In early April I began what I hoped would be a lengthy walk in Ozone Park and Howard Beach, an intriguing area with odd dead ends and even some hidden cemeteries on a day that proved too windy and showery for my increasingly picky sensibilities and so spent only a half hour or so. Even the slices at New Park seem to be getting smaller. I took the Q53 from the LIRR in Woodside, which ought to be an express bus but has too many stops and so is a lengthy ride.
The neighborhood is also attainable from Manhattan or Brooklyn by taking the express A train to the North Conduit Ave. station, one of the least-trafficked in the system. It has been part of the NYC subways only since 1956, but before that, it was a station on the Long Island Rail Road Rockaway branch, as were all the stations on the Rockaway peninsula. The station still bears some telltale signs of its old LIRR legacy such as diamond-shaped platform sections—most other Rockaway stations have been repaved, losing the diamonds, but Aqueduct’s remain. It is the least-frequented station in the system by many accounts.
Place names in these parts, such as Conduit Blvd., North and South Conduit Aves., Aqueduct Racetrack, and even Force Tube Ave. in Cypress Hills, are named for the right-of-way of a former aqueduct that led from Ridgewood Reservoir in Forest Park all the way to the old Brooklyn Water Works in Freeport, which were decommissioned and removed decades ago. Like many locales, though, place names point at history.
Today, I didn’t want a lengthy subway ride, so took the A to Rockaway Boulevard to pick up the Q53 there. Bad move. I should have stayed on the A. Or better yet, stood in bed.
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5/30/24
27 comments
No one has ever been answer my question about this former LIRR station: Why is the southbound platform SO long?! I believe it is the longest platform in the system. The notrthbound platform is not as long, nor are any of the other former LIRR Rockaway branch stations. Anyone? That southbound platform is way longer than a 10-car consist. I’ve never even seen it’s length documented anywhere. This has been driving me nuts for decades! There’s probably an interesting story in the answer. My first explorations of the Rockaway branch in the late 70’s has always been a vivid memory (I was a teen!) – I still remember seeing many dilapidated old houses on the edge of the creeks in Howard/Hamilton beach. Wish I had pics! Remember the old “stilt houses” on the Rockaway side?!
One guess might be that it was intended to berth two trains, one from Penn Station and one from Brooklyn, one of which would go to Rockaway Park and the other to Jamaica via Far Rockaway, the Five Towns and Atlantic Branch, and passengers could change trains as needed. Best I can come up with.
Thanks, Guy. I’ve had similar thoughts, but it always seemed to me that if such a scenario had been the case, it would have required both south and northbound platforms to have the length to do the same, no?
Maybe the connection was only made outbound from Penn or Brooklyn?
Ridgewood Reservoir is in Highland Park, Brooklyn/Queens
Serves you right for ignoring the advice of Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington, & Ella Fitzgerald:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG4Tte6XGkA
Now THAT’S funny! (Gonna go out and fire a few rounds from my A-K and say Yeeee-Haaawwww!)
Nunzio:
One more time:
Nunzio, I meant to send emojis but for a reason I can’t imagine, they didn’t trnamit. Therefore, enjoy the catharsis that my comment inspired.
Red,
HAhaha! Good enough to make me endure the loathsome captcha, sir!
Let me try to answer Nunzio’s post, and add some additional historical information as well.
One reason for the long length of the southbound Aqueduct platform could be that in the years the LIRR ran the service, special race track trains were operated there, and the platform was long enough to allow two trains to use the station at once due to large crowds. Just a guess.
It’s also worth noting the Q53 bus route was specifically established in 1956 as a replacement for the old LIRR train service, between Woodside and Rockaway Park. Apparently many residents of Northwest Queens used the LIRR to reach Rockaway Park, especially in the summer months. New York City Franchise Bureau gave Triboro Coach Corporation the authority to operate this route to replaced the LIRR service, as the IND Rockaway subway did not serve areas north of Liberty Avenue. The Q53 charged a premium fare higher than 1956’s standard 15 cent tariff, because it was a limited stop service. While Q53 operated year-round, its business obviously mushroomed during warm weather. I recall seeing a advertisement around 1962 that showed a 55 cent fare one way, and 85 cents round trip.
When my friends and I had some money we would take the Q19A to the Q18 to 61 st \Roosevelt and take the Q53 and that was the correct price. When we we short of $ we would walk to Queens Plaza and take the GG to Hoyt Schemerhorn and then get the A. Long trip.
And I always wondered why there is a northbound platform but no southbound platform by the track entrance
At one time (I forget the years), the TA would use track switches to cross a southbound A train over to the northbound track to make a stop at the Racetrack station platform and then using switches go back to the southbound track.
Thank you for your reply
Tom, you ‘re welcome.
I forgot to add that there has been talk over the years of building a platform for southbound trains but the MTA hasn’t been able to get anyone (like World Resorts) to pay for it.
Ah, Andy! I was hoping that you’d show up here! Yes, I’ve imagined similar things about that long platform- but I can’t figure out how that’d work without the northbound platform also being long enough to do the same- and is there even a cross-under on the north end? (Imagine passengers switching sides- which would be a requisite when going north under such a scenario- and having to not only cross under, but to walk at least half the length of that platform?). And would it have even been legal to platform two trains on the same track end-to-end?
Re: The Q53: Yep. I remember my first trip on it in the late 70’s, and the fare was either double or triple the regular fare. Double sounds right…but I seem to remember it being $1.50 when subway fares were 50 cents (Maybe subway fares were 75 cents..hence the buck fifty). It’s a shame what they did to that route since the city took over. Back in the 80’s there were drivers on the 53 who could make it from Rock. Pk. to Woodside in 23 minutes! They freaking flew…and there were very stops.
Thanks for the reply re the long platform. I suspect if YOU don’t know…no one living does!
Thanks for the kind words. Just an educated guess on my part. In those long-gone days, racetrack betting was the only legal gambling available in New York, and there were three flat tracks in Queens (Aqueduct, Belmont, and Jamaica), plus trotters at Roosevelt and Yonkers. The LIRR and many bus companies – Green, Jamaica, and Schenck – served the Queens tracks, as business was often brisk.
Andy,
I do remember seeing those (Aqueduct) Race Track Specials in the 70’s/early 80’s when I’d be waiting for an A train (Trains that would go non-stop from Manhattan to Aqueduct on race days)…and some of the stereotypical track characters you’d see getting on them (It looked like a used car salesman’s convention!). That, and the “JFK Express”. The subway was actually interesting in those days….. And I remember seeing the Aqueduct Race Track single platform absolutely PACKED when the races were over. (Probably the only station in the system I’d never set foot on)
I, too, have long wondered about that platform configuration and appreciate what has been speculated and shared. In is heyday, Aqueduct Race Track drew immense crowds. Today, it can accommodate 17,000 spectators, but that is a fraction of the 80,000 it once held. (A non-racing event in 1995, was when Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass for over 75,000 people.) The place was huge, and a great deal of the crowd would leave after the last race, putting quite a strain on the subway and busses. Is it possible that they boarded Atlantic Avenue and Penn Station bound trains on both the northbound and southbound tracks and routed them up to a switchover on the regular northbound track further up the line?
Nunzio, the racetrack specials were not quite non-stop. There was one stop at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. That was even mentioned on the subway car ad cards/posters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct_Racetrack_station#/media/File:Aqueduct_Racetrack_poster.jpg
Allan,
Now that you’ve mentioned it, I do remember them stopping at Hoyt-Schermerhorn. Was that it- just 42nd & 8th and Hoyt-Schermerhorn?
Yes, Nunzio, that was it – leave from 42 & 8th (lower level platform), express it to Hoyt-Schermerhorn and then express it to the Racetrack station.
Something I did find out about the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station – racetrack bound passengers would board the train from the southbound outer platform rather than the regular southbound platform )for A, C and G trains). That way the TA was able to separate the premium fare paying customers (50 cents) from those who paid the regular fare.
Ah, thanks for that, Allan! I did not know that (Or maybe I just forgot) about boarding from the normally off-0limits platform at H-S.
Note that the conduit in question extended to Massapequa where the old pump station still exists on the north side of Sunrise Highway. I recall seeing 2 trains at the southbound station back in the ‘60’s. At that time the crowds on race day were huge.
There was also a stop at the racetrack itself for event days until it was closed in 2011, though it’s now used as part of a walkway for Resorts World Casino.
Tal, the stop for the Racetrack is still there and it now a 24/7 stop for northbound A trains from Far Rockaway.
I remember working some days and neither myself nor my partner knew if ‘The Racetrack’ was open. We’d often just skip it. I was glad when it went regular service