Timetable Anomalies (historical)

[granton junction]

I lived in St James LI way way back (1940s, 50s). Flowerfield (east of St James) was a scheduled and flag stop for several trains and was listed as such in the pocket (TDI) and branch timetables thru 1955. But Flowerfield was eliminated as a stop sometime after that. As late as 1959 Flowerfield was still listed in the timetables even though no trains were scheduled to stop there (even as a flag stop). Are there other examples of this?

[MACTRAXX]

GJ: Interesting question...Back during the 70s and 80s there were examples of little-used stations
sometimes having service cut down to next to nothing and then being closed outright.

Noting your location Setauket and Landia on the PJ Branch were two to start. On the Main Line E
of Ronkonkoma there was Holbrook, Manorville and Calverton. On the Montauk Branch: Bayport,
Blue Point, East Moriches and Eastport. Further west there was South Farmingdale on the Central
Branch and these Queens stations: Woodhaven, Union Hall St., Springfield Gardens and Elmhurst.

With significant changes such as the Hicksville-Ronkonkoma Electrification Grumman, Republic
and Pine-Aire were closed. More recently back in the late 1990s there were stations closed due
to a combination of low ridership and not spending money for the required high level platforms
for the C3 cars such as Center Moriches, Quogue, Mill Neck and the intermediate stations that
were between Jamaica and Long Island City on the west end of the Montauk Branch.

Richmond Hill on the Montauk Branch west of Jamaica is one of the best examples of a station in
which service was reduced to next to nothing (one train stopping each way during weekday peak
hours) and then being closed outright. What was ironic was that Richmond Hill was once the only
high-level platform station in all of LIRR Diesel territory until the elevated station in Hicksville was
opened in the middle 1960s. As most know high-level platforms would be constructed throughout
Diesel territory beginning in the 1980s into the 1990s to provide what the LIRR has today.

There were likely others closed during the 1960s and before that other Forum members may be
more familiar with since many of us are not of the age to remember the LIRR back in those days.

MACTRAXX

[MACTRAXX]

GJ: I discovered interesting TDI timetables issued in 1966 that show Hillside (the old station that
was just west of today's Hillside Facility station that LIRR employees use) in this manner:

The green color May 22, 1966 TDI timetable reads "Hollis" and "Union Hall Street" on the cover.
The schedule inside shows blanked-out columns between the listed times of both stations.

The blue color December 12, 1966 TDI timetable reads "Hillside-Hollis" and "Union Hall Street" on
the cover. The schedule inside shows times for Union Hall and Hollis without the blank columns.

I checked and found listed that Hillside closed in 1966 - and the likely date was along with the
May 22, 1966 timetable change. Why TDI used the older station heading "Hillside-Hollis" seven
months after the Hillside station closed remains a mystery...

For a complete list of current and past LIRR stations see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_L ... d_stations" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Dates are shown by year only - and even with the research that has been done errors can be
found such as the closing date for Holbrook listed as 1962 instead of 1972 when service ended.

MACTRAXX

[nyandw]

Perhaps not anomalies, but comprehensive info on LIRR Stations, Dave Keller's Station History: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirrphotos/ ... ISTORY.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Station Name Changes, Eliminations, and Evolution: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrstationnames.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Specific Location Station Stops: http://www.trainsarefun.com/lirr/lirrex ... ralist.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; 30% down the page.
The following station stops served no specific towns, but were on the timetable to service specific locations:

American Grass Twine Works/Prairie Grass Works
Atlas
Aviation Field Number 2Canoe Place
A&P Bronze
Bartlett (Fanny Bartlett)
Belmont Racetrack
Boland's Landing
Canoe Place
Center Avenue
Experimental Station No. 2(1)
Flowerfield
Glendale Wells
Golf Grounds
Jamaica Racetrack
Landia
Newsday
Noyack Road
Pilgrim State Hospital
Promised Land
Phelps Dodge
Republic
Shops
Southampton College
Steeplechase
Suffolk Downs
Union Course (racetrack)

Note 1: Flag stop station located 58 miles from Penn station and was the very next stop east of Medford, first appearing in the ETT of 5/27/14

This listing doesn't include all the station stops from the 19th century that were named for specific streets and/or avenues as well as hotels such
as the Howard House and the Oriental Hotel as well as early racetracks. . Entire topic Archive/Research: Dave Keller, unless noted.