OYSTER BAY, N.Y. — “It’s a Greek Tragedy. We are so close to getting things done but if we don’t act on getting temporary repairs, we’ll have nothing to save,” said Ben Jankowski, an Oyster Bay resident and chairman of the Friends of Locomotive 35 Board of Directors.
The group has been working over the past 10 years to save Locomotive 35, which they have done, and to create a Long Island Rail Road Museum. Since Oyster Bay has a station abandoned by the Long Island Rail Road and a turntable, it is a prime location for the project. The only glitch in the plan is the long delay in having the LIRR give ownership of the building to the Town of Oyster Bay, the Oyster Bay Enterprise-Pilot.
Mr. Jankowski is a member of the ad hoc (a one issue group) Station Restoration Committee to save the Oyster Bay LIRR station. The seven members include John Collins, architectural historian and a member of the Town of Oyster Bay Landmarks Preservation Commission; Jim Foote, TR impersonator; Marie Knight, president of the Oyster Bay Civic Association; Dave Morrison, former LIRR branch line manager; Tom Kuehhas, Oyster Bay Historical Society director, the group that will manage the proposed Oyster Bay Railroad Museum; and Mr. Jankowski.
Mr. Kuehhas said the committee met with James Warren of the landmarks division of the NYS Parks, Recreation and Historic Places Office on Nov. 7. “He said the station building and the turntable should be eligible for the state landmarks register,” said Mr. Kuehhas. “NYS Landmark status is important because it will allow us to apply for restoration grants from the state. We need money for the restoration of the station and the turntable and to plan educational programs,” he said. “The one problem is the condition of the building. You can see the way the rafters are being rotted away and if we aren’t diligent about keeping the rainwater from coming into the building this winter, things will get even worse.
“The LIRR in May 1996 promised to give the station to the town and there has been delay after delay and here we are in 2002 and the LIRR hasn’t done anything to maintain the building in that time. All they had to do was patch the roof. It could have stopped the water from coming in.
“I think it is unconscionable that the LIRR real estate division would even think of handing over the station in such a deplorable condition,” said Mr. Kuehhas. “Currently there are holes in the roof and water is going into the waiting room and is pooled in the plastic bucket seats they have there. The water is rotting out the beams of the original station that have been there for almost 115 years. These beams are from the original station built in 1889,” he said.
“John Collins estimated that it would take $4,500 to do enough work to keep the rafters from collapsing into the building and to put enough shingles on the south side of the roof to prevent the rainwater from coming in,” he said.
Dave Morrison characterized the lack of care with a simile: “I liken it to promising my son my car, saying I’m getting a new one and he can have it. Then I keep driving it but don’t maintain it or change the oil. I don’t maintain the gift in good condition.”
Mr. Morrison said, “We are not asking the LIRR for a restoration, just to put it into the condition it was in 1996 when it was promised to us. It’s the decent thing to do. On a rainy day the water gushes into the building,” he said.
An inspection of the building on Saturday, Nov. 9 showed the damage was worse than they had believed. A two by four board had been wedged into the area around the dormer. From the outside the west end of the dormer appears to be sinking into the roof, reported Mr. Morrison.
The station was open to visitors the day the Friends of Locomotive 35 held their annual meeting in the building on Sept. 7. Hanging on the wall was a sign alerting workers that rain leaking into the building was setting off the alarm system.
Mr. Morrison knew of the problem. “Ask the local fire department. They have to respond and they are annoyed by having to respond to the false alarms,” he said.
When asked if the station would be repaired, the present Oyster Bay Branch Manager Paul Bisono said, “The railroad is looking at five different stations on the Oyster Bay branch. I don’t make the decision as to which station is rehabilitated. I only make recommendations, not the decisions,” he said. The branch includes the Locust Valley, Glen Head, Glenwood Landing stations several of which haven’t been completely renovated, he said.
Station History
There is a great deal of Oyster Bay history wrapped up in the railroad station. John Hammond, local historian, has a photograph of Theodore Roosevelt sitting on the platform of the station in 1901, reading a newspaper. It shows the original building was made of brick, as it is today. The photo is dated about a month before TR became president on Sept. 14, 1901.
The Oyster Bay Landmarks Commission recommended the Town of Oyster Bay put the station on its list of local landmarks, which it did. The Landmark Commission chose the date of 1902, the time when the building was refurbished.
“The original station had a porte cochere (a covered porch that would allow horse drawn carriages to pull up to the station so the passengers could alight without being affected by the weather) which was removed in the 1902 remodeling of the station,” said Mr. Hammond.
“I tried to get them to reword the application so it would include that the bulding was built in 1889. The date might prohibit the reconstruction of the porte cochere,” said Mr. Hammond. “Right now there is no question that that is the 1889 building. What is sad is that it has deteriorated more in the time since the railroad said they would give it to us, than in the prior 100 years.”
More Delays
The restoration of Engine 35 is also being delayed. The LIRR is giving a portion of its land to the Town of Oyster Bay for the railroad museum. The details of the arrangement are still being hammered out. As a result, the Friends of Locomotive 35 volunteers are unable to work on the engine as it underwent a forced move from Mitchell Field to allow the Children’s Museum to be built.
Still, the Friends are very active taking care of other parts of the collection including two cabooses, a World’s Fair car and other equipment. They are also involved in fundraising. Last year they spent the funds from their Oyster Festival booth on tools they needed to do their repair work on the trains.
Perfect Location
John Hammond wrote in his newest book Oyster Bay Remembered: “There is no more appropriate spot on Long Island for a railway museum; it was here in Oyster Bay that some of the LIRR’s most newsworthy events took place. In 1891 the railroad instituted its short-lived plan to load rail cars from New York City onto the Cape Charles from an extended dock here, ship them across to Connecticut and connect them to Housatonic Railroad engines to get to Boston.
Oyster Bay was also the site of the worst locomotive boiler accident in the history of the railroad, when engine No. 113 exploded early in the morning of September 9, 1891. A few years later when Theodore Roosevelt became president of the Police Board of New York City, he became a regular commuter from Oyster Bay. The original 1889 railroad station had a porte cochere on its south side; the station was extensively remodeled in 1902, with long covered walkways and baggage ramps. These were removed in the 1920s, giving the station its current configuration.”
As we went to press, Brian Dolan, LIRR vice president of market development and public affairs, was expected to get back to this newspaper regarding plans for the station.