The Central Branch is a
rail line
Rail terminology is a form of technical terminology. The difference between the American term ''railroad'' and the international term ''railway'' (used by the International Union of Railways and English-speaking countries outside the United Sta ...
owned and operated by the
Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) in the
U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
of
New York, extending from just east of
Bethpage station
Bethpage is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Stewart Avenue and Jackson Avenue, in Bethpage, New York, and serves Ronkonkoma Branch trains. Trains that travel along the Central Branch also use the ...
to just west of
Babylon station
Babylon is a station on the Long Island Rail Road in the village of Babylon, New York at Railroad Avenue west of Deer Park Avenue ( Suffolk CR 34). It is on the Montauk Branch, and is the eastern terminus of the Babylon Branch service. To the w ...
. It was built in 1873 as part of the
Babylon Extension of the
Central Railroad of Long Island (CRRLI), which was owned by
Alexander Turney Stewart. The branch was mostly unused following the 1876 merger of the CRRLI and the LIRR, but in 1925 it was rebuilt and reconfigured to connect Bethpage and Babylon stations.
Description
The Central Branch connects the
Main Line (
Ronkonkoma Branch service) at Beth Interlocking southeast of the
Bethpage station
Bethpage is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Stewart Avenue and Jackson Avenue, in Bethpage, New York, and serves Ronkonkoma Branch trains. Trains that travel along the Central Branch also use the ...
with the
Montauk Branch
The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City on the west to Montauk on the east. Howe ...
(
Babylon Branch
The Babylon Branch is a rail service operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The term refers to the trains serving Montauk Branch stations from Valley Stream east to Babylon; in other words, the Babylon Branch is a ...
service) at Belmont Junction west of the
Babylon station
Babylon is a station on the Long Island Rail Road in the village of Babylon, New York at Railroad Avenue west of Deer Park Avenue ( Suffolk CR 34). It is on the Montauk Branch, and is the eastern terminus of the Babylon Branch service. To the w ...
. This allows non-electric Montauk Branch trains that begin or end east of Babylon to use the Main Line from Bethpage to
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
.
The branch is colored as part of the
Ronkonkoma Branch on some LIRR maps, but these trains appear on Babylon and Montauk Branch timetables. There were two stations along this stretch: Farmingdale (later renamed
South Farmingdale) and Breslau. The South Farmingdale station had a sheltered platform and was the last station in service along this branch, discontinued on June 26, 1972. Today, there are several freight customers located along the branch, which is served several times weekly by the
New York & Atlantic Railway.
It was along this stretch of the Central Branch that
Mile-a-Minute Murphy
Charles Minthorn Murphy (October 1870 – February 16, 1950), also known as Mile-a-Minute Murphy, was an American cycling athlete. He was the first man ever to ride a bicycle for one mile in less than a minute. He performed this feat in 1899 ...
set a record in 1899, pedalling a bicycle for one mile behind a train in less than one minute.
As part of the 2020–2024 MTA Capital Program, the Central Branch is proposed to be electrified with
third rail
A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway ...
. This will alleviate service disruptions by allowing electric trains to travel between the Ronkonkoma and Babylon Branches, which are both electrified.
If implemented, this project would mark the first LIRR electrification project since the Ronkonkoma Branch in 1985–1987.
The Central Railroad of Long Island
The current Central Branch right of way dates back to 1873 when Alexander Stewart chartered and built the Central Railroad of Long Island. A line of tracks was built by the CRRLI from
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushin ...
to Bethpage Junction, and later extended to the Babylon shoreline via the aforementioned Babylon Extension. At
Garden City a spur line was also built to service residents of
Hempstead. At the time, Stewart was building Garden City, one of the first
planned suburban communities in the United States. The railroad had a dual purpose in that it was to service Stewart's Bethpage Brickworks (within the hamlet now called
Old Bethpage
Old Bethpage is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) located on Long Island in the Town of Oyster Bay, Nassau County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 5,283 at the 2020 United States Census. It is served by the Old ...
), which was supplying the building materials to the Garden City construction site. The railroad also supplied the new residents of Garden City with both commuter service to
Long Island City, where they could then connect to ferries into Manhattan. Service along the Babylon extension also was popular for excursions to the Babylon shoreline and to ferries to
Fire Island
Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York.
Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Lo ...
.
In 1876 the CRRLI was acquired by the LIRR and Stewart's line became known as the LIRR's Central Branch. The portion from
Flushing
Flushing may refer to:
Places
* Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom
* Flushing, Queens, New York City
** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens
** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens
** Flushin ...
to the Creedmoor Rifle Range, which became
Creedmoor State Hospital) was abandoned in 1879, although the tracks were not removed until World War I. The portion from Creedmoor to
Floral Park
Floral Park is an Administrative divisions of New York State#Village, incorporated village in Nassau County, New York, Nassau County, New York (state), New York, United States, on Long Island. The population as of the US Census of 2010 is 15,863. ...
survived as freight service and was known as the
Creedmoor Branch
The Creedmoor Branch was the name of a short branch that the Long Island Rail Road gave to the right of way of tracks between its Floral Park station and Creedmoor State Hospital in Queens, New York. The branch existed from 1879 to 1966 finall ...
until service ended in the late 1960s and the tracks removed from the LIRR map in the early 1970s. The LIRR used the Central's right of way between Floral Park and Garden City along with the Central's spur line to Hempstead to make up what is the railroad's current day
Hempstead Branch
The Hempstead Branch is an electrified rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch begins at the Main Line at Queens Interlocking, just east of Queens Village station. It pa ...
. Past the Garden City station the Central Branch continued on a straight path through central Nassau County past the
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum (or simply the Nassau Coliseum) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Uniondale, New York, east of New York City. The Long Island venue is approximately east of the eastern limits of the New York City Borough of ...
and Eisenhower Park until Bethpage Junction and then southeast to Babylon via the Babylon Extension.
In 1925 the Stewart's Central branch was severed from its connection to the Babylon extension with the reconfiguration of
Bethpage Junction Bethpage may refer to:
*Bethphage, a place in ancient Israel, mentioned as the place from which Jesus sent the disciples to find a donkey and a colt, which he would ride into Jerusalem
*Bethpage, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* Bethpage, Ne ...
. The portion of the line from Garden City to just west of the disconnection at Bethpage Junction were called the Central Extension. The Babylon Extension was fully rebuilt, also in 1925, with the main purpose of providing a connection between the two main trunk lines of the LIRR, the Main Line and Montauk Branch, and thus became known as the aforementioned Central Branch. In 1939 the Central Extension between Garden City and the end of line in Bethpage was abandoned for regular passenger service. During World War II the eastern portion of the rail was removed and sold for scrap. After World War II a portion of the track was rebuilt to move materials for the construction of
Levittown
Levittown is the name of several large suburban housing developments created in the United States (including one in Puerto Rico) by William J. Levitt and his company Levitt & Sons. Built after World War II for returning white veterans and their ...
, however, it never again reached Bethpage Junction (thus, nor Babylon), and those tracks too were soon removed.
References
External links
*
*
Central Branch of the Long Island Rail Road(The Stewart Line)(Arrt's Arrchives)
1903 map showing Central Branch then named "Hempstead Branch".
{{Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road branches
Transportation in Nassau County, New York
Transportation in Suffolk County, New York