Photo of the Week: 9/9/2011

This weekend we remember the tragic events that took place in New York ten years ago. I do not have any photos directly related to the World Trade Center or 9/11, but I thought I'd share another Long Island Railroad photo. I shot this photo in October of last year at the Lynbrook station on the south shore of the island. There is a model train store near the station that I like to go to sometimes, and whenever I go there I make sure to visit the station too. If the photo angle looks familiar, it was taken seconds after the photo in the banner for this website...it is actually the same train.

This train is heading east towards Babylon, where the third rail ends. The two tracks on the right curve away from the Montauk Division main line and go to Long Beach. The junction is actually one station to the west at Valley Stream, the two lines run parallel to each other until Valley Stream. Also at Valley Stream, the West Hempstead and Far Rockaway branches join this line. After Valley Stream, the four track line splits and goes to Jamaica on two different but parallel routes.

The line here is built on an embankment above street level and elevated at the stations. The Pennsylvania Railroad did this project long ago to eliminate grade crossings on the line. I don't think there are any grade crossings between Jamaica and Babylon, but I don't know that for sure. The main line is elevated as far as Floral Park, where the Hempstead branch splits from the main. The Hicksville station is elevated, but the rest of the line is at ground level. The Long Island Railroad has an ongoing grade crossing elimination project going on there, they are building overpasses or underpasses to replace as many grade crossings as possible. The most recently completed project was at Roslyn Road in Mineola.

The Long Island Railroad, Metro-North Railroad, New Jersey Transit, Amtrak, New York City Subway System, PATH, New York buses, and all other forms of public transportation in that city continue to run normally, despite what happened ten years ago. Security was beefed up to prevent anything happening in the future, but at the same time the security is in the background and not annoyingly in the way, making it still easy to use public transportation. The World Trade Center subway stations have been rebuilt and trains are running. Despite a tragic loss, the city was able to get back on its feet. While it is good to mourn for a time, it is better to look to the future with hope than to be stuck in the tragic past forever.