Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/76

 60 company issued a statement stating that the purchase would in no way interfere with the completion of the original right-of-way, which was all paid for and graded. Significantly, however, the workmen were withdrawn from the right-of-way between Hunter's Point and Flushing meadows, and concentrated all along the College Point-Whitestone section. Months and years were to pass before the original roadbed would be completed and used.

At a meeting of the railroad directors it was decided to build the Whitestone-College Point line as soon as possible, and connect it to the newly acquired New York & Flushing line at a point on the meadows to be known as Whitestone Junction; secondly, that the New York & Flushing track to Winfield should be used, and that from this point an entirely new line to Hunter's Point should be constructed, just north of and exactly paralleling the Long Island R.R. track from Winfield through Woodside to Hunter's Point. Thirdly, that the section of the old New York & Flushing R.R. from Winfield to Hunter's Point via Maspeth should be abandoned and returned to the New York & Flushing stockholders to dispose of as they saw fit, together with the old New York & Flushing dock property at Hunter's Point. This was an extensive and belated change of plans, quite different from the plan laid down in April when the Flushing & North Side R.R. organized.

The motives behind this change of plans are not entirely clear from the distance of 100 years; grading and constructing four miles of new line from Hunter's Point to Winfield could not have been cheap, and there was the further expenditure of half a million for the New York & Flushing road. On the other hand the management gained possession of the road from Flushing to Great Neck, and the elimination of a competing line.

Work was now redoubled on the roadbed to finish it as soon as possible; the management meanwhile undertook the operation of trains on the old New York & Flushing route until the road could be integrated into its own new system. On September 15, 1868 the Flushing & North Side placed its first locomotive, the College Point into service, carrying ties and rails for the construction gangs. In November, just as everything was going smoothly, the road sustained another setback. On November 18, the contractors, Gaynor, Lord & Carroll received their