The Rockaway Beach Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in Queens, New York City, United States. The line left the Main Line at Whitepot Junction in Rego Park heading south via Ozone Park and across Jamaica Bay to Hammels in the Rockaways, turning west there to a terminal at Rockaway Park. Along the way it connected with the Montauk Branch near Glendale, the Atlantic Branch near Woodhaven, and the Far Rockaway Branch at Hammels.
Woodhaven Junction
The former LIRR Substation # 5 at Hammels Wye, now a New York City Subway substation.
Incline from Atlantic Branch on Atlantic Avenue, now a bus parking lot
The IND Rockaway Line, seen here in 2013, was converted from a section of the Rockaway Beach Branch in 1955.
The Long Island Rail Road, often abbreviated as the LIRR, is a railroad in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of New York, stretching from Manhattan to the eastern tip of Suffolk County on Long Island. The railroad currently operates a public commuter rail service, with its freight operations contracted to the New York and Atlantic Railway. With an average weekday ridership of 354,800 passengers in 2016, it is the busiest commuter railroad in North America. It is also one of the world's few commuter systems that runs 24/7 year-round. It is publicly owned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which refers to it as MTA Long Island Rail Road. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 75,186,900, or about 253,800 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
The Long Island Rail Road provides electric and diesel rail service from east to west throughout Long Island.
Station, Bay Shore, Long Island, September 1879., a collodion silver glass wet plate negative by George Bradford Brainerd now on display at the Brooklyn Museum
LIRR (Montauk & NY) RPO cover (TR27) for the railroad's 100th anniversary in April 1934
Long Island City station and yard