West Hempstead Branch

West Hempstead Branch
Side view of West Hempstead Station, from Hempstead Avenue.
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Long Island Rail Road
Status	Operational
Locale	Nassau County, New York, USA
Termini	Valley Stream West Hempstead
Stations	5
Services	West Hempstead Branch
Operation
Opened	1893
Owner	Long Island Rail Road
Operator(s)	Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 ^1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Electrification	750 Volts (DC) Third rail, since 1926[1]
Route map Legend AirTrain JFK Zone 1 Zone 3 10.8 Jamaica 13.6 St. Albans Queens/Nassau County border Zone 3 Zone 4 17.9 Valley Stream 19.3 Westwood 20.1 Malverne 21.2 Lakeview 21.9 Hempstead Gardens 22.5 West Hempstead Distances shown in miles from Pennsylvania Station.

The West Hempstead Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the U.S. state of New York. It runs between Valley Stream, New York, and West Hempstead, New York.

Route description

The branch separates from the Montauk Branch just east of Valley Stream, and runs northeast to West Hempstead. The line has one track between Westwood station and Hempstead Gardens and two from there to the end of the line in West Hempstead, the southbound or east track being a siding.

Since Valley Stream only has platforms on the Atlantic Branch, which parallels the Montauk Branch to the south, most West Hempstead Branch trains that serve Valley Stream are shuttles that terminate there.^[2][3]

Modernization

As the smallest LIRR commuter branch,^[4] the West Hempstead Branch was one of the last in the system to modernize. It was the last of the electrified LIRR branches to receive high level platforms, in the early 1970s, and the last of the electrified branches to be fitted with Automatic Train Control (known as Automatic Speed Control by the LIRR), which it received in October 2009 during a system overhaul and upgrade at Valley Interlocking.^[5][6] Nevertheless, the branch is one of the LIRR lines most vulnerable to closure, and has been threatened with abandonment in recent years.^[7] In September 2010 until November 22, 2014, the line had no weekend service due to budgetary constraints, (except for St. Albans, which has always had passenger services since Babylon Branch trains stop there on weekends).^[8][9]

History

1897 map of Hempstead, including the West Hempstead Branch before it was truncated south of Hempstead Avenue.

The West Hempstead Branch was the indirect successor to the old South Side Railroad's Southern Hempstead Branch, which ran a similar route north from Valley Stream to Hempstead, before being torn up in the 1880s. Built in 1893 by the New York Bay Extension Railroad Company and merged with the LIRR on August 29, 1902,^[10] the West Hempstead Branch originally extended beyond its current terminus and through Hempstead. It connected with the current day Hempstead Branch at Country Life Press.^[11] From the Country Life Press station, the line had several routings it could take. It could loop west and continue down the Hempstead Branch to Jamaica. Through an elaborate wye system, trains could also loop east and continue down the Central Branch to Babylon (the split between the Hempstead and Central Branches occur just west of Country Life Press). Trains could also head north on the wye and continue all the way north to Mineola and connect with either the Main Line or Oyster Bay Branches.

Storage battery cars ran on the non-electrified branch between June 1913 and May 1926. The upper end of the branch was electrified in 1911 or 1912 from Country Life Press to Franklin Avenue in Garden City to allow MU baggage cars access to the Doubleday plant.^[6]

On October 19, 1926, the portion of the line between Valley Stream and Franklin Avenue in Garden City was electrified and it was inaugurated with a special train.^[12] New through service running between Valley Stream and Mineola began on the West Hempstead Branch the next day. The freight sidings, however, were not electrified until 1927 and 1928.The connection to the Oyster Bay Branch was severed in 1928, while the portions of the line between Mineola and Country Life Press and between Country Life Press and West Hempstead were taken out of revenue passenger service in June 1935 due to the costly grade crossing elimination improvements imposed upon the LIRR by the Interstate Commerce Commission, as well as the New York Public Service Commission. This meant that no more through service between Valley Stream and Mineola could operate.^[13]

The track connection at Country Life Press to the West Hempstead Branch was removed on August 19, 1960, and on this same date the tracks were cut back from Country Life Press to the west side of the Franklin Avenue crossing. The remaining tracks north of West Hempstead at Hempstead Avenue were removed some time between 1967 and 1969. Freight trains and non-revenue rerouting trains continued down these portions up until their closure.^[13] The rights-of-way, remain intact.^[14]

Stations

Zone	Station name	Miles (km) from NYP[15]	Date opened	Date closed	Connections / Notes
3	For continuing service to points west, see City Terminal Zone
	Jamaica	10.8 (17.4)	1836		LIRR; Babylon, Belmont Park, Far Rockaway, Hempstead, Long Beach, Montauk, Oyster Bay, Port Jefferson, Ronkonkoma, and West Hempstead Branches NYC Subway: (at Sutphin Boulevard – Archer Avenue – JFK Airport) NYCT Bus: Q20A, Q20B, Q24, Q30, Q31, Q43, Q44, Q54, Q56 MTA Bus: Q6, Q8, Q9, Q25, Q34, Q40, Q41, Q60, Q65 NICE Bus: n4 AirTrain JFK: Jamaica Station Route
	Union Hall Street		c. 1890	1976	Originally New York Avenue
	Canal Street		1890[16]	1899
	Hillside		c.1909	1966
	Main Line diverges at Rockaway Junction
	St. Albans	13.6 (21.9)	1898[17]		LIRR Babylon Branch NYCT Bus: Q4
	Springfield Gardens		c. 1870	1979	Originally Springfield
	Atlantic Branch converges at Springfield Junction
	Rosedale	15.8 (25.4)	1870		Served by Atlantic Branch trains Originally Foster's Meadow
Queens / Nassau County border
4	Valley Stream	17.9 (28.8)	1869		LIRR: Babylon, Far Rockaway, and Long Beach Branches NICE Bus: n1
	Westwood	19.3 (31.0)	1929
	Malverne	20.1 (32.3)	c. 1909		NICE Bus: n31, n32
	Lakeview	21.2 (34.1)			NICE Bus: n15
	Hempstead Gardens	21.9 (35.2)	1893		NICE Bus: n15
	West Hempstead	22.5 (36.2)	1928		NICE Bus: n15, n31, n32
	The following stations were on the former connection between West Hempstead and Oyster Bay Branch which was abandoned in 1966
	Country Life Press	20.8 (33.5)	1911		LIRR: Hempstead Branch NICE Bus: n40, n41 Served West Hempstead trains until c. 1939
	Stewart Avenue		1923	1926
	Hempstead Crossing		1894	1923
	Mineola	20.3 (32.3)	1837		LIRR: Oyster Bay, Port Jefferson, and Montauk Branches NICE Bus: n22, n22X, n23, n24, n40, n41 Originally Branch, then Hempstead Branch Served West Hempstead trains until 1928

References

1. "WILL HAIL ELECTRIC TRAIN; West Hempstead Branch Towns to Celebrate New Service Today". New York Times. 19 October 1926. Retrieved 1 November 2011. The first electric train of the Long Island Railroad to run over the recently electrified West Hempstead branch will leave the Pennsylvania Terminal this afternoon, carrying railroad officials and delegations from the communities affected. The train will be an express to Mineola, where the principal celebration will be held.
2. MTA Long Island Rail Road system map
3. LIRR West Hempstead Branch timetable
4. Ain, Stewart (10 March 2002). "West Hempstead Line's Squeaky Wheels". New York Times. Retrieved 1 November 2011. West Hempstead branch had a daily ridership of 3,550, the lowest of the railroad's 11 branches. That compares with 58,000 [sic] on the Oyster Bay branch, which has the next smallest number of riders.
5. "WM Interlocking". The LIRR Today. Retrieved 13 November 2013. (registration required (help)).
6. Keller, Dave. "West Hempstead Branch". trainsarefun.com. Retrieved April 28, 2016.
7. Ain, Stewart (8 August 2004). "M.T.A.'s Threat Drops Some Jaws". New York Times. Retrieved 1 November 2011. Brian Dolan, a spokesman for the railroad, said the elimination of the [Oyster Bay, West Hempstead, and Greenport] branches would be a 'drastic step we would hope we would not have to implement.' He said the move was being considered because of a projected $1.3 billion budget shortfall that the transportation authority, the railroad's parent, is facing in 2006.
8. Alcindor, Yamiche (18 September 2010). "An empty feeling on LIRR's West Hempstead branch". Newsday. Retrieved 1 November 2011. The elimination of the branch's 17 weekend trains is aimed at helping the struggling Metropolitan Transportation Authority close a $900-million budget gap. The cutback will save $474,000 a year, officials have said.
9. "Weekend service returns to LIRR branch". Newsday. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
10. "LIRR 75 Anniversary". www.trainsarefun.com. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
11. West Hempstead Branch Stations (Unofficial LIRR History web site)
12. "WHBrEL". www.arrts-arrchives.com. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
13. "LIRR Branch Notes". www.trainsarefun.com. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
14. "Mineola to West Hempstead". www.lirrhistory.com. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
15. Station pages linked from LIRR Stations
16. "Rapid Transit Extension". Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, NY). June 24, 1890. p. 1.
17. Long Island Railroad Station History (TrainsAreFun.com)

External links

• West Hempstead Branch Stations (Unofficial LIRR History web site)
• NYCSUBWAYS.org: West Hempstead Branch
• West Hempstead Branch (The LIRR Today) (registration required)
  • Valley Interlocking (registration required)
• Power Car at West Hempstead Station and substation; April 20, 1969 (Joe Testagrose collection - Dave's Rail Pix)