Holban Yard Lumber Shop - Crossing shanties under construction Photo: LIRR valuation 6/12/1919
Archive: Dave Morrison

Crossing Watchman Cap badge c.1920s
Archive: Yardgoat

PATCHOGUE SHANTIES

Map design: Steven Lynch    Research: Dave Keller  

Railroad Ave view N 05/1943
Photo: Fred Weber Archive: Dave Keller

Rider Ave view SE Photo: R. Ziel

Rider Ave - View N  1968
Photo/Archive: Dave Keller

Bay Ave view N 4/24/1946

Bay Ave view N 1968
Photo/Archive: Dave Keller

Each shanty had an electric box connected to the track circuit.  There would be 2 lights . . . one marked Eastbound and one marked Westbound.

When  a train entered the circuit, the light would go on emitting a noise to attract the attention of the crossing watchman.

He'd then go out and hold up his stop sign, or red lantern or lower the gates if his crossing was so equipped.  He had to be notified well in advance, because he'd have to have time to go across the tracks and lower the far side gates, by hand cranking them and then return and lower the near side gates by hand cranking them.

Assuming this was an express train traveling at 70 mph and not intending to stop, he had to move his ass.

Then there were the REALLY busy guards who worked double track territory, especially electric territory.  Trains ran along the Babylon-Jamaica portion of the Montauk branch every 30 minutes in each direction.  That was a lot of light indicators flashing, and crossing watchmen running back and forth to lower both sets of gates . . . especially when an eastbound AND a westbound passed each other at or near his crossing!

You may have fallen asleep on the job had you been guarding the crossing at South Country Road east of Patchogue, but you'd be quite awake if you were guarding the crossing at Little East Neck Road west of Babylon or even Deer Park Avenue for that matter with trains going in and out of the yard east of the station!  BTW: Each had its own pot-bellied stove. Research: Dave Keller
 

Hicksville and Babylon (1962-64 and 1963-64, respectively) were not the last locations of multiple crossing watchmen.

I photographed the crossing shanties at Patchogue between 1968 and 1972 on multiple occasions (i.e. 1966, 1967, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1972) with the exception of South Country Road because I never knew there was one there at the time.  Perhaps there wasn't and it was already gone . . . who knows.  I never ventured that far east from PD tower as a teenager on my bike.

I believe the shanties were all gone starting sometime in 1973.  I stopped hanging around the tower after 1972 and was full-time as a junior at SUNY @ Stony Brook and no longer had the free time to hang out, otherwise I'd have been made privy as to when the shanties were being removed and I'd have made it a point to get some photos of their removal.

Also, it was one of those quick changes where I drove by the crossing one day and the shanty and watchman was there and I drove by it a week or so later and said "WTF?  Where'd the shanties go?"

There were simultaneously-manned crossings one avenue apart from each other:  River Ave., West Ave., Ocean Ave. (PD tower), Rider Ave., Bay Ave.

Railroad Ave. no longer existed as a crossing after the 1963 rebuild of the station facilities and yard, however West Avenue got a new metal shanty as a result of the rebuild.  Perhaps the West Ave. shanty was more decrepit than the others and needed replacement, or perhaps it fell apart upon removal.

You'd think they would have saved a buck and moved the Railroad Ave. shanty one avenue over to West as the replacement, but they didn't.

River, Rider and Bay all retained the original wooden shanties, but they were well out of the rebuild zone.  That may have had something to do with their original structures being left in situ. 

There was NO buzzer or communication between the crossing shanties at PD tower. No, there was no crossing watchman. 

The towerman had the model board that showed the approaching trains with lights that lit up on the board.  The block operator flipped on the Ocean Ave. flashing lights by switch and hand-cranked the gates down from the 2nd storey of the tower until the manual gates were replaced by automatic ones with flashing lights in 1969.  Then the old cranking assembly and linkage was removed from the tower. Technically, as block operator, he had the power to stop said trains if required.   All material above thanks to Dave Keller for the contribution/research/archives.
 

“… As for the crossing shanty at South Country Rd, It didn’t exist as of 1962; if it ever existed. I hit my first car there, on a rainy night in ‘62, while bringing in the L-50 (west bound Montauk Freight). A young kid had taken his Father’s brand new station wagon for a ride.

I could see from a distance that he was going to try to beat the train. There was a speed restriction from that point into the station and I was already slowing down (Note*), so when I put the train into emergency I only went about 10 or 12 cars past the impact point. At the time, we had an Engineer, Fireman, Conductor, Flagman and Head end man (Pin Puller).The Head end man and I walked back and found the car that just cleared the ROW. (Note**)

The car was hit about a foot in from the rear. The windshield was blown out and the kid was still sitting in the driver’s seat. When I looked at him through the open windshield he asked me, "What’s my father gonna say?” I told him he was gonna call him a s**t head and I grabbed him to pull him out.

When the cop drove up and asked ME what I was going to do. I told him that the kid wasn’t hurt, but I was going to beat the crap out of him. Funny, this was one of the few times I wasn’t sued or threatened with arrest…”

Note: *  When I was new on the RR, there was a speed restriction on all trains coming into Patchogue, I believe it was 40 mph, due to the many unprotected close crossings.

Note: **  It was not unusual to have a large crew on double ended freights. This is at a time before radios, when hand signs had to be used with 70 or 80 cars when switching. We had large trains with roofwalks on top of the cars that allowed the men giving signs to be up high, very helpful around curves. Thanks to Ed Schleyer for the contribution.
 

Central Islip, Carleton Ave view E
 c.1918 Photo: George G. Ayling Archive: Dave Keller

Central Islip, Carleton Ave view E
 c.1918 Photo: George G. Ayling Archive: Dave Keller

Central Islip, Carleton Ave view E
E51sa Camelback c.1918 Photo: George G. Ayling 
Archive: Dave Keller

The sign on the structure states the crossing is protected between certain hours.  Mail crane in the center background in line with the locomotive. 
 Express house beyond shanty.  Central Islip State Hospital siding/spur coming off main just east of the crossing.

A great shot taken from in front of the depot and zoomed in.  Ayling probably had to snap the image then set the camera down and hold
the order hoops up.  Couldn't do  it if he got closer to the crossing.

When Floral Park station was relocated and replaced in 1909, the platforms were low.  The crossing shanties at Carnation and Tulip Avenues were standard shanties built at grade.

When the high-level platforms were installed some years later, the visibility from these shanties was blocked by the high-levels, so the shanties were jacked up and the bottom enclosed. Dave Keller

Tulip Ave, Floral Park  zoom Elevated crossing shanty View N/NW C.1950

Other Shanty Locations

Farmingdale c.1946 view E Photo: Fred Weber Archive: Dave Keller

Watchman lowering gates at Broadway St. Hicksville 1959 Archive: MTA

Crossing Shanty and Power Grid Plainfield Ave. Floral Park Hempstead Branch view NE 10/12/51 (Faxon-Keller)

Crossing Shanty Plainfield Ave G5s LIRR #38 train view W at junction of Creedmoor Branch Floral Park c. 1950
 

Laurelton shanty 4/30/1946
Archive: Dave Morrison

"Farewell to the LIRR Crossing Watchman" On the afternoon of Friday March 31st, 2023, Long Island Rail Road's last Crossing Watchman shares a friendly wave with the engineer of Patchogue-bound Train #80 as it slowly traverses over 11th Street and Borden Avenue (Pulaski Bridge overhead) grade crossings in Long Island City, New York.  The watchman's responsibility was to manually activate and deactivate the crossing protection for trains passing over both streets using two knife switches located at the watchman's shack. This system was replaced with modern automatic wheel sensors.

This would be one of the last trains the watchman would protect, as this job was abolished the following weekday on April 3rd, 2023, ending a tradition that has survived over a century.   Research/Photo/Archive: Gregory Grice