The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part One: South Side R.R. of L.I./Chapter 4

by Vincent F. Seyfried

CHAPTER IV

Operations: 1867–1872

IN the preceding pages we have detailed at some length the building of the main line of the South Side RR and the various branches constructed shortly after. Let us now pause to consider the physical plant of the constructed railroad insofar as that is possible after the lapse of ninety years.

For the first three years (1867–1870) the entire South Side line was a single-track road with sidings, exactly like the Long Island RR and almost all the other roads of that day. There was yard trackage at South Eighth Street terminus and at Bushwick station, and additional turnouts were located at Hebbard's (Newtown Siding), now Fifty-second Street, Maspeth; Fresh Pond, a long siding between Van Wyck Avenue and Jamaica, Valley Stream, Merrick, Babylon (Carll Avenue to Deer Park Avenue) and Patchogue. In October 1869 another turnout was added at Rockville Centre and another at Baldwin; an engine house and turntable at Merrick was added in the fall of 1869. The Rockaway Branch appears to have remained single track throughout the life of the road. On this line there were but two turnouts, one between Valley Stream and Woodmere, and the other at Far Rockaway station.

The decision to double track most of the road (Valley Stream westward) was taken by the directors in the fall of 1870. Such a decision was a prestigious one, the import of which we can scarcely appreciate today. Only the big first class roads of that day could boast of any double-track sections, and the South Side RR was, after all, a newcomer with a background of only three years. It was an impressive testimony to the general prosperity of the road in the teeth of the older Long Island Railroad's opposition and a testimony to the directors' faith in the future.

As early as November 1870 gangs of men were put to work at a number of points along the road. Apparently the work was done in sections, for on November 29, 1870 the easternmost section was contracted out and on December 5 the westernmost end was let out to a Mr. Thompson. The oncoming of heavy winter weather in December put an end to the project, but the work was resumed in the spring of 1871. Early in April the track gang began at Valley Stream and by the end of the month had completed the work as far as Springfield. Grading over the whole route from Valley Stream to Bushwick had already been completed and the ties and iron distributed along the line. By May 8 the track gang reached Jamaica. Glendale was reached on June 6. In Jamaica the marshy border of Beaver Pond prevented the enlargement of the track facilities there, and the company adopted the expedient of buying an acre of land and taking all the sand and gravel on it for use as fill in grading across Beaver Pond. Some time during July the track layers reached Hebbard's at 52nd Street, Maspeth, the western limit planned for the double track. Because of the marshy nature of the ground around Newtown Creek and the great expense involved in spiling, about one mile of the road was allowed to remain as a single track stretch. Sometime in early October the second track was thrown open to traffic for its full length.

Not all of the road's original double tracking project was carried through to completion exactly as planned. One of the most difficult spots was Jamaica station, where the South Side depot was squeezed between the LIRR and Beaver Pond. In March of 1871 the company applied to the Jamaica Village trustees for permission to straighten their track, build a double track and erect depot buildings. This project involved changing the line of the rails somewhat and altering the grade. The trustees signified a willingness to have the road do this, provided the company would agree to a few conditions, such as stationing flagmen and laying new culverts. President Fox assured the trustees that he was willing to agree to the conditions, but for some reason refused to put the agreement in writing. The village trustees insisted and Fox, in a huff, attempted to go ahead with the alterations without consent. The trustees then secured an injunction. The railroad countered by refusing to stop three of its commuter trains at Jamaica and threatened to by-pass the village altogether after September 1.

The railroad was, of course, obligated to stop at Jamaica by the terms of its charter agreement with the Village of Jamaica

"J. B. Johnston" at Breslau station, 1870 (Fagerberg)

Southern Ry. "Merrick" at Lawrence 1874 (Fagerberg)

Ocean Point station late '70's (Rugen)

(Above) "A. J. Bergen" at Richmond Hill about 1875 (Rugen)
(Below) Beaver Pond, Jamaica, in 1880 (Rugen)
⁠(SSRR embankment at right and in distance)

(Above) The "Pewit" (Rugen)
(Below) LIRR no. 48 at New York Blvd. (Rugen)

Bay Shore station in Sept. 1879 and
⁠the Woodfield disaster of Feb. 3, 1875 (Rugen)

Club House station in 1879 and the
⁠Patchogue engine house in Aug. 1878

Blue Point station (Aug. 1878) of SSRR, Islip LIRR depot
⁠and Babylon station (Oct. 1878) (G. B. Brainard no. 608)

at the time of its construction; there was also a mail contract with the Federal government and a legal obligation to its commuters. Nevertheless, its engineers were commissioned to plan a new route and in August 1871 came up with a surprising proposal.

If one glances at the right of way of the present Montauk division of the LIRR, it will be apparent that the road, after a comparatively long straight run through Glendale and Richmond Hill, bends sharply eastward at Morris Park to enter Jamaica,and then curves sharply south again east of the village toward Cedar Manor. The engineers pointed out that by constructing a connection from about Morris Park across to Cedar Manor, a straight line right-of-way would result, and the expense of spiling and filling at Beaver Pond could be saved. The right-of-way could be cheaply obtained and the new Jamaica depot would be outside the control of the trustees.

When the New York newspapers got wind of the dispute, they sent reporters who turned in inaccurate and distorted accounts of the squabbles and drummed up the whole affair into a "railroad war." President Fox, believing some of the copy he read, even sent two detectives to Jamaica who skulked about the village streets, furtively eyeing the citizens for signs of violence against company property. Late in August the entire squabble collapsed when President Fox signed the original terms proffered by the trustees two months before. Nothing further was heard of by-passing the village, and the railroad, in token of peace, promised to build a new depot and repair all cattle guards.

When the road first opened in 1867, all the offices and shops were located in Jamaica. Since the road owned very little rolling stock and land at first, these facilities were poor and limited; one flimsy engine house blew down in a winter storm in December 1867. Just as soon as the decision was made to fix the Brooklyn terminus at Bushwick, all the administrative offices were transferred there on August 5, 1868, and the engine and machine shops soon followed.

The problem of handling freight inspired the construction of a dock facility on Newtown Creek. The Brooklyn terminus at Bushwick was a mile from the waterfront and the single track line through crowded residential streets made freight car movements difficult; one of the most profitable viz. the handling of manure, was expressly forbidden as a health menace. In August 1868 the directors planned the spur to the new dock and in March 1869 a bill was introduced into the Legislature to permit such construction. Over the summer the single track spur was laid from the main line at about the present junction of Metropolitan & Flushing Avenues north to the dock just above where Maspeth Avenue used to intersect Newtown Creek before it was obliterated by the Navy Yard. Whether there were cranes here for loading and unloading manure barges is uncertain; however, the railroad went ahead in February 1872 with another freight dock at Hunter's Point installing $25,000 worth of facilities.

From the day the South Side RR opened in October 1867, it seems to have been well patronized and successful. Part of the reason for this prosperity was undoubtedly its newness: new engines, new cars, and a new and heavy roadbed. The South Side also had the advantage over its rival, the Long Island RR, of passing directly through old and well-established villages all along the south shore. A third attraction was its fare schedule, which generally set rates slightly below those of the Long Island RR. Between 1868 and 1872 the following fares prevailed from New York or Brooklyn:

 

Fresh Pond or Glendale	15¢		South Oyster Bay (Massapequa)	85¢
Richmond Hill or Jamaica	18¢		Amityville	95¢
Springfield	40¢		Breslau (Lindenhurst) &
Valley Stream	45¢		Babylon	1.10
Lynbrook	50¢		Bayshore	1.20
Rockville Centre	55¢		Islip	1.35
Baldwin	60¢		Oakdale	1.45
Freeport	65¢		Sayville	1.55
Merrick	70¢		Bayport	1.60
Wantagh (Ridgewood)	75¢		Patchogue	1.65

 

A glance at this table reveals that where the South Side was in competition with the Long Island RR between New York and Jamaica, the fares were very low (18¢) but east of Jamaica the rates rose sharply and then leveled off. In February 1869 the South Side offered the residents of Jamaica single tickets for only 15¢ or a book of 100 for $12. When Charlick found his rival getting all the traffic, he cut his rates to the same figure, then fearful of a war, arranged a meeting with Fox, resulting in a non-raiding agreement. Within a week the fare rose to its old level of 180 to the disgruntlement of the Jamaica citizenry.

The South Side was not only reasonable in its fare policy but rather generous with its free passes. Annual passes were handed out to all pastors living along the line of the road, and in addition, free passes were distributed to whole delegations of clergymen attending councils.

From the sparse statistics of a century ago and scattered newspaper notices, we gather a very favorable impression of passenger and freight revenues on the South Side RR:

 

Year	Passengers	Freight, in tons
1868	no figures	none[1]
1869	246,660	51,645
1870	586,375	76,530
1871	611,782	67,077
1872	617,899	83,671
1873	679,055	65,663[2]

 

A brief newspaper mention that appeared after the road was in operation only two months reports that receipts from passengers were about $100 a day and $35 from the express business. With the spring of 1869 glowing newspaper accounts appear for the first time of pleasure excursions over the roads to "distant points" like Babylon and Patchogue. The verdant countryside, the new and perfect track and equipment, the picturesque villages—all are eloquently extolled in a rich, rhapsodic prose that is prophetic of the lush press-agentry of a later age. The many resort hotels at Babylon and Islip, the beach at Fire Island all exerted their attraction for the city-bound folk of Williamsburgh and Brooklyn. The chief advantage of the Long Island resorts was their nearness and cheapness; the traveler had no.need to travel 100 miles and more, and the rates were not extortionate. The holidays were of course the peak days on the road: on July 4, 1869 over 3000 people were hauled in the twenty-one coaches then owned by the road.

In March 1870 we read "During the first 15 days of last month the receipts of the road from passenger traffic were $12,000 in excess of any previous winter months. The trade has increased gradually and this month it is nearly as great as it was during the first months of last year." Further testimony to the great crowds carried especially to Rockaway appears again in 1871.

One of the greatest stimuli to both passenger and freight traffic was the new city of Breslau, renamed Lindenhurst as of July 14, 1891. During 1861-69 a Mr. Wellwood bought up 5000 acres of farmland near Babylon and laid out the tract in 25 × 100-foot lots. In October 1869 he named the place "Breslau" and formed a partnership with Charles S. Schleier of Brooklyn and formerly of Breslau in Silesia. Together the men promoted lots and campaigned intensively among the Germans of the metropolitan area. By 1872 there were about 400 houses and a population of about 3500. All the building materials for Breslau had to be transported by rail over the South Side RR and these shipments formed the bulk of the freight traffic over the road.

Both Wellwood and Schleier organized giant free excursion rides to the new Zion in the wilderness and great crowds of Germans turned out for the free ride, music, beer and oratory. On April 18, 1870 the largest known excursion train in the history of Long Island ran from Bushwick to Breslau, consisting of twenty-one cars, sixteen of them gondolas provided with temporary seats and drawn by two locomotives. Two thousand men, women and children turned out for this giant excursion and danced and drank the day away while professional spielers extolled the virtues of the new metropolis and inveigled the unwary into investment.

By May and June 1870 we hear that the South Side had every available freight car in constant use hauling building materials for Breslau and other smaller growing communities along the line. Governor Hoffman of New York State himself laid the corner stone of the new Breslau on June 6, 1870.

Service all along the South Side line was fairly good. In the fall of 1867 when the road opened and during 1868, there were two trains a day each way. In 1869 this was increased to six trains a day, and in 1870 the heavy traffic warranted eight trains each way; in the 1871–72 season nine trains operated daily. Most of the trains ran through from South Eighth Street to Patchogue; passengers for Rockaway changed at Valley Stream, where a shuttle train waited to make the run down the peninsula. In July and August, however, a "Rockaway Express" ran through to the beach stopping only at Jamaica and Valley Stream beginning in 1869 and in 1870 two more such expresses were added. The trip was accomplished in only forty minutes and enabled the average Brooklynite to spend four hours at the beach and still return home by 6 P.M. In the 1871 season the railroad inaugurated moonlight excursions to the beach, the return trip leaving the Pavilion at 1 A.M.

When the South Side began running express trains on the main line beginning in 1869, it unwittingly ran into difficulties. The crack train left Bushwick and made no further stops until reaching Merrick, Mr. Fox's own town, after which it made all stops to Patchogue. This non-stop run of twenty-three miles outraged the citizens of Jamaica who took mortal offense at the affront. The local journals commented acidly on the road's indifference to accommodation and spitefully commented on the danger to life and limb from expresses hurtling through the village at thirty miles per hour. The rival Long Island RR, hitherto reviled and scorned by the press, suddenly found itself basking in the sun of editorial favor.

In 1870–71 the South Side made efforts to speed up the service, especially the expresses. The double track, laid with sixty-pound rail, was a step in this direction and so was the purchase of the newest and fastest locomotive available. The advertised express speed was thirty miles per hour but this could be exceeded on occasion. In September 1870 a new South Side engine, the "Massapequa," drawing two cars bearing President Fox and several of the directors, made a speed run between Amityville and Babylon, a distance of six miles in five minutes. This new record of seventy miles per hour was the fastest known on Long Island up to that time.

One feature of the South Side operation would strike us today as being rather curious: there were no trains on Sunday. President Fox was a practicing Baptist, and most of the directors were eastern Long Island men reared in the strict tradition of Sabbath observance. The people of Brooklyn were not in accord with this uncompromising Sabbatarianism, and regarded the absence of Sunday trains as a hypocritical device on the part of wealthy Rockaway property owners to keep the beach on Sunday to themselves. Fox and his directors regarded the prosperity of the road as the visible proof of divine approval of his policy and resisted all attempts to inaugurate Sunday service. Certainly, it was noteworthy that the South Side RR remained conspicuously free of major accidents. True, there were individuals, both employees and juveniles, who met their deaths through taking reckless chances, but the road had escaped those spectacular disasters, the grisly accounts of which filled the press of the day.

A few minor accidents reach our ears:

May 4, 1869: by error an engine was dispatched from the Williamsburgh office over the track which belonged to an express then nearly due. The engine plowed into the express train near Bushwick doing some damage to the two engines, but none to the passengers.

August, 1871: The Babylon accommodation train was thrown from the track at Newtown Switch by a misplaced switch. The locomotive and three cars narrowly escaped falling down a steep embankment. No one was hurt, but travel was interrupted for about five hours.

August 26, 1871: About 8:30 A.M. as the Fire Island Express was approaching Freeport from Merrick, it struck a broken rail which threw the three rear cars from the track down a five-foot embankment, leaving one overturned. Several persons were injured by broken glass.

November 15, 1871: The Merrick accommodation train coming out of Bushwick struck a Metropolitan Avenue horse car which had derailed on the crossing. When the crew and passengers failed to rerail it in time, they left and the locomotive struck the stalled car, smashing it to pieces. No one was hurt.

January 27, 1871: Two passenger trains were scheduled to pass each other at Jamaica. The eastbound one lay waiting at the siding. The westbound train, as it approached, split the switch, derailed, and sideswiped the cylinder head of the standing engine. Both engines were damaged but no one was hurt.

July 4, 1872: A train pulled by the Charles Fox left Bushwick Station later than it should have in order to reach the double track at Newtown Switch on time. Meanwhile a westbound excursion train of six cars from Rockaway, drawn by the engine R. O. Colt, left the double track at Newtown Switch and entered on the single track for Bushwick. Hardly had the engine and two of the six cars moved onto the single line when the Fox loomed up. Neither engine could stop despite flags and whistle blasts and a collision occurred. Since the Fox was making about twenty-eight miles per hour on the steep upgrade at that point, no serious damage occurred. However, three coaches on the Rockaway train had their platforms telescoped by the impact, and three persons who were standing outside, lost their lives by being crushed in the splintered wood. This was the first passenger fatality in the history of the road.

Soon after the road was opened, it became obvious very quickly that the dispatching of trains would be difficult if not impossible without a telegraph system in operation all along the line. In February 1868, therefore, the directors of the South Side RR Co. organized a subsidiary called the South Side Telegraph Co., allocated $2000 to the project, and floated a new issue of stock to finance the cost of construction between Bushwick and Babylon. Construction of the new telegraph line was begun almost immediately (February 1868) and the company was shortly reorganized as the L.I. Telegraph Co. in order to build branches to any other communities where the inhabitants would subsidize the cost of extension.

As early as the second week of February 1868 the poles began going up along the railroad tracks. The system was scheduled to be completed and in working order by March 23. On April 1, 1868 the line was completed between Rockville Centre and Babylon and the first message sent over the wires that day. Meanwhile the line crew was busily working its way westward to Williamsburgh. The people of Hempstead began collecting a subscription of money to defray the cost of building a branch of the telegraph from Valley Stream to that village in January and completed it by mid-May. In August a branch telegraph line was extended down the Rockaway Branch from Valley Stream to Far Rockaway.

A year later in September 1869 the South Side RR went through the legal process of formally merging the Long Island Telegraph Co. into its own corporate structure. Preparations were made at the same time to build the final segment between Babylon and Patchogue. Thelast we hear of the telegraph system is a cryptic note of April 1870 stating that the South Side RR bought in the L.I. Telegraph Co. at foreclosure sale. Lacking more definite information, we must assume that this was simply a legal maneuver by therailroad to secure possession of the wires without the encumbrances of bond and stock obligations to pay off, such obligations being usually wiped out in a foreclosure proceeding.

Closely allied with the telegraph service was the handling and dispatching of the United States mails. Previous to the coming of the South Side RR, the Long Island RR enjoyed a monopoly of the government contracts for transporting the mails on Long Island. When the South Side opened in 1867, it was to be expected that mail for the south side villages would fall to the new company. Somewhat surprisingly, this proved to be a slow process. The transfer appears to have been done piece-meal at first, at certain stations and not at others. For example, the mail at Amityville was changed over from the Long Island RR to the South Side on August 10, 1868. Not till July 1, 1869, however, was the mail for all the south side villages handed over to the South Side RR. Perhaps Oliver Charlick's potent political influence was effective in delaying the loss of the profitable mail contracts on his road.

In February 1870 the Postmaster-General further improved the speed of delivery of letters on Long Island by inaugurating a new mail route between Medford station on the Long Island RR and Patchogue on the South Side. Previously, all mail for the south shore villages originating at Long Island RR stations had been sent into New York and then transferred to the South Side. With the new service mail was transferred in mid-island the same day and delivered that much faster. Whatever further arrangements may have existed are not known today because of the paucity of our information.

The rolling stock of the South Side RR is rather well-known thanks to many scattered notices in the press of the day and the road's own reports to the State Engineer. In terms of mere numbers, this is the South Side's equipment broken down into types:

 

Year	Engines	Passenger	Baggage	Freight
		Coaches	Mail
1868	8	17	3	41
1869	11	21	5	75
1870	17	31	7	89
1871	18	35	7	89
1872	19	35	7	114
1873	20	50	5	117

 

Nearly all the South Side Railroad's locomotives were of the typical American 4-4-0 type. In 1867 only one engine, the Charles Fox was operating; in 1868 the Daniel T. Willets, the Alex McCue, the R. O. Colt, the John Tappan and the J. B. Johnston arrived, all named after the officers of the road. In 1869 two more were purchased, the Fire Fly and the Pewit. The year 1870 marked a great increase in equipment purchases for in this year were bought the A. J. Bergen, the F. B. Baldwin, the A. McLean, the South Side, the Springfield, the Massapequa, the Merrick and the Norwood. The final purchases, made in 1872–73, were the Islip, Patchogue and the Norwood.

It is easy to discern two different naming patterns in use: the first eleven honored the company's president and officers; the Pewit forms an exception, coming from the Central RR of NJ; the Fire Fly appears to be a fanciful name: all the remaining eight engines derive their names from Long Island localities.

We are in a much poorer position regarding the background of the passenger coaches. The builder and the date of construction alike of the first thirty-five coaches have not come down to us; we do know the last fifteen coaches were turned out by the New Haven Car Co. From pictures we know that the coaches resembled the typical railroad cars of the Sixties—all wood with a flat raised roof, slightly rounded over the platforms, thirteen to fifteen windows to a side and lighted with gas lamps. Combination baggage and express cars had three doors cut irregularly into the sides.

As for the dummies in use on Boerum Street and Broadway, Brooklyn, our information is meagre. The first dummy, the City of Brooklyn was placed in service on July 31, 1869. Later three others were added in 1870, but we know the name of only one, the City of Breslau.

Several personalities who were important in making the South Side RR of Long Island a success bear mentioning. Charles Fox was a New Yorker associated with F. B. Baldwin, an alderman for several years and an active man in real estate both in New York and on Long Island. Baldwin appears to have started the present village named after him and induced Fox to make other large investments in Baldwin and Merrick. Fox owned so much of the land there that the street names of today—Foxhurst Road, Fox Avenue—still preserve his memory. He was a devout Baptist and not only opposed running trains on Sunday while he was president but also was a strong temperance man. An order issued by him in May 1870 was posted in all crew quarters of the South Side RR: "The use of intoxicating liquors, profane or obscene language, or smoking by the employees of the South Side RR of L.I., while on duty, is strictly forbidden." In January 1873 Fox sold out all his interests in the SSRR and devoted himself to building apartment houses in New York. He died on September 20, 1879 as a result of the internal injuries he received in the station platform accident of 1867. He was sixty-three at the time of his death.

Willet Charlick of Freeport, one of the most active promoters of the road, lived just long enough to see it completed. On July 16, 1869 he suffered a heart attack in New York and died. His brother, Oliver Charlick, forgave him sufficiently to personally escort the remains from New York to Hempstead in the Director's Car.

The Willow Tree Disaster of April 23, 1869 on the Long Island RR killed two other men associated with the South Side RR, Thomas C. Shanahan, the contractor who built the road, and William C. Rushmore, the treasurer. The latter's death was particularly embarrassing because many shortages turned up in his accounts after his death.

The superintendents of the road seem to have all been capable men. The first man was Robert White, ex-superintendent of the Long Island RR and himself a railroad contractor. He resided at Merrick with President Fox and appears to have been genuinely popular on the road. We read that at Christmas of 1868 the employees gave him a tree loaded with presents and White responded with a supper party thereafter. In October 1869 White left his post and acted as contractor for the New York & Hempstead road between Valley Stream and Hempstead. Charles W. Douglass of 56 Driggs Aye., Brooklyn, an engineer and a man of large experience, was the next superintendent. After three years' service Douglass was replaced in September 1872 by Walter Homan, the former trackmaster of the road.

Curiously, only one humble conductor on the South Side is ever mentioned in the press, one Robert Cochran, but he turns up often and always with favorable comment. He joined the road in 1867 and was cited often for his sunny disposition and genial manner. Later he retired and opened a bar at the Broadway Ferry. Considering the rarity of genial conductors in any age, it seems justifiable to honor this man's memory in these pages.

One final interesting detail remains to be chronicled—mention of some of the strange and curious extensions proposed but never built. In the summer of 1868 the residents of East New York and Woodhaven, dissatisfied with railroad accommodations then available, asked the South Side RR to build a branch along Cypress Avenue, Cypress Hills Street, Euclid Avenue, and Rockaway Boulevard to a point in Woodhaven. It would be interesting to know what President Fox thought of this fantastic proposal. A variation on this was proposed in March 1869 with the suggestion that the railroad build to the Ridgewood pumping station at Sunrise Highway and Atlantic Avenue and then straight south to Spring Creek. The coal delivered to the pumping station was supposed to support the line. The final proposal was one made by the residents of Queens Village who were dissatisfied with the LIRR. They sent committees to President Fox and engaged surveyors to map out a branch roughly paralleling Springfield Boulevard, but we hear nothing of it after 1871.

1. No freight trains as yet operated.
2. January-November only.