FL9 Fantrip on the Bay Ridge Branch in the '80's?

I was at an ERA (Electric Railroaders Assoc.) meeting last night and one of the slides in the presentation was that of an FL9 fantrip on the Bay Ridge branch sometime in the mid-1980's! Is there anyone here that recalls this event (and more importantly was an attendee?!). Looked like there were four or five coaches involved in this trip.

The slide caught both rapid transit (subway train on the Canarise L) and mainline railroading all in one frame. The shot appeared to have been taken from the trackbed somewhere between Sutter and Livonia Avenues.

-sorry no one seems to have information on this fascinating topic. What a great trip it would be to make today.
-what would it take to enable NY&A to run chartered fan trips on LIRR trackage? Suppose it acquired a few good second hand MTA coaches or rebuilds for inspection trips and charters. It's been done elsewhere. I'm sure there must be a lot of red tape, but could it be done?

Roger

NY&A can not run passenger trains on LIRR, it would violate the charter they got with LIRR/MTA.

Fantrip:
http://community.webshots.com/album/559298854MZIePz

-awesome dogbert! Very nice pictures. Since it is impossible to run passenger trains pulled by NY&A engines on MTA/LIRR, pray, how did you manage to do it? Would it be possible to do a similar NY&A run, for example, some weekend on the Greenport branch from the rail museum?
-unlike Metro North, which encourages the occasional railfan special trip, LIRR seems uninterested. Perhaps using NY&A would be a way of restoring fan trips on Long Island.
-thanks for the pictures. I would love to try that trip, if it were offered again.

Roger

Not my photos (I agree though - good stuff). I don't recall the particulars but I'm pretty sure NY&A did at least 2 fantrips on the bay ridge branch.

They recently have Kevin Walsh of forgotten-ny.com a bit of a private tour of the line.

Doug, I couldn't remember such a trip on the Bay Ridge using FL9's! DogBert, using Joe's photo's WOW! That last photo on the bottom with the PL signal, and there are quite a few of them dead, and rotting on the Bay Ridge you can see if you ride the N train (Sea Beach Line NYCT). At least that last one shows as NYAR runs right underneath the D (West End Line, NYCT)! Of coarse to see it close in person, there would have to be another fantrip of some sort!

That was a LIST trip back in June 2007. I was lucky to get a ticket, as there weren't many for the trip. That FL9 trip you're probably thinking about is a trip that ran to Greenport and over the Montauk Cutoff back in '89 or '90.

lirr415-Peter

There were pictures floating around somewhere online of the fan trip in question. I believe it was 1989 and the trip also went out to Greenport like 415 said.

emfinite wrote:There were pictures floating around somewhere online of the fan trip in question. I believe it was 1989 and the trip also went out to Greenport like 415 said.

Trip was in either 1987 or 1988 it originated in Danbury, My team had to get train ready for service.
I have been out of MofE since Febr 1989 but I doubt the fantrip ran that early in 1989 ??

DutchRailnut wrote:

emfinite wrote:There were pictures floating around somewhere online of the fan trip in question. I believe it was 1989 and the trip also went out to Greenport like 415 said.

Trip was in either 1987 or 1988 it originated in Danbury, My team had to get train ready for service.
I have been out of MofE since Febr 1989 but I doubt the fantrip ran that early in 1989 ??

No it wasn't early in the year, it was a hot summer day that that trip ran on.

lirr415-Peter

I think i was at the trip you are speaking about, there was an fl-9 painted in McGuinness Hew Haven paint scheme with Bombardier cars that came down the hellgate route and on into Bayridge yard. The train stopped about half way down the rebuilt 65th street yard for a photo op and then went back the way it came. I happened to be in Bayridge that day and knew nothing of the trip until some people that had come to photograph the event told me of it. I shot 35mm pictures and a reel of 8mm movie film and still have them today. I can be reached at [email protected] to clarify any points you may need.

I found a video of part of that trip - it was May 16, 1987.

LIRR, Conrail and NH FL-9s @ Fresh Pond, NY 5-16-87 PT 2

The FL-9s appear at 2:25 or so from the West. The other 3 parts are all shot on the same day at Fresh Pond - but only part 2 has the FL9s.

Quoting the comment section:

... Grand Central Terminal to Long Island City via the Hell Gate Bridge, then out the Montauk Branch to Fresh Pond, South to Bay Ridge and return to GCT. If I recall correctly they used the now abandoned Port Morris Branch from Melrose to Oak Point in one direction and Shell interlocking in New Rochelle in the other direction.

Hope this helps,

Gil, known as Bill somedays ...