Mystery spur just west of Westbury Station?

Long time reader, first time poster here.

I wanted to ask if anyone had any info on this old spur. I used to see the remnants of the spur while riding the train several years ago and was always curious. The spur was just west of Westbury Station and the crossing over Post Road. It curved south towards a lot of much lower elevation. I think this was a construction project at the time for the building that stands on this corner today. I remember seeing about 25 feet of the curving spur at this time. Does anyone have any info, photos, or maps on this spur?

Thanks in advance!

Do you mean where the multistory Senior Living building is now? (Bing Map Link)
There was an old coal delivery trestle there, it angled a bit south but was still parallel to the Main-Line headng S/East (kind of where the North-side access road of the Senior Living is on that Bing view. The trestle was readily visible from Post Avenue, didn't seem all that lower then the mainline.
Now, this Senior Center was being build in 1999/2000 IIRC, so the trestle was obviously removed then. Not sure if there was another siding west of the trestle which curved further south. Didn't find any good Westbury siding maps on Trains are fun and historic Aerials seems down right now, so I guess I'll leave the exercise up to the reader...

Thanks a lot Ray! This is exactly where I am talking about. Does anyone know approximately when the last coal delivery was?

Thanks again.

atlantic1967 wrote:Thanks a lot Ray! This is exactly where I am talking about. Does anyone know approximately when the last coal delivery was?

Take a look at that Trains Are Fun link I posted in my response - it is a link to the LIRR Freight Coal Operations page (I chose this page deliberately). Read it if you haven't already (it is fairly interesting)
Now, you will note that in 1966, a Hicks Westbury Inc is listed. I cannot tell if that was the dealer w/ the trestle on Post Avenue - just quick googling doesn't seem to turn up much except some memiors of a former mayor, mentioning a feed dealer maybe a block NORTH of the LIRR mainline. Perhaps you can do some deeper research into whether Hicks was that Post Avenue coal dealer or not (I cannot remember what the company was in that location in the late 1990s), or perhaps someone else will remember. That is all the info I can provide...

The spur was used by the Hicks-Westbury Coal Company. It's late at night at this time, so I can't look to see if it is still there, but I don't believe it is.
The Hicks family operated the coal company to give its nursery workers employment during the cold season when the nursery business was slow.
I have photos of the coal yard that I took as they were clearing the land to build the Bristal Assisted Living Center. They are time stamped Jan 2000. If you have to see something right now you can go to http://www.villageofwestbury.org and go to the right hand column and click on Rebirth of a downtown. The photos are about 4 minutes into the video, just before the Bristal. Hit the pause button when you get to them.
The Historical Society of the Westburys and the Hicks Nursery photo collections have some old shots of the yard.
Ray

I have fond memories of going to that coal yard with my father-in-law to get a truck load of coal for the house. It was an amazing operation, the truck scale, the coal piles, etc.

REM3Night wrote:The spur was used by the Hicks-Westbury Coal Company. It's late at night at this time, so I can't look to see if it is still there, but I don't believe it is.

Ah, so that was the Hicks-Westbury Coal company listed on that LIRR coal operation page, active as of 1966. Cool.
As you can see from the Bing view in my first post, no trace of that coal yard (or whatever was there in the 1990s) seems to remain, much like the factories where County Glen Center is now, or the Rockville Centre/Lynbrook team track.

The Hicks family operated the coal company to give its nursery workers employment during the cold season when the nursery business was slow.

Now this is an interesting and neat tidbit of information.

"Rebirth of a downtown"?!?
Bah - I was around Westbury in the late 80s/early 90s, and it seemed to be more fun and interesting then than after it was 'born-again' (of course, me being in my 20s at the time cannot possibly be clouding my memory of the era).

I still haven't gotten down to the station for a look but I did go on Google satelite and there is no siding.
As for the "Rebirth" video it does show how some of the run down buildings were fixed up. As for if it is or was more fun - it is nicer looking. The movie theater is now being restored.
Another note on the Westbury Station area - The south parking lot was the site of a freight yard. Good photos have not been found. I have photos of the yard from 1955 of the rr moving LIRR 35 to Salsbury Park. The historical society also has a photo looking west of workers clearing snow in the yard. They also have an aerial from 1920 that shows the yard but it is hard to see much. The lead to the yard still exists at School Street.
Ray

REM3Night wrote:They also have an aerial from 1920 that shows the yard but it is hard to see much. The lead to the yard still exists at School Street.

Of course, Historic Aerials - unfortunately for that area of Nassau, the earliest date they have is 1966 but the view does show the Coal Yard spur - the freight yard looks to already have been replaced by the South Parking lot by that date.
(Link embedding seems to work now - what a pain...)