Page:Vincent F. Seyfried - The Long Island Rail Road A Comprehensive History - Vol. 2 (1963).pdf/87

 Operations on the Flushing and North Side was opened, fourteen trips were made each way daily, ten trips through to Whitestone and only five through to Great Neck. In 1870 twenty trips were scheduled daily, fifteen to Whitestone and only five to Great Neck. In 1872 twenty-two trips were made daily, again with only five of these going through to Great Neck. It was obvious, therefore, that under the Poppenhusens, the Whitestone Branch had become the main line and the road to GreakGreat [sic] Neck a branch operation; also that all the preference in scheduling was being given to College Point and Whitestone. The old North Shore road gained only one train in five years and received about the same service as under the old management. The village of Flushing with its two stations stood to benefit under any arrangement, but there began to be murmurs of dissatisfaction, complaining that uptown Flushing (Main Street) was being discriminated against in favor of downtown Flushing (Bridge Street). Real estate operators in eastern and southern Flushing experienced difficulty in retailing property because of the few trains available in that part of the village.

May, June and July seem to have been the peak months of riding. We read that in April, 1870, 75,000 people rode the trains, in May, 88,000. On a typical Sunday, June 26, 1870, 4,500 used the cars. On this day a twelve-car train drawn by two locomotives took 1,000 German excursionists home from College Point. The following year, on June 25, 1871, again a warm Sunday, 1,600 people rode the railroad. On the Fourth of July, 1871, sixty-seven trains ran on the Flushing road, starting from each terminus every half hour throughout the day; 20,000 passengers were carried without a single accident and the road took in over $5,000 in that one day. A year later in June, 1872, ten-car trains were the custom on warm summer Sundays.

Train speeds on the Flushing road were the same as on most roads of that day; the company reported twenty-five miles per hour for passenger trains, thirty for express trains and eighteen for freight runs. The first recorded speed run occurred on December 29, 1869, when the president of the road was summoned to New York by telegraph to attend a railroad meeting. He commandeered a spare engine at Main Street depot and riding over the old bumpy roadbed of the New York & Flushing, reached Hunter's Point in thirteen minutes, making a speed of 35.7 miles per hour. He had to wait four minutes for a boat and then