Fresh Pond Junction facts for kids
Fresh Pond Junction is a busy train yard located in the Ridgewood and Glendale areas of Queens, New York City. It's like a big parking lot and sorting center for freight trains. The New York & Atlantic Railway runs this yard. They use train tracks that belong to the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) to move goods around Long Island. This yard has been working since the early 1900s and is the main place where freight trains are handled on Long Island.
Trains can leave Fresh Pond Junction and go to the mainland in two main ways:
- They can go north over the Hell Gate Bridge to the Oak Point Yard. Here, they can connect with trains from other companies like CSX and the Providence and Worcester Railroad.
- They can also go southwest along the Bay Ridge Branch. This leads to a special "car float" operation run by the New York New Jersey Rail. Car floats are like giant barges that carry train cars across the water to Greenville Yard in New Jersey. From there, trains can connect with CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway.
The Fresh Pond Junction train facility has two main parts: a west yard with 5 tracks and an east yard with 9 tracks. Both of these run next to the NY&A Montauk Branch train line. There's also a special "wye" track and connection points with the old New York Connecting Railroad line. This line, now called the CSX Fremont Secondary, connects the Oak Point Yard to the Bay Ridge Branch as it passes over Fresh Pond Junction.
Right nearby is another train yard called Fresh Pond Yard. This one is separate and used by the New York City Subway system. Next to Fresh Pond Junction, you'll find Mafera Park. It's a small neighborhood park bordered by the train junction on two sides and the subway yard on the other.
How Trains Operate Here
CSX runs daily local trains from their Oak Point Yard in the Bronx to Fresh Pond. These trains bring goods south and take empty train cars and trash loads back north. The Providence and Worcester Railroad (P&W) also brings stone and gravel to Fresh Pond from their Cedar Hill Yard in New Haven, Connecticut. They do this on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday evenings. Then, they take the empty cars back to Cedar Hill on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings.
The New York & Atlantic Railway (NY&A) uses Fresh Pond Junction as a key meeting point. They pick up freight from the CSX and P&W trains. Then, they deliver these goods to different places on Long Island. They also send goods down the Bay Ridge Branch and across the Upper New York Bay using the New York New Jersey Rail's car floats.
