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INDUSTRIAL & OFFLINE TERMINAL RAILROADS
OF BROOKLYN, QUEENS, STATEN ISLAND, BRONX & MANHATTAN:

WALLABOUT TERMINAL
Williamsburg, Brooklyn

(DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA & WESTERN RAILROAD).

DL&W

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Visitors please take note ! The collection of images on this website, which continues to grow; is due to the unprecedented and selfless contributions of the current owners of photo archives. These people made their generous contributions to this website in good will, and allowed me to post their images online for the entire railroading community to view and appreciate, in admiration if these Fallen Flag Railroads. In return, I strongly request that you please respect the ownership copyrights on those said images. Other than that, please enjoy the history, thanks for taking the time to visit, and don't forget to sign the guestbook on the main page!  ~ Phil

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History

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   The Wallabout Terminal of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (DLW) Railroad, was located at the intersections of Kent Avenue, Washington Avenue and Clymer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. This location also corresponded to the marine intersection of the Wallabout Basin and the Wallabout Canal as well.

   Initial research of this facility by this author failed to provide a start of operations date for this facility. Thanks to Joe Roborecky, submitted the following information from a Google Book Search, where he located the Brooklyn Daily Eagle Almanac of 1901, in which it states:

"At Cross st., fronting on Wallabout channel, to Wallabout Canal, is the Brooklyn terminal of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R.R. Co., constructed and put into operation during the last year. It is equipped with a car transfer bridge, has a two story brick building, at which 75 to 100 car loads of freight may be handled daily, and yard track delivery capacities for 90 additional cars."  

Also found on the web, is this New York Times article:

New York Times - June 19, 1900

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   We know the facility closed in 1941 when the United Stated Government expanded the New York Naval Shipyard a/k/a Brooklyn Navy Yard and seized the properties surrounding the Wallabout Basin. 

   Do not confuse this facility with the other "Wallabout Terminals", operated by other railroads in the immediate vicinity:

• "Wallabout Union Freight Station" with the Baltimore & Ohio, Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania and New York Central Railroads sharing this "pier station only" facility;
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• "Wallabout Station" Erie Railroad freight house;
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• "Wallabout Market Terminal" of the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, which was the only other carfloat terminal and was located at the very head of the Wallabout Canal and adjacent to the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

Trackage

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   The following article was discovered within the Official Proceedings of September 1900 for the monthly meeting of the Western Railway Club. In this discussion, it specifies the design and components of the trackage, as well as the freighthouse and how the locomotive is used at the Wallabout Terminal:

Official Proceedings of the Western Railway Club - September 1900
added 22 October 2010

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   According to the track plan and specifications below and located in the book "Yards and Terminals and their Operation", John A. Droege, 1906. The diagram appears to be larger version of the same diagram as the one above.

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Yards and Terminals and their Operation - 1906
John A. Droege

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  The freight house dimensions were 40 feet by 400 feet. Tracks are on 11 foot centers, roadways 35 feet between centers of tracks, 40 degree track curves and #2.8, #3 and #4 frogs are in use on the track turnouts.

   According to the "Report of the Committee on Terminals and Transportation of the New York State Food Investigating Commission" published April 18, 1913; it lists the capacity of the freight house at the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Wallabout Terminal at 16,311 square feet and the terminal with 1.36 miles of trackage.

   In the 1924 Fairchild Aerial Survey photo seen below, we can clearly make out the freighthouse, float bridge and the railyard. It appears to be pony truss or pony plate girder float bridge and judging from the aerial image, it had an overhead counterbalance gantry.

Fairchild Aerial Survey Photo - 1924
NYPL Digital Archives
added 09 Dec 2008

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   Unfortunately, very little information on this terminal has been located to date. Anyone with information, data or photographs of equipment or property, is most welcome to contact the author at bedt14@aol.com .

August 25, 1933
(The Delaware Lackawanna & Western Wallabout Terminal is the yard with the white poles.
The three boxcars are on a station carfloat moored to the Clinton Avenue bulkhead and
attached to the Brooklyn Navy Yard float bridge to the left.)
unknown photographer
Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp Archives
added 04 May 2009

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Locomotives

   Prior to 1926, it is unknown what type and which locomotives operated at this facility. It is surmised this facility would have employed the use of the steam locomotive, but this cannot be substantiated at this time.

   Research reflects that after 1926, one locomotive had been used at this Delaware, Lackawanna & Western facility. This locomotive was an electric powered (via overhead pantograph) steeplecab locomotive.

   This locomotive was numbered 4001 and was built in June 1926 by General Electric. This locomotive was unusual in appearance as the pantograph on top of the cab appeared quite large and oversized, when compared to the locomotive itself. Most steeplecab locomotives of this size and manufacture were equipped with much less visible trolley poles (e.g. Bush Terminal and South Brooklyn Railway).

   This locomotive would go on to serve this Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Wallabout Terminal until the US Government "seized" the properties surrounding the Wallabout Terminal in 1940, for the purpose of expanding the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

   This locomotive was then sold to the Shawinigan Falls Terminal Railway in Quebec, Canada; ca. 1941. Its current status or disposition is unknown at this time. Again, anyone with  information on this locomotive is invited to contact the author at bedt14@aol.com

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Wallabout Terminal (DL&W) Roster

Locomotive Footnotes

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weight: gear ratio:

102,840 lbs. 67:16

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Marine Equipment

   Being a Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad operation, the Wallabout Terminal would have been serviced by Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad tugboats, carfloats and lighters.

   Keeping in mind the significant amount of marine equipment that the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad owned and operated, and not knowing if there was equipment specifically assigned to this facility (it is highly unlikely they did), a Marine Roster on this website would not be beneficial or justified; and therefore will not be forthcoming.

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