Pelham Park and City Island Railway

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Pelham Park and City Island Railway
monorail car
Exterior view of City Island Railroad car, c. 1910
Overview
Localethe Bronx, New York City
Dates of operation1884 (1884) as two companies
1913 (1913) merger–1914 (1914)
PredecessorPelham Park Railroad Company
City Island Railroad
SuccessorThird Avenue Railway
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Previous gauge3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) and monorail
Interior view of car, c. 1910
The Flying Lady derailment, 1910

The Pelham Park and City Island Railroad was a short street railway in the Bronx, New York City, which connected City Island with the Bartow station of the Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad in the mainland Bronx. For most of its existence it was horse-drawn; between 1910 and 1914, the portion on the mainland operated as a monorail system. The lone operational monorail car was nicknamed The Flying Lady.[1][2]

History[]

Two views of horse-drawn carriages on the Pelham Park Railroad.

The line was incorporated as two companies on August 30, 1884; the Pelham Park Railroad Company and the City Island Railroad.[3] The two would connect end to end at Marshall's Corner on Rodman's Neck, just short of the bridge to City Island. At the time the territory to be traversed lay entirely within the Town of Pelham in Westchester County. The Pelham Park Railroad Company was designated as the operator of the 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge system.[4] The line opened from the Cass Gilbert designed Bartow station[5] to Marshall's Corner on May 20, 1887. Five days later operations were extended across the bridge to City Island and along City Island Avenue to Brown's Hotel. By 1892 the line had reached Belden's Point, its final terminal. The length of the combined system was 3.2 miles (5.1 km).

On April 8, 1889, an accident occurred. Several hundred passengers had taken the Harlem River Branch Railroad to Bartow Station, where they transferred to horse-drawn cars for the trip to City Island; six passenger cars were augmented by two horse-drawn flatbed freight cars, on which 50-60 of the passengers were conveyed, many of them standing. The lead car overturned on a sharp curve approaching the City Island Bridge, resulting in many injuries, some of them severe. There were reports that the driver was intoxicated; officials of the railroad denied that, but stated that he might have been guilty of reckless driving.[6]

In 1895 New York City annexed the area now called the East Bronx and the area through which the horsecars ran was included within the new boundaries.

In 1895, City Island resident Richard S. Williams filed a complaint with the Board of State Railroad Commissioners that the two companies were unlawfully double-charging passengers. Mr. Williams contends that as the two companies were "practically one railroad line", they should be charging a single 5-cent fare, instead of the 5 cents being individually charged by each.[7]

On March 14, 1902, some two years before it began operating New York City's first subway, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) took control of the two companies.

Monorail[]

Approximate route of Pelham Park Railroad on a modern map. Note that major geographic features (shoreline, roads) are significantly different from what they were at the time the railroad was built.

An experimental operation of a monorail by Howard Hansel Tunis at the Jamestown (Virginia) exposition of 1907 impressed the management of the Pelham Park Railroad and during the winter of 1908-09 permission was obtained to construct a similar electric monorail from the New York State Public Service Commission. In October 1908, application was made to the New York State Public Service Commission to change the motive power of the railroad from horse to overhead electric current. A hearing was held on November 6th and final approval issued on November 17th. The route was described as:[8]

Beginning at or near Bartow Station on the Harlem River and Portchester Railroad; then to along and through the street known as Third street to the highway known as the Shore road; thence along and across the said Shore road to the highway known as the City Island road; then trough, along, and upon the said City Island road to a junction with the City Island Railroad at or near Marshall's Corner.

The monorail, between the Bartow station and Marshall's Corner, opened for regular service in mid-July, 1910 (variously reported as the 16th or 17th), although it unofficially began carrying passengers two days earlier. Service was provided by a single car, capable of reaching 50–60 miles per hour (80–97 km/h). The car toppled over on its maiden voyage while rounding a curve with 100 passengers aboard; twice the normal capacity.[5] Operation was immediately suspended.[9][10] Service was ultimately restored on November 14, 1910. The monorail was not a success and the IRT forced the companies into bankruptcy on December 4, 1911. The monorail on the line's western end and the narrow gauge horsecar line on the eastern end continued to operate.

Conversion to standard gauge and termination of service[]

In 1913, the IRT decided to convert the line to a 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge electric trolley system and with this in mind, merged the two companies into a new entity, the Pelham Park and City Island Railroad, which took over operation on July 1, 1913. The trackage across the bridge and on City Island was converted to standard gauge, with leased New York Railways horsecars taking over the service. The monorail ceased operation on April 3, 1914, with service temporarily operated by a leased bus from Fifth Avenue Coach Lines.

On July 9, 1914, the company was sold to the Third Avenue Railway by its owner, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company.[11] After taking control on August 1, 1914 the Third Avenue quickly completed construction of the standard gauge railway, but did not install overhead wire. The last horsecar in the Bronx completed its run during the midday hours on August 18, 1914 and the first storage battery car began operation from Bartow to the line's end on City Island 15 minutes later.

In 1919, the Third Avenue Railway petitioned the New York Public Service Commission to permit abandonment, on the grounds of insufficient funds to continue operation, the permission being granted.[12] Operation ceased on August 9, 1919.[13]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ John R. Day (1960). More Unusual Railways. London: Frederick Muller Ltd.
  2. ^ Bill Twomey (2007). The Bronx: In Bits and Pieces. Rooftop Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-60008-062-3.
  3. ^ The City Record (PDF). New York City. October 29, 1909. p. 11370.
  4. ^ Editors of the Electric Railway Journal (1907). American Street Railway Investments. New York: McGraw Publishing Company. p. 217. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  5. ^ a b Upham, Ben (2000-11-12). "CITY LORE; The Timetable of Age Overtakes Stations". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-09-12.
  6. ^ "Injured by a Car Tipping Over". The New York Daily Tribune. April 8, 1889. p. 7 (column 3). Retrieved September 14, 2021.
  7. ^ "News of the Railroads: The Question of Consolidated Companies Charging Two Fares" (PDF). The New York Times. November 21, 1895. p. 2. Retrieved September 10, 2021.
  8. ^ Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District of the State of New York for the year ending December 31, 1908 (Vol II: Orders, Opinions and Reports). Albany, New York. 1909. p. 172.
  9. ^ "MONORAIL CAR FAILS IN ITS FIRST TEST; But Electricians and Officials of Pelham Park & City Island Line Say That Was Expected" (PDF). The New York Times. 1910-07-08. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  10. ^ Metcalfe, John (2014-07-16). "On This Day in 1910, New York's Monorail Suffered a Grievous Wreck". CityLab. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
  11. ^ "City Island Road Sold". The New York Times. July 10, 1914.
  12. ^ State of New York Public Service Commission for the First District (1919). Thirteenth Annual Report. State of New York. pp. 264–265.
  13. ^ State of New York Public Service Commission for the First District (1920). Fourteenth Annual Report. State of New York. pp. 398.

External links[]

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