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Far as I see, the Rockaway Beach Branch never went as far north or west as the modern Grand Avenue in Elmhurst 40°44′11.3″N73°52′40.8″W / 40.736472°N 73.878000°W / 40.736472; -73.878000 but only went as far as Whitepot Junction 40°43′26.9″N73°51′33″W / 40.724139°N 73.85917°W / 40.724139; -73.85917. Has the street name change perhaps been mistaken and, for example, the modern Yellowstone Boulevard is the true site? [
This 1898 map has no street names but shows a north-south road, probably what is now called Yellowstone Boulevard, crossing the tracks, north of the modern Metropolitan Avenue. I suspect Yellowstone Boulevard, or more likely Metropolitan Avenue, was the "Grand Street" for which the station was named. Incidentally I hope to walk this part of the track this afternoon, Thursday and will keep an eye out for suspected former stations.
Jim.henderson (
talk)
05:48, 25 March 2010 (UTC)reply
According to the
LIRR History Website and TrainsAreFun.com, Rockaway Beach Branch trains did join the main line ROW northwest of Whitepot Junction. Even the Bob Emery maps confirm this. BTW, that 1898 map you have only shows the Rockaway Beach Branch going as far north as the Montauk Branch. ----
DanTD (
talk)
16:07, 25 March 2010 (UTC)reply
Ah. I'm right about the wrong thing. Indeed the RB branch never reached Grand Avenue. Indeed the branch joined at WP, at Rego Park, miles north of the Montauk Branch junction shown on the 1898 topo map. However, as you clearly state in the article, this station was not on that branch; it was on the Main Line, and was the easternmost station serving both Main Line trains and RB branch trains. This, far as I see, made it the branch point as far as passengers were concerned, until Rego Park was built a mile and a quarter east. Failure to pay attention to that, got me all confused and I fell into entirely mistaken conjectures about Yellowstone and Metropolitan. So, now I put the coordinates of the modern Grand Avenue overpass as belonging to the station, so others can immediately locate the station on a map.
This afternoon I found many unexpected obstacles to exploring the RB branch. Fences and fallen trees that weren't there two years ago, denser underbrush than thirty years ago, and weaker knees than twenty years ago. Pictures were poor, but eventually they'll trickle down the pipeline into articles.
Jim.henderson (
talk)
05:38, 26 March 2010 (UTC)reply