West Hempstead Branch

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. The right-of-way of the West Hempstead Branch is wide enough for two tracks for its whole length. There are three grade-crossings on the line, reducing the maximum speed to , and because of curves at the Lakeview and Malverne stations, the speed is lowered to on that stretch.

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. Currently, the three exceptions are the three weekday eastbound (two AM, one peak PM) trains originating from Atlantic Terminal that use Valley Stream as a through station.LIRR West Hempstead Branch timetable
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The branch had one manual block from "HC" to "VA" until "WM" block limit was installed in 1935.

Modernization

As the smallest LIRR commuter branch, 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. The branch has the lowest ridership of any on the Long Island Rail Road. Subsequently, the branch is one of the LIRR lines most vulnerable to closure, and has been threatened with abandonment in recent years. From 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).

History

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. On January 26, 1892, the New York Bay Extension Railroad Company was incorporated as a subsidiary of the Long Island Rail Road to build a line running from Garden City to a point in the town of New Lots in Kings County near the intersection with the New York, Brooklyn & Manhattan Beach Railway Company. The line was built between Country Life Press to Valley Stream and opened in 1893. The LIRR leased its property in 1897, and formally merged with the New York Bay Extension Railroad on August 29, 1902. 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. 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 both the Main Line and 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.

On October 19, 1926, the portion of the line between Valley Stream and Franklin Avenue in Garden City was electrified at the cost of $1 million and it was inaugurated with a special train. 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 on September 15, 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.

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. The rights-of-way remain intact.

Stations

West of , most trips go on to terminate at or . As of 2021, a single weekday AM peak inbound train continues all the way to . Some shuttle trains only operate as far west as . Stations beyond were on a former connection to the Oyster Bay Branch that was abandoned in 1966.

References

External links

*
West Hempstead Branch Stations (Unofficial LIRR History web site)

{{Long Island Rail Road

Long Island Rail Road branches
Transportation in Nassau County, New York
Railway lines opened in 1893