Greetings All,
Today we're going to take a look at the origins of Penn Central Train LI-2.
In 1968 the newly formed Penn Central began diverting traffic from its ex PRR Greenville - Bay Ridge car floats to the River Line. In 1969 when the New Haven became part of the Penn Central all New Haven floating ceased and its traffic was routed to the faster, more reliable and less costly River Line.
In 1970 the New Haven route to the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) removed the LIRR traffic from the Greenville car floats. To accommodate this traffic the Penn Central built the "NAVE" (Newark Avenue) connection between the River Line and the ex PRR P&H Branch in Jersey City
With LIRR traffic now going to Selkirk PC Train LI-2 was born and would use the NH connection to the LIRR. The train would go east from Selkirk on the NH Beacon Branch into Connecticut and then come back going southwest into New York at Port Chester before heading south into the Bronx and over the Hell Gate Bridge to Fresh Pond Junction where the train was turned over to the LIRR.
In 1971 the connection at Beacon with the NYC Hudson Line and the New Haven Beacon Branch was upgraded to allow trains to operate between the NH Maybrook Line and the NYC Hudson Line to New York City. The LI-2 is reported to have been rerouted from Selkirk to the Hudson Line sometime after this. The 1974 timetable shows the LI-2 using the Beacon Branch Route.
Operations before the Penn Central Takeover:
Prior to January 1969 the New Haven Railroad had two east west gateways, one at Maybrook Yard and the other at the Bay Ridge Brooklyn Car float.
The NH was part of the eight RR "Alphabet Route" with Maybrook being the Northeast connection of this east west freight service that competed with the PRR-NYC-ERIE and B&O.
The second east west gateway was the Bay Ridge 65th Street Yard where the PRR floated cars to and from Greenville NJ to Bay Ridge Brooklyn.
The New Haven route thru Brooklyn, the Bay Bridge Branch, was owned by the LIRR, a PRR subsidiary until 1965 and the Queens portion of the route and the Hell Gate Bridge into the Bronx was owned by the New York Connecting Railroad, a paper RR jointly owned by the PRR and NH. The entire line was electrified with overhead catenary to power the NH electric freight trains. Unfortunately the overhead catenary on the Bay Ridge Branch came down after the PC takeover.
During the New Haven era the NH interchanged cars with the Long Island RR at Fremont Street Tower in the Glendale neighborhood of Queens NY where the N.Y.C.R. met the L.I.R.R. FN Tower controlled the switches an signals.
A 1950 NH Timetable indicates that the New Haven dispatched westbound train M-7 "The Maine Cannonball" daily except Sat and Sun from Portland, Maine to Bay Ridge NY picking up LIRR cars from around the system and delivering them to the LIRR at Fremont.
A second westward NH train, NG-1 departed Cedar Hill daily for Bay Ridge with cars for the LIRR at Fremont.
The timetable does not show any eastbound connection with the LIRR which I believe was due to the LIRR having it's own car float connections.
N.Y.C.T.L. Model Railroad Operations:
In PCCM 83 the large amount of virtual ops freight traffic for the LIRR coming from Ralph's KPD and Sir Neal's APRR gave me the opportunity to research Penn Central freight schedules and to once again run a fictional version of Penn Central Train LI-2.
Prior fictional versions of the LI-2 had been run in PCCM 63 in August 2019 and before that in PCCM 48 in June 2018 with both pretending to use the traditional Hudson Line routing for Empire City but with neither being a solid block for the LIRR.
The third time's the charm as this time I did the research into the train. While my LI-2 wasn't close to the prototypical operation of either the NH or PC it did add some enjoyable modeling and operational opportunities like reversing the train at Terminal Yard.
Delivering the entire train to the LIRR at North Side Yard was a fun twist to my normal operations here.
It may not make it to the virtual ops but even without catenary I like the look of this E33 combo rolling thru Empire City. 
Here's another look at my PCCM 83 version of the LI-2. It was enjoyable to run and as virtual ops traffic permits I plan to run that version of the LI-2 again with a solid block of freight cars for the LIRR. The only question then will be should I pretend it's coming off the Beacon Branch like in the video or the Hudson Line into Empire City.
Resources:
Penn Central Railroad Color History by Peter E. Lynch
PC Post volume 22, number 1
Additional online reading and photographs:
New York Connecting RR fan trip 2000
New Haven Freight 1950 Freight Schedule
Penn Central 1974 Freight Schedule
Thanks for reading!!!
See ya soon!!!
Your impressive research into NH, LIRR, and PC prototype operations makes running the HO scale LI-2 on the N.Y.C.T.L. all the more interesting and enjoyable to railfan! Your New Haven roster shines in the photos and I really like the E-33 despite the absence of catenary! Very nicely done! Your efforts expand your layout well "beyond the basement", impressing those of us who are already admiring followers of the action at Empire City, Terminal Yard, and North Side Yard! Thanks for all of the interesting links too!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ralph!! Glad you enjoyed it!! I'm looking forward to running the LI-2 in a future virtual ops as traffic patterns allow.
DeleteI must say, I was very impressed with this post. You clearly defined how your railroad has evolved not only for your personal running of trains, but as an extension of our virtual op sessions. The research you put into this clearly shows your passion and enjoyment for the PC, NH and LIRR, as well as the NYC!
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy seeing the NH equipment, especially the diesels in consist. The LIRR RS units in the picture running light was nice to see. Too bad those connections for the most part are gone, with the exception of the P&W running to Fresh Pond these days...
Thank you very much 1:1 Sir Neal!!!
DeleteI remember seeing the P&W trains coming over Hell Gate Bridge in the mid to late 1990s. Usually late at night. I also remember seeing Amtrak trains on the line from time to time. this was before the Acela trains and the electrification to Boston.
I lived along the Bay Ridge Branch from 1953-1971, and remember the era you are modeling vividly. My recollection is that local service along the branch was provided exclusively by LIRR locals, generally using LIRR switchers, and that NH trains were strictly through trains from Fremont/Fresh Pond to the car floats, and that the branch itself was always owned by LIRR and not Penn Central. Is that correct?
ReplyDeleteGreetings Fellow Brooklynite. Thank you for reading and commenting. You are correct. The Bay Ridge Branch is owned by the LIRR and the New Haven was a tenant.
DeleteI am envious that you were able to witness some of the action on the line. When I was old enough in 1969 to walk the four blocks to it off Glenwood Road and E46 Street the car float operations had just stopped and I don't recall ever seeing an actual train run on the line.