I remember the LIRR Double-Deckers (what MP designation did they carry? - MP-70?) thundering through Floral Park (before it was elevated) on their way to Hicksville or Huntington. I was a little kid (maybe four) and couldn't properly say "double decker" so I called them "dicketydackers", a combination of "double-decker" and "clickety-clack". I used to make up words all the time if I didn't know what something was, I made up a word for it.
I was on a Flatbush-to-Floral Park train back in January 1969 that actually stopped at Woodhaven. It had purplish tablets on the walls and was lit with bulbs inside round shades, the same kind they used on the white platform picket posts. Does anyone remember those platform lights, and are there any left?
I remember coal trains to Creedmoor Hospital, using the spur that crossed over Hillside Avenue, just east of 235th Court, which was then known as Pistol Street. They also had Range Street (with a grass divider) and Musket Street, both of which are still called that.
As late as 1970, there were tracks in the huge vacant lot that's now the ball field there.
I remember the West Hempstead-to-Country Life Press spur, back around 1959. I remember seeing an ancient train crossing Hempstead Turnpike there (I think they were MP-41s).
I remember Canal Street closed station used be called "Broadway".
Last rides for me on:
Culver Shuttle: April 11,1969
Myrtle El: October 3, 1969
3rd Ave El: April 16, 1971
If I come up with any more buried memories, I'll post 'em.
Wayne