Sunnyside Yard car wash rack 4/25/1988
Photo/Archive: Edward Hand

Amtrak -  Sunnyside Yard car  washer equipment zoom 2/06/2020 Photo/Archive: John Deasy

Sunnyside Yard car wash rack 12/27/2015 illustrate the car washer’s position in relation to the remains of the former Harold Tower.  Photo/Archive: Jersey Mike’s Rail Adventures

Amtrak -  Sunnyside Yard car  washer equipment zoom 2/06/2020 Photo/Archive: John Deasy

The Amtrak (former PRR/PC) washer is located on the loop tracks at the south side of Sunnyside Yard, just north and west of the intersection of Skillman Avenue and 37th Street.  The washer is a short distance west of the 39th Street (formerly Harold Avenue) bridge over the Yard. Info: John Deasy

LI City Float Bridges 3-4, later renamed 1-2) and 5-6.

LI City 1891 map - NY Public Library cropped

LI City Vernon Av - MU cars to be sent to NJ for scrap
1972 - View W

LI City 1903 map - NY Public Library cropped

LI City 1919 map - NY Public Library cropped

LI City blueprint 3/20/1916 zoom-annotated
Archive: Art Huneke

In 1925 the new steel bridges #1 and #2 were added north, at 6th St. with the remaining bridges being renumbered accordingly, and then the wooden bridges (originally #1 and a reserved space) discontinued c. 1930 per Emery's map. 

Old #1 had a space south of it where #2 had been. Thus, old #1 became #3. The steel bridges down at 4th st. originally numbered #3 and #4 were then renumbered #5 and #6. Research: Huneke/Keller

    
LI Railroad Information Bulletin 8/22/1925 Archive: Art Huneke¹

LI City Float Bridges post-1916, date unknown

Hunter's Point 04/1998 - View E  Float bridges  #1&2
Photo: Bruce Carlson

LIRR #421 S1 LI City with Idler MOW car 
taking delivery of  Subway R32 cars. 11/1964


Meitowax pilot house 
zoom c.1955

Float Docks LI City c.1955

LI City North Shore Yard float docks 1/1971 Photos: Dave Keller

LIRR carfloat #20 perhaps on its way to the 
North Shore Yard (LI City Floats)

Delivery Subway R32s 11/64  Photo: Gerry Landau Archive: Art Huneke

LI City car float bridge -View E  10/1972

LI City float bridge yard 8/1974
Photo/Archive: John F. Ciesla 

LIRR #462 on  Montauk Cutoff 10/1974 
Photo: Joe Daly

LIRR #155-156 RF15 on Montauk Cutoff crossing 49th Ave View N 12/08/1977 Archive: Henry Wagner

Montauk Branch Cut-off
LI City Borden Ave 02/18/2008
Photo: Joe Gregory

Montauk Cut-off above the oncoming C420 View east at Hunters Point Ave Station platform Photo: Joe Daly 10/1974

View toward Degnon, American Chicle Co.
Photo: Steve Lynch c.1980

Montauk Cut-off  - Removed GN 3-22 8/19/17

Speed Queen was Spot 18 according to Maps of Freight Stations and Private Sidings published June 1966. Speed Queen, located east of Louis Sherry, had a street address of 32-04 Northern Boulevard and was located at the corner of Honeywell Street. For a time it was bounded to its right, facing it from Northern Boulevard, by a gas station.

Speed Queen was served by its very own LIRR siding. According to drawings by Robert Emery, this siding too entered into the building, which appears to be six-stories in height. It was constructed of poured concrete

Today, Shur Guard occupies this building , according to Bill Myers. Before that, according to a Track Plan titled "North Shore Freight Branch" it was Leck Industries - during the period roughly from 1945 to the 1960s. Before that it was occupied by Standard Plumbing (1920 - 1945). According to a map drawn by Robert Emery and corroborated by the Hyde Atlas, it was occupied even further back by Sexton Foods known on Hyde Atlas as John Sexton Co.. Vincent Seyfried reportedly has a photo of Standard Plumbing showing Northern Boulevard in foreground taken from the 39th Avenue BMT Subway - Elevated station.

According to Jay McDonald of Alliance Laundry Systems, Speed Queen’s warehouse received by rail finished washers, dryers, and wringer washers from its factory in Ripon, Wisconsin. Info: Nick Kalis

PRR Sunnyside Engine Sanding Facility  c.1958
Dave Keller Archive

Sunnyside Engine Facility 1954

Sunnyside Engine Facility c. 1980 Photo: Bob Redden

LIRR #447 at Executone Systems
Photo: Tim Darnell


Amtrak Sunny Side view from City Storage Bldg 11/07 Photo: Kevin Katta

LIRR SW1001 #100 with Idler 4/11/77 Dave Keller archive

LIRR #100  Honeywell St. 05/21/77
Archive: Henry Wagner

Yard A looking NE
c. 1980
 Photo: Steven Lynch

Yard A LIRR #C64 N22
Photo c. 1964+  Steve Hoskins

LIRR RS1 #462 in original colors LI City 2/26/1949 (Votava-Keller)

Note: West of Sexton Foods/Speed Queen (Spot 18) LIRR 1966 maps

11th St. - Jackson Ave. view W 12/04/15 Floodlight remains from float docks Arch St. yard complex
Photo: Joseph Anastasio

LIRR Yard A View N from Honeywell Ave ramp into yard c. 1980's 
Photo: B. Myers
 

H10s, GG1, DD1 at sanding facility  c.1955 Dave Keller Archive

LIRR #154, #162 Honeywell St. 04/21/77 
Archive: Henry Wagner

LIRR #106 Honeywell St. 05/16/77
Archive: Henry Wagner

LIRR #460 Alco S-2 with Idler Car c.1958 
Archive: Dave Keller


ALCO S1 #418, S2 #52 LI City 10/04/76 (Goldstein-Keller)

Sternberger Warehouse to the left, Peter Mallon/ Bickford's
on the right.

West Building and West Annex
(aka CN Building) Archive: Bill Myers

Sunnyside Engine Facility c. 1980's Photo: B. Myers 


Sand Facilities Amtrak, ex-PRR c.1980
Photo: Steven Lynch

LIRR #162, #154  Honeywell  St. 5/21/1977
Archive: Henry Wagner

West Chemical made CN disinfectant cleaner (Motto: "You can't spell clean without CN"). CN was an iodine-containing product sort of like Betadine lotion, but it was made with industrial-grade ingredients  instead of pharmaceutical-grade. As a result it smelled of iodine with a strong overtone of dead fish. Stink track, indeed! Info: Albert Waltien

WEST CHEMICAL:  During the summer of 1960, I worked in the chemical laboratory of the West Chemical Company as a technician. It was my first job and I was excited to be working in a real lab. I made $65 a week and enjoyed Friday’s walk across Queens Plaza to cash my check. I always wanted to be a chemist and I loved the work.

The laboratories were housed in the long, thin second floor rectangle of the flat roof building shown in the picture. The staff size was about 21 people: the laboratory director, managers, secretaries, chemists and a small library. The lower story was a long internal shipping dock connecting the main five story building with the single story plant. The plant had several large blending kettles, probably 500 gallons each. The larger building had at least one blending kettle of about 2000 gallons. It also had presses for making Para dichlorobenzene, (PARA) blocks, (urinal disinfectant) and other blending and bottling equipment.

The biological lab performed tests to evaluate the germ killing ability of materials and products. It was the smaller of the two labs and needed to be kept separate for hygienic reasons.

The chemical laboratory staff ran routine analysis on materials and finished products such as moisture, water, solids and iodine content. They also performed applied research including developing more durable wax formulations or more stable emulsifier blends or selecting better raw materials. Most people handled non-routine problems as they arose. My job was to clean the glassware and equipment for all of them. One person had the special job evaluating pesticide strengths using live cockroaches.

His laboratory was housed in a separate, isolated, disused part of the facility on the west side of West St and was termed the “roachatorium”, denoted R in the picture, because cockroaches were raised for pesticide evaluation. He had a large (12’ x 7’ x 6’) climate controlled room dedicated to raising dozens of types of cockroaches. There were thousands of sexually segregated cockroaches kept comfortable and well fed, (dog biscuits were the preferred food) in high wall Petri dishes.

The company had a broad product line primarily catering to industrial customers. The company made some products familiar to the public, of which CN and possibly Pine-Sol are the most memorable. But, much of their product line was for industrial customers. This included PARA, or naphthalene blocks for urinal cleaning and deodorization, a range of industrial strength detergents, floor wax, animal disinfectants using iodine for farm and veterinary applications, hand cream for chapped and rough skin, pesticide sprays, cleaning compounds for ship’s boilers are a few. I believe they also did a fair amount of custom formulation to meet customer’s specific requirements.

A fairly unique product was Isosan, an animal disinfectant used for farm applications. Its main ingredient was suspended or solubilized iodine. It was gentler on skin than chlorine based products, (Chlorox) but still had significant germ killing properties.

Raw materials like alcohol, sulfonated hydrocarbons, and ammonia were used in large amounts and could well have been received by tank car. Smaller amounts of PARA, iodine, carnauba or Ouri-Curi wax, (the wax in floor waxes) emulsifiers, disinfectants, oils, creams, etc. were received in metal and fiber drums or bottles, which could also have been received in boxcars.

I’m reasonably certain that the major ingredient in CN was comprised of phenols and cresols obtained from coking and the subsequent processing of the volatile coal tar. Coke was used in steel manufacturing and the closest steel making region was Pennsylvania. The phenols were most probably shipped to LI City by tank car resulting in some transfer spillage at the siding. These materials have a very unique and sharp odor, which would have been noticeable by the yard workers. Chlorinated phenols or alkylated sulfonates may also have been used. The sources are different, but the shipping method and odors would be the same.

Other finished products were shipped in 55 gallon drums gallon bottles or smaller consumer specific containers. For local customers they were shipped by truck. For more distant clientele or those purchasing large amounts of product rail was preferred. The track siding at the rear of the five story building served both boxcars and tank cars. Invariably some of the material spilled from transfer hoses contributing to the name “stink Track.”

In fairness to my first employer, West Chemical, I really think that a contribution to the source of the “Stink Track” name was the van Iderstine rendering plant. Rendering plant odors are unique, “heavier and more sickening.” I was in Blissville once and smelled that oppressive odor and never forgot it. I didn’t encounter it again for 25 years, until I came close to a similar plant in Indiana.

After Graduate school in the very early ‘70s I came back to visit my parents. I swung by West Chemical, but it was abandoned. I hope this summary helps fill in some details. I also give you permission to use any of this material in your website or other documentation you feel may be applicable.    Peter A. Pospisil  - 2005 email to Nick Kalis
 

Note 1:  This looks like a “Barney”arrangement.  A small car, the barney,  would run on those two inner rails, pulled by cables which you can see in the middle of the track.  When up on the level with the normal track, it would stick up high enough to engage the coupler of an engine, which it could them move along the track.  When not in use, it would be rolled down into the pit so as to clear normal movements.  This sort of thing was used to push hoppers up into the car dumpers that used to exist at Jersey City and Weehawken , and also was used at CNJ’s Ashley inclined plane, pushing car up the mountain from Wilkes Barre. 

I wasn’t aware that such a thing had existed at Sunnyside.   Probably was originally put in when there was only 3rd rail, and DD-1 and L-5 locomotives.  You wouldn’t want 3rd rail around a maintenance pit.  That whole engine house was designed to work on a production line basis, engines moving through in one direction only.  Using a steam switcher would have been a nuisance as it would have had to run around using another track.  The barney avoided that and was probably electric powered, thus in keeping with the modern standards PRR had in mind in the whole Penn Station complex.  Commentary: Henry Raudenbush 7/09/2008
 

 
Yard A freight view NE
Archive: Henry Wagner

PRR R Tower west of Harold Ave Sunnyside Yard
View W 9/05/1960 (Faxon-Keller)

Harold Ave  view NW driveway to REA c.1980
Photo: Steven Lynch 

Sunnyside Yard - LIRR Harold Ave Team Yard
REA Facility 1956  Photo view right

Harold Avenue Team Yard - View E 6/1922
Photo: Queens Chamber Commerce Archive: Dave Keller

Arch St. Yard Rock salt piles 4/25/1988 
Photo: Edward Hand

LI City Arch Street freight terminal 7/30/2017
Photo: Kevin Wong

Arch Street Yard 8/19/2017 Photo/Archive: Kevin Wong

LI City Arch Street freight terminal 7/30/2017 Photo: Kevin Wong

Arch St. from 21st St. LI City 9/13/2019

Newtown Creek 1860 illustrating the vast flat marshy undeveloped area that became the Sunnyside LIRR yard complex

Dutch Kills Swingbridge
7/26/1997 Photo: Edward Hand

Dutch Kills during construction

“DB Cabin Dutch Kills Swingbridge 12/1970 (opened: 10/1915  north side of tracks - east of bridge) Collection: Dave Keller

Newtown Creek -  w from the Kosciusko Bridge  Photo: Copyright  2000 Bernard Ente

 
Dutch Kills leading into Newtown Creek -  southwest 2001

MORE DB Cabin

Dutch Kills view from the Montauk Cutoff, 1960s. DB Cabin is visible, and what looks like a C420 on the Lower Montauk Archive: Henry Wagner

DB Cabin 5/16/1976 Archive: Henry Wagner

LI City, M Cabin bridge - LIRR #222-225 RF-15 westbound  7/1982
Photo/Archive: Jay Bendersky

Dutch Kills 9/17/2022 Photo/Archive: Paul Pesante

How the scene here at Dutch Kills has changed in 40 years!
Jay Bendersky 1982 photo:  C420 Centuries were on the LIRR, freight ran across the Dutch Kills Drawbridge, the Dutch Kills Drawbridge didn't have a drop of graffiti on it, Dutch Kills didn't look polluted, and the World Trade Center proudly stood sentinel over Downtown Manhattan!

My photo from my morning bike ride this morning, 9/17/2022. C420 Centuries long retired and scrapped, freights gone from the Montauk Cutoff and Dutch Kills Drawbridge, replaced by hipster trespassers, the bridge itself is in shit shape and chock full of graffiti, the waters polluted and sadly 21 years ago the World Trade Center was taken from us and this view, and sadly not even the Freedom Tower can be seen as "hipster towers" have eye sored and ruined the LI City, Brooklyn waterfront, and great views of the NYC skyline!
Change...sigh...not always good! Paul Pesante

Newton Creek - Dutch Kills zoom on the track block to Montauk Cut-off  View SW 4/10/2018
Photo/Archive: Restrict on the Hanger

Dutch Kills Swingbridge - View W 8/2020
Archive: George Sekavec
 

"Extra Over DB" - On the evening of May 5th, 2022, New York & Atlantic Railway EMD GP38-2 268 is seen leading a "Film Extra" east over the Dutchkills Bridge on the Lower Montauk in Long Island City, NY. Aside from moving Long Island's freight, NYAR occasionally assists local production companies with television and movie scenes that feature freight trains in New York City. Photo/Archive: Greg Grice

LI City -Newton Creek-Dutch Kills  Google 2018
 

Note 1: Article Continuation:  "is on concrete footings, with concrete piles; the Buckley Street tank is on concrete footings, through which a large drain passes.  All of this improvement work was carried on under the supervision of Mr. L. V. Morris, Chief Engineer, and his immediate staff.  The design of bridges was under the supervision of Mr. F. Auryansen, Bridge Engineer."