New York and Atlantic Railway
Encyclopedia
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
, a public commuter rail agency which had decided to privatize its freight operations. An affiliate of the Anacostia and Pacific Company
Anacostia and Pacific Company
Anacostia and Pacific Company is a transportation development and consulting firm responsible for the operations of several railroads:*Chicago SouthShore and South Bend Railroad*Louisville and Indiana Railroad*New York and Atlantic Railway...
, NY&A operates exclusively on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and is connected to the mainland via the Hell Gate Bridge
Hell Gate Bridge
The Hell Gate Bridge or Hell's Gate Bridge is a steel through arch railroad bridge between Astoria in the borough of Queens and Randall's and Wards Islands in New York City, over a portion of the East River known...
and the New York & Atlantic Railway interchanges with New York New Jersey Rail's car float
Car float
A railroad car float or rail barge is an unpowered barge with rail tracks mounted on its deck. It is used to move railroad cars across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go, and is pushed by a towboat or towed by a tugboat...
at the 65th Street Yard.
Lumber, building products, scrap metal, construction & demolition debris, bio-diesel fuel, food, beer, gravel, propane, chemicals, structural steel, plastics and recyclable cardboard/paper are NYA's main traffic. Occasionally, NYA transports utility poles and electrical transformers to the LIPA
Lipa
LIPA may stand for:*League for Independent Political Action, an American progressive political organization established in 1928*Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a performing arts university in the English city of Liverpool that offers training in acting, dance, music, sound technology, arts...
facility in Hicksville, which has its own spurs. NYA also moves municipal solid waste in sealed containers on COFC trains. NYA serves Belmont Park
Belmont Park
Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in Elmont in the Town of Hempstead in Nassau County, New York, on Long Island adjoining New York City. It first opened on May 4, 1905...
, delivering boxcars, usually BNSF's, full of feed for the race track's horses.
Some NYA customers are located off-line, and make use of NYA's team track
Team track
A team track is a small railroad siding or spur track intended for the use of area merchants, manufacturers, farmers and other small businesses to personally load and unload products and merchandise, usually in smaller quantities. The term "team" refers to the teams of horses or oxen delivering...
s to receive or ship products. Team tracks are located in Bay Ridge, Hicksville, Huntington, Greenlawn, St. James, Islip, Richmond Hill, Maspeth, Speonk, Medford, Yaphank, Southold and elsewhere on the Long Island Rail Road
Long Island Rail Road
The Long Island Rail Road or LIRR is a commuter rail system serving the length of Long Island, New York. It is the busiest commuter railroad in North America, serving about 81.5 million passengers each year. Established in 1834 and having operated continuously since then, it is the oldest US...
lines which NYA serves. Most of NYA's customers have their own spurs, making the use of team tracks unnecessary.
Other occasional products shipped to Long Island via the NYA is bentonite and rock salt. The LIRR
Lirr
Lirr or LIRR may refer to:*Long Island Rail Road, a commuter railroad in Long Island, New York, USA*Lapeer Industrial Railroad, in Lapeer, Michigan*Leeds Inner Ring Road, a motorway and A-road circling Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
and the NYCTA both receive new passenger equipment via the NYA, and ship out old, retired equipment for scrapping by way of the NYA.
The NY&A officially took over Long Island Rail Road's freight operations on May 11, 1997. The initial franchise was for 20 years.
Crewing
The NY&A has substantially different crewing agreements than the Long Island Rail Road, allowing it more flexibility to match the needs of freight customers. NY&A has two crewbases, one in GlendaleGlendale
Glendale is the anglicised version of its gaelic name, Gleann Dail, which means valley of fertile, low-lying arable land. The name originates from Scotland.It may refer to:-Places:Australia*Glendale, New South Wales**Stockland, a shopping centre...
, Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....
and another near the former LIRR station Pine Aire on the main line, between Deer Park and Brentwood. On a typical weekday, NY&A operates ten crews.
Equipment
The Railroad operates with former Long Island Rail Road locomotives through a lease. These locomotives include ex-LIRR:| Number | Builder/model |
|---|---|
| 101 | EMD SW1001 EMD SW1001 The EMD SW1001 was a diesel locomotive for industrial switching service built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between September 1968 and June 1986... |
| 105 | EMD SW1001 |
| 106 | EMD SW1001 |
| 151 | EMD MP15AC EMD MP15AC The EMD MP15AC is a 1,500 hp diesel switcher/road-switcher locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between August 1975 and August 1984. 246 examples were built, including 25 for export to Mexico, and four built in Canada... |
| 155 | EMD MP15AC |
| 156 | EMD MP15AC |
| 159 | EMD MP15AC |
| 261 | EMD GP38-2 EMD GP38-2 An EMD GP38-2 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive of the road switcher type built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division. Part of the EMD Dash 2 line, the GP38-2 was an upgraded version of the earlier GP38... |
| 268 | EMD GP38-2 |
| 270 | EMD GP38-2 |
| 271 | EMD GP38-2 |
Formerly used in service were Louisville and Indiana Railroad
Louisville and Indiana Railroad
The Louisville and Indiana Railroad is a Class III railroad that operates freight service between Indianapolis, Indiana and Louisville, Kentucky, with a major yard and maintenance shop in Jeffersonville, Indiana....
SW1200s
EMD SW1200
An EMD SW1200 is a diesel switcher locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between January 1954 and May 1966. Power was provided by an EMD 567C 12-cylinder engine which generated 1200 horsepower...
#9321 and 9373 and GP-10's #201 and 202.
Derailment
On January 8, 2009 a NYA train derailed east of the Deer Park stationDeer Park (LIRR station)
Deer Park is a station along the Main Line of the Long Island Rail Road. It is officially located at Pineaire Drive, Executive Avenue, and Long Island Avenue near Deer Park, New York...
. Six cars went off track and one was flipped to its side. The freight train containing construction debris did not injure anyone but caused commuter trains to be delayed for several hours and resulted in some disruptions to rush hour service the following morning. The LIRR was unsure what caused the derailment.
As of September 15, 2009, the damaged switch at the west end of the siding where the derailment occurred has not been repaired. Apparently, the NYA and the LIRR cannot agree on repairing the switch and which line will pay for it. The LIRR further complicated things for the NYA by removing the crossover from the eastbound mainline track to the westbound main which is the track the damaged switch joins to the siding under discussion to enable eastbound NYA trains to access the extant siding.
External links
- New York and Atlantic Railway official site
- New York and Atlantic Railway unofficial site (Site defunct prior to 3/11)