Mount Loretto Spur

The Mount Loretto Spur is an abandoned branch of the Staten Island Railway whose purpose was to serve the Mount Loretto Children's Home. The spur diverged off of the Main Line south of Pleasant Plains.^[1][2]

Operation

The spur opened around the year of 1891 as a New York Times Article from September 14, 1891 states that "a spur of its tracks has recently been built to a few hundred feet of the mission buildings, and there the excursionists landed.^[3] The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad served the Mt. Loretto non-electrified branch until 1950, which had served industry for the mission and had a passenger station. The right of way and road bed from the Amboy Road grade crossing to the end of track at the Home was privately owned by the Archdiocese of New York. It was not owned by the SIRT and was not open to the public. SIRT provided any needed track maintenance, which the Home paid for. The name of the private station at Mount Loretto was "Mission of the Immaculate Virgin" and was located near Cunningham Road. The branch line was originally built to bring construction materials for large buildings at Mount Loretto and its power house in the late 1800s. Besides supplying coal and other materials to the home over the decades, SIRT operated an every third Sunday special train from the St. George Ferry Terminal directly to Mount Loretto for relatives and visitors. It was paid for by the Archdiocese of New York. This direct train service ended in the 1939 and chartered Staten Island Coach Co. buses were used after that. A steam locomotive was used to haul the special trains of usually three steel MUE cars up to Mount Loretto after the 1925 electrification of the SIRT.^[4] In a rare photo from 1925 a typical SIRT camelback engine pulling a train of its electric coaches, is a Sunday excursion taking visitors to the children's home on the non-electrified Mount Loretto Branch.^[5][6]

Ed Bommer gave a presentation based on an undated picture of a B&O steam freight locomotive backing a string of five wooden coaches into a terminal on Staten Island which was served by multiple unit electric (MUE) equipment, in which he gave identified the picture as a train to the Mount Loretto Orphanage. From close examination of details in the photo, Bommer explained how he was able to date it. Also, a second steam powered train was discovered in the background. The wooden coaches were rarely seen Class A-14 B&O cars built in 1910. The locomotive was a B&O Class E-13b camelback 2-8-0, used on Staten Island from 1905 until 1945. The train and ferry terminal building dated the photo before 1946, when that 1895 structure was demolished in a huge fire. The position of a stand-by ferry in the background indicated a weekend or holiday. Vegetation and a jacketless crewman in the coach vestibule hinted at warm or hot weather. The angle of the shadows set the time at about mid afternoon. The use of steam and MUE cars indicated a date between 1925 and 1946. This was narrowed to 1935-1946 by the way two MUE cars in the background were painted and lettered. The tracks on which the two steam trains were set helped determine their destination. It would be on the Staten Island Rapid Transit's Perth Amboy subdivision to a branch line that did not have third rail. Only one such branch offered a possible reason. A little over a mile long with curves and a 2% grade, it served a large Catholic orphanage at Mount Loretto. A search of New York Times on-line archives from 1935-1946 set the actual date as Sunday, June 19, 1938. A special celebration at the home's huge Gothic style church was held on that day. It was the 50th anniversary of the death of the home's founder. It brought over 1,000 visitors, with some 680 of them would arrive on these two special trains. The event ran for about three hours, starting at 4:00 PM. Bommer then described how both five car specials may have been turned on the branch's confined trackage which included a wye. Citing SIRT rules and noting the length of the trains, locomotives and the track space available, each step in the process was described. For departure after the event, both trains had to be in the same locations at which they arrived with their cars, but facing the opposite direction. Turning had to be done with hand signals, hand thrown switches, hand setting brakes on the coaches, uncoupling and recoupling equipment as each loco was wyed. Then, going through all the coaches to turn the seats around. It would be a time consuming process. Both trains arrived about 10 minutes apart. So turning took place after all passengers had left the trains.^[7]

According to a New York Times article from September 19, 1904 a woman was killed trying to get to the Mount Loretto Home.^[8]

After abandonment

Extensive farm land surrounding the home, which raised all its own food, has become second growth woods. The railroad bed is now a hiking trail. The large stone church that could seat well over 1,000 persons was destroyed in a spectacular fire in December 1973. It was built in 1891 and all the wooden furnishings in it were made by the home's boys as part of their training."^[7] Pilings that carried the tracks are still there.^[9] The track was removed in the 1960s with some ties were visible until the 1980s and the spur's junction was recently removed as of. As seen in a picture by Paul Mautus from 1965 nature was reclaiming the Mount Loretto Branch.^[6][10] A coal dump trestle is all that remains, located behind the powerhouse.^[11]

References

External links

• Mount Loretto Spur track map
• Picture of remains of the spur
• Remains of Spur