300px, Approximate location of the former Springfield Junction today Springfield Junction was a junction between the

Long Island Rail Road The Long Island Rail Road , or LIRR, is a Rail transport, railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County, New York, Suffolk County on Long Islan ...

Montauk Branch The Montauk Branch is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. The line runs the length of Long Island, 115 miles (185 km) from Long Island City to Montauk. However, in LIRR maps and sche ...

and

Atlantic Branch The Atlantic Branch is an electrified rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It is the only LIRR line with revenue passenger service in the borough of Brooklyn. The line consists of two secti ...

Laurelton, Queens Laurelton is a largely middle-class neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens and part of the former town of Jamaica. Merrick Boulevard, which bisects the community in a generally east–west direction, forms its commercial spine. It ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. It was located at the place where those two branches now begin to parallel, just east of Laurelton station and half a mile east of

Springfield Boulevard Springfield Boulevard is a major north/south roadway that runs through the eastern section of Queens, New York. It is long and goes from Northern Boulevard in Bayside, to 147th Avenue in Springfield Gardens. Springfield Boulevard runs throug ...

. No rail station was located at the junction itself, however

Springfield Gardens Springfield Gardens is a neighborhood in the southeastern area of the New York City borough of Queens, bounded to the north by St. Albans, to the east by Laurelton and Rosedale, to the south by John F. Kennedy International Airport, and to th ...

station was located nearby.

History

The junction's location was set in 1871, when the LIRR's Rockaway Branch (now the Montauk Branch) was built, crossing the

South Side Railroad of Long Island The South Side Railroad of Long Island was a railroad company in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Chartered in 1860 and first opened in 1867 as a competitor to the Long Island Rail Road, it was reorganized in 1874 as the Southern Rai ...

(now the Atlantic Branch). With the consolidation of the South Side into the LIRR system in 1876, all South Side passenger trains were rerouted to use the LIRR main line through

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

to Rockaway Junction and the LIRR's Rockaway Branch to this crossing, where a connecting track was built. This change took effect Sunday, June 25, 1876. Vincent F. Seyfried, The Long Island Rail Road: A Comprehensive History, Part One: South Side R.R. of L.I., 1961 A new Atlantic Division track opened alongside the Montauk Division east of the junction in 1906, changing the junction into a connecting track between the two lines. That connection was later removed on September 10, 1923.Henry Wilhelm's Track Diagram (Arrt's Arrchives)
/ref>

References

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External links

Long Island Rail Road Transportation buildings and structures in Queens, New York Rail junctions in the United States