MTA LIRR Double Track Project - Ronkonkoma to Farmingdale

No, Post Avenue work will take up all the busing capacity the railroad can muster, and the Main Line will be open east of Hicksville.

Surprised nobody has brought this up yet: a good description of the work is in the press release announcing these two weekend outages.

http://www.mta.info/press-release/lirr/ ... vice-buses" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The LIRR will perform track work and crossing renewal from 11:59 p.m. on Sept. 8 to 4 a.m. on Sept. 11, along with switch installation work to be done between Carl’s Path Road and Commack Road in Deer Park. On Saturday, Sept. 9, signal equipment will be relocated at Straight Path and 18th Street, during which periodic single-lane closures may be implemented while equipment is moved, to be completed by 4 p.m. LIRR crews will continue to test signal equipment at these two crossings through Sunday, Sept. 10; while crossing gates may be activated sporadically during this time, no traffic detours will be required for that leg of the work.

From 11:59 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 15 through the late afternoon on Sunday, Sept. 17, workers will install a new switch west of the Deer Park Station, the first of two switches to be installed on the Main Line to create a new universal interlocking in Deer Park. This work, being done in an industrial area 2,000 feet east of the Commack Road grade crossing north of the Tanger Outlet parking lot, will not impact any roadways. More work will be done from around 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, to be completed by that afternoon, to relocate an existing signal grade crossing hut at Little East Neck Road to the north side of the tracks to make room for the new second track to be on the south side of the existing line. Tests will be performed on the grade crossing equipment at Little East Neck Road through Sunday, Sept. 17. MTA Police will be at the scene to guide traffic for possible single-lane road closures while the hut is lifted to the north side.

tj48 wrote:Crossed over the Carl's Path crossing today. East of the crossing just slightly past where the old Pinter Brothers switch was there is now a segment of track (couldn't tell how long) that has been laid on the south side of the new roadbed but using what looks like wooden ties not concrete.

Not only that, it looks like a section of the pavement in that siding is being torn up: are they going to remove the current siding switch just west of Commack Road (at PC Richards, forget the name of this siding) for a new one to this siding east of Carll's Path instead? If correct, is there a future plan to eliminate the crossing at Commack Road?

Carll's Path and Commack Road will NOT be eliminated, and the railroad track you see with wooden ties is an old siding that will be torn out of the ground. It was double-tracked at the old Deer Park station and they ripped the non-electrified track out. They will renew the crossing plates and add the second track sometime in the future. The interlockings that will be replaced or constructed is as follows:

1.) KO will be reconfigured and modernized.
2.) CI 1 will be razed.
3.) CI 2 will be razed.
4.) The new CI interlocking is being constructed between the Peter's Blvd. and Islip Avenue grade crossings which will be crossover.
5.) BRENT will be razed.
6.) JS will be converted from a single switch to a crossover interlocking.
7.) A new interlocking is said to be constructed within the vicinity of Wyandanch.
8.) FARM 2 will be converted to a crossover near New Hwy.

"Carll's Path and Commack Road will NOT be eliminated, and the railroad track you see with wooden ties is an old siding that will be torn out of the ground."

I go over the Carl's crossing twice a day, and today while behind a school bus took a good look. That track IS OUT of the ground and intact. It looks like someone laid a piece of HO flex track down waiting to nail it in to the roadbed.

If it is being scrapped, why not do so when they ripped the non-electrified track out? It appears it will be put back in. I've been stuck at the Commack Rd Xing when that switch just west behind PC Richards was being switched by NY&A. Even at 11:00 PM the traffic backed up quickly. I've seen YT video of it being switched during the day. I can't imagine what that did to traffic. If they are now allowing access from the west where there is more room that would make sense.

milepost39 wrote:"Carll's Path and Commack Road will NOT be eliminated, and the railroad track you see with wooden ties is an old siding that will be torn out of the ground."

I go over the Carl's crossing twice a day, and today while behind a school bus took a good look. That track IS OUT of the ground and intact. It looks like someone laid a piece of HO flex track down waiting to nail it in to the roadbed.

If it is being scrapped, why not do so when they ripped the non-electrified track out? It appears it will be put back in.

Thats what I was thinking.......

Any DEF trackage that will wind up as the 2nd main needs to have the subgrade and grade level upgraded to main line specs,
in some cases fill added or removed as needed to reach the mainline specs for the 2nd main.

Was just looking at Edward Hand's newest batch of photos, and he took snapshots at BRENT, JS, the Old Deer Park, from pedestrian bridges in Wyandanch, the station itself, all the way to Wellwood Avenue. As far as I can tell the work done was the following:

1.) All remaining ballast that was old has been cleared.
2.) The welded rail train laid new railing all along that stretch of branch.
3.) Not sure if Carll's Path was already a 2-track crossing?
4.) Signal boxes at Straight Path, 18th St, and Little East Neck Road have been moved. Straight Path's box is now located next to the station platform on the North side of the crossing adjacent to the ticket office.
5.) New wooden poles have been erected for circuitry for new signals and communications lines.
6.) Nothing new on the new interlocking being constructed in between Islip Avenue and Peter's Blvd.

There were several welded rail cars, and sperry-rail inspection cars to go along with it. It is getting to that point where Phase II is well underway where they are just about to break out the NTC for that section, and Phase I just needs to have the third rail, and both ends of the new track connected to existing track. Although Phase I calls for reconfiguration and modernization of KO Interlocking.

The welded rail train was active again Saturday. Caught it just west of the 18th st crossing in Wyandanch during the afternoon and again late Saturday evening backing down the grade between the Deer Park Ave overpass and Wyandanch station. It was set up the same as the last time I saw it. 1 MP15ac on the west end of the train. 2 MP15ac's on the east end. Also saw contractors erecting the wooden poles on the south side of new ROW.
Matt, Carll's Path crossing was a 2 track crossing.

tj48 wrote:The welded rail train was active again Saturday. Caught it just west of the 18th st crossing in Wyandanch during the afternoon and again late Saturday evening backing down the grade between the Deer Park Ave overpass and Wyandanch station. It was set up the same as the last time I saw it. 1 MP15ac on the west end of the train. 2 MP15ac's on the east end. Also saw contractors erecting the wooden poles on the south side of new ROW.
Matt, Carll's Path crossing was a 2 track crossing.

Why are there wooden power poles being erected on the South side of the ROW? They don't need to take out the power lines on the North side that were erected when the branch was electrified from July 1985 to December 1987.

Does anyone know how KO is being reconfigured???
Thanks
JM

MattAmity90 wrote:Carll's Path and Commack Road will NOT be eliminated, and the railroad track you see with wooden ties is an old siding that will be torn out of the ground. It was double-tracked at the old Deer Park station and they ripped the non-electrified track out. They will renew the crossing plates and add the second track sometime in the future. The interlockings that will be replaced or constructed is as follows:

I do not know if those rails and ties are going to be used, but sure looks like they graded from where those are laying INTO the siding to about where the current siding ends (starts just west of Commack Road, stone cars for Giaquinto Masonry?). I then asked if the switch into this siding is moved from near PC Richards/Commack Road to closer to Carll's Path, could there be a FUTURE plan (probably not part of Double Track) to eliminate the crossing at Commack Road (never mentioned Carll's path being eliminated), especially if there is going to be additional train traffic on this branch and the amount of vehicle traffic on this road?

Speaking of this stretch of track, about 5 hours ago someone went around the gates at either Carll's Path or Commack Road and was struck and killed by a train. About 3 hours ago, service was restored. If I was the LIRR, I would invest by converting both Commack Road and Carll's Path into crossings with signals in the median (Lowell Ave, Carleton Ave, Stewart Ave), or convert them into a 4-quadrant gated crossings.

Judging from the train traffic that will added with the second track, the Ronkonkoma Branch will now be the equivalent of Babylon Branch before it was elevated. After all, the Babylon Branch is the busiest out of all of them and we all knew that for decades even before it elevated, and the Ronkonkoma Branch is the second busiest after they electrified it. I actually thought that the second busiest was the Port Jefferson/Huntington Branch.

Any word on when the next phase of track work for the double track project will be? Will it be September 23-24 or in late October to mid November? I may try to see the Welded Rail Train when the next set of track work is scheduled. Thanks

MattAmity90 wrote:Speaking of this stretch of track, about 5 hours ago someone went around the gates at either Carll's Path or Commack Road and was struck and killed by a train. About 3 hours ago, service was restored. If I was the LIRR, I would invest by converting both Commack Road and Carll's Path into crossings with signals in the median (Lowell Ave, Carleton Ave, Stewart Ave), or convert them into a 4-quadrant gated crossings.

Report of the accident: http://nypost.com/2017/09/18/man-killed ... irr-train/. Assuming that they got the details right, it is very disturbing that a 94-year old would not know any better and would try to go around the gates. I think curbed median dividers preventing going around gates should be standard at all crossings with maybe exceptions for narrow streets where there is not sufficient space for them.

LINYARailfan wrote:Any word on when the next phase of track work for the double track project will be? Will it be September 23-24 or in late October to mid November? I may try to see the Welded Rail Train when the next set of track work is scheduled. Thanks

Nothing this weekend, and likely nothing until after Post Avenue (South Shore tie job weekends in between)