Belair Road station

Belair Road
Former Staten Island Railway station
Remnant of trestle support on St. Johns Avenue
General information
LocationStaten Island
Coordinates40°36′37″N 74°04′02″W / 40.610278°N 74.067222°W / 40.610278; -74.067222 (Belair Road Station)
Line(s)South Beach Branch
Platforms2 side platforms
Tracks2
History
OpenedMarch 8, 1886; 138 years ago (1886-03-08)
ClosedMarch 31, 1953; 71 years ago (1953-03-31)
Former services
Preceding station Staten Island Railway Following station
Rosebank
toward Clifton
South Beach Branch Fort Wadsworth

Belair Road is a demolished station on the abandoned South Beach Branch of the Staten Island Railway. It had two side platforms and two tracks, and was located at Vermont Avenue, between Belair Road & St. Johns Avenue. This station served the US Quarantine station, which was one block to the east.[1][2]

The Belair Road station was built out of wood, and could only platform two cars. There was a shelter on one of the platforms. The station was rebuilt in 1936 with concrete. It was rebuilt with an underground access walkway on both sides of the station.[2]

North of the station, there was a trestle built at Saint John's Avenue in 1936 to allow the road to pass over the right-of-way. Today, all that is left of the trestle is a stanchion that has been morphed into part of someone's backyard, with a pool on top.[2]

This station was abandoned when the SIRT discontinued passenger service on the South Beach Branch to Wentworth Avenue at midnight on March 31, 1953 because of city-operated bus competition.[3][4][5][6]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Bommer, Edward (2003). Stations and Places Along the Staten Island Rapid Transit. Retrieved November 19, 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Gary Owen's SIRT Page". Gary Owen Land. March 31, 1953. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  3. ^ "Gary Owen SIRT Page Part Two". Gary Owen Land. April 20, 1937. Retrieved December 13, 2015.
  4. ^ Pitanza, Marc (2015). Staten Island Rapid Transit Images of Rail. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4671-2338-9.
  5. ^ Drury, George H. (1994). The Historical Guide to North American Railroads: Histories, Figures, and Features of more than 160 Railroads Abandoned or Merged since 1930. Waukesha, Wisconsin: Kalmbach Publishing. pp. 312–314. ISBN 0-89024-072-8.
  6. ^ "The Old Order Passeth: Rails Surrender To Roads: Passenger Runs on Two Lines of SIRT Will End at Midnight". Staten Island Advance. March 31, 1953. Retrieved October 14, 2015.