LIRR Mainline Third Track Project

WE - Thanks for the clarification concerning Friday August 26 and Monday August 29...
I should have noted "All trains *STOPPING AT MINEOLA* will use Platform A-Track 3 in both directions"
Track 1 will be in use for trains that do not stop at Mineola - this will NOT be a complete bottleneck between
Nassau 1 and Nassau 2 at Mineola restricting trains to a single open track...

Everyone - The special Port Jefferson Branch timetable for Friday August 26 and Monday August 29 shows
virtually all of the Main Line service changes in effect for these two days - Oyster Bay and Ronkonkoma TT's
have service revisions for the two branches on these dates...

https://new.mta.info/agency/long-island ... timetables

New LIRR Branch timetables effective Tuesday September 6, 2022 are available...

Main Line track outages Floral Park-Hicksville are scheduled for these four weekends after Labor Day -
September 10-11; 17-18; 24-25 and October 1-2...
Huntington/Port Jefferson and Ronkonkoma trains terminate at Hicksville
Shuttle trains operate Hicksville-Bethpage-Babylon
Enhanced Babylon Branch service; Oyster Bay trains operate East Williston-Oyster Bay

Track numbers at FLORAL PARK have been changed - effective Monday August 15 -
Track M3 becomes Track 3
Track M1 becomes Track 1
Track H1 becomes Track 2
Track H2 becomes Track 4
Track numbers at BELLEROSE are: Track 1 is now TRACK 2; Track 2 is now TRACK 4.

If all goes according to plan over these four days - August 26 to 29 - Track 2 will be in service through
Mineola between Nassau 1 and Nassau 2 starting Tuesday August 30 opening the second segment of the
new third track - with the emphasis shifting east from Nassau 2 through Carle Place and Westbury...
Looking forward October 2022 is going to be very interesting - can the new Track 2 be in service by
the end of the month or reasonable thereabouts completing the prime track construction phases?
MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX, one question: If Track-2 will be in-service next week to Mineola, doesn't it have to be thru Nassau-3 ? Reason being that the only switches at Nass-2 are from Track-3 to both Oyster Bay tracks. So new Track-2 service will have to extend to the switch at Nass-3 where eastbound trains will cross over to Track-1 to continue east.

But as always, if anyone knows different, please correct me.

Here is the setup starting 8/29/2022 The new part that is now in service is Mainline 2 between 21 switch and 21w switch.

I see the turnout for OBY-2 is spiked normal for now. So, Oyster Bay traffic will start on OBY-1 then crossover to OBY-2, right?

Gamer - THANK YOU for posting the General Order concerning the track layout changes at Mineola.
This answers questions that we may have about the Main Line and OB Branch tracks...

On a related matter - Can you post the G.O. for PARK Interlocking showing the track changes for the
Main Line and Hempstead Branches around Floral Park that took effect earlier in August?

H-E: The G.O. shows that Nassau Interlocking is more elaborate than some of us had realized...
I was not aware previously that there is actually FOUR segments of Nassau with the new track setup...

PS: You and me both spotted the single-track "throat" to begin the Oyster Bay Branch - eastbound OB
trains cross over at switch #12...Track OB-2 gets a switch to be installed later to Main Line Track 3...

Good to note the eastward progress to place Track 2 in service through Mineola on time for the Tuesday
August 30 Morning Peak AM hours...MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX, I think that Nassau-4 Interlocking on the Branch has been there for some time. I never took much note of it, as I was primarily interested in the Main-LIne. I believe the switch connecting M-L 3 to OB Track-2 is already in place but (as another poster said above) it is spiked for now in the closed position. I'm guessing it will be put in service sometime in the near future.

Having a 15 mph switch form M3-O2 is frankly useless and a afterthought in my opinion.
However it was a good decision to have in the event the new 30mph switch craps out, they can take a slight delay and still access the branch.

It is my opinion that both switches should have been 30 mph off ML3.
Into BOTH OB tracks.
And the platform
Modified or adjusted accordingly.
But I guess the cost savings was THAT impressive so w slow speed switch works.

I remember a while back like 2 or 3 regimes ago. There was a proposition to swing OB1 NORTH of the platform making it stub end at a point just west of of Mineola BLVD OGB.

Had THIS been constructed, the current 30 mph switch would have went into OB2 and the former
OB1 would Terminate at the block essentially becoming OB1 extension between Nassau 4 and the end of main track and as speed of 30 to second street, and 15 to the end is track.

However it was elected to not proceed with this arrangement, so the current as constructed arrangement is the next best option maintaining 2 points if access to the branch.

Hopefully their studies pan out and this works as they predicted, and the passengers won’t be overly confused.
It would be best to put temporary “NO OYSTER BAY ACCESS HERE” signs on the eastbound ML2 platform.
For the first few years.

It’s pretty impressive how after tue debacle with ESA, that the 3rd track flew along as quickly as it did.

Please tolerate two comments from a guy far from the action. 1) It has become obvious that the dismantling of temporary platforms and the placement of new track, third rail, and signal circuits is a big job. 2) I hope the Main Line crossovers between Park and Hicksville are rated higher than 45 mph.

The new switch at the east end of Floral Park Station where eastbound's go from the old Hemp-1 to the new ML-2 track appears to be the straight route for main-line trains. I assume they can go thru at 60-80 mph. Too bad it's an RAS signal there so we can't tell by the signal aspect. Friggin' new age signals..........

The old Nassau 1 and 3 Interlockings installed maybe fifteen or twenty years ago had high-speed (60mph) crossovers. I assume the new interlockings have the same. I watched from the Mineola platform trains crossing over in the distance earlier today . And it looked like they were doing a pretty good clip.

The old crossovers at Divide were I believe 30mph. I don't know what the new ones are. Might be the same since speeds are slower in that area to begin with. Too bad we won't be able to tell by seeing the home signal aspects, since the RAS signals are being installed there too.

Both Oyster Bay tracks have had the third rail reinstalled, and I still see some track work that needs to be done. Even though all 3 tracks are in service, they are going to have to do rail/tie replacement work on Track 1 (it currently has wooden ties and aged rails). Station still has a way to go with signage, the station house, exterior of the non-ADA pedestrian overpass, the Platform B ramp on the East end, and the footprints of the Main Street ADA-accessible pedestrian overpass have been set.

If i'm not mistaken, the curves on mainline 4 just east of the new Floral Park switch to the Hempstead branch are restricted to 50/60. So trains don't go that fast through the straight lined switch.

From riding trains through the new Nassau 1/3 switches and looking at trains on traintime , it feels like the switches allow somewhere between 50 and 60 mph.

Re: Floral park, you mean Main-Line-2, right? I'm having trouble keeping these new track numbers straight in my mind too! LOL

It's too bad LIRR uses their schematic track numbering instead of consecutive numbering. It would have been so much simpler if LIRR would just number the tracks as 1-2-3 south-to-north or north-to-south like the station tracks in Jamaica and Hicksville.

Possibly the track numbering was that of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which knew that the center tracks of a 4-track Broad Way were 1 & 2. Note that the system conforms to even-numbered trains heading east to Montauk or westbound Train 29, the Broadway, to Chicago.

A straight move ML2 to ML2 is MAS through Floral Park. No restrictions.

The eastward right hand curve to the Hempstead branch is coded down to 40.

If I read all correctly they reduced the former Hempstead no1 track curve at the east end of Floral Park through the new mainline switch to 25 mph.

I believe this has to do with the embankment not being fully completed yet with a retaining wall.
There’s no other reason to explain this.
Unless there’s additional concerns about subsidence in the new soft roadbed since they had to slight shift the alignment.

By eye, it doesn’t appear so sharp that it needs to be this slow.
Anyone got a better explanation?

bellstbarn wrote: ↑Thu Sep 01, 2022 3:16 pm Possibly the track numbering was that of the Pennsylvania Railroad, which knew that the center tracks of a 4-track Broad Way were 1 & 2. Note that the system conforms to even-numbered trains heading east to Montauk or westbound Train 29, the Broadway, to Chicago.

Actually, the PRR numbered tracks sequentially from south to north, with passenger trains on 1 eastbound and 4 westbound, and freight on 2 and 3, as reflected at LANE (west of Newark (NJ), Morrisville, Bellevue (north of Wilmington), and Thorndale, where there are grade separations enabling moves to and from freight yards and routes to center tracks 2 and 3 without conflicting with 1 or 4. NYC, NH, and Erie used directional numbering like the LI.