NEWS AND VIEWS OF THE
NEW YORK
AND ATLANTIC RAILWAY
New York & Atlantic Railway's RS-301 eastbound at B Tower-Bethpage.
photo by Joe Tischner -9/24/04
-photo
by K. Katta 11/99
Pride of the Fleet-Two NYA GP-38-2's #268 & #270
at rest over the weekend in Fresh Pond yard. The tower in the background
is NYA's yard office.
Almost ten years ago, the Long Island Railroad leased and transferred
their freight operations to Anacostia & Pacific, a railroad holding
company headquartered in Chicago. It currently owns and operates
many small regional railroads around the U.S. including the New
York and Atlantic Railway (NYA) which is headquartered in Glendale,
Queens (N.Y. City). This new shortline has taken over the operations
of the Long Island Railroad's Freight Department on May 11, 1997. The
NYA mostly operates loads onto Long Island, and a combination of empties
and waste products are hauled off the Island. In the last several years,
business has increased quite a bit especially in N.Y. City; in Queens and Brooklyn.
One of their newest customers receive the only known rail delivery
of bagged rice and onions to the largest rice distributor to the
Chinese food service market in N.Y. City. They also ship carloads
of newly manufactured goods off of Long Island-- something which
hasn't been done for many years - structural beams constructed of
a combination of plastics and wood. Back in 2001, CSX provided NYA
with coal hopper cars which are used not for coal, but to haul non-metallic
automobile (pulverized) scrap off the Island.
Traffic has increased on the New York & Atlantic CSX, CP Rail, the
P&W and the NYCH. The number of carloads handled are topping 1100
per month lately and NYA has increased car loadings from under 10,000,
to over 13,000 per year. The NY&A has negotiated with CSX, NS, P&W,
NYCH and CP Rail, who they interchange with to insure growth and
continued customer satisfaction in N.Y. City and Long Island into
the new millenium.
The NYA operates out of the yard at Fresh Pond. It runs to Long
Island City, with a branch into Bushwick and south through Brooklyn
to Bay Ridge. They run thru Queens and then on to Port Jefferson,
Montauk, and Greenport. It has a total of 269 route miles of track.
The New York & Atlantic Railway roster consists of all ex-LIRR diesels:
4 GP38-2's- 261, 268, 270, and 271; 4 MP15-AC's- 151, 155, 156,
and 159, and 3 SW-1001's- 101, 105, 106. These are all leased from
the Long Island RR. Recently added from the Louisville and Indiana
are two SW1500's and a GP-10 #201. Rolling stock owned are 2 ex-LIRR
cabooses, a coach #2940 and 10 gondolas. The coach was painted NYA
green with a white roof and probably will be renumbered to #1000.
It will be used as a business car for employees and customerand
possibly for excursions in the near future. The NYA also leases
a string of 30 black painted gondolas lettered for NYA, numbered
1001-1030. Most of the locomotives operated by the NYA have been
repainted into the new green color. The repaints on the NY&A include
GP38-2 #261 and MP-15AC's #151 and #159 into their green livery.
However, #151 has been painted a bright "mint green" color with
a batch of paint from a different supplier. The three GP38-2's looked
fantastic together on Nov 11, '99 when #261 was rolled out from
the shop and then coupled with the other two. Following the tragic
events of Sept. 11, 2001, GP38-2 #271 was painted with a special,
magnificent mural, custom painted on the long hood which depicted
the U.S. flag, the Stutue of Liberty and an angry eagle soaring
over her up-held arm- a graphic memorial of the World Trade Center
attack on 9-11. This mural however, was removed a few years later
and the engine recently received a total repaint in the new scheme
in 2006.
The railroad uses Bay Ridge Yard (65th St. -Brooklyn)
in an agreement with N.Y. City. This enables the NY&A to transload
several commodities from railcars to local trucking. The railroad
is looking into direct carfloat operation from CSX in the near future
from either N.J. or Staten Island via a private operator. This will
help relieve some of the in- and outbound highway traffic congestion
around the city. The railroad is awaiting a decision from the N.
Y. City EDC regarding the expanded operation of the yard and it's
newly rebuilt floatbridge. On November 11, 1999 the NY&A hauled
a train 63 cars long down to Bay Ridge-the longest train hauled
over the branch since the 1940's or 50's (while it was still electrified
under catenary wire).
Here is a aerial view of NYA's Fresh Pond Yard pulled from the
web 12/03.
Note Bridge 35 on the upper left side.
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On October 21 and 22, 2003, after midnight, I chased two trains
on the Bushwick Branch from the Montauk Br. to the end of the line
in Bushwick, Brooklyn. About 30 empties were brought in for Waste
Management to load up with construction and demolition debris which
is hauled out daily. Double-headed engines pulled the consist. It
is great watching the train as it crosses several bridges and grade
crossings at Flushing Av., 54th, 55th Sts and Metropolitan Av.
Click here for a map of the area:
Map of Flushing Av. -Maspeth vicinity
Yard A- Sunnyside:
NYA relocated their main shop building now that the LIRR has started
the East Side Connection Project. A new shop building has been built
in the center of the wye in Fresh Pond Yard in Glendale, Queens.
Click here for the official corporate Website for the New York &
Atlantic Railway.
NY&A Railway Website
THE N.Y. CONNECTING RAILROAD
SOCIETY
NYCRR Soc. Website
The many details and history of the NY Connecting Railroad line
were described in depth by Bill Thom, who has co-authored a book
on the NY Connecting Railroad available from the Long Island Sunrise
Trail Chapter of the Nat'l. Railway Hist. Soc.
Check back on this site in May, 2007 for information about the
next meet.
-photo by K. Katta
A busy Friday morning (8/11/00) in Fresh Pond yard.....upstairs--incoming
CSX loads from Oak Point; downstairs--P&W locos getting ready to
head back north to Connecticut and NYA locos heading up the morning
jobs. You can also see the cab of one of 2 CP units idling on the
right. These will head north around 5 p.m. with a few empties bound
for upstate NY.
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-photo by K. Katta
Here is Sperry Rail Service Car #149 in Fresh Pond yard in October,
2000 before it traveled and tested the rails of the LIRR during
its annual exam. Sperry is now using converted trucks to do track
testing, so these railcars will be seen less frequently on the Island.
___________________________________________________
photo-
Kevin Katta
Here's a wintry shot taken at the Varik St. crossing on the Bushwick
Branch in Feb. 2002
________________________________________________________
photo
by K. Katta-Apr. 10, 2000
HIGH LOAD ON THE BAY RIDGE BRANCH:
A large transformer was moved by NYA on a depressed-center flatcar
in the evening of 4/6/00 from 65th St. in Brooklyn up the Bay Ridge
Branch to Fresh Pond Yard. It was waiting on a siding until the
LIRR came over to inspect it and determine if it would fit under
the low bridges further east. It belonged to LIPA and was to be
delivered to Hicksville, Long Island . The high load was mounted
to a red 53 foot long depressed-center flatcar lettered LNAL 2597
The transformer barely made it through the East NY tunnel clearing
it by about 1/2 inch. A single engine pushed the flatcar through
the tunnel and up to Pond arriving there around 8:30 p.m. A few
days later, it was hauled out east to LIPA's Hicksville facility.
___________________________________________
-photo
by K. Katta Jan. 2000
NEW R-142 SUBWAY CARS FOR THE NYCMTA:
From 1999 till 2003, the NYC MTA contracted with the NYA to accept
delivery of and interchange 600 new R-142 subway cars from Bombardier.The
first shipment of the new subway cars was flat-car loaded and delivered
to the New York & Atlantic's Fresh Pond Yard (Queens-NY) in Dec.
1999 via interchange with CSX from Oak Point in the Bronx. The NY&A
had constructed an offloading ramp in the yard at Fresh Pond, Queens,
and a Bombardier crew conducted final assembly of the cars there.
Each car was then married into 5-car sets. NY&A then interchanged
the new subway cars via the Bay Ridge Branch to the MTA at the Linden
(Blvd.) Shops interchange. The first subway car arrived on Fri.
Nov 12, 1999 and was moved down to the MTA shop in a sort of trial
run. The first five-car set was delivered in December, 1999. Many
sets were delivered during the five year long contract and the unloading
ramp has since been removed.
_____________________________________
photo
by K. Katta-Mar. 2000
CANADIAN PACIFIC IS ROLLING INTO FRESH POND YARD MONDAY THRU
FRIDAY:
Since March 6, 2000, Canadian Pacific began hauling in its own train
from Canada as they began direct Selkirk to Fresh Pond service.
The CP(D&H) train makes its middle of the night run from Selkirk
Yard to Oak Point Yard usually 2-3 times a week. The train then
continues over the Hell Gate Bridge route to Fresh Pond, where it
usually arrives around 4 a.m.. The crew is back on duty at 7 p.m.
The CP power (usually two SD40-2's) will lay over at Fresh Pond
all day behind the NYA office, under Bridge 35 --out of sight from
the street unfortunately. It's possible to catch both CP and P&W
power in Fresh Pond yard at the same time now that P&W has resumed
Tilcon unit train stone shipments from Connecticut, direct to Fresh
Pond. Just watch for CP's strikingly red painted SD40-2's (after
5:30 p.m. usually daily) and Providence and Worcester's brown and
red engines (these usually leave after the morning rush hour on
Mondays and Fridays) as they head north out of Fresh Pond Yard.
They will pass over the Queens Blvd viaduct and the Hell Gate Bridge
on their way to Oak Point Yard in the Bronx and then up to points
north and east . Friday morning 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. is absolutely
best time to catch action on the Fremont Branch leading up to the
Hell Gate Bridge. You are likely to see CSX, CP, and in warmer seasons,
P&W rumbling across the bridges. The P&W suspends operation of the
Tilcon unit stone train during the winter months.
photo
by B. Ente-Apr. 24, 2000
Use this link: NY&A
Railway to view the official corporate Website for the New York
& Atlantic Railway.
LONG ISLAND RAILROAD:
In early 2000, the last of the GP-38-2's were removed from the LIRR
roster. These were shipped out to EMD in Illinois. Only four of
the GP38-2's remain on the Island running on the New York & Atlantic
Railway's roster. The remaining MP15-AC's on the LIRR have been
relegated to work train service and stored in Morris Park in Jamaica.
_________________________________________
LIRR Protect engines on the main at Woodside, Queens-photo
by Joe Tishner 9/04
_____________________________________________________________________
NYA Engine 151 with a mixed freight at Jamaica-
photo by Joe Tishner.
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AIRTRAIN CONSTRUCTION:
Work on the superstructure for the right of way for Airtrain which
runs along the Van Wyck Expy. in Queens, is complete and the line
is in operation. Work is completed on the connecting platforms at
LIRR's flagship Jamaica station. .
Want to see the official Airtrain Website? Click here: PANY&NJ
AIRTRAIN Website
___________________________________________
Railfanning around N.Y. City and Long Island continues to remain
exciting with all of the increased activity and new equipment on
the rails around the city. There are many things going on and changes
are always occurring. We will continue to bring you more news and
updates as we get them.
Anyone who has photos or news about the Long Island R.R. the N.Y.
and Atlantic Railway, AMTRAK, NS or CSX that you would like to contribute,
please e-mail us at:
westislandclub@yahoo.com
Click here for more photos of local RR action:
Railroad Photo Gallery
