing electrical contact. Thanks again...

Mac

Prior to the single MP41 car they used the even shorter ex-Ocean Electric Railway trolley cars.

Clinton Road had to have been narrower back then. They may have widened the road when they went to a 2-car MP41 shuttle.

Also, in that great shot on Art's website, the trainman is walking the crossing with flag. (He DOES look well-dressed, doesn't he?)

The crossing watchman's shanty, obviously no longer in existence, was located on the northeast quadrant of the crossing. It would have been visible just beyond the front of that MP54 car about to cross the road. (the station platform is visible in the foreground.)

That Packard appears to be a 1949 or 1950 and coming out of the side street is either a '49 or '50 Ford (we had a '50 when I was a youngster.)

The MU car is in Tichy scheme, which started in LATE 1949, and looking at the fullness of the trees, it's not late in the year, nor does the car appear freshly painted so the shot was most probably taken, at the earliest, during the summer of 1950.

Dave Keller

Now that we are talking about the Mitchell secondary, I was wondering if anyone knew if this rumor was true. There has been rumor floated around by some people at work that the developer that wants to build at the site of the Nassau Collesium has even mentioned reactvating the Mitchell secondary and have LIRR trains serve the newly developed site. That would be an interesting addition to LIRR operations, and would do very much to ease traffic when there are events being held at NC, or even usefull for students attending NCC or Hofstra! Maybe this rumor was mentioned in a newspaper article???

Mark,
it would be very intresting and i did see construction signs on old countury rd. last week flashing that there was going to be a meeting open to the public.

this is a very contraversial but would be a very usefull for the students at hofstra and NCC also can dubble as a park and ride during off seasons.
the tracks can actully if done correctly ballon loop to hofstra then the coliseum then NCC (old mitchel platform) or maby even move it west a slight bit. the line can be DM of full eletric. but the biggest problem again lays at teh old GCS yard. that yard needs to be rebuilt to alow for the freight business that will be prought into the area. NCC Hofstra snd the coliseum can all receive some kind of freight. also some business near by can also benifit.
the old central is clearly worth a few milion if it's done right, and not done in the classic american way.. cheep and fast/slow.

Actually, before we jump the gun here, we must remember all those wonderful folks of Garden City who absolutely love to see the Mitchell secondary reactivated The reason why freight operations never came to fruition was simply that our lovely NIMBYs in GC did not want to have these trains rolling down their million dollar estates, even though of course, the RR has been around longer than even the town itself and the tracks themselves were there way before any of those million dollar homes were ever built. If this proposal were to ever be discussed, I'm betting my rear end that those folks will do whatever it takes to stop it from happening. The irony in all of this? Those same crying babies are the same folks who commute daily on the LIRR's Hempstead branch! So lets not get too optimistic here, NIMBY's are not interested in progress, they are only interested in themselves.

Mark,

So lets not get too optimistic here, NIMBY's are not interested in progress, they are only interested in themselves.

isent there a signe named for people like that. its black and white, with 6 letters in a arrow shiped figure??

IE,[ONE selfish WAY]>

iven if it benifits them they dont want it

dont worry a fright aint going to hurt there millions. u dont see the MOW trains that are there degrading there properity,
Oh Wait I 4got somthing... the "little nimbys" wount have a train track to play on any more..

mark777 wrote:Actually, before we jump the gun here, we must remember all those wonderful folks of Garden City who absolutely love to see the Mitchell secondary reactivated The reason why freight operations never came to fruition was simply that our lovely NIMBYs in GC did not want to have these trains rolling down their million dollar estates, even though of course, the RR has been around longer than even the town itself and the tracks themselves were there way before any of those million dollar homes were ever built. If this proposal were to ever be discussed, I'm betting my rear end that those folks will do whatever it takes to stop it from happening. The irony in all of this? Those same crying babies are the same folks who commute daily on the LIRR's Hempstead branch! So lets not get too optimistic here, NIMBY's are not interested in progress, they are only interested in themselves.

Isn't there any way to fight the NIMBY'S?

Not here, no politician has the guts to do the right thing.

Jay