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MILITARY RAILROADS & LOCOMOTIVES
OF THE
NEW YORK METROPOLITAN AREA

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Direct Tv updated: FRIDAY, 08 MAY 2009 - 01:00 ..
update summary	date	location
BNY page expanded	05/08/09	BNY
Fort Hancock page created	04/20/09	Ft Hancock
website broken up into seperate pages	04/19/09	List
locomotives & data added	04/18/09	BAT
BNY 1917 photo of unidentified loco (with submarine)	04/04/08	BNY

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~ Introduction ~

   Hello &Welcome!

   On this website, you will find locomotives and a history of railroads that were located on military bases and installations in the New York Metropolitan Area.

These railways and locomotives served in many ways: some facilities were coastal defense batteries, and overs were Quartermaster Supply Depots, while the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was a shipyard!

   There is not a great deal known about most of there operations. Matter of fact, hardly anything is known about the railways that operated in the Forts, and very little if anything, remains to be explored or viewed. The Governor's Island Railroad is mentioned on several websites, but no longer exists in any form, as with Forts Hamilton, Wadsworth, Schuyler and Terry. Remnants of the Fort Tilden Railroad remain, but little documentation is to be found. For the most part, we are left in a vacuum.

   Fortunately, Fort Tilden is now part of the Gateway National Recreation Area and is open to the public. Here, you can follow tracks from a sand dune, into the fortifications also known as"batteries" . Being this is the one facility that has remains and is open to the public, I was able to visit the facility and take a quantity of photographs. Af far as can be learned, this is the only Military Base that I have visited that exhibits remains of a railroad.

   The Brooklyn Navy Yard literally is covered with the remains of the railroad that once operated there, with a great deal of abandoned trackage and structures remaining in place. This is the most researched and documented facility, as Tom Flagg composed an article on the Brooklyn Navy Yard Railroad and operations in the July - December 2005 / Number 43 issue of Transfer Magazine, published by the Rail Marine Information Group.

   It must be kept in mind that the BNY operation survived after the Government's control, when operation of the BNY trackage was contracted to the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal. A portion of the BNY railway network was active as late a 1995, when the successor to the BEDT, the new York Cross Harbor RR transported subway cars to and from a transit car builder in residence at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

   As for the other Military Railroad locations, the only one remaining is Fort Tilden. Fortunately, Fort Tilden is located in the Gateway National Recreation Area and is open to the public. Here, you can actually follow trackage from a sand dune to a fortification or "battery" . Some of the original structures remain as well. As this is the one facility that is accessible to public, I was able to take a great deal of photographs which can be viewed in the fort Tilden chapter of this website.

   As for Fort Terry / Plum Island, well... It would be nice to visit to see if anything remains. But, considering what the island was and still is used for (Animal Disease Research) I am not so sure I should even try, considering this heightened age of paranoia!

   There are many interesting questions that abound regarding these locomotives used at these facilities. Most were of 36" gauge (with the exception of Brooklyn Navy Yard and Governor's Island). No photographs seem to exist on the the world wide web, although I do hold out hope that I will locate some images in a military archives or library.

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Authors Note:

   I have been in communication with a member of the US Army at Fort Eustis (US Army Transportation Museum) who is researching the locomotives listed below under a FOIA request. His reply email appears below this section, but locomotives he listed  in that email, were not yet "discovered" by me; so they were listed under their respective installations. Further updates will be uploaded as warranted.

For those of you who are interested!

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   I have received a reply to my FOIA request of 28 April 2007; requesting of the US Army, Fort Eustis Transportation Command and Museum any information regarding steam locomotive operations on US Military Installations in New York Metropolitan area. Here is an excerpt from that email:

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• Ft Hamilton - Per Installation map current to 15/3/35 - No rail trackage

• Ft Terry - Per Installation map current to 28/3/21 - No rail trackage

• Ft Schuyler - Per Installation map current to 3/1/22 - No rail trackage

• Ft Wadsworth - Per Installation map current to 15/3/38 - No rail trackage

• Ft Tilden - Per Installation map current to 15/3/35 - Internal rail net only
  with engine house near the Quartermaster Wharf.

I have checked the Baldwin builders list and was able to identify the following:

• 22726 08/03 2-4-2T Brooklyn Navy Yard No #

• 25743 0-4-0E U S Government - Governors Island No # - 20 hp Electric

After 1914 apparently engines were ordered in bulk lots and distributed as needed.

I forgot to write down the date for the electric but I will advise after I check the Alco & Porter lists to see what I can find.

PFC Van Derveer

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Reference Number Chart

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Special Thanks To:

Paul F. Strubeck
friend & fellow railroad historian

Tom Flagg
for his assistance and information on the Brooklyn Navy Yard,
and the use of his research

Cynthia Franco
DeGolyer Library of Southern Methodist University

Donald Nute
use of his pictures of BNY #7 under restoration

Joseph Roborecky
proofreading, assistance & support

Allen Stanley
for furnishing his collection of builders records that was essential to
discovering the locomotives that were used at the Military Bases in the NY Area

Alverita D. Mack,
June Pagan,
Hanh Lam,
Evert Bono, and
PFC Robert Van Derveer
of the United States Army Transportation Museum; Fort Eustis, VA
for information per my request on steam locomotives on NY Area Military Installations

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Author's Contact info:

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AUTHOR.

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