Atlas Terminal
BROOKLYN EASTERN DISTRICT
RAILROAD (BEDT)
Continuation Page 1
{unofficial}
1932 BEDT Map
BEDT #13 at the RR Museum of Pennsylvania
(courtesy of Bill Russell's Penny Bridge}
Visit Penny Bridge for a wealth of info. on the BEDT,
rail-marine operations, NY City railroads, etc.}
Please also visit Phil Goldstein's
BEDT site.
See also my BEDT in Z-scale (1:220)
write-up on the Z-scale continuation page 2.
- - - · - - -
BEDT #10 in 1961
Jerry Carroll was kind enough to send me his old negative of the BEDT's steamer #10
on a car float off Kent Avenue in 1961 (it's clearly post-WWII - that's the UN beyond
her smokebox); the photo, backlit against the sun, is gigantic, so I shrank it up to
show it as art, here (left) and lightened artificially (right):
(1961 photo by and courtesy of J. Carroll - all rights reserved)
Now, cropping it down to the Rail-Marine aspect only; the tug (BEDT's Scranton) and
float and load:
(From 1961 photo by and courtesy of J. Carroll - all rights reserved)
and then just to the float and load:
(From 1961 photo by and courtesy of J. Carroll - all rights reserved)
and. lastly, the #10, herself:
(From 1961 photo by and courtesy of J. Carroll - all rights reserved)
BEDT #15 Today
We have a dual problem at the Wanamaker, Kempton & Southern with #15!
We were promised that the changes to #15, which had been kit-bashed into
Thomas at the Strasburg, "do NOT affect #15's structural integrity", but I have
learned that her saddle tank and oil bunker are sitting at the WK&S (don't
blame them!) like scrap with no clue as to what their disposition may be.
Also, the WK&S has a similar old Porter 0-6-0T which they have dolled up as
#15, just to further confuse matters:
(Cropped from photos courtesy of B. Perch - all rights reserved;
upper left photo of #65 by Bob Vogel 
26 Dec 05)
Relax a little; the lettering and numbering on #65 as #15 are just paper
templates stuck on and the number plate is wood.
BEDT #16 Today
As of 19 Apr 98, BEDT #16 was to stay on Long Island - - - BUT!
It had supposedly been given to the Union (New Jersey) Railway Historical Society
instead of to the Locomotive 35 group for the Oyster Bay museum. It was
confirmed; #35 was to get #16. However, she was taken away to Riverhead
by the RR Museum of LI on Friday, 29 Jan 99.
Here she is, pictured behind a chain link fence on Friday afternoon, 05 Feb 99:
(Photos by SB,III - found a gap in the fence for the last one!)
Notice that the center driver was blind, even on such a short wheelbase.
#35 has a separate page for
#16.
Funds were urgently needed to get #16 home to Oyster Bay
and help was solicited; see the
#16 page.
The Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad was a "pocket"
railroad, one with no connection to other railroads by land. It had a main
pocket yard on the Brooklyn waterfront at Kent Avenue from North 4th
Street (the PRR N. 4th St. yard, immediately north of the Domino Sugar plant and the
Williamsburgh Bridge, in an area formerly known as Palmer's Docks),
extending north to North 10th Street and east inland only a few blocks, and a small
yard directly across Newtown Creek in Queens, Pidgeon1
Street Terminal, and a third yard, Navy Terminal, down at the Brooklyn
Navy Yard (New York Naval Shipyard), but this latter was strictly for in-yard transfer.
It now (Jan 01) appears that there was a second Queens yard (see
below). All commerce by rail was via carfloats, barges with rails
on them (see my Rail-Marine page and the links thereon),
which were moved by tugboats across or along the East, North (Hudson), and Harlem
Rivers2 to railheads at St. George on Staten Island
(B&O) or in the Bronx (EL, NYC, NH) or New Jersey (PRR, CNJ, LV) where connections
to the mainland railroads were available. It is also possible that connections
with the LIRR via its marine terminals in Bay Ridge or LIC might have given mainland
access via the New Haven over the Hell Gate Bridge but I have never seen any
indication this was so, nor is the LIRR listed on the BEDT's Feb 1964 connections list.
Historian Tom Flagg advised 19 Jan 01 that there was even a Warren St.
Terminal in Jersey City which only lasted from about 1910-1915 until shortly
after 1920; its track plan looked much more like a Christmas Tree layout, with a loop,
than it did a real railroad. Tom suggests that perhaps that's why it didn't last
long! Further, he advised that the BEDT became a common carrier in 1940,
which certainly changes its status (source: Plowden, April 1961, article on BEDT in RR
Magazine). Aha, interstate commerce for sure!
Here, courtesy of Dave Keller, is a George Votava photo of the BEDT tug Petro
Flame taken in Apr 1973 at the Kent Avenue Yard dock against the NYC skyline:
(G. E. Votava photo courtesy of D. Keller - all rights reserved)
Steam Loco Data
Jim Herron found 11,000 original Porter drawings at the
Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Here are two
for #12:
Catalogue no.: E07342 Initial: X Quarter: 872
Manufacturer: PORTER, H.K. CO. INC.
Builder No.: 6368 Locomotive Class:
Drawing Date: 1918/9 /13 Last Revision Date: / /
Drawing Type: LINEN Condition:
Printability:
Designation:
Subject: MOTIVE POWER
Cylinders: 18 X24 X X ins.
Drawing Nos.: Side: 41049 End: 41050 Other:
Other Classes on drawing:
Drawing Group: Drawing Category:
Drivers: 46 Gauge: 56.5 Boiler Pressure: 180
Railway: U.S. NAVY, SOUTH BROOKLYN
Equipment No.: 3 Type: 0-6-0T
Comments: SEE 6366.
Group: RAIL Category: Archives Sub-category: Operations
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Catalogue no.: E07343 Initial: X Quarter: 872
Manufacturer: PORTER, H.K. CO. INC.
Builder No.: 6368 Locomotive Class:
Drawing Date: 1918/9 /20 Last Revision Date: / /
Drawing Type: LINEN Condition:
Printability:
Designation:
Subject: MOTIVE POWER
Cylinders: 18 X24 X X ins.
Drawing Nos.: Side: 41049 End: 41050 Other:
Other Classes on drawing:
Drawing Group: Drawing Category:
Drivers: 46.0 Gauge: 56.5 Boiler Pressure: 180
Railway: U.S. NAVY, SOUTH BROOKLYN
Equipment No.: 3 Type: 0-6-0T
Comments: SEE 6366.
Group: RAIL Category: Archives Sub-category: Operations
Palmer's Docks/Cooperage
Rummaging through my copies of American Sugar/Amstar/Domino historical documents,
I pieced together the background of the term "Palmer's Docks".
Palmer was a big Williamsburgh manufacturer of barrels and casks before
Havemeyer (then Havemeyer, Townsend, & Co.) bought him out to move from Van
Dam Street inland in Manhattan to the Williamsburgh waterfront in Brooklyn in 1875.
This was the first time that a sugar refiner had so much raw material to receive and
so much product to ship that a waterfront facility was required. The cooperage
far predated the Havemeyer acquisition but was known at the time as Palmer's
Cooper Shop and the property that came along with it was bounded by First and
Second Streets (the former probably along the waterfront and the latter presumably
now Kent Avenue) and by North Fourth and North Fifth Streets. As of 1876, the
operation was fully under the control of Havermeyers & Elder and was operated
"under the supervision of Mr. Lowell M. Palmer". Whether Lowell was the
founder or a descendant is unknown to me.
Thus, H&E acquired both space in which to expand (dramatically) and a source of
additional income and shipping materials. I will expand further on this later,
but the business was so great that Havemeyer established a freight depot on the
north side of North Fifth Street, extending the full width of the block from First to
Second Streets; which he turned over to the Erie Railroad, it quickly becoming one of
their busiest terminals (fourth biggest in 1876).
In addition, the cooperage consumed such vast quantities of lumber that H&E bought
large tracts of land across the country and established huge forest products firms.
This was in addition to their vast holdings in sugar cane and sugar beet plantations.
It appears (not verified) that Palmer's became H&E's Brooklyn Cooperage
Company.
{more to follow}
BEDT Queensboro Terminal!
(Moved from the main BEDT page 11 Aug 02)
Now, here's a kicker for you; it sure surprised me beyond belief! Our
indefatigable LIRR photographer, Art Huneke, asked if I knew that the BEDT had a
yard in Queens along the East river but NORTH of Pidgeon Street.
"No way!", sez I (in effect). "Zap", sez he, literally, as he shot back an image
of an old BEDT ad, from a "Port of New York" publication dated August 1926
(which predates adoption by NYC of its old 2-digit postal codes). What to my
wondering eyes did appear but a BEDT Queensboro Terminal, between 13th and 14th Streets in Long Island City! Unless it was before Queens renumbered its streets (unlikely), this puts it (pardon the pun) in Put Cove, in the west end of the Hell Gate, opposite Wards Island, immediately west of where the Triborough Bridge stands today. That's a very logical place from which to service the Hunt's Point, Oak Point, and Port Morris and Harlem River facilities. However, that's really Astoria. Alternatively, it could have been on the north bank of Newtown Creek, sandwiched between that and the LIRR's LIC Station track along Borden Avenue, two blocks east of where the Pulaski Bridge now crosses the Creek. It sure seems odd to have a yard there, only a few blocks east of the Pidgeon Street Terminal, and even odder that neither one would connect with the LIRR (but they were arch car float rivals). That neighborhood is Hunter's Point and it's NOT north of Pigeon Street. Here's a scan of the ad (no map, dagnab it!):
Old BEDT Brochure
(Image courtesy of A. Huneke - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image - click on picture for the full, hi-res. (261Kb) image.]
The list of RR connections does NOT include the LIRR and the Brooklyn
address is given as 86-88 Kent Avenue. Does anyone out there have any
information about this yard (please)? It does NOT appear on the Port
Authority's NY Harbor Terminals Map of Jul 1943 (page 63 in Bendersky) nor on the
BEDT map of Feb 1964 (page 14, ibid).
Well, we know you can't get to China by sailing up Newtown Creek and now I know
you can't get to the Queensboro Terminal by sailing to Put Cove OR to the Creek.
My idle speculations were just that; according to the knowledgeable Tom Flagg, the
Queensboro Terminal opened in 1914 and probably closed at the beginning of the
Depression, though he isn't sure about the latter, and it was located at 13th St. [now
44 Road (so I am a victim of Queens renumbering after all!)] on the
East River, roughly opposite the southern tip of Ward's Island (Randall's or
Roosevelt for you modern ninnies who probably think Our Lady of the Waters
resides on Liberty Island instead of Bedloe's!). Tom suggests that it was
almost certainly a pier station only (much cheaper to establish that way - needs no
float bridge, no track on land, etc.). He tells me that there were plans for a
carfloat terminal in Queensboro, maybe at the same site, filed with the city's Dept. of
Docks, very modelgenic, but only prospective, never built.
Along comes Bernie Ente with a photo of the Queensboro Terminal in this BEDT ad
from the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF THE
BOROUGH OF QUEENS, undated, but
after 1914, since it has both the terminal and the overarching (overtrussing is more
apt) Queensborough (59th Street, 1909) bridge:
(Ad image courtesy of B. Ente)
[Thumbnail image, click on ad for larger image.]
Bernie advises, "It didn't have rail access -- it was for truck trans-shipment only.";
thus answering another question. Note that the terminal is officially at 14th
Street and that the ad was placed by the BROOKLYN EASTERN DISTRICT TERMINAL
COMPANY, adding fuel to the fire about "Company" vs. "Railroad" (there are
those who say that there never was a BEDT RR - I'll have to check the Domino
records).
Now, I am truly grateful to Tom and Bernie for all this BUT did Tom HAVE to tell me that
there was also a BEDT terminal in Jersey City for a while? HA! -
Interstate Commerce!
Bernie Ente sent me two links to David Pirmann's NYCSubway site with lots on the
BEDT/NYCH, The Brooklyn
Waterfront and
photos of same.
Here's a stab at reproducing the BEDT in Z scale (1:220), where 6' =
¼-mile!
(moved from the main BEDT page 11 Aug 02)
(Autosketch image by and © 1996, 2002 S. Berliner, III - all rights reserved)
[Thumbnail image - click on picture for larger image.]
Those are exact renderings of Märklin Z turnouts and track sections superimposed on
the trackplan and the RED lines are
completely spurious run-around tracks to connect the BEDT and 4th Street and allow
continuous running from tracks 12 and 13 to 49 and around again via 24 and 59 along
the bulkhead line and back to 12.
BEDT HELP - on the main BEDT page.
There are some very odd BEDT "loco"s on Berlinerwerke
Apocrypha page 5!
Remember to visit the main BEDT page and the other "Vest Pocket Railroads You Can Model":
Degnon Terminal Railroad and
Marion River Carry Railroad (now on it's own page).
New York & Atlantic Railroad
Atlas Terminal
and more model railroading
and more railoading in general.
THUMBS UP!
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S. Berliner, III
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© Copyright S. Berliner, III - 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002,
2003, 2005, 2006,
2007
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