Macy's didn't receive freight according to the 1978 map. On the photo above I posted, #9 was a Sears warehouse and #8 was a JC Penney on the 1978 map. There were a variety of businesses there as well as on the south side of the main line. Just an FYI regarding the old Republic spur just east of Route 110. What remained of the track is now covered in piles of wood chips. These are huge piles that usually have a payloader driving up on them and the piles steam quite nicely in the cooler weather, giving a wonderful fragrant odor as the wood rots. That area will really make a nice mixed use area mentioned by the Town of Babylon over the past few years. But that's a whole other story.

Sears was indeed across from JC Penney. JC Penney moved out of that building around that time and is still occupied by Target Rock a defense contractor believe it or not. An old time conductor told me that Sears had two tracks. You would line up the doors of the boxcars on the two tracks and the hilo would drive right through the frist car to get to second car. My dad worked in the park and remembers seeing freights with an endless amount of cars for the cosignees there in the early eighties. Maybe Wagner Feeds or a lumber costumer was the last left in there. Georgia Pacific was also south of the tracks in the same general area. freightguy

    freightguy wrote: Maybe Wagner Feeds or a lumber costumer was the last left in there. Georgia Pacific was also south of the tracks in the same general area.




The lumber company was Brown and Strober, I remember that they always had freight cars in their siding. Also, PC Richard used to be White Rose, a food distributor that received many cars daily back in the 80's. I remember watching them all the time time when I was a kid (prior to installation of the third rail), the loud squeal of the brakes due to the incline, seems like it wasn't that long ago, how fast time flies!  jetfan

White Rose moved their distribution operations to Carteret and Avenel, NJ in the 1990s.

Here's the old Sears warehouse tracks 9/6/07

photo: 

In that sandy area between the road & the track is the buried track that went to the JC Penney location. You can just make out the track as it curves across the road to the left, just to the right of that utility pole. alcoAl