old or removed sidings and customers

Does anyone have any photos or information about OOS sidings and customers? When was the last time a train went over the Meadowbrook trestle in Garden City and what was the last customer there? Does anyone have any of the most recent photos? What happened to Chesler Plywood? Is that siding permantly oos? When was the last time Servioli Foods received a car? Are there any photos of that? Thanks Lee

LRail wrote:Does anyone have any photos or information about OOS sidings and customers? When was the last time a train went over the Meadowbrook trestle in Garden City and what was the last customer there?

As for the Garden City Secondary north of the Meadowbrook, I'm gonna say the early 1990s, and the client was a refrigerated warehouse on Dribblee (where the Lowes Home Center is Now) - from time to time you'd see a lone refrigerator car parked just south of Zeckendorf.
There were several Gondolas parked for a long time (at least a year) right north of Zeckendorf during the mid-1990s, doing nothing while vegatation just grew around them...
At the Eastern end of the real Secondary was Contential Extrusions, which used to get a lot of covered hoppers (pellets of course) - this closed and became a discount dress outlet around the early/mid 1990s. I think containerized ash shipments (from the yard) lasted into late 1993/early 1994, although I am NOT willing to place money on this (I remember being in the Garden City library, reading the classified for a full-time job, when the ash train passed by - however, I could be remembering 1990 instead...)
So ignoring the ash trains, AFAIK those were the last two clients on the Secondary, and were gone before Pataki made the infamous deal with the Garden City residents to prevent NY&A from running freight on the line.
Contemporary photos would be pretty boring, as the clients have mostly become back-office or outlet centers (and some of there I think have gone - is Magnacare still there?)

When was the last time Servioli Foods received a car?

Must have been late 1980s - they revamped the road crossings in anticipation of restored service in 1994, but...refer to the above post about Pataki.
Wait- come to think of it, was Servioli Foods ever served at their Garden City location? I know the building had rail service at one time, as in the late 1970s I scouted the area (by bike - not old enough fro a driver's license at the time) and there were 2 boxcars spotted on the side of the building - doesn't mean this wasn't some other industry which sold it's building to Servioli, who would consequently revamp the building but still never get rail service (nice timing).
I think there is also a Servioli Foods on the mainline in Westbury (well, some food distribution center on the mainline in Westbury, on School[?]), but that siding has been unused for a long time...

Pataki deserves to be shot for that signature maybe killed bt a simi on the highway.

your sposed to take trucks off the road not premote it.

all lagit rail frt business is sadly GONE because of them schmucks.

there is a building on ENDO which has a traling point switch leading into it. it's now a SELF STORAGE facility.

Avict the nimbys and i bet you can get some real good service there. but then again it may be too late. if the service cannot be off the current tracks then your done.

no hope for fedex. no hope for UPS, maybe a new customer can pop up but it's very un likly, has better luck getting service at price park then in garden city.

but i beleive in the early 90's was the revenue frt on that line.

Long Island 7285 wrote:Pataki deserves to be shot for that signature maybe killed bt a simi on the highway.
All lagit rail frt business is sadly GONE because of them schmucks.

Well, the last customers were indeed gone a few years before that legislation - however, Servioli was suppose to receive service when NY&A took over, so that was squashed.

there is a building on ENDO which has a traling point switch leading into it. it's now a SELF STORAGE facility.

Is this on the south side of the Secondary, on the west side of the Blvd - this sounds like the former Contential Extrusion (which became the dress discount outlet) - AFAIK they never had an internal loading dock, just a set of pneumatic piping alongside the siding (ex-main).

but i beleive in the early 90's was the revenue frt on that line.

Yep, that I agree with, last revenue freight either 1993 or 1994.

There are a number of old, overgrown spurs on the Port Jefferson Branch from just east of Hicksville to just west of Greenlawn. Some are snipped, but some are still connected. Has NYA explored the possibility of drumming up new business with these companies, if rail is a possibility for them to ship or receive?

I used to live out east and remember(mid 90's) seeing in Bridgehampton strings of old great lakes taconite cars w/ construction debris lettered "HMTX". Does anyone know what the story was w/ that operation?

Possibly Hampton Materials in Bridgehampton? They used to take the LIRR ore jennies out there. Is that what you saw?

Jay

I thought King Kullen was a customer in Westbury, but threw the LIRR out decades ago, and I don't even think they have that warehouse any more.

I know there used to be a lumber yard in Northport on 25A where King Kullen is now, and that used to be the Northport (passenger) branch. Passengers trains stopped in the 1950's or 1960's (?) and freight service couldn't have continued much into the 1980's. I remembered the lumber yard burned down, and I think there was a heating oil customer on the south side of 25A, which I think is now a car wash or self-storage facility.

cpontani wrote:I thought King Kullen was a customer in Westbury, but threw the LIRR out decades ago, and I don't even think they have that warehouse any more.

You are correct - that warehouse off E John St. was purchased by the county a number of years ago (6?) - originally planned for an emergency response center, I believe support services has been using part of it now for a number of years.

Is the trackage in the Price Parkway industrial park in Farmingdale still connected, or is the connection snipped? I was at the new Lowe's there this afternoon, and you can see old trackage just as you pull into their parking lot. You can see tracks here and there elsewhere in the complex. It must've been quite an operation back in it's prime when the LIRR serviced it.

connection is still there for price pwy ,but track is out of service

Spartan Phalanx wrote:Is the trackage in the Price Parkway industrial park in Farmingdale still connected, or is the connection snipped? I was at the new Lowe's there this afternoon, and you can see old trackage just as you pull into their parking lot. You can see tracks here and there elsewhere in the complex. It must've been quite an operation back in it's prime when the LIRR serviced it.

I know that back in the 1990s, the north side of the loop (for the trackage once formed a loop along with many other spurs) was blocked by a track bumper near the Guard booth for PC Richards at the west end of Price Parkway - I think the south side of the loop wasn't disconnected then, although it was cut directly south of where it once crossed Price (near Rte 110), which is where Strober Price used to be (and they used to receive loads now and then up until they moved sometime in the mid-1990s) - I believe the Stober Price facility was torn down and made into a small retail outlet. By the early 1990s, except for Strober Price I don't think any of the buildings around the loop received rail freight service, although they used to park covered hoppers by PC Richards on that stub track I mentioned before - PC RIchards took over the White Rose facility, but even before that I don't remember seeing any freight into or outof the building in the early 1990s (by then, you had a number of furniture outlets, and then a line of 3 buildings across Price from PC Richards which seemed to house companies which could NOT make use of rail freight). There was some interesting trackage the next street north of Price (Axxum?), where the trackage continued north from the loop parallel to Rte 110, and then split west, but again by the 1990s it unused, and I haven't been there in a few years so I don't know whats left (BTW, did Lowes take over Levitz, or the PC Richards location, or Detriot Furniture, or the Former Truck Dealer (turned Dress shops) or what?).
Final note, which I have mentioned before, there is an old LI commerical/industrial report from the late 1970s, where they indicate that the Price Parkway industrial area (that I just discribed) was down to only 3 rail car moves PER DAY. Of course, for at least 12 years now, it's been down to 0 cars per day...

The Garden City Secondary still gets the circus train once a year, plus the LIRR parks gondolas on it, but NY & Atl is banned.

North of Meadowbrook the politians float the idea of a light railway every now & then. I've walked the tracks. The ROW doesn't lend itself to traveling public (it's all in industrial area & doesn't come close to Rosevelt Field or other shopping areas).

Too bad the County Exec made engine 35 folks move out of town because the area they were in had an easy connection to Garden City Secondary (just a little bit of track needed to be uncovered or re-laid).
Wonder if the air museum folks are thinking if the planes PLUS the steam engine would have helped their bottom line ????

Are there any customers left in Garden City that still get freight cars?

BM6569 wrote:Are there any customers left in Garden City that still get freight cars?

Along the secondary, the answer is no (even when it was last operating fully in the 1990s, the yard & Continental Extruding were actually outside of the village limits, in 'East Garden City').
Now, trick question time - Garden City is a very large village (for Nassau County), and extends West of Denton (indeed, past New Hyde Park road even). The northern border at that point is the LIRR mainline - so while I don't think there are any active customers there (Chesler was a block north of the Garden City Border, on Nassau Terminal - and I don't think they've received any cars in over a year). Indeed, that is probably the most likely spot for any activity in Garden City (east of that area, west of Herricks used to be another shipper (Nestle?), but I don't know if they're still around, and besides that's a block north of Garden City at that point also (live local shows that siding dead ending west of the former plant, so now that's a definitive no)
According to my map, those 3 boxcars west of Denton that have been there for over a decade are in Garden City, but that's probably not accurate.