- Sag Harbor Branch
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Sag Harbor Branch
Sag Harbor Train StationOverview Type Passenger and Freight Status Abandoned Locale Southampton (town), New York Termini Bridgehampton (south)
Sag Harbor (north)Stations 3 Operation Opened 1869 Closed 1940 (Bridgehampton-Sag Harbor)
1949 (Manorville-Eastport)Operator(s) Long Island Railroad Technical Line length 4.8 miles (7.7 km) The Sag Harbor Branch was a branch of the Long Island Rail Road that was the eastern terminal on the south shore line of Long Island from 1869 to 1895 and then was a spur from Bridgehampton to Sag Harbor, New York from 1895 to 1940.
It originally continued west from Bridgehampton along the current Montauk Branch to Eastport and used what later became the Manorville Branch to the Main Line at Manorville.
Contents
History
The line was conceived and surveyed in 1854. In 1869 LIRR president Oliver Charlick wanted the branch to head off plans by the South Side Railroad to extend their line beyond Patchogue. The original plans called for the branch to leave the Main Line at Riverhead. But Riverhead refused to pay the LIRR for the benefits of being at a junction, so the west end was moved to Manorville in the pine barrens in 1869. During construction the Quogue station "on a Sunday morning" was moved by the village from its original and current location to a location on Old Depot Road.[1]
The Sag Harbor Line remained the farthest point on the LIRR's south shore line until 1895 when the LIRR extended the road at Bridgehampton to Montauk leaving the Sag Harbor section a spur of the Montauk Line. During World War I, a freight spur was built onto the newly reinforced Long Wharf in Sag Harbor to deliver torpedoes for the E.W. Bliss Company for testing in the harbor.
The Sag Harbor branch was abandoned in 1940.[2] A former section of the line in Sag Harbor known as Wharf Street has been designated Suffolk County Road 81 and runs from NY 114 to the Sag Harbor Pier.[3] The rest of the road bed was transformed into the Long Pond Greenbelt. The road bed is now a hiking trail. The freight house at the Sag Harbor train station is now the Sag Harbor Garden Center.
Manorville Branch
The track that became the Manorville Branch was originally a segment of the Sag Harbor Branch, running from Manorville on the Main Line southeast to Eastport on the Montauk Branch, which eventually became its own branch. A small portion of the right of way runs through what is today the Long Island Game Farm, while another segment runs through a Town of Brookhaven compost facility. In Eastport, the line ran beneath a bridge under Suffolk CR 51, which no longer exists, then along the north end of Spadaro Airport, before merging with the Montauk Branch. It even contained a wye for westbound Montauk Branch trains that went over Montauk Highway until 1931.
The Manorville Branch was abandoned in 1949. In the 1950s, Suffolk County Department of Public Works planned to transform the former branch into a four-lane highway called Suffolk County Road 91 (Manorville Branch Road), but this proposal was abandoned on June 24, 1986,[3] [4] and as with the Long Pond Greenbelt, this road bed is also now a hiking trail.
List of stations
Besides the existing and former stations along the current Montauk Branch, stations along the line included the following;
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This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.
Station/
locationStation
linkMiles (kilometers)
to Penn StationConnections/notes For continuing service to points west, see Main Line (Long Island Rail Road) Manorville
Raynor Road, ManorvilleBranch abanodned 1949, station closed in 1968. Eastport
Main Street and East Moriches Road, EastportClosed 1959 Manorville Branch ends, merges with Montauk Branch Speonk
North Phillips Avenue at Depot Road, Speonk[1] Westhampton
Station Road and Depot Road, Westhampton[2] Bus (Suffolk County Transit): S90 Quogue
Station Road off of Quogue-Riverhead Road, QuogueOpened June 1875, Closed March 16, 1998 East Quogue Opened 1871, Closed unknown Hampton Bays
Good Ground Road, between Springville Road and Ponoquogue Avenue, Hamton Bays[3] Bus (Suffolk County Transit): S90, S10D, S10E Canoe Place Opened 1935, Closed 1953 Suffolk Downs Opened 1907, Closed 1921 Golf Grounds Opened 1907, Closed 1939 Southampton
North Main Street, between Prospect Street and Willow Street, Southampton[4] Bus (Suffolk County Transit): S92, 10A Water Mill
East side of Deerfield Road, Water Mill, New York.Opened 1875 on the west side of Halsey Lane(now Old Mill Road), Moved to Deerfield Road in 1903, Closed circa 1968 Bridgehampton
Maple Lane and Butter Lane, Bridgehampton[5] Bus (Suffolk County Transit): S92, 10B Montauk Branch continues east to Montauk, Sag Harbor Branch which was abaondoned in 1940 Noyack Road
Sag Harbor[5] 1906–1940; also known as Lamb's Corner Station Sag Harbor
Main Street & South Ferry Road, Sag Harbor[6] 1870–1940 References
- ^ Ron Ziel and George H. Foster, Steel Rails to the Sunrise, ©1965
- ^ Sag Harbor Branch (Unofficial LIRR History web site)
- ^ a b NYCRoads.com - Suffolk CR 76-100
- ^ Suffolk County Department of Public Works
- ^ Sag Harbor Branch; Part Three (Arrt's Arrchives)
- ^ Sag Harbor Branch; Part Four (Arrt's Arrchives)
External links
- Maps and Photos by Bob Emery, Dave Keller, and Steve Lynch (TrainsAreFun.com)
- Sag Harbor Branch; Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four and Part Five (Arrt's Arrchives)
Long Island Rail Road Main routes
Branch services Freight operations Defunct branches Bethpage · Cedarhurst Cutoff · Creedmoor · Evergreen · Manhattan Beach · Manorville · Northport · Rockaway Beach · Sag Harbor · Southern Hempstead · West Brighton Beach · White Line · WhitestoneAcquired railroads Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad · Flushing and North Side Railroad · South Side Railroad of Long Island · Central Railroad of Long IslandOther Categories:- Long Island Rail Road
- Transportation in Suffolk County, New York
- Railway lines opened in 1869
- Railway lines closed in 1949
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