The Long lost Flushing Northside Railroad to Whitestone & Tragic CollegePoint Train Wreck. скачать в хорошем качестве

The Long lost Flushing Northside Railroad to Whitestone & Tragic CollegePoint Train Wreck.

The long forgotten Flushing Northside Railroad to Whitestone & Tragic College Point Train wreck. Originally conceived as a branch of the Flushing and North Side Railroad that was intended to lead into Westchester County (a connection that never materialized).The Whitestone Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road. Running north and east along the left bank of the Flushing River from the Port Washington Branch near the modern Willets Point, Flushing. It crossed the river on one of the three bridges later torn down for the Van Wyck Expressway, then ran north along Flushing Bay and east along the East River to Whitestone. The Whitesone Branch had stations at Flushing Bridge Street (the surviving Flushing Main Street station is so named to differentiate it from its long-closed sister); College Point, at present-day 18th Avenue and 127th Street; Malba, at 11th Avenue and 142nd Street; Whitestone, at what is today 150th Street and Cross Island Parkway (14th Road still curves to follow the ROW) and finally, Whitestone Landing, at 7th Avenue and 154th Street. In 1869 theRailroad was consolidated into the Long Island Rail Road in 1876 when its owners, the Poppenhusen family, took over the bankrupt LIRR. It later became part of a subsidiary called the Long Island City and Flushing Railroad. In the 1920s the branch began to lose patronage and the LIRR sought to rid itself of the line. There was a proposal for the city owned IND subway to buy the line and incorporate it into the subway system. The deal never panned out most likely due the numerous grade crossings that would have cost the city a large amount of money to remove. The Interstate Commerce Commission allowed the LIRR to abandon the line in 1932. On September 22, 1913 in College Point two trains had a head on collision. Three people were killed and 45 hurt. An investigation determined that one of the trains was running 20 minutes late and should have been held back by the tower man, he was subsequently arrested. The Flushing-Main Street station of the Port Washington Branch was so named to distinguish it from the Whitestone's Flushing-Bridge Street station. Despite the closing of the Bridge Street station the LIRR continues to use "Main Street" on signs and timetables to this day. The only remaining Whitestone Branch Trackage can be seen from the east end of Ciiti Field/Shea Stadium platform on the Port Washington Branch, curving off into the weeds. The line paralleled the Flushing River until it reached Northern Boulevard. The trackage was used for a layup, currently it is completely severed from the Port Washington branch. The author F. Scott Fitzgerald rode on the Whitestone Branch and referred to it in his book "The Great Gatsby" the portion of the railway which ran thru the "Valley of Ashes" which is the current day Flushing Meadows Park which was used as an ash heap at that time and was not yet a park. Most of the branch was removed, except a small section of the line leading to the Corona Yard which remained well into the 1970s when the LIRR closed the Corona yard. Gone since the mid 1970's the rusting abandoned fleet of the Whoitestone branch sat in view of the Van Wyck Exwy for many years until it was finally scrapped. It was a reminder of the Golden age of train travel to Whitestone many today never knew existed. Music By: (Johnny Cash,Ive Got a Thing About Trains),(Duke Ellington,Across the Track Blues). Source- (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Kevin Walsh's Forgotten-NY's Whitestone branch,lirrhistory.com,RAILROAD.NET,Sources: Steel Rails to the Sunrise, Ron Ziel and George Foster, Hawthorn 1965. Victorian Railroad Stations of Long Island, Ron Ziel and Richard Wettereau, Sunrise Special LTD, 1988. nycsubway.org: the Long Island Rail Road Bob Andersen's lirrhistory.com), Bayside.patch.com/articles/the-scandal-behind-flushing-meadow-park,macaulay.cuny.edu/eportfolios/munshisouth10/group-projects/flushingmeadows/flushing-meadow-past/, litkicks.com/inGatzbysTracks#.UWBOjWS9Kc1, Google Image, LI&NYC Places That Are No More. Produced By Thomas Byrne (TommyB512) Subscribe if you like,Thanks for watching