Hello to the webmaster,

For the past few weeks I have read with interest your many wonderful articles about life in the Rockaways back some fifty years ago. Compelling - and quite fascinating!

However, having said that, let me present you with something of a mystery - A mystery about the Long Island Rail Road and that track fire occurring back in May of 1950. I seem to remember that fire - at least reading about it in the local papers over the following few days after it originally happened.

I remember hearing the city raised the railroad tracks to eliminate all of the street crossings about the year 1940 and that certainly was a blessing. I actually remember the LIRR trains running on those overhead tracks - when they passed by, you would have to "stop talking" to your friends and wait for the train to move into the distance - the noise they made was actually that loud.

What constitutes this mystery is that so many (in fact, all) of the articles I have read lately indicate that after the fire, the Long Island Rail Road no longer ran trains out into the Rockaways and that might not be true. Obviously they could no longer use that over-the-water Jamaica Bay route, which was severely damaged and the little mechanical drawbridge no longer operated. However, from what I remember from my own experiences was that the LIRR continued to run trains from Brooklyn and Manhattan out to the Rockaways even after the fire. That would not have been a difficult task - after all, the trains were running into Far Rockaway anyway and they just continued on, over the Mott Avenue and they then traveled west towards Rockaway Park.

I remember they closed three of the "before-existing" stations, which were Wavecrest, Edgemere at Beach 36th Street, and the Gaston Avenue Station - remember seeing the staircase entrances to those stations boarded up with large sheets of plywood.

However, the trains still continued to run and make regularly scheduled stops at Holland, Seaside, Rockaway's Playland, and finally Rockaway Park.

In order to prove my point, I have enclosed original Time Tables from the LIRR - schedules dated May 15th of 1953 and August 15th of 1955. Obviously when the city purchased the line (which included the over-head trestle) at the end of 1955, LIRR no longer would run trains on those tracks and in fact, shortly at the beginning of 1956, the overpass which crossed over the Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway was torn down. If I remember correctly, the LIRR then relocated the trains (last stop) to a new station on Nameoke and then they tore down the old train station which had been located in the heart of the town for probably some seventy-five years.

So, if we "go by" the documentation (proof) I send to you in this letter, the Long Island Rail Road trains DID indeed continue to run onto the peninsula for at least another five years AFTER that track fire in 1950.

What is the mystery to me - I don't ever ever remember those trains running on those tracks AFTER that fire. Obviously they did - because now we have those Time Tables to prove that they continued service after the Jamaica Bay route was damaged. I just cannot understand why I can't remember those trains running "up there" after the Brooklyn service was discontinued in May of 1950. Perhaps some of your readers can shed some light on some of this In any event, you are most welcome to use (or display) these two schedules that I enclose. Thanks ever so much for the excellent job you are doing with this new website.

Shirley Evans - I lived on Beach 90th Street for about six years back in the late 1940s - early 1950s. You are welcome to use any part of this letter that you wish.