Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/67



HE CIVIL WAR YEARS, as we have set forth in an earlier chapter, saw the gradual deterioration of the New York & Flushing R.R. An absentee ownership, unfamiliar with railroad management and wholly indifferent to the welfare of the traveling public, sent a succession of managers to run the road on a minimal budget, and the inevitable result over the years was a deterioration in the physical plant and a lamentable falling off in the quality of service.

The people of Flushing were not ones to take this indifference to their legitimate interests lightly. Sympathetic and patient at first to the lapses of the road, they gradually realized that the true owners were interested solely in pocketing the earnings of the railroad and getting their dividends regularly. How the trains ran, or indeed, if they ran at all, were of little or no concern to the owners. Once before the people of Flushing had rebelled against conditions on their railroad in the days of Oliver Charlick in 1859–60. When the physical condition of the cars and engines worsened again and schedules became increasingly undependable during the war years, Flushingites again took the initiative. While the number of daily commuters was small—estimates vary between 80 and 200—there were enough men of means to consider the establishment of a rival road, to be owned and operated by Flushingites, that would break the New York & Flushing R.R.'s monopoly.

As early as February 1863 there was talk of building new roads that would branch off from the Long Island R.R. One scheme called for a road that would branch off at Newtown, parallel Jackson Avenue to Flushing, and go from there to College Point and Whitestone. In March bills were introduced into the Legislature incorporating this route. Another scheme called for a road that would branch off at Woodside and then parallel Jackson Avenue to Flushing. This route was examined by engineers and