White Pot Junction Pic #2 Notice how old the underjump is - 1909!! The cement is still in very good condition, despite its a This is a view of the outside of the tunnel, looking south. Notice how the trees are growing in the roadbed. A shot of the junction, taken from the southbound Rockaway tracks. Notice how the northbound Rockaway tracks are depressed in this area, so they can go in to the tunnel. Oldnyc frequent contributor John Sullivan provides us with a couple of photographs and some additional commentary about the underjump and the surrounding area: This is a picture of the White Pot Underjump north of the mainline tracks looking south before the LIRR filled the tunnel in. If you notice, there is a curve to the tunnel. The picture was taken around 1988. Photo courtesy of Neil Sullivan. Neil Sullivan also provided Oldnyc with this picture and commentary: This is a picture of the westbound track coming out of the underjump to join the mainline on the north side. The roadway was built by the railroad in order to provide a crossing for maintenance vehicles. If you go down the road, you will come in to the parking lot of a diner which is on 63rd Drive. They have since cut the rails at the roadway assuming that their trucks have had difficulty crossing them. This picture was taken around 1988. Photo courtesy of Neil Sullivan. Oldnyc contributor Mitchell E. Pak shares with us this interesting story: I have a rather special relationship with the section of the Rockaway Beach tracks that stretched from the Whitepot Underjump to the Fleet Street overpass. When I was a kid, I went to a small private elementary school in Forest Hills, Queens, between 1970 and 1978. The school is now closed but the building still exists. The school was located on Thornton Place, at the T intersection with Burns Street. The school was situated at the top of a long hill, up from the west side of Yellowstone Boulevard. Behind the school was a huge empty wooded area that stretched as far as the eye could see. We called this area the fields. Back in those days, when educators were less scared of pedophiles, we would be allowed to take our recesses in the fields, and go wherever we wanted. The fields were accessed by two long metal stairways that led from the back of the school to the bottom of the hill. At the bottom of the stairs, you were in the fields. The Rockaway Beach tracks ran directly adjacent to the length of the fields. I dont know if these stairs are still there today. Mr. Pak continues, I cannot begin to tell you how big a part of my childhood those tracks played. We always wondered where those tracks came from, where they went and why they were overgrown. One of my friends insisted that the tracks went all the way to California! We spent many a recess walking along the tracks, trying to walk on the ties and not touch the ground. As this was 22-25 years ago, the brush and overgrowth was not as extensive as today, so the walk was easier. As kids, my friends and I often walked as far south as the Fleet Street trestle. We never went further because we were afraid we wouldnt hear the special buzzer the school had installed to signal the end of recess! Those tracks were a huge part of my childhood, no doubt about it. We had so much fun playing on them. Oldnyc contributor Jim Orens adds: I lived at Austin Street from 1952-1970. My apartment was on the first floor facing the LIRR tracks and it seemed as though I could almost touch the one or two trains that came by each day. The trains definitely stopped at Rego Park.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 02:12:43 +0000