The Staten Island Railway
SIR #448 emerges out of St. George Tunnel with a four-car set of R44s rolling through the B&O-style CPLs at SNX (Slosson) interlocking on a drab Saturday evening on Staten Island with Lower Manhattan and 1WTC visible on the top right.
The SIR is the most interesting of all the lines operated by the NYCT with its own unique operations and history. Opened in 1860 on the island's east shore and reorganized as the Staten Island Rapid Transit in the 1880s, the SIRT was historically owned by the Baltimore and Ohio which financed its expansion into New Jersey via a bridge over the Arthur Kill Strait to a connection with the CNJ at Cranford. By 1900, the SIRT was a wholly owned B&O subsidiary isolated from the rest of the system and reached by trackage rights over Reading and Jersey Central east of Philadelphia. The B&O electrified the SIRT in 1925 taking delivery of brand-new ME-1s built by Standard Steel for rapid transit operation. Construction began on a tunnel under Lower New York Bay to integrate the SIRT with the rest of the New York transit system; the project was never completed.
Service ended between St. George and Arlington on the island's north shore in 1953. The B&O handed over the remaining rapid transit operations to SIRTOA, a subsidiary of MTA, in 1971, and Chessie continued freight operations on the island until it sold the railroad in 1985. By 1991, freight traffic east of Arlington was permanently finished, and the railroad was abandoned west of St. George severing it from the rest of the U.S. rail network.
A lasting legacy of the B&O on Staten Island is the continued use of B&O signal aspects on the SIR. The B&O installed color-position lights on the SIRT in 1924 making it one of the first lines on the entire B&O system with the classic CPLs that we know and love. Originally installed for ABS operation, the CPLs on the SIR are configured for ATC and cab signals. Although most of the original B&O-era masts have been removed (the ones you see here at SNX are MTA-era masts), a number of GRS-built dwarves remain scattered across the line.
Last but not least, SIR operates the oldest cars in revenue service on the New York transit system since the retirement of the R32s in 2022. The R44s in service on the SIR date back to 1973 when the MTA ordered a dedicated fleet of R44s to replace the B&O-era ME-1s that have been operating on the SIR since the 1920s. In addition to the 278 cars built for the NYCT B Division, 64 R44s were built by the St. Louis Car Company to FRA standards for service on Staten Island, the final pieces of rolling stock built by the company before its dissolution. 12 of these R44s were initially sent to the B Division before being reassigned to the SIR in the mid-1980s. Today, 57 R44s remain in active service on the SIR and the last R44s on the B Division were retired in 2010. The remaining R44s on Staten Island will be replaced by the R211S in the near future.
The Staten Island Railway
SIR #448 emerges out of St. George Tunnel with a four-car set of R44s rolling through the B&O-style CPLs at SNX (Slosson) interlocking on a drab Saturday evening on Staten Island with Lower Manhattan and 1WTC visible on the top right.
The SIR is the most interesting of all the lines operated by the NYCT with its own unique operations and history. Opened in 1860 on the island's east shore and reorganized as the Staten Island Rapid Transit in the 1880s, the SIRT was historically owned by the Baltimore and Ohio which financed its expansion into New Jersey via a bridge over the Arthur Kill Strait to a connection with the CNJ at Cranford. By 1900, the SIRT was a wholly owned B&O subsidiary isolated from the rest of the system and reached by trackage rights over Reading and Jersey Central east of Philadelphia. The B&O electrified the SIRT in 1925 taking delivery of brand-new ME-1s built by Standard Steel for rapid transit operation. Construction began on a tunnel under Lower New York Bay to integrate the SIRT with the rest of the New York transit system; the project was never completed.
Service ended between St. George and Arlington on the island's north shore in 1953. The B&O handed over the remaining rapid transit operations to SIRTOA, a subsidiary of MTA, in 1971, and Chessie continued freight operations on the island until it sold the railroad in 1985. By 1991, freight traffic east of Arlington was permanently finished, and the railroad was abandoned west of St. George severing it from the rest of the U.S. rail network.
A lasting legacy of the B&O on Staten Island is the continued use of B&O signal aspects on the SIR. The B&O installed color-position lights on the SIRT in 1924 making it one of the first lines on the entire B&O system with the classic CPLs that we know and love. Originally installed for ABS operation, the CPLs on the SIR are configured for ATC and cab signals. Although most of the original B&O-era masts have been removed (the ones you see here at SNX are MTA-era masts), a number of GRS-built dwarves remain scattered across the line.
Last but not least, SIR operates the oldest cars in revenue service on the New York transit system since the retirement of the R32s in 2022. The R44s in service on the SIR date back to 1973 when the MTA ordered a dedicated fleet of R44s to replace the B&O-era ME-1s that have been operating on the SIR since the 1920s. In addition to the 278 cars built for the NYCT B Division, 64 R44s were built by the St. Louis Car Company to FRA standards for service on Staten Island, the final pieces of rolling stock built by the company before its dissolution. 12 of these R44s were initially sent to the B Division before being reassigned to the SIR in the mid-1980s. Today, 57 R44s remain in active service on the SIR and the last R44s on the B Division were retired in 2010. The remaining R44s on Staten Island will be replaced by the R211S in the near future.