If you could bear with me through this, since it's the LIRR's newest interlocking, I'm doing it blind, as I haven't had a chance to either visit it myself or nail down the exact limits from somebody who knows them. One of the thing's I'm also iffy about is the interlocking's actual name(!). I've heard conflicting reports, some say it's WM named after the block limit that was there other say it's WEST HEMPSTEAD completely spelled out. I'm more inclined to believe the former, as every other interlocking name on the LIRR is only one word, and "WEST HEMSPTEAD" is awfully long. Naturally, if you know for sure and you see I've gone wrong someplace, don't hesitate to drop me a line or leave a comment. Anyways, here's a bird's eye view of the location.
(West Hempstead is one of those north-south branches so the diagram gets rather large!)
While the naming behind WM interlocking is complicated, the interlocking itself is not. The West Hempstead Branch is single-tracked for it's entire length. Going west (compass north), the branch is single tracked right up until just before the platforms where the POCKET track splits off from the MAIN track to go around West Hempstead's island platform. At West Hempstead, the tracks technically aren't numbered '1' and '2,' but rather 'POCKET' for the westernmost one and 'MAIN' for the easternmost one. It's like CI interlocking with MAIN and SIDING tracks, however due to the risk of confusing people, the LIRR just uses numbers '1' and '2' on the information displays at the stations for simplicity.
There is also the West Hempstead Yard at this location. The tracks for the West Hempstead yard branch extend west/compass south of the station tracks as they come out of the station. The way the yard is setup, you can only access the yard by going into the station first, then proceeding into the yard. A setup like this is convenient enough since all trains coming out of the yard would have to go into the station anyways to start their runs. The setup is similar to what's seen at Far Rockaway and simpler than yards like the ones at Port Washington, Hemsptead, or Long Beach where you have to go forward out of the yard, onto the main, then reverse back into the station.
The yard itself consists of two tracks, FENCE and LONG. The FENCE track is shorter and runs, as you might guess, along the fence. This track is a direct extension from the POCKET track in the station, however, it can also be accessed by a crossover from the LONG track.
The LONG track, as you might also have guessed, is rather long. So long, actually, that it extends all the way west to Hempstead Gardens station, and is visible from the platform there. The LONG track looks like it would only be able to hold a 12-car set, so it's not as long as you may think, but in the relative terms of the tiny West Hempstead Branch, it is rather long.
WM interlocking consists of one big position light signal smacked down in the middle of the interlocking with other dwarf signals scattered about. All of the switches are controlled with a few clicks of a mouse from VALLEY tower at the other end of the branch.
While WM interlocking is currently the LIRR's newest, it won't hold that title for much longer. If you've skimmed this month's MTA Board LIRR Committee meeting notes you know what I'm talking about, if not, I'll have a whole bunch of posts on the upcoming project on the east end of Long Island pretty soon (I'm waiting to hear back from the MTA/others to clarify some terms they used in the document, so that might take a couple days, but it's coming).
Next week we'll take a look at WOOD interlocking east of Woodside.
LONG siding would have been part of the double track that they never built. Conduits for 3rd rail cables for the phantom track are in place along the branch.
ReplyDeleteWhen Train 901 was a direct train to Brooklyn until around 1980, 3 trains laid up overnight, but residents did not like the noise from the humming motor-alternators of the M-1's all night on the LONG siding, so they now have to deadhead trains in the reverse peak direction so that only 2 trains can lay up over night and the weekend.
Ironic that they put an investment into fully signalling the Branch as they were about to kill weekend service.
As you might know, that is not the original station. It used to be between Hempstead Avenue and Fulton Street where the car wash is, and the double track extended to just north of Country Life Press station. I vaguely remember it being there, torn up in the early 1960's.