Wading River Extension

Got a nice shot of the Woodville Road overpass in Shoreham this week!

Great picture of the overpass!

Is there any discussion of how the current trail is doing on the R.O.W.?

Could it be possible for the LIRR to eventually reactivate this branch as a shuttle service similar to the Greenport Branch service?

(THIS IS MY 500th POST!!! :D)

A bit more: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/wading ... verext.htm

I explored the top of that overpass once and got bad poison ivy or something similar on my legs!

Just took a picture of the same bridge earlier today

The trails still looked like they're under construction. The ROW is fenced off at all of the old crossings. I was out there visiting a friend - her father is on the Sound Beach community board and is pretty aware of its progress.

I would highly doubt that this line would ever get reactivated. Even at the time it was scaled back to Port Jeff in 1939, patronage was already pretty abysmal. It was apparently mostly hoped that the line would serve the potato farms with freight pickups (just as the Greenport line was doing at the time). There was even talk of extending the line even further beyond Wading River and making it rejoin the Greenport at around Calverton. I'd imagine this was mostly to help consolidate the potato shipments without mucking up the Port Jeff line's availability. The PJ at the time was almost completely single tracked, don't forget.

Looking at the intact ROW now, I can't possibly imagine it ever seeing a train ever again. My friend and I both remarked on how close countless residences are to it, and apparently many NIMBYs are already barking about a biking and hiking trail! So, imagine the first loco that rumbles through. I also noticed a series of crossings that looked pretty hazardous given the buildup of trees or manmade structures in tight spots. Echo Avenue looked especially scary!

When I was living in Suffolk (I dated a girl in the area in the early 00's) and were in and around the ROW all the time, I'd often wondered what would have happened had the line survived into the post-war "commuter" era, and what effect it'd have had on the areas it served. Would they have grown the same way as some other Suffolk towns? Would a Port Jeff to Wading River scoot still work if, say, the PJ was fully electrified and it followed the Ronkonkoma to Greenport model? We may never know.

At the time the line was abandoned, nobody had the slightest concept of how suburban New Yorkers would gobble up every green space on the Island. As late as 1973, when I left Long Island, you could still find open spaces, green fields and lawns. Today those same lands, especially on the north shore, are all developed at asinine prices. Putting down ribbon rail and third rail power would probably serve quite a market, although the NIMBY's would be all over it.

RGlueck wrote: ↑Sun Jun 21, 2020 4:08 pmAt the time the line was abandoned, nobody had the slightest concept of how suburban New Yorkers would gobble up every green space on the Island. As late as 1973, when I left Long Island, you could still find open spaces, green fields and lawns.

Robert Caro, writing in The Power Broker notes that in 1955 when the Long Island Expressway began construction, there were many "potato fields waiting to be settled". I know there is still a local potato industry on the east end, and some rural areas in Eastern Suffolk. Is there any "open space" preservation program at the county or state level?

The Peconic Land Trust has 13000 acres of conservation easements in Suffolk County and eastern Long Island, with half being farmland.
https://peconiclandtrust.org/our-work/map

I live somewhat close to the ROW and pass it almost everyday, as a (Somewhat decent) LIRR Historian, I am fascinated with this lines history and features, I have mapped and marked out almost all locations of the former stations along the line (Millers Place not final still) and would be interested in doing a small project with signs showing where the stations where located as well as making some old fashioned RR crossing signs to place along some crossings along the trail/ROW. Saying something similar to Kings Park Hike & Bike Trail. Milepost replicas would be another one of my ideas, when someone would be walking the trail, At Port Jefferson. I would start with MP 1 and continue about every 1/2 a mile. Each 1/2 mile I would up the number by 1, so a half mile after MP1 starting at Port Jefferson. There would be MP2, continuing to Wading River to end with whatever number comes out of the final 1/2 mile. It would be used as something to show how close or far you are to the other end of the trail while representing something that was used on this line when it was in service. I know it sounds like a lot. But I am capable of this if I try.
If the town does not do something to remember the trails Railroad history, since I know the person in charge of the project. I'll simply ask her if I can have permission to do this project as I think it would be really cool for people when they use the trail to know some history about what it once was.

44 EVER (LIRR Film Productions)

Antonio, it's a really innovative and clever way of honoring the history. You might even get an arts grant to have markers cast in concrete, and set. The big wooden diamond crossing signs are so cool, but the maintenance would make appendicitus look like fun.

RGlueck wrote: ↑Mon May 10, 2021 3:41 pm Antonio, it's a really innovative and clever way of honoring the history. You might even get an arts grant to have markers cast in concrete, and set. The big wooden diamond crossing signs are so cool, but the maintenance would make appendicitus look like fun.

If you're referring to the maintenance of these posts and signs, I don't think it would be a hassle. I spend a good amount of time on the trail with my friends exploring. So getting there and keeping it neat would not be as hard as thought to be.

Is there room on the extension for both a trail and a single track (with passing sidings) light rail system?

photobug56 wrote: ↑Tue May 11, 2021 1:03 am Is there room on the extension for both a trail and a single track (with passing sidings) light rail system?

While I to wish this could be possible, the chance of a single track with passing sidings is barley even possible. Since LIPA now owns the ROW, there are poles everywhere and none are straight. They're all in a zig zaz set up. And the only rail usable part is now all paved for the trail

The only chance of a track stub would be going up to the former Miller Place station and as I said from there it's not really possible.