The Port Washington Branch of the Long Island Railroad, your webmaster's home railroad line, is a line capable of the finest the LIRR can offer and its very worst, with brand spanking new and restored station houses with all the amenities, and the highest railroad bridge on the Island...as well as decrepit, crumbling stations that the NYC Comptroller's Office have described as downright dangerous.

Bayside, a flagship station of the Port Washington Branch

Spencer Tracy as Mr. Hyde, 1941

MR. HYDE MOMENT

WOODSIDE

Take the Woodside station--please. Between 1995 and 1998 its operations were severely disrupted for a complete renovation that promised greater comfort for commuters in this major hub that unites the Port Washington Branch with the LIRR's other branches, as well as the IRT Flushing line. Instead, commuters got...pigeon poop. The renovations left exposed beams and pipes in the ceiling...prime roosting areas for pigeons, who proceeded to crap right above the brand-new wooden benches. Now that's what we call a renovation!

SOLUTION: Simple...lower the roof and cover the pipes.

The Port Washington branch crosses Queens Boulevard twice...once in tandem with the LIRR Main Line, which it diverges from at 48th Avenue and 70th Street, and then again just east of the mostly-unused Conrail line, which these days sees freight service about once a week, but at least crosses Queens Boulevard in style, with a beautiful arched bridge, which can be seen in the background of the picture at right.

Several masonry bridges, such as these, were built when the Port Washington Branch's grade crossings were eliminated between 1912 and 1915.

In the 1850s, the Flushing and North Side Railroad had gained a small station at Winfield, a now-forgotten neighborhood concentrated between Queens Boulevard and Maurice Avenue in what is now 58th-69th Street. After the relocation of the tracks in 1915, Winfield Station was relocated to about 48th Avenue and 69th Street--just east of where the Port Washington joins the Main Line-- and survived till about 1929. No trace of Winfield remains today.

The Port Washington Branch crosses Broadway between Whitney and Cornish Avenues.

The flange-shaped items along the trestle formerly held the Elmhurst station platform.

Passenger crossunders are rare in the Long Island Railroad except where they are associated with stations. The presence of one here, linking Whitney and 43rd Avenues and 88th Street on the southern side of the tracks, may be yet more evidence of the old Elmhurst Station.

A second abandoned station along the Port Washington Branch was Elmhurst, just east of Broadway. LIRR historian Bob Andersen claims that Elmhurst closed as recently as 1985, but Ron Ziel claims its distinctive station house was torn down as early as 1927.

Several clues point to Elmhurst's former presence, though. Concrete abutments that formerly held platforms can still be seen along Whitney Avenue east of Broadway.

1909 view of the Elmhurst station, where Broadway crossed at grade. The LIRR would be elevated here at about 1913. Photo courtesy Andrew Beirne

Goods were loaded off freight trains onto the loading dock (seen above). These days the dock is used for vehicle parking. The old side track can be seen in this view from 94th Street (right) underneath the customary mound of garbage deposited by area residents from the pedestrian overpass.

1920s view of the Durkee spice factory, with its LIRR siding at right. Picture courtesy Andrew Beirne.

View from 94th Street

 2007: The Durkee factory has been gutted and will be converted to condo apartments.

Old Elmhurst, in December 2007, posted several post card shots of the Durkeee building when first opened.

The Port Washington Branch also had a station at Corona, where National Street (named for a horse...that's right, a horse; National Race Course, named for a champion race horse, was here from 1856 to 1866) runs past the line. The original Corona station dated to 1853; its last station house was torn down in 1930 although the station itself did not meet its demise until 1963. The present day station closest to Corona is the United Nations/World's Fair/Shea Stadium station, which is open only during events held at Shea.

It's likely that the steps up to the platforms were in the indents along the station wall. The overpass dates to 1930, as the stamped date shows. The elevated station stood between 1930 and 1963.

In September 1999, before their retirement, the last of the LIRR MP50 push-pull units paid a visit to the Port Washington Branch, where they had rarely been seen. Here they are at the Shea Stadium station. A flock of R33 'redbirds' await call to service in the background in the Corona Yards. Both the MPs and Redbirds have now been retired.

More on the LIRR "Day of the Diesel"

The last vestige of the old LIRR Whitestone Branch can be seen from the Shea Stadium platform. The line was built by Conrad Poppenhusen in 1869 and ran to the East River at about where 10th Avenue and 154th Street are presently. The line was shut down during the Depression in 1932.

The station is accessible from the overpass over the Corona Yards.

The small Flushing Main Street station house. Photo: Bob Andersen

MR. HYDE MOMENT

We have arrived at another Mr. Hyde moment on the Port Washington Branch. The Flushing-Main Street station is on a rather high overpass with only one exit each on the east and westbound sides, at the eastern edge of the platform. To exit the station, you have to go down a staircase and brave the extremely dense foot traffic on Main Street; the sidewalk is also obstructed by the concrete stanchion holding up the overpass. SOLUTION: Build a pedestrian crossover (like the one that exists at Little Neck) and connect it to 40th Road, on the north, to enable pedestrians to miss the heavy Main St. traffic if they choose.

The Port Washington crosses Main Street on this overpass built in 1913. Believe it or not, the line used to run at grade and even went through a tunnel under a girls' school just east of this photograph. The tunnel and the school were torn down to build the overpass and the open cut the line now runs through.

photo from Victorian Stations of Long Island by Ron Ziel

This was the Murray Hill station in the 1950s. When the PW Branch was depressed into an open cut here in 1913, it was given this wide triple-roofed structure on the overpass at 149th Street. It came down in 1964; since then, there has been no station house at Murray Hill.

RIGHT: Though the line was placed in the open cut in 1913, the station also underwent more recent renovations in 1991-1992. Unfortunately, as we'll see, those renovations were several years late and several dollars short.

Till 2005, Murray Hill was ridiculously horrible, with cracked pavement and rusty, exposed pipes:

Flushing? You betcha. A little east of Murray Hill, this is Depot Road (as opposed to de rich roads the PW Branch runs along further east). A little imagination, and you're back in the 1860s, when the line was first run here through farmland.

The 158th Street underpass is a vital link for traffic north and south of the line. Several years ago, murals were painted on each side. The NO DUMPING sign in the center lends that needed pinch of urban panache.

Moving further east, the Port Washington Broadway station has a lengthy overpass over Northern Boulevard (called "Broadway" when the line first came here in the 1860s) that is definitely cut from the same cloth as the Queens Boulevard overpass (see top of page). Both bridges are quite lengthy since they cross their boulevards at a diagonal.

The line formerly ran here at grade until 1913. Both Northern Boulevard and 162nd Street were subsequently depressed to allow truck traffic to run under the overpasses.

Broadway has a handsome station that was built in 1906, predating the line's placement on an embankment here in 1913. It was completely renovated in 2003.

This waiting room on the eastbound platform may have at one time been a freight station. It does have an unused chimney (unseen in the picture) and may at one time have had a fireplace. But as for the interior...see below.

MR. HYDE MOMENT

The inside of the waiting room should be declared a LIRR disaster area. The benches are cracking, the paint is peeling and the interior woodwork is exposed. The streaks on the wall are from graffiti that LIRR cleaning service renders into paint smears. The LIRR long ago gave up on glass windows...these are plexiglass; vandals would immediately attack any glass here. 2005: The interior has been repainted and restored but is now completely closed, with a crude, padlocked wood door. If they repaired it and won't open it, why bother?

The Port Washington rumbles over Northern Boulevard. Several miles to the east, the Oyster Bay Branch crosses Northern Boulevard in Roslyn. The LIRR crosses the boulevard four times.

MR. HYDE MOMENT

Another Mr. Hyde moment? The Broadway station has quite a few. The platforms are crumbling even worse than at Murray Hill, and this tin shelter at the western end of the Manhattan-bound platform is always dripping with fresh graffiti. 2005: this part of the platform has been demolished, but the empty space remains with no sign of any reconstruction under way anytime soon.

Broadway's concrete railings are on their last legs, apparently.

Here's a decades-old enamel sign at Broadway. The LIRR hasn't replaced it because it's pretty much out of sight, under the westbound-side staircase.

SOLUTION: It's nice that the LIRR is spiffing up the station house, but the real problems lie on the platforms, railings and shelters. Replace the platforms and railings, and tear down the old shelters on each side of the tracks. All they do is attract graffitists. Install plexiglass shelters to replace them; two are already in place on the eastern end of the platform.

2004: the station house has been rebuilt, but the MTA's solution to the crumbling platforms has been simply to close the sections that are crumbling instead of fixing them. The eastbound waiting room has been repaired, but a crude wooden door prohibits any access at all.