New switch ready in Wheelspur area

There's a LH switch panel sitting unconnected on the new asphalt in the former (future?) Wheelspur area (ArchSpur??)

Not hooked up to anything yet.

...be governed accordingly: Re-Activate "Demise of Arch Street" thread; Trigger "Demise of Montauk Cutoff" thread


8-D

I would imagine it will go in right next to that red pick up. I went by there the other day and the asphalt was dug up at that spot (thought I don't recall the switch being there - I'll have to check my photos). I wonder if it will be double ended? Hard to imagine they wouldn't set it up that way. I'm assuming there'll be a track that goes up against the older building, which is more or less built for transloading from train to truck (assuming the loading platforms are the right height - pretty sure they are)

It'll be interesting to see how long it takes them to move over here after the track is in & buildings set up. It was a few years before they used Blissville, though I suspect this will be within the next year or two.

where is that site? I don't recognize it at all.

That's McGuiness blvd in the foreground. Looking ESE, approx...

Along the lower montauk line in LIC. east of Pulaski bridge, west of the dutch kills creek drawbridge, south of the tracks.

That switch will put freight movements all the way to the lead of the LIRR coach yard. Hasn't been a freight there in decades, though they have to cross the drawbridge to switch Blissville since the lead there faces east & is not connected by greenpoint ave.

Dogbert:

Isn't the area in question in the attached link?
http://goo.gl/maps/GXKag" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Regards, AlKaLI

Just east of there is a new yard 1/2 full of gons. Is that somehow connected with the new switch going in?

SO GLAD to see they are putting in a replacement for Arch Street team yard, but it's sad that freight service no longer exists north of Borden Ave. Hard to believe there used to be a Sunnyside "Yard A" at one point too, plus Ronzoni an other rail-served industries along Northern Blvd. I fondly remember railfanning there with my dad in the mid 1980s - my first interaction with freight trains, and the start of a life-long devotion.

NYCS wrote:Hard to believe there used to be a Sunnyside "Yard A" at one point too, plus Ronzoni an other rail-served industries along Northern Blvd. I fondly remember railfanning there with my dad in the mid 1980s - my first interaction with freight trains, and the start of a life-long devotion.

I thought most of those industries were gone by the mid-1980s; by that time I was communting to college on the #7 (and sometimes drove around the area to railfan on the weekends), and except for Arch St. yard I don't recall much in the way of active rail freight operations (Yard A wasn't exactly crowded then either).
I do recall a lot of the large industrial buildings North of Queens Blvd ((around 48th) were converted to Big-Box retailers in the 1990s. What was still rail-active in the area, say north of Thompson Ave/Queens Blvd by 1986? I don't recall.
I know south of Queens Blvd, LaGuardia College and the International Design Center NY* were already there by the mid-1980s, so rail-usage there (Degnon Terminal?) was petering (petered?) out by then.
*The IDCNY occupied a building which was once the American Chicle (of Chiclets fame) factory, which closed in 1981. In the early 1960s, my Dad and Mom worked there for a while, mom in packing I believe, dad as maintainence IIRC. Then I came along in the mid-60s and spoiled all the fun...

ccutler wrote:Just east of there is a new yard 1/2 full of gons. Is that somehow connected with the new switch going in?

Other side of the drawbridge right? That's Blissville. It was abandoned in the 80s and rebuilt sometime around 2007 or 2008 as compensation for the loss of Yard A (which is a little comical, yard A was huge in comparison). NYA only started using blissville around 2010 or 11 - there's a thread on it here somewhere. It's just used to store C&D cars, or CEFX cars for Gershow - though the latter hasn't happened in awhile. I'd say it gets switched once every 3-5 months depending on if there's extra C&D cars that are needed or need to be stored somewhere.

It'll be interesting to see if Blissville gets used a little more with Wheelspur, though unless a customer comes in that gets a lot of cars I sort of doubt it will. Cars come in and go out of Arch st. they don't sit around on that storage siding east of the 7...

AlKaLI wrote: Isn't the area in question in the attached link?
http://goo.gl/maps/GXKag" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yes, that's the spot. That image is at least 3 years old though. There's a bunch of more current photos here - http://ltvsquad.com/2013/03/11/lics-whe ... nt-future/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; - including how this spot was flooded during hurricane sandy & a fire that broke out there a few weeks later (probably due to the flooding - there were quite a few electrical fires in flooded areas in the days and weeks after)

Yard A got pretty quiet through after the 80s. I believe the Ronzoni spur closed sometime in the early 90s, and LIRR used it less and less until they handed it off to NY&A. NY&A very quickly consolidated to Fresh Pond and by 2001 all of the yard tracks were ripped up in preparation for the ESA dig.

NYCS you have any photos from that time? I haven't seen many of the Ronzoni line in use. I only have a few from when I came across a freight stuck at 43rd st. crossing because someone parked on the tracks.

By the time NYA took over in 1997, the only thing Yard A was really used for was storage of hoppers for Allied Extruders and maybe come Case Paper cars, and their shop building was there as well. While the yard looked huge, there were only a handful of tracks that were still in service. The majority of tracks were in terrible condition and weren't used. At that time, Ronzoni was already gone and I think Gallo cars were also unloaded down there pre-NYA. Aside from that and movements going down to Arch Street yard, the only other move of significance down there was when the circus train was in town and stored down there.

The amount of real estate over there was the value. Looked like more than 2/3rd of the tracks were shot.