Location Richmond Hill, Queens Connections None Platforms in use 2 | Tracks 2 Parking Employees Only Rebuilt 2009 | |
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Line(s) Atlantic Branch
(City Terminal Zone) Opened 1886 (Passenger station)
1889 (Maintenance Yard) | ||
The Morris Park facility is a maintenance facility of the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York. 7. It includes two employee-only side platforms on the Atlantic Branch named Boland's Landing. Two wooden platforms each 2 cars long exist on the two-track line, with a flashlight for workers to signal trains to stop.
Contents
History
The original Morris Park station, was an 1886-built pedestrian depot located on 120th Street, that served as a replacement for 1878-built Morris Grove station on 124th Street. It was torn down in 1939 as part of a grade elimination project for the Atlantic Branch. The yard's locomotive yard office and engine shops, divided into the front shops and back shops, were built in 1889, at the junction of the Atlantic and Lower Montauk Branches approximately on the opposite side of the former “R” Tower at the latter day Richmond Hill Storage Yard. The yard also featured a turntable for spinning engines. In 2009 part of the back shops (the engine shops not located directly off the turntable) were demolished as part of a reconstruction project, however, the front shops and yard office from 1889 still exist. The yard also contains one of four remaining turntables left on the LIRR, Oyster Bay and Greenport yards have the others, and Riverhead has one on the grounds of the Railroad Museum of Long Island. Nevertheless, the Morris Park turntable is the only one of the turntables still functioning; those in Oyster Bay, Riverhead, and Greenport exist purely for historical purposes.
Morris Grove station
Morris Grove Station was originally a South Side Railroad of Long Island station house located at Berlin Station that was moved to 124th Street in 1878 and renamed "Morris Grove." The station was later renamed "Morris Park," for a park that was located behind the depot, and closed in 1886 to be replaced by the "new" Morris Park station at 120th Street.
Shops station
Shops station was a sheltered shed on the Lower Montauk Branch built approximately in 1900 for LIRR employees of the Morris Park facility when the lower Montauk Branch was still an at-grade line. The station was located approximately opposite of the former site of the "R" Tower where the Richmond Hill Storage Yard was located. No evidence of the existence of the station can be found beyond May 1913.