Interlocking Walkthrough: AMOTT

This week's interlocking walkthrough takes us to Syosset, 30.5 miles from Long Island City on the eastern edge of Nassau County. (Here's a bird's eye view of the location)

Here's a diagram of AMOTT interlocking, it's in-between two stations, but still quite a ways east of Syosset Station:

AMOTT interlocking has some interesting history behind it.  From the inception of the LIRR until 1985 the Port Jefferson Branch was single-tracked east of here.  So before 1985, trains on the Port Jefferson branch would merge into one singe track at this location, and this was single track territory all the way to Huntington.  So in 1985 the LIRR rid themselves of this bottleneck and constructed a second track from this point to Huntington, greatly increasing flexibility along the branch.

And AMOTT interlocking's name has a bit of history behind it too.  The interlocking is named after retired LIRR engineers Joseph, Charles, and James Amott.

The interlocking itself went into service on October 7, 1961.


Switches
This interlocking, like AMITYVILLE is very basic in form.  It's just two switches, from Port Jefferson 2 (eastbound track/bottom of the diagram) to Port Jefferson 1 (westbound track/top of diagram), and back from Port Jefferson 1 to Port Jefferson 2.  This interlocking sits on the Port Jefferson Branch, which splits form the Mainline at Hicksville.

When the LIRR constructed the second track they left AMOTT interlocking in service, reverting it to its current use.  Nowadays AMOTT isn't used for all that much.  It adds a good bit of flexibility along the line and is used occasionally to switch trains between the tracks, but it has no real regular use other than a small handful of rush-hour or deadhead trains.


Signals
The signals at AMOTT interlocking are the older-style position lights (big round ones with yellow lights).  The signals are hung on two gantries at either end of the interlocking, controlling both tracks and switches through the area.  The signals look very similar to the ones in this photo of the signals at WANTAGH interlocking before they were replaced a couple years ago.


Towers
The tower at AMOTT interlocking has unfortunately gone the way of many, many towers on the LIRR--it's gone.  The switches and signals at AMOTT interlocking are controlled by DIVIDE tower, a couple miles to the west near Hicksville station.


Neighbors
AMOTT is bordered to the west by DIVIDE interlocking, a fairly complex interlocking where the Port Jefferson Branch and Mainline meet in Hicksville.  It's neighbor to the east is all the way near Huntington at HUNT interlocking.

Next week we'll take a look at BABYLON interlocking, which lies at the eastern tip of the electrified Babylon Branch.