Oyster Bay | |||||||||||||
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General information | |||||||||||||
Location | Shore & Maxwell Avenues Oyster Bay, NY | ||||||||||||
Owned by | Long Island Rail Road Town of Oyster Bay | ||||||||||||
Line(s) | Oyster Bay Branch | ||||||||||||
Distance | 32.9 mi (52.9 km) from Long Island City [1] | ||||||||||||
Platforms | 1 side platform | ||||||||||||
Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||||
Connections | Oyster Bay Taxi | ||||||||||||
Construction | |||||||||||||
Parking | Yes; Free | ||||||||||||
Accessible | Yes | ||||||||||||
Other information | |||||||||||||
Fare zone | 7 | ||||||||||||
History | |||||||||||||
Opened | June 24, 1889 [2] | ||||||||||||
Rebuilt | 1902 | ||||||||||||
Passengers | |||||||||||||
2006 | 225 [3] | ||||||||||||
Services | |||||||||||||
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Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Station | |||||||||||||
Location | Railroad Avenue, Oyster Bay, New York, USA | ||||||||||||
Coordinates | 40°52′29.97″N73°31′53.77″W / 40.8749917°N 73.5316028°W | ||||||||||||
Architectural style | Tudor Revival | ||||||||||||
NRHP reference No. | 05000666 | ||||||||||||
Added to NRHP | July 6, 2005 [4] |
Oyster Bay is the terminus on the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. The station is located off Shore Avenue between Maxwell and Larabee Avenues. It is a sheltered concrete elevated platform that stands in the shadows of the original station, which was accessible from the ends of Maxwell, Audrey, and Hamilton Avenues. Both stations exist along the south side of Roosevelt Park.
The original Oyster Bay station opened on June 24, 1889 and remodeled in 1902. At one point there were plans to extend the line east towards the Port Jefferson Branch. There was also a large pier built to facilitate the loading of passenger cars onto a short-lived ferry to Wilson's Point in South Norwalk, Connecticut that is now owned by the Flowers Oyster Company. The former Oyster Bay Station and the Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Turntable were both listed separately on the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 2005. [5] Efforts are under way to transform the former station into a railroad museum. [6]
No bus access is available for the station, however local taxicabs do stop.
This station has one high-level side platform, four cars long, located adjacent to the south track. The north track, not adjacent to the platform, is a passing siding, which rejoins the south track and leads to a seven-track yard just beyond the station. The old station building lies just east of the new station. The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park is just to the north of the siding track.
Track 1 | ← Oyster Bay Branch toward Long Island City or Penn Station (Locust Valley) |
Side platform, doors will open on the left or right |
On June 24, 1889, the Oyster Bay Extension Railroad, a subsidiary of the Long Island Railroad, extended the terminus of its rail line from Locust Valley to Oyster Bay and constructed this beautiful Victorian train station on land donated by Col. Robert Townsend. [2] [7] Service began with eight round trips operating from Long Island City. [7] The original station had a large wooden platform and an elegant porte cochere, a covered porch large enough for horse-drawn carriages to pass through.
In 1891, the Long Island Rail Road connected the land to the sea via a 1,000-foot-long (300 m) wharf that enabled rail cars full of passengers to be loaded onto a ferry. This ferry, called the Cape Charles would take passengers to Connecticut where the railways would be connected to the Housatonic Railroad and continue on to Boston. This unique service from New York to Boston ceased operations when a land route across Connecticut was built.
On September 9, 1891, Locomotive No. 113 exploded while idling in the station awaiting passengers. People as far away as East Norwich felt the force of the blast; three crewmen were killed. [8]
When Theodore Roosevelt became President of the New York City Police Board in 1895, he commuted regularly through this station, and when he became President of the United States in 1901, a huge expansion of the station was planned to accommodate the expected rise in visitors to the hamlet. Those 1902 renovations included the removal of the porte cochere and the addition of 400-foot-long (120 m) weather sheds. Inside the station, a large fireplace and tiled hearth were added, and on the exterior a special stucco was used that contained real oyster shells.
The architect for the 1902 renovations was Bradford Lee Gilbert, who also designed the 1898 renovations to Grand Central Station.
At the end of the 20th century, the station fell into a state of disrepair. To accommodate double-decker trains, a new station and platform were built nearby.
The Oyster Bay Railroad Museum, a NYS Historical/educational Not for Profit Museum is working on the Museum under the Town of Oyster Bay. The original LIRR Oyster Bay railroad station is now owned by the Town of Oyster Bay, rather than the LIRR and currently is not accessible to the public while undergoing various engineering and architectural studies and reviews in order to start the restoration into a museum.
The Oyster Bay Railroad Museum Preview Center is now open at 102 Audrey Ave. a few hundred feet from the station building near Oyster Bay Town Hall. (516-558-7036)
The Oyster Bay Railroad Museum has begun work to transform the station into the new home of the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum. [9]
Oyster Bay Long Island Rail Road Turntable | |
Location | 40°52′29.8″N73°31′42.9″W / 40.874944°N 73.528583°W Railroad Avenue, Oyster Bay, New York, USA |
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Built | 1902 |
NRHP reference No. | 05000667 |
Added to NRHP | July 6, 2005 [4] |
Oyster Bay is the location of one of few remaining Long Island Rail Road stations with an original turntable on site. The turntable was built in 1902 to replace a smaller one that had been relocated from the Locust Valley station. [10] The turntable, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places separately from the station, is a Town of Oyster Bay Landmark, and a featured site on the Oyster Bay History Walk audio walking tour.
The Long Island Rail Road, often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. The railroad currently operates a public commuter rail service, with its freight operations contracted to the New York and Atlantic Railway. With an average weekday ridership of 354,800 passengers in 2016, it is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. It is also one of the world's few commuter systems that runs 24/7 year-round. It is publicly owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which refers to it as MTA Long Island Rail Road. In 2022, the system had a ridership of 70,342,700, or about 253,800 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2023.
Oyster Bay is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Oyster Bay on the North Shore of Long Island in Nassau County in the state of New York, United States. The hamlet is also the site of a station on the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road and the eastern termination point of that branch of the railroad.
The Morris Park Facility is a maintenance facility of the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York City. It includes two employee-only side platforms on the Atlantic Branch named Boland's Landing. Two wooden platforms, each two cars long, exist on the two-track line, with a flashlight for workers to signal trains to stop.
The Oyster Bay Branch is a rail line and service owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The branch splits from the Main Line just east of Mineola station, and runs north and east to Oyster Bay. The branch is electrified between East Williston and Mineola. The branch opened in segments between 1865 and 1889.
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.
The Long Island City station is a rail terminal of the Long Island Rail Road in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, New York City. Located within the City Terminal Zone at Borden Avenue and Second Street, it is the westernmost LIRR station in Queens and the end of both the Main Line and Montauk Branch. The station consists of one passenger platform located at ground level and is wheelchair accessible.
The Mineola Intermodal Center is an intermodal center and transportation hub in the village of Mineola, New York. It contains the Mineola Long Island Rail Road station – one of the railroad's busiest stations – in addition to one of the Nassau Inter-County Express bus system's main hubs, located adjacent to the southern train platform.
The Long Island Rail Road is a railroad owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority in the U.S. state of New York. It is the oldest United States railroad still operating under its original name and charter. It consolidated several other companies in the late 19th century. The Pennsylvania Railroad owned the Long Island Rail Road for the majority of the 20th century and sold it to the State in 1966.
Greenport is the terminus of the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially located at Wiggins Street and Fourth Street in the Village of Greenport, New York, although the property spans as far east as 3rd Street and the Shelter Island North Ferry terminal.
Queens Village is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Main Line, located between 218th Street and Springfield Boulevard, in the Queens Village neighborhood of Queens, New York City. It has two side platforms along the four-track line, and is served by Hempstead Branch trains. Just east of the station is Queens Interlocking, a universal interlocking that splits the four-track line into two parallel two-track lines—the Main Line and Hempstead Branch—and controls the junction with the spur to Belmont Park. The station is elevated and the tracks leading in and out are on raised ground and only above the road at intersections.
Riverhead is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Osborne Avenue and Railroad Street in Riverhead, New York, north of NY 25 and the Suffolk County Court House.
Syosset is a station on the Long Island Rail Road's Port Jefferson Branch located in Syosset, New York, at Jackson Avenue and Underhill Boulevard, south of New York State Route 25A, but north of Jericho Turnpike and the Long Island Expressway. Syosset's downtown was built around the station. There are no public transportation connections at the station, but taxi service is available.
Glen Street is a station along the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Glen Street, near Elm Avenue, in the City of Glen Cove, New York.
Sea Cliff is a station along the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Sea Cliff Avenue and Glen Keith Road between Glen Cove Avenue and Cedar Swamp Road in the City of Glen Cove, New York, east of the Town of Oyster Bay hamlet of Sea Cliff, New York. The station was actually named after Sea Cliff Avenue, rather than the hamlet.
Locust Valley is a station along the Oyster Bay Branch of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located at Birch Hill Road and Piping Rock Road, south of Forest Avenue, Locust Valley, New York.
Islip is a station on the Montauk Branch of the Long Island Rail Road, off NY 111 and Nassau Avenue, north of Suffolk CR 50, and south of Moffitt Boulevard in Islip, New York.
Theodore Roosevelt spent his first summer in Oyster Bay with his family in 1874. Through the ensuing years as he rose to power, Oyster Bay would frequently serve as backdrop and stage on which many of his ambitions were realized. Several places connected to Theodore Roosevelt in his lifetime remain, while others have been lost. A number of efforts to memorialize Roosevelt in Oyster Bay have been made since his death in 1919.
The Pennsylvania Railroad G5 is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotives built by the PRR's Juniata Shops in the mid-late 1920s. It was designed for passenger trains, particularly on commuter lines, and became a fixture on suburban railroads until the mid-1950s. The G5 was the largest and most powerful 4-6-0 locomotive, except for a single Southern Pacific 4-6-0 that outweighed it by 5,500 lb.
Morrison, David D. (2018). Long Island Rail Road - Oyster Bay Branch. Images of Rail. Charleston SC: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4671-2854-4
Media related to Oyster Bay (LIRR station) at Wikimedia Commons