LIRR Beachs

Hey guys I'll be flying out of JFK a day after I arrive into Penn Station. And I was thinking about going to the beach. So which beach or other unique destinations do you recommend for a limited budget. We will be staying at Rockville Center/Lynbrook

If you haven't been to the famous Coney Island in Brooklyn, it's a must! Just hop on the subway and ride out there!

It's making a comeback, be sure and have a Nathan's Hot Dog while you're there, its a tradition!!

And as my friend tp49 reminded me, Jones Beach State Park is easy to reach on the bus from the LIRR!!

I won't get into the Hamptons, Fire Island etc. That's for the rich swells in the Summer! Coney and Jones are the Peoples Beaches!!

I love Coney I've been there before.

When will you be staying on the Island (RVC/Lynbrook is pretty much where I grew up.)

If it's after Memorial Day you can take a Nassau County bus from Freeport LIRR (two stations east of RVC on the Babylon Branch) to Jones Beach State Park. You can also take the N15 from the RVC LIRR station to Long Beach and walk along the boardwalk there. The LIRR also goes to Long Beach, one seat ride from Lynbrook station but if you're closer to RVC I'd just take the bus from there.

http://www.nicebus.com/Home.aspx Is the link for NICE.

jimhudson said:

If you haven't been to the famous Coney Island in Brooklyn, it's a must! Just hop on the subway and ride out there!

It's making a comeback, be sure and have a Nathan's Hot Dog while you're there, its a tradition!!

I won't get into the Hamptons, Fire Island etc. That's for the rich swells in the Summer! Coney is the Peoples Beach!!

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Jim, Coney isn't easily accessible from where he's staying and takes too long to get to given his schedule.

Fire Island isn't just for the "rich swells" as I went to Robert Moses State Park a lot as a kid and my family was far from rich but man could I go for a Nathan's hot dog right about now.

Pro tip: The first Nathan's was in Coney Island but the second Nathan's is in Oceanside, LI on Long Beach Road (been there since 1959 but just moved to a new location up the street.) Conveniently the N15 bus stops near the corner the Nathan's is on (it's a couple blocks north of the "five corners" in Oceanside). If Nathan's is an idea I'd take the bus from RVC LIRR to Long Beach LIRR and hit Nathan's on the way back up.

What are 'beachs'? Are they what birds have in place of lips?

I'll be staying twice in august. First Wednesday. And last Thursday of the month for one night each. I'm willing to do anything interesting. I thought of the beach first

The beach is good. In August you could do either Jones Beach or Long Beach both of which have boardwalks to walk on. Long Beach probably has a little more variety as it's an actual city while Jones Beach is a state park. Jones Beach would require a train ride from RVC to Freeport where you would catch the bus at street level. Long Beach is directly accessible from the RVC LIRR station.

What's your definition of interesting as yours and mine may be quite different? Would you be there during the day or mostly after dark?

Mostly during the day. Interesting. Museum, sights, things to do. Good Railfaning in places.

Many of the better museums on Long Island are only accessible with a car from that area. The exception to the being the Cradle of Aviation Museum at Mitchell Field which you can take the N15 or 16 from RVC LIRR to reach. Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay is under renovation and might or might not be open in July would be a place to see but is really only accessible by car.

Transit on Long Island isn't the greatest, the buses aren't very good when compared with the city but are better in Nassau then in Suffolk and the LIRR is not geared for intra-island trips.

Railfanning wise it's pretty much the LIRR and will be mostly M7's with the occasional M3 and diesel set heading for Montauk but on the Babylon branch the trains are frequent.

I can't figure out when the diesel trains head down that part of the branch

Take a look at the Montauk Branch timetable. All trains that run beyond Babylon are diesel push pull.

There also are a few rush hour diesel trains that come in all the way to Hunterspoint Ave. or even go into Penn Station from the Port Jefferson branch. Also all trains that run beyond Huntington on the Port Jefferson Branch and anything that runs beyond Ronkonkoma Branch beyond Ronkonkoma are diesel push pull as are trains that go to Oyster Bay.

Go to the LIRR Schedule Page and select the branch to see the timetable for the branch.

Consult the LIRR schematic map to see which branch goes where.

If you are interested in seeing the choreography of a large number of trains many arriving from different routes simultaneously, exchanging passengers and then departing to different destinations, the place to spend time at is Jamaica Station of LIRR, easily reached from RVC on any train headed west to New York or Atlantic Terminal. Most Montauk Branch diesels do not go through RVC, they go on the Main Line through Hicksville.

I like the idea of Jamaica. I hope they are Railfan friendly. And then I should be able to watch quite a few. Thank you for the help.

Seaboard92 said:

I like the idea of Jamaica. I hope they are Railfan friendly. And then I should be able to watch quite a few. Thank you for the help.

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The place usually is so busy, specially during rush hours when you get to see it at its best, that no one will even notice you. There are two foot over bridges, and both provide great vantage point to see the action. The busier one is at the east end which also connects to the JFK AirTrain station, and you can see the dance of how trains arriving and departing snake their way /from/to four different route tracks. The one at the east end is a narrower one, and it has a great view of trains coming from or branching out towards New York, Atlantic Terminal and Long Island City (very few trains on that and are all diesel push-pull)

I might go to Jamaica for pm rush hour for fun. I believe the NYA also goes by there

NYA runs would mostly be at night to not interfere with regular LIRR operations. You might see a NYA train sitting on a siding at Jamaica but it most likely will be stationary. I think if you want to see freight in the area your best bet is Long Island City.

An easy way to tell train type on LIRR: Look at the schedule they each have train numbers. only 200s 500s 600s and 2700s are Diesels. Everything else will be an Electric MU set.

Reviving a slightly old thread, but if you do want to head to a beach out on eastern LI there are a few options. One is taking the LIRR all the way to Montauk and connecting to the Suffolk Transit 10C and S94 (summer only) bus to Montauk Point Lighthouse. An absolutely beautiful part of Long Island! From RVC/Lynbrook you'd likely have to transfer to a Montauk train at Babylon, in which case you'd ride on both an M7 electric car (or an older M3 if you're lucky with the railfan window!) and a C3 diesel car past Babylon.

Another option is taking the LIRR to East Hampton and walking to one of the town beaches there. I did this last summer and it was a rather long walk through a residential neighborhood but it wasn't anything too bad (maybe a half hour-ish). If you bring a bike it'd be a quick journey (though bringing a bike on the LIRR costs $5 and is prohibited during peak hours and most of summer Fridays-Sundays on the Montauk branch). I'm sure there are similar options of walking to a nearby beach from one of the Hamptons stops, but that's the one I did.

One more option I'm familiar with is the Sand Street beach in Stony Brook village. It's not huge by any means but it is a nice, quiet, slightly stony beach on the north shore of LI, right near Stony Brook University. To get there you'd have to take a Port Jefferson bound train to Stony Brook and taking a short ride on the S76 bus to Stony Brook Village. From RVC/Lynbrook you'd have to go west and transfer at Jamaica. Most hours you'd transfer to a Huntington bound train where the Port Jeff connection will be waiting, but sometimes there is direct diesel service from Jamaica.

If you were going to go to Stony Brook from there it would probably be faster to take the bus from RVC/Lynbrook (probably the N15) to Mineola and catch the LIRR there as opposed to backtracking to Jamaica to head back east.

To add to something I mentioned what now seems like eons ago, Sagamore Hill is supposed to be reopening this weekend (I read it in Newsday so YMMV.)

Mineola is also a great railfanning spot, with very frequent trains especially during the rush hour. Diesel Oyster Bay branch trains split off there, and all Huntington, Ronkonkoma trains pass through. Any Diesel Port Jeff trains originating at Jamaica/Penn also pass through. There's three or four grade crossings just east of the station so all trains passing through give quite the horn show

Also diesel expresses to Montauk pass through Mineola, but are hard to predict, since they may also take the south shore line.