Fort Terry - Plum Island Railway - Military Railroads of the New York Metropolitan Area

MILITARY RAILROADS
OF THE NEW YORK METROPOLITAN AREA:

PLUM ISLAND / FORT TERRY
Plum Island, Long Island Sound, Suffolk County, NY
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Ok, ok... so Fort Terry isn't really in the NY Metropolitan area. But Fort Terry had a railroad, a locomotive (which was a Porter) and that's good enough for me.

Fort Terry was located on Plum Island, which is off the north shore of Long Island just east of Orient Point and about 12 miles southwest of New London, CT. When the island was first purchased, it was the site of a lighthouse station, which is now a historical landmark.

Ft. Terry itself was founded in 1899, and was another Coastal Defense Station. It was heavily fortified with a large array of cannon and mortar for defense during the Spanish-American War. Several extensive websites on the web, cover the military history of Ft. Terry, but at this time; nothing is known about the railroad on Plum Island. One possible and most likely scenario is like the other Fort Railways: it had built to haul munitions from bunkers to the artillery batteries.

Making "on site" research difficult, is that in 1954 the island's ownership was transferred to the Department of Agriculture, which now use a portion of the island as a animal disease research facility. Many parts of the island, if not the entire island itself were/are quarantined and obtaining access to the island is difficult to say the least.

Below is a photo of the locomotive that operated on the island, courtesy of the Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center archives. I have, heard through the friend of a friend; that the locomotive is still on the island, but have not been able to prove this.

As this is the only known image of a "Fort Railway" locomotive, and being that the gaugeand wheel arrangement are the same; the appearance and style of this locomotive in all likelihood is representative of the other Fort Railways, where no images of their locomotives have surfaced to date.

photo courtesy of Plum Island Animal Disease Research Center
..

US Army Corp of Engineers, (via) New London, CT)
for Fort Terry, (Plum Island) Steam Locomotive Roster

builder	c/n	build date	gauge	wheel arrangement	wheel dia	cylinders	acquired	number / name	disposition	notes	ref
H. K. Porter	5273	3/1914	36"	0-4-0T		7" x 12"	new			apparently shipped from New London, CT	[3]

Military Railroads of the NY Metro Area - Main Page
Brooklyn Navy Yard	Brooklyn Army Terminal	Governors Island	Fort Hamilton	Fort Tilden
Fort Wadsworth	Fort Schuyler		Fort Terry	Fort Hancock (NJ)

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