Long Beach Following Hurricane Sandy

Hurricane Sandy, a category 1 hurricane that struck the New York Metropolitan Area towards the end of October 2012.  The hurricane hit the New York metro hard, but many communities along the Long Island southern shore were particularly devastated.  Flooding was one of the main causes of damage in those hard-hit south shore communities.  While many southern towns faced bad damage, some of the most damage was caused to the city of Long Beach and the communities along the Long Beach Branch.

Heavy damage was sustained to the Long Beach station and yard, and many of the third rail substations along the branch.

Oceanside (Photo credit: MTA Flickr)

Island Park flooded (Photo Credit: MTA Flickr)

Long  Beach Yard flooded (Photo credit: MTA Flickr)

A boat washed up on the tracks just before LEAD drawbridge
(Photo credit: MTA Flickr)

A pleasure boat, complete with its dock, parked a ways from water sits in
the parking lot of Island Park station (Photo credit: MTA Flickr)

So as you can see some of the damage was really, really bad.  Short of the tracks themselves, anything that the salt water got at (substations, signals, relay boxes, etc.) would have to be replaced.

Prospects of a speedy restoration of service on the Long Beach branch looked dim.  A week or so after the hurricane service was restored to all of the branches in at least some respect--except the Long Beach branch.  At this time the Long Beach branch would be served by busses, which at first went from Lynbrook (where passengers could connect to trains) to Island Park.  Bus service was eventually extended to Long Beach a couple days later.

So the LIRR employees got to work, making every effort to restore service:

Crews working in Long Beach Yard following Hurricane Sandy
(Photo credit: MTA Flickr)

Crews working in Long Beach Yard following Hurricane Sandy
(Photo credit: MTA Flickr)

Crews getting ready to work at Long Beach Yard
(Photo credit: MTA Flickr)

Upon evaluating the damage along the Long Beach Branch it was apparent to LIRR crews that it would take a while before electric trains could move along the branch.

But diesel trains would be able to work--as they wouldn't need to use the third rail power (which wasn't working).  So hats off to the LIRR for coming up with a nice, creative solution to quite a vexing problem.

So they readied the diesels and cars and made the announcement.  Electric trains would operate between Penn Station and Lynbrook, and at Lynbrook, passengers would be able to transfer for diesel service to Long Beach.  Service was scheduled to run every two hours during the daytime (no service overnight just yet).

But the creative solution of sending diesels down the Long Beach branch sent these engines to locations they have seen only a very small handful of times.  It certainly made for some great photo opportunities indeed:

Diesel train leaving Lynbrook station (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel  train leaving Lynbrook bound for Long Beach
(Photo credit: Steve Lnych)

Diesel train pulling into Centre Avenue (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel train at East Rockaway (Photo credit: Steve Lynch) 

Diesel Train getting ready to leave Oceanside (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel train leaving Long Beach station (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel Train on LEAD drawbridge (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel Train in Island Park (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel Train in Long Beach Station (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel train on LEAD drawbridge (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

Diesel train in Long Beach station (Photo credit: Steve Lynch)

So diesel trains ran along the Long Beach Branch for a short while with success--Long Beach branch customers were able to board trains at their stations once again.

 A short while later, electric service was restored to the Long Beach Branch (with a few cancellations). Long Beach Branch service has since been restored to the "status quo" and everything is now (thankfully) operating normally.

While seeing diesel trains on the Long Beach Branch following the hurricane was an interesting and welcomed sight, I bet the riders along the Long Beach branch are more than happy to have their full, normal, electric train service finally restored.