WOODSIDE ENTRANCE

Today I was all set to write about Trimble Road, a little spit of a street running for one block along the Woodside Long Island Rail Road platform between 63rd and 64th Streets in Woodside. I had prepared several photos in Adobe Photoshop, I had excepted several maps from 1915, and was all set to write when an idle search on Forgotten New York showed me that I had written about Trimble Road not once already, but twice. Not only that I also have written about an ancient hotel at Trimble Road and 64th Street.

I was chagrined but not surprised. I am a creature of repetition and habit and often, my Tuesday goes about exactly how my Monday went. I often find that I use the exact same phrases to describe something in 2020 that I used in 2010.

I can, though, chat for a bit about this little bit of infrastructure, the ramp connecting the westbound Port Washington Branch platform with Trimble Road at 63rd Street. I’ve not given much space on the site to the several genuses (genii?) of Long Island Rail Road station lampposts, signage, and other architectural elements. Just as there are about a dozen or so lamppost styles used frequently on NYC streets, subway and railroad platforms also have several light post styles that you see again and again, such as these modest cylinders with beret-like “hats” housing the fixture. In this case, they’re yellow sodium lamps; the LIRR has begun to install LED lamps on its platforms, but not here yet.

Also of note is the railing. About a decade ago the LIRR began to replace its standard issue station railings, which consisted of hollow cube-shaped pipes set at an angle as to become diamond-shaped, with these more contemporary fences, though the “diamonds” as I call them, are still quite common. Note the handrail, which is there no doubt to help wheelchair-bound passengers up the ramp.

I’ll try to do more stuff on railway station “furniture” when I get the chance; visiting several stations in a day, say, would be difficult given the fact that most LIRR lines run only twice an hour at best in “nonpeak” hours.

Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”

10/6/20