When Montauk Meets Rockaway...

Taken earlier today while walking down the Lower Montauk. Not much left of the old Rockaway Beach Branch overpass left these days!

Also, what was up with this? This is a shot of the Lower Montauk tracks in the park - note that every few ties there was a longer one installed. If you looked closely at any of them, however, there was no evidence of third rail mounts. Maybe this was a preparatory move that never happened in the end? I did hear something about it the Lower Montauk being electrified via catenary at one point, but never third rail.

During the last track program, about 25 years ago, third rail ties were installed "just in case".

There was some talk of NYTA use or electrification...

And yes, there was third rail on the Lower Montauk many years ago, back when those ties were little trees down South. I believe it was removed in 1951.

Sounds like the title of a Kate Smith, WW2 song, "When Montauk meets Rockaway, little Billy will come home....!"

Good topic, but I couldn't resist.

Both photos: Bill Mangahas (April 1989)
Less foliage back in '89

The view up top.

Go the source! One of the more famous Jay alumni has a picture on his website showing (scroll down) third rail at Glendale http://arrts-arrchives.com/glendale1.html That pic was dated 1928, and he had a few others that shows it gone by the early '50s as mentioned by K&K. Great pics by the way, it's amazing how much the brush has taken over since I first went down there on a CE and got an earful about the branch and the Glendale cross-over that was just west of the bridge (the perimeter of the ball fields shows where the track was).

Interface76: While there was some Catenary in Pond yard, there was none on the Lower Montauk. I wonder if Arrt or someone else has an old third rail print lurking around of the third rail on the Lower Montauk when it ran from Jay to Pond. There was an ancient third rail print laminated to a 5' board at Jay showing what was once Rockaway Beach #1 when it was the "switching lead" at old Win interlocking. But it stopped showing that old RB branch at Whitepot Jct.

These are awesome pictures. However, the post indicates and they appear to be that they were taken from within the gauge of an active ROW.

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