Nostalgia as LIRR upgrades Jamaica signal system

It was seven hours until the Long Island Rail Road was going to complete a historic change at midnight from a century-old manual switching and signal system to a computerized one at Jamaica Station, and the control room where it was going to happen was calm - with a bit of nostalgia thrown in.

Bill Schultz, 49, a train director who for 22 years has helped guide trains through Jamaica - the busiest hub of the busiest and oldest passenger railroad in the country - sat Sunday before five brand new computer screens that showed a web of tracks and switches.

Beyond him on a wall was a huge blown-up version of those tracks - lines of blue, yellow, green, heading in straight lines and off on angles.

"It's the dawning of a new time," Schultz, a Medford resident, said Sunday. "One door shuts, another opens."

While he and the other dozen engineers, technicians and signal operators in the room were pleased the new $56 million system was about to bring greater efficiency and safety to the 176-year-old railroad, some couldn't help but acknowledge sorrow at seeing the old system go.

A technological marvel, the old Union Switch and Signal Model 14 interlocking machines system included scores of levers that workers would pull to shift tracks. It dated back to the era of steam locomotives. "We were part of that history," Schultz said.

A similar mix of sentiments was on display the day before at the Oyster Bay Railroad Museum, an outdoor pantheon to the Long Island Rail Road that features decades-old wooden cabooses and a steam locomotive.

"For history buffs, there is always a tinge of regret when something is replaced," said John Speece, president of the museum.

For Speece and fellow LIRR buff and museum trustee Gary Farkash, the LIRR is far more than a collection of trains and tracks. It is a living part of Long Island's history - a literal and figurative engine that helped transform Nassau and Suffolk counties from sleepy farm country to thriving suburb.

The LIRR helped define the lives of thousands of Long Islanders, Speece and Farkash added. For generations of commuters it was captured by the LIRR's iconic "Dashing Dan" symbol - a man running to catch a train as he looks at his wristwatch, a fedora on his head, a briefcase in his hand, his tie flapping in the wind.

As the new computerized system at Jamaica swings into full gear Monday, the two men - along with LIRR officials - say they realize the transformation is needed. The old system was sometimes fragile and left little room for error, as evidenced in a 2009 incident where two trains barely missed colliding head-on because of a miscommunication among train crew members.

The new system will have built-in redundancies and safety measures to help prevent similar incidents.

LIRR president Helena Williams said the switch over during the weekend went smoothly, and the railroad expects full and normal service Monday morning. The new system "means better reliability for our customers," she said.

Meanwhile, in the control room, Schultz said that despite the nostalgia as they said goodbye to a railroading era, workers were eager to get the new system fully under way.

"We're kind of antsy," he said. "We've been waiting for this for a while."