Vincent Francis Seyfried

“ It was not uncommon to schedule train-loads of 1,000 men and more on a Sunday.
Next to passenger traffic in production of revenue came the freight traffic of the road. The Flushing & North Side R.R. originally had only its passenger dock at Hunter's Point for freight movement, but the authorities at the Point would not permit the handling of manure, the product most in demand by Long Island farmers. In the summer of 1873 the Central R.R. built a spur from Central Junction across the creek and over the meadows to Flushing Bay and then out into the water. ”

“ In February, 1874, as a result of a reduction in freight rates, the manure hauling business doubled. Large numbers of new flat cars had to be turned out at the College Point shops, and some of the longest freight trains ever seen left Hunter's Point. We are told one freight train totaled twenty-four cars, which was then followed by an equally long manure train; to move the volume of goods it became necessary to do much night hauling on the single track road to avoid interference from daylight passenger movements. ”

“ It is odd that with the public enthusiasm for an eastward extension reaching its peak, and encouraged in every way by the company itself, nothing at all came of it. In 1875, when we should normally have expected some action after two years of active campaigning, the newspapers of the day are strangely silent. ”

“ During 1874 we read that the Poppenhusen system had captured most of the Hempstead and Babylon traffic, and that on August 16 the Central carried more passengers to Babylon and Fire Island than on any Sunday since those roads were built. A brief remark of 1874 mentions that the Fourth of July traffic that year netted the railroad over $2,000 in passenger revenue. On Sundays during 1875 the road was using seven and eight car trains all day to accommodate the Sunday excursionists. ”

“ The well-known real estate promoter, Benjamin Hitchcock, also chartered trains on occasional Sundays to transport 300 or 400 people to visit his Flushing Park development and buy lots. In September of 1875 the wealthy Mickle family of Bayside chartered a train to enable wedding guests from the city to witness the marriage of their daughter. The North Side tracks ran through their estate and their gardeners fashioned a temporary station on the grounds for the guests.
Next to College Point, the heaviest excursion traffic was to the Creedmoor Rifle Range. ”

“ On the single track roads of those days, faulty dispatching was one of the most frequent sources of accident. The Southern R.R., under Poppenhusen management, experienced more than one bad wreck; the Central division got by with several narrow escapes. On a pleasant day in June 1873, Mr. A. T. Stewart, accompanied by Herman Poppenhusen and several other directors, arranged a joyride for themselves in a special train out of Hunter's Point, the movements of which were not telegraphed to the station agents or to the conductors of the regular trains. ”

“ By this method the farmer saved himself the long hard drive to the city over poor roads and the produce arrived faster and in fresher condition at the market. Besides this, the train's capacity for loads was far beyond that of one wagon. The plan caught on slowly but by late fall the freight depot was full of grocerymen from New York and Brooklyn buying supplies.
In March of 1875 the company arranged to expedite the movement of freight from Hunter's Point over the East River to New York by engaging a barge and renting a dock on the New York side. ”

“ College Point and Whitestone trains ran through over the new branch to Woodside and Hunter's Point instead of joining the old main line at Whitestone Junction. This left the old main line free for the Central trains, and Great Neck passengers then transferred at Central Junction for their shuttle trains.
At "Long Island R.R. Crossing" on the Hempstead Plains all Central trains were required to stop, and a man was stationed at that point to make sure there was no possibility of collision with a Long Island R.R. train. ”

“ It also received and supplied mail at Long Island City and the Southern R.R. at Babylon, returning to Whitestone at 5 P.M. Through use of the mail car, all of the North Side villages on the line were furnished with morning and evening mails, letters being delivered directly from one village to another. Under the old system, all letters had gone to New York and were sent out from there by train the following day. The partial sorting of mail, formerly done at the Flushing Post Office, was now all done by the Mail Route Agent on his car. ”

“ The telegraph system on the island, introduced by the South Side R.R. in the Sixties, was enlarged once more by the construction of the Central R.R. In September 1872, well before the road was finished, the poles for the telegraph were going up all along the right-of-way. ”

“ Here passengers for Hempstead changed to the Hempstead shuttle, waiting on the spur to transport them 1.4 miles south to Hempstead village. Four trains daily ran through to Hempstead without change.
Passenger traffic on the Flushing, North Shore & Central R.R. was fairly heavy on the North Side division, but light on the Central division. From the annual reports we get these overall statistics:
Only rarely do we get breakdowns of such general figures for the different parts of the system. ”

“ Little Neck with 780 persons and Great Neck were small crossroad villages, with scattered houses dotting the roads beyond the villages. For the four-year period 1873–76, the branch had six or seven trains a day, never more or less. ”

“ September 24, 1873—Engine at Hempstead overruns the turntable and plows into the dirt.
December 17, 1873—Switch lock breaks at Garden City, while train is taking the siding, so that the Babylon and its tender take one track and its coaches another. Trucks sprained, but no damage.
June 18, 1874—Cylinder head on an engine at Flushing bursts, followed by the breaking of a piston rod.
July 22, 1874—Manure on the Island Trees siding makes the passing siding so slick that one engine is unable to stop and slides into another. Only pilots of engines torn off, with no more serious damage. ”

“ Starting from Great Neck it would run east to Manhasset, thence northeast across to the Middle Neck Road where would be located Port Washington station, then on a trestle along Bar Beach and over Hempstead Harbor and then along the level beach through Sea Cliff to Glen Cove.
In July 1874 Mr. I. D. Barton addressed the citizens of Huntington at their invitation and told them that if the people east of Roslyn would extend a reasonable amount of aid to the enterprise in respect of right-of-way and stock subscription, that his company would build the road that summer. ”

“ Here were located numerous side tracks, freight spurs and a turntable. The Hunter's Point station building had been erected in October and November 1869, and embraced an iron structure 190 × 48 feet long, with a car shed 77 × 54 feet. Covered passageways led to the ferries and to the Long Island R.R. depot nearby. When the Central R.R. became part of the North Side system, Central trains were also accommodated here. ”