old siding at Beth Interlocking

I was noticing the other day that there is an old siding located just west of Beth Interlocking that seems to have once branched off of mainline 2 at a location just before crossing over the Bethpage state Pkwy. In fact, the branch itself turns south and seems to parallel the west side of BPS Pkwy before dissapearing into the woods. Does anyone know if this was just a siding usd to reach a customer or does it have anything to do with the long gone (I believe it was known as the Central branch back then) that would head west from Beth Interlocking and end up connecting with the Mitchell secondary and onto the Hempstead branch?

This was the old General Motors siding that left mainline 2 to access the GM building. I believe the building now is a Sleepy's Mattress office and can be seen from Route 135.

This siding was unusual as it was interlocked and had a low home signal guarding it. There were no other switches inside the complex, so I have been told crews used to use the Central Branch as a switching lead for servicing them.

Jay

Jay, that siding is not part of the central line, right? I've passed through the area numerous times and never saw any remains of the CRRLI in the area.

When was this siding disconnected by the LIRR? Were they the last to serve it, or did it see NYA service before getting snipped?

No, it was not part of the Central Branch.

My guess would be that the switch was removed during the electrification project in 1987-88. It was never serviced by NYAR, and was already very overgrown by then.

Jay

I agree, that siding seems to have been severed long ago, before NY&A was around. To my present knowledge there is very little If any remmenants of the Central branch to the Mitchell secondary in existance. I actually have never seen anything such as a former right of way past the area east of Nassau Community College. Still yet, one would have to wonder how usefull many of these long gone branches would have been today!

General Motors was still being serviced in 1990, after the Mainline electrification.

Jay is right, we used the Central Branch as part of the move. You had to store your train on it in order to clear the Mainline. This assisted the Operator at Divide so that he could run the signals down and kept a long drag off a busy corridor like the Mainline.

I never found it why they interlocked that siding. If anyone knows, I would love to hear why.

LIPA power lines trace the ROW east of Eisenhower Park and through Eisenhower Park it's a trail. It's 100% clear.

Liquid - if you ever pass through training at Hillside the maintainers took the old B interlocking machine and incorporated into their signal lab. I forgot the instructor's name and he may have pulled the pin, but he had it set up the way it was when they built the Bethpage Pkwy, and mentioned why they did that with that interlocking. He also mentioned about some interesting things they had at PW but I can't remember...