DIVIDE interlocking is very sprawled out, it spans almost three miles in length from west to east. Because of that, in order to fit everything onto one diagram, it may appear kinda small. But there will be enlarged portions of the diagram below for easier viewing, so you can stop reaching for those magnifying glasses.
DIVIDE interlocking gets its name for the apparent "divide" in the tracks that appears when the Port Jefferson Branch splits off to the northeast from the mainline, which curves southeast. Simply stand at the east end of the Hicksville Platform and you can see where the name comes from:
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| The Hicksville Divide. In this photo, from the back of a train, the Port Jefferson Branch splits off to the left, and the Mainline continues to the right. (Photo credit: Wikimapia/sturmovik) |
Switches
DIVIDE interlocking begins a way to the west of Hickville. Approaching the interlocking from the west, DIVIDE begins just to the east of the Wantagh Parkway underpass (you can see this part of the interlocking from the parkway).
Here's the first zoomed in map of DIVIDE, the limit shown there is the far western limit of the interlocking:
So the first switch we encounter from the east to the west is a crossover from Mainline 2 (the eastbound track) to Mainline 1 (the westbound track). Passenger trains don't usual use this switch in normal operations, but work and freight trains will use it from time to time to use the next switch.
Next, the North Track spits off from Mainline 1 (that's the black line directly to the north of Mainline 1 in the diagram). The North Track is used on some occasions during peak hours to store a train that begins or ends its run in Hicksville. But mainly it is usually home to an MP15-AC or two camping out there to get out of the way. The North Track is powered by third rail, so an M7 can camp out there if need be.
From the North Track splits off the Runaround Track. The Runaround Track is used to "runaround" engines when necessary, though it usually it isn't necessary. "Runaround" is a railway term meaning to run an engine around the train. So back in the days before cab cars, when a train reached its destination and wanted to change direction, they had to physically uncouple the engine from the front of the train, pull it forward, reverse it onto another track, past the train, over another switch, then pull it forward onto the track with the train on it and recouple it to the train, so now the locomotive would be on the back of the train, ready to pull the train forward in the other direction. But then somebody invented cab cars, and the need to runaround engines at every end point went away (thankfully). During ordinary LIRR operations with cab cars and the like, there is seldom an occasion where they have to runaround an engine. The Runaround Track does not have third rail.
About halfway down the Runaround Track, the lead track for the Hicksville Team Yard splits off. "Team Yards" are sidings or yards where one or more freight customers share the yard and receive goods through that one siding or yard. The Hicksville Team Yard is three tracks and is home to two customers: Eastern Wholesale Fence, which receives polyvinyl in covered hoppers, and Consolidated Edison (commonly known as Con-Ed), which receives Di-Electric Fluid(whatever that is) in tankers. There's almost always a couple tankers hanging out here for Con-Ed, and they're swapped out from time to time by NYAR.
Further down the runaround track there's a small stub track that splits of. It currently serves no purpose and sits empty most of the time.
After that the Runaround Track merges into the North Track and there is a crossover from the North Track back to Mainline 1. The North Track continues on east and ends in a bumper block a couple hundred yards east. Then there's another crossover from Mainline 1 back to Mainline 2, so a train from the North Track can get to both Mainline tracks on either side of the interlocking fairly quickly.
Then we pass Milepost 24 (which is 24 miles from Long Island City), and we move onto the next zoomed in diagram:
We proceed east a little more and the speed limit drops down from 80 m.p.h. to 40 m.p.h. for the rest of the interlocking. Right after the speed change, there's a signal bridge and a crossover from Mainline 2 to Mainline 1. Then Station track 1 splits off from Mainline 1 and goes off to the left of Platform A. There's another crossover from Mainline 1 to Mainline 2, and then those tracks then become Station track 2 and Station track 3 (confusing, I know).
The tracks through the station are really (from north to south) considered Mainline 3 on top, Mainline 1 in the middle, and Mainline 2 being the southernmost one. That's far too confusing for passengers, however, so they get the silly station track designations instead.
Fun fact: Platform B at Hicksville (the southern one) is tied for being the second-longest in the system. Platforms E, F, and G in Penn Station are the longest, being 17 cars long (the longest in North America too, if I'm not mistaken). Then Hicksville and Bellmore are tied for second place with 14 car platforms. The LIRR doesn't run any trains longer than 12 cars (the M3/M7's can't go longer than 12 and a 14 car diesel train would probably require a third engine), so these platforms just offer more room for distracted commuters buried in their iPhones to fall off the platform, but I digress.
Hicksville station, in its dilapidated state and all, is the fifth buisiest station in the system (behind New York/Brooklyn/Jamaica and Ronkonkoma), so needles to say Hicksville sees quite the large lot of people over the course of the day. The huge ridership at this station hasn't really inspired the LIRR to make it any less crummy or at least install some benches (a pet peeve of mine), but they have claimed that they're going to put some money into the station at some point.
East of the station, things get a little hairy. Beginning with station track 3 (Mainline 2), immediately east of the station there's a switch, where you can either stay straight on and stay on Mainline 2 towards Ronkonkoma, or you can diverge to the left where you're lined right up with Port Jefferson 2 towards Huntington. 90% of eastbound trains arrive on station track 3 at Hicksville and diverge here towards points east.
Station 2/Mainline 1 is directly lined up with Port Jefferson 1, so a westbound Port Jefferson Branch train has a straight shot through the interlocking onto Station 2/Mainline 1.
Station 1/Mainline 3 leaves the station going east and merges right back into Mainline 1. But this is where it gets confusing. Where Station 1 merges into Mainline 1, there is a diamond/double slip switch here, so a train from Station 1 can either go straight over the diamond and head east on Mainline 2, or make a quick left and go east on Port Jefferson 1 instead. Most westbound Ronkonkoma Branch trains use this switch to stay on Mainline 1 right through the interlocking and platform on Station 2 (the middle track) instead of going with the straightest route and landing on Station 1. [deep breath]
Mainline 1 then goes east just a tad more where there's another diamond/double slip switch that allows a train on Mainline 1 to go either straight onto Mainline 1 or left onto Port Jefferson 2. Now at this switch the switch that first broke off from Station 3/Mainline 2 before towards Port Jefferson 2 meets here, and allows trains from Station 3/Mainline 2 to get to Mainline 1 if a train wanted to go from the eastbound to the westbound tracks right after Hicksville. There's a couple trains that make this maneuver through the interlocking, one of them being that evening peak superlocal train that terminates at Farmingdale on track 1 (it leaves New York around 4:54). There's a reverse-peak eastbound train in the morning that does that move as well, if I'm not mistaken.
At this point, the two branches part ways, and the Port Jefferson Branch curves to the left, and the Mainline curves to the right. The two branches continue east a ways before they go over one last switch each, shown in this diagram. (note, I combined the two diagrams together for simplicity):
The Port Jefferson one goes from Port Jefferson 2 to Port Jefferson 1, then the interlocking ends. The speed limit upgrades once again to 80 shortly after that last signal bridge. On the Mainline, there's a crossover form Mainline 1 to Mainline 2 before the interlocking ends. If you're wondering why there's not a crossover back in the other direction at these locations, its because those moves could be taken care of with the mess of switches back right before the divide.
At that point, the interlocking finally ends. Hooray!
Signals
DIVIDE interlocking has those old-style position light signals with the yellow lights. There's all types of signals(gantries, pedestals, you name it) all over the place, and explaining all of them would take far too long!
Towers
DIVIDE interlocking is home to DIVIDE tower, which sits right at the fork between the two branches:
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| Pardon the blurriness, it was taken from my moving train! |
Neighbors
To the west, the nearest interlocking is NASSAU, which begins just west of Carle Place. To the east along the Port Jefferson Branch, the nearest interlocking is AMOTT and along the Mainline, the next interlocking going east is BETH.
So that wraps this one up. DUKE is up next week. (That one's nice and easy though!)
Newtonville, MA and Lorton, VA have platforms that hold a good 20+ cars, so those probably hold the record. Even Newark, NJ has platforms that could hold at least 18 cars if the fenced off sections were reopened.
ReplyDeleteApologies, I should have been more specific, I meant the longest high level platform in North America!
Delete~ Patrick @ The LIRR Today