LIRR Idler - Float Reacher Cars            
  Electric Engine Idler Cars  

AA-1 #323 at Morris Park with air compressor idler car
 5/10/1936 (Rugen-Boland)

DD1's at Rockville Centre westbound freight ex-gondola #2954 idler car 4/1949 Archive: F. Rod Dirkes

LIRR DD1's with idler car to bridge the third rail over crossings, providing connectivity for the locomotive.  Source: eBay

 

AA-1 depicted above was LIRR's #323 "Phoebe"; the only one built by PRR's Juniata Shops. It was always accompanied by her compressor (ex-test gear) car which served as a reacher in spanning long gaps for third rail connectivity. #323 was scrapped in 1937. Info: Dave Keller

 

LIRR Idler cars as of October 1, 1965
434903, 497983, 497993, 497999


 


3rd Rail pickup shoe- MP54A zoom c.1930
Archive: Dave Keller

Compressor idler flatcar #499999 - LI City passenger yard
10/12/1947  Archive: Dave Keller


Compressor idler flatcar #499999 - LI City passenger yard
10/1947  Source: eBay

  Idler Cars  

LIRR# 416 with Idler 4 stanchion car - LI City view W 1976

LIRR #106 with Idler 4 stanchion car - Honeywell St., Yard A, LI City 5/16/1977 Photo/Archive: Henry Wagner

LIRR #100 with Idler 4 stanchion car - Honeywell St.,
Yard A, LI City 5/21/1977 Photo/Archive: Henry Wagner

W29 Idler car Yard A - 5/1976
Photo/Archive: Tim Darnell

Yard A -Tri-color signal on hump - SW1001 #101with Idler Car
3/10/77 Photo/Archive: Jeff Erlitz

SW1001 #100 with  Idler 4 stanchion car Yard A, LI City
4/11/1977 Archive: Dave Keller

The float flats, as we called them, had a little shanty on them that had a pot belly stove and benches for the crew to get out of the cold.  This one, without the shanty, would have been used on the east end ladder job as a car to improve vision for the engine crew while rolling the hump. (above center)

That job continued for some time after the floats stopped operating.  Freight came in from Fremont that needed classifying. That particular flat car was (left) a "hump visibility" car, but was listed on the MOW roster as a float reach.  The car in question, however, WAS referred to as a float flat.  J. J. Earl

 

LIRR #447 with W39 Idler car - Yard A, LI City 1968

Float Reacher Cars

LIRR float reacher #497998 c.1927
Archive: William Mangahas

 LIRR B3 #337-#325 coupled in yard switching freight 
with float reacher car Bay Ridge 4/08/1946

S2 #443 switching float reacher #497882 Sunnyside Yard
REA- facility in background - LI City view SE  - 9/27 1951
Archive: Bob's Photos

W16 float reacher car - LI City view NE
4/05/1958 (Faxon-Keller)

S2 #460 with float reacher - Yard A, LI City c.1958

LIRR S2 #446 switching float reacher Bay Ridge Yard
View E c.1962

W39 float reach car Yard A, LI City - View N 5/25/1963
(Votava-Keller)

W23 Float Reacher Car at Car floats - LI City view NW
6/10/1967 (Votava-Keller)

S2 #446 switching W27 float reacher "Batman"
Yard A, LI City - View E c.1970
 

 

LIRR Idler cars as of October 1, 1965
W-23, W-27, W-29, W-39, W-70
 


W27 float reacher with W5 gondola - Yard A, LI City
1/1973  Photo/Archive: Art Huneke