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| Suffolk Traction Company | |
|---|---|
| Overview | |
| Owner | Patchogue Electric Light Company |
| Locale | Sayville,Patchogue, Holtsville, and vicinity. |
| Service | |
| Type | Horsecar, thenStreetcar |
| History | |
| Opened | 1909 |
| Closed | 1919 |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) |
| Minimum radius | (?) |
| Electrification | Batteries |
TheSuffolk Traction Company is a formerstreetcar system inSuffolk County, New York. It operated primarily betweenPatchogue andHoltsville, but also included a route that servedBlue Point,Bayport, andSayville. It was opened in 1909 and ceased operations in 1919.
The four current roads that originally carried the trolley line between Patchogue andHoltsville are South Ocean Avenue,North Ocean Avenue, and what today is Old North Ocean Avenue. The PD Tower atPatchogue Railroad Station served as a control tower for both the Long Island Railroad and the trolleys. Traction Boulevard (also known as Suffolk Traction Boulevard) continued the line, which crossed over the southeast corner ofCanaan Lake and headed in a northwesterly direction. North of thePatchogue Highlands area, the paved road became a dirt trail and carried the former ROW towardsHoltsville Station. The trolleys that used the road were storage battery cars that ran down the center of the street.
North of Holtsville, Suffolk Traction planned an extension throughFarmingville,Selden,Terryville,Echo (nowPort Jefferson Station), and eventuallyPort Jefferson. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt, even as a bridge was being built over theLIRR Main Line for the Suffolk Traction Main Line on the way to Port Jefferson.
The ROW was abandoned, and much of it was sold to private and public developers later in the 20th century, although the road was still depicted on numerous maps. The dirt trail was visible where it crossedWoodside Avenue and then disappeared entirely at the latter-day site of the town dump where it was obliterated (see below). It picked up again in the woods on the east side of Waverly Avenue just south of Katz's Farm which was located directly south of theLIRR station in Holtsville. The ROW ran along the edge of Katz's Farm so was not discernible.
The Town ofBrookhaven installed a landfill on part of the former ROW, leaving a portion of it as an entrance at Blue Point Road. The landfill was transformed into atown park in the early to mid-1970s. During a 2009 repaving project of North Ocean Avenue by the Village of Patchogue Department of Public Works, the former trolley tracks were uncovered and removed for preservation.[1]
Besides the main line, Suffolk Traction Company had theBayport-Blue Point Line betweenSayville Railroad Station andPatchogue atBicycle Path, a section of which is currentlyNY 112. The line was originally owned by theSouth Shore Traction Company and ran primarily along Middle Road, Blue Point Avenue, andMontauk Highway. It served the LIRR stations in Sayville, Bayport, Blue Point and Patchogue. A proposed eastbound extension intoBellport andBrookhaven was also on the books, but collapsed along with the Port Jefferson extension of the main line.
A third line called the Sayville Line ran exclusively within Sayville, from the Railroad Station along Sayville's Railroad Avenue, Montauk Highway, and Candee Avenue down to theGreat South Bay. This line was originally a horse-drawn trolley, and like the Sayville to Patchogue Line, it was originally owned by the South Shore Traction Company.
