LIRR Paperwork

LIRR letter notification to customer indicating Freight Arrival
04/15/1940 from Jamaica

I’ve come upon similar items from the late 19th and very early 20th century that seem to have been personally issued by train crews to assist them in their daily routine.  Sort of like having a desk job and you like to cradle the phone on your shoulder, but the company won’t spring for any shoulder rests, so you go and buy your own for your own use and comfort.

Another example was a document from 1909 that had a rubber stamp imprint affixed that read “Conductor Noe, Train 60.” (And, as an aside, conductor Noe’s first initial was “O.”  I kid you not.)

Obviously, this conductor held his run for a goodly period of time that he would bother to have his own stamp made with the train number and he had no threat of someone taking train 60 from him.  Thus . . . the rubber stamp allowed him to just smack his documents rather than handwrite every one. 
Certainly not LIRR issued.

It appears that the Conductor with the seat check (above) devised a system of keeping track of his ticket collections from his passengers, by having his own seat checks printed. It was definitely a privately-printed item.  The back has a train schedule thereon, but also has an advertisement for a local theatre in NYC.

The theatre obviously paid for the cost of printing and while the conductor got free, personalized seat checks, the theatre got publicity and the riding public got a free timetable. They were perhaps  issued in different-colored cardstock for the use on the conductor’s different runs or days of the week.

This conductor may have started the whole seat-check thing that has been in use for so many years on the LIRR! 
Insight and commentary: Dave Keller

LIRR Ticket 1898 to Hempstead, from LI City or Flatbush Ave.

Cold Spring General Order #90
Woodbury Station changed to Cold Spring  1015/1880

Found in the wall of the Stony Brook station during recent renovation. Stony Brook was massively remodeled in 1917, this bit of history was still trapped within its walls and did not come forth until about 10 years ago. Info: Dave Morrision

LIRR 100 Shares Specimen


Stock Trust Certificate ca.1897

LIRR Beach Service: Sheep'shead Bay, Coney Island and Manhattan Beach were accessed via the Manhattan Beach branch.

Rockaway Park , Seaside and Steeplechase were accessed via the Rockaway Beach branch, both over Jamaica Bay trestle or over land via Valley Stream and Far Rockaway.
Info/Research: Dave Keller

LIRR Brick Enginehouse Valuation specifications. 08-26-1916
Collection: Dave Morrison  

These are the job specifics for the construction of the standard, 4-bay, brick engine house.  It proscribes the construction materials to be used. Sort of like a “job standard” which the construction must follow.

Design of the OBay, Greenport and Patchogue engine houses, hence their references at the bottom of the document giving the ACTUAL BLUEPRINT reference numbers per structure. Info: Dave Keller

LIRR Brick Enginehouse Valuation Drawings 
Collection: Dave Morrison  

End of Steam Special 10/16/1965

Form A Clearance Card
This card is basically a proceed order that shows when there is an exception to that train for instance when an extra that is not shown on the timetable would be placed on this card. Also shows if there are any train orders for that train.
Collection: Paul Strubeck 

Collection: Neil Feldman

K Card

Card used in replacement of block signals in dark/manual block territory.
Collection: Paul Strubeck 

K cards were issued by block operators. This card was issued by the block operator at PD to a conductor via telephone at SK (Speonk). Info: Dave Keller, Collection: Neil Feldman

General LIRR Notecard
Collection: Paul Strubeck 

ASC Test Card
Collection: Paul Strubeck 

LIRR Retirement Form

LIRR June 29-1905 Timetable
Collection: Dave Morrison

LIRR Freight Schedule 
06/05/1974
Archive: Tim Darnell

Freight Pickup Slip Form 121

Freight Pickup Slip Form 121
Glen Cove (a piano) 
Collection: John Fusto

Bill Of Lading

1928 Trip Pass Sag Harbor
Collection: Dave Keller

Freight Notice

1940 World's Fair

 
1967 Parlor Car East

LIRR Form 53 Student Pass
46 Trip Ticket
Collection: John Fusto

LIRR Freight Service MTA Pamphlet
Collection: John Fusto

Form 166

500 Mileage Ticket 1917
Collection: John Fusto

500 Mileage Ticket Back 1917
Collection: John Fusto

Half Fare Ticket
It's a cash fare purchased ON BOARD the train and issued by trainmen/conductors/ticket collectors.

It had been issued under the authority of the United States Railway Administration (USRA) which took control of all  USA railroads beginning at the outset of WWI in 1917 until 1920.  

The LIRR used USRA marked forms until the early 1920s. I have a train order from 1921 that still says USRA across the top.  Just using up old stationery, I guess.  Why not?

Seeing the ticket also lists the Manhattan Beach branch, which was abandoned to passenger service in 1924, this ticket was issued between 1917 and 1924. 

Collection: John Fusto
History: Dave Keller  

Shipment of a bag of gold coins, valued at $1,000 going via Wells, Fargo & Co. from San Francisco on the steamer "Golden City" to Panama, then land transfer to Aspinwall on the east coast and whatever connecting steamer will take it on to New York City.  1864

(This was typical of the hazardous shipping of valued merchandise before the days of the Panama Canal! Transcontinental railroad wasn't yet in place, either, and there was a war going on! ) History: Dave Keller

Wading River station - 1 box - 1877
Collection: Dave Keller

Wading River station - from Port Jeff 101 feet of molded white pine - 1896
Collection: Dave Keller

Riverhead station from Westbury - 3 bundles of trees - 1878 Collection: Dave Keller

Manor station - 1 barrel sweet potatoes 
1877 Collection: Dave Keller

To Agent at Eastport - Shipping rates on berries - LIRR Traffic Dept. - 1890
Collection: Dave Keller

And another interesting one. A shipment of lime from Amityville to St. Catherine's Infirmary at Maywood Siding, the famous siding along the Central Extension where Charles "Mile-a-Minute" Murphy made his famous bicycle ride behind a LIRR train in 1899 (only 10 years earlier!). The directions on the bill say "Central Extension . . . near Farmingdale." Guess the train crew didn't know where it was . . . 

Back then, lime was used for two major purposes: 
1. Dump down the openings under the outhouse seats to kill the smell and disintegrate the waste collected
2. Use to assist in the decomposition of dead bodies

Being an infirmary, they may have used it for both those purposes, such as when they had a "John Doe" or "Jane Doe" in the morgue.

LIRR Waybill Blank 1965 "Dashing Dan" logo
Collection: Dave Keller

 
1962 Commutation Weekly Ticket for Henry Keller, Dave Keller's Father. 
 Collection: Dave Keller

Back in the early 1970's the LIRR was on a safety campaign much like today's Operation Lifesaver. This item is a book cover. Back in my school days we were required to cover our text books with either brown paper or an accepted book cover. They came to schools with a demonstration, and also gave out freebies to the students., one of which was the book cover pictured. How I managed to save it all these years is a miracle! I used it to cover my Electrical Installation notebook. I attended a vocational high school and it seemed appropriate for me to use a LIRR book cover, as I was a railfan even back then, on my way to becoming an electrician.  

Collection and Info: Mike Kubiak

The illustrations on both these iitems, and most of the LIRR's art through the '70 and '80's, was drawn by Don Malone.  He had a trademark way of drawing people's hands. Note the kid waiting at the railroad crossing and compare it with any of Don's drawings. 

Don worked in Public Affairs back when it was called Public Relations and had a staff of three. 

He also illustrated the guy and gal holding the lantern in the Book of Rules' hand signals. When he had originally made the drawings in 1982, the characters had "flood water pants" on. Don thought that was funny. 

Transportation's Superintendent at the time, Pete Roche, said "Hay Don, what the h*ll's with the flood pants." He made them longer, and to this day in the illustrations you can see where he lenthened them.  

Don's son had become a block operator.  Currently,  Public Affairs employs over 80 and has to pay an outside artist.  The Long Island Tool

LIRR Freight Brochure reverse side 05/86
Archive: Paul Strubeck