LIRR E51sa-4 Cannonball 
Manorville Branch at Eastport 1923 Photo: James V. Osborne  Archive: Dave Keller   

Ticket from Bellport to Jamesport - 9/19/1896  Archive: Brad Phillips

The rider, from Bellport (Montauk Branch), takes the eastbound Montauk, Amagansett or Speonk train and gets off at Eastport. At Eastport, the rider waits for the "Greenport Scoot" heading westbound back up to Manorville via the Manorville branch, then eastbound as the "Scoot" takes the east leg of the wye to the Main Line and out to Greenport, making the stop at Jamesport. 

Bob Emery Maps of the Manorville Branch - 1949
Robert M. Emery maps courtesy of Dave Keller archive

MP65-66 03/1949

MP65-70 03/1949 Composite Map
Created by: Steve Lynch 06/27/07 

MP67-68 03/1949

MP69-70 03/1949

LIRR Colton-Geographicus map of 1882 zoom
of  Manorville Branch

Entire LIRR map here: CLICK

Eastport  Junction

Elevated exterior view from semaphore block signal showing connecting Manorville Branch. PT  cabin viewed from signal mast looking west up the Manorville Branch (straight ahead) with Montauk Branch curving off to the left. 
Info: Dave Keller 

PT Cabin  Eastport 1923 Photo: James V. Osborne Archive: Dave Keller

Manorville Junction

MANORVILLE, LIRR MAINLINE:  APPEARS ON TIMETABLE OF 6/14/1845 AS “ST. GEORGE’S MANOR” AND IN 1852, SHORTENED TO “MANOR.” RAZED: 9/1869 (Per local history, the first station agent, Seth Raynor, a patriot of the American Revolution, painted out the “St. George’s,” leaving “Manor.”). 

2nd DEPOT BUILT: 5/1871. RAZED: 6/41 CONCRETE BLOCK SHELTER SHED BUILT: 1941. JUNCTION AND SPUR TRACK TO MONTAUK BRANCH CONNECTION AT EASTPORT OUT OF SVC: 12/27/49. STRUCTURE RAZED: 1968. STILL LISTED AS STATION STOP IN ETT #1, EFF: 5/79. NO LONGER LISTED IN ETT #2, EFF. 5/12/80. Research: Dave Keller 

1895 roundtrip excursion ticket sample from Long Island City to Manor. Archive: Brad Phillips

The Early Years of the Long Island Railroad 
 by Thomas Bayles 1969
Manorville 4/24/1847 Summer "Arrangement" timetable.
A stop here to load wood in the tender for the engines on their trip to Greenport.

 
Emery map 1934 Manorville - MP65 to Lanes Rd. 
Archive: Dave Keller

Emery map 1929 Manorville - Lanes Rd. to east leg of wye Archive: Dave Keller

1929 Manorville map key  Archive: Dave Keller

Manorville Jct. Station view 9/27/1906
  Archive: Dave Keller 

Zoom view of 9/27/06 photo showing the station sign says "Manor".  It wasn't changed to Manorville until 1907. Research: Dave Keller  

Water Tower - Pump House Manorville as seen from the upstairs of the trackside hotel 6/1904
Archive: Dave Keller

 
Manorville Jct. Station LIRR valuation photo view NW c.1921 with the added express house, which led to Raynor Rd. being diverted. Archive: Dave Keller
 

Manorville Station rear view W 6/1934
Photo: Fred Weber Archive: Dave Keller

Note the proximity of the Eastport track to the old hotel at the left! One of the two semaphore block signals is visible in this image. The other is blocked by the depot. Note the "MR" unattended block station signal mounted lower down on the Eastport track signal. The old sedan in the center distance was the car for the block operator working "MR" cabin, hidden by the two old trees. The semaphore block signal is visible beyond the automobile. The watering and coaling facilities are long gone, but between the trees you can just make out the little shanty that appears in the forefront of my 1906 view.
Info: Dave Keller

Manorville LIRR #253 Train #4200 blasts through the quiet and tranquility of "Downtown" Manorville on its way to Greenport. View NW  2/1986 Photo/Archive: Jay Bendersky

The Eastport Secondary track ran right in front of the building at left which used to be a hotel and is now a biker bar.  The line pole to the right of the train is the former location of the depot on the south side of the tracks.
Info: Dave Keller

"MR" CABIN PERMANENTLY O.O.S: 9/09/42 AND SIGNAL MASTS ALL CUT OFF AT 10' ABOVE GROUND. BLOCK LIMIT SIGNAL PERMANENTLY OUT OF SERVICE PER G.O. #1404 EFF: 6/25/48.
JUNCTION AND MAIN TRACK TO EASTPORT OUT OF SVC PER G.O. #1710 EFF: 12/27/49.)
 

Manorville Station G5s #39 Railfan Extra eastbound 6/05/1955 Archive: Dave Keller

Postal Clerk hanging the mailbag on the railroad mail crane on the west side of Manorville station (View SE towards hotel) - 09/18/1962 Archive: Dave Keller

"MR" Block Signal Limit-Manorville  - View E c.1947 
Photo: Harold Smith  Archive: Dave Morrison

The T" box,  at the right, is supported by the former Eastport branch block signal mast. Note the open switch lock dangling from a chain.

The MR block limit signal is supported by the former Main Line block signal mast. Full-sized masts existed side-by-side at Manorville, with semaphore signals controlling both the Main Line (mast at the left) and the Eastport branch (mast at the left) (1925 photographic evidence).

Both were truncated after the manned block office was placed out of service (prior to 1941) and the Unattended Block Station signals mounted lower down on the masts were retained, renamed Block Limit signals.


The depot was torn down in June, 1941 and replaced by a concrete block shelter shed which is visible beyond the "MR" signal so the image can't be prior to June, 1941.

Look to the extreme right, under the "T" box. Tracks are curving off to Eastport and to the left of the "T" box, the wooden diamond crossing warning sign is still in place for that track!!!

Notice the platform lamp and post between the two masts. See how it's set back, midway between the two tracks and not in line with the shelter shed and distant platform lamp? This lamp was situated here to provide joint (and minimal) platform lighting for both Main Line AND Eastport branch passengers.

When the branch was taken out of service and the masts removed, the "T" box was hung from the west wall of the shelter shed and "MR" Block Limit signal was relocated further east. (Photo left)

The fact that the tracks and the block limit signal are still visible and photographed in the summer, based upon leaves on the trees, dates it anytime prior to June 25, 1948 when the signals were placed out of service.
Research: Dave Keller
 

Manorville's dwindling ticket sales, if any at all by the mid-1930s, caused this to be one of the earlier stations to lose its ticket agency (Shinnecock Hills closed its agency in 1932.)

By the time it was demolished in June, 1941, Manorville the ticket agency would have been closed for some time. Traditionally, when the LIRR closed an agency, it left the depot remaining for a period of time, for passengers to wait inside. (Yaphank's agency closed in 1958 and the depot remained standing until razed in 1961.) The train crew leaving the station in the evening would be responsible to turn on the platform and station lights and the train crew arriving in the morning would be responsible to turn them off.  Research: Dave Keller

Collection:  Robert Emery, SUNY Stony Brook, NY

It has been rumored that the railroad station was then moved to inside the nearby hotel. As there was no longer any ticket agency (and freight agency and Railway Express agency) at that location, there would have been no need for the hotel to house the station as there were no ticket sales, no agent and no clerk.

As you can see from the images (above center, right), one from 1955 and the other from 1968, the replacement depot was a quickly-put-up cement block structure. I can't see it taking very long to construct. 

Now . . it's highly possible that the hotel, being so very close to the tracks, served as a temporary WAITING ROOM for the station stop, but ONLY for as long as it took the LIRR to clean up the wooden depot's debris and construct this replacement shelter shed. So . . if that WERE the case, then the hotel could have served as a waiting room, but only for a very short period of time. And, of course, legends do tend to grow with the telling as time passes.

Note: The 1968 image above was photographed by me a month or so before the shelter shed was torn down. Platform and shelter lights are still present in this view. The station stop last appeared in the ETT effective May, 1979. It was no longer listed in the May, 1980 ETT.4   Research: Dave Keller

Photo: James V. Osborne 1927
Collection: Dave Keller

These shots (above left/center) are of the Manorville-Eastport branch. The only signal on the branch was installed on the north side of the Bauer St. crossing at MP66, one mile south of MP65 where MR cabin was located.

View NW towards MR and Manorville. The signal cable running along the side of the tracks connected with MR cabin one mile away and was controlled from there. Way in the distance you can just about make out the white cross buck post for the crossing diamond for the Eastport-Manor Road crossing. 

The signal was installed in 1927 and block operator James V. Osborne climbed to the top right after installation to get some nice elevated views of the branch.

He wound up getting the only known views of the branch and, by being elevated, some of the best views of the ROW and rural LI in the process.

The 2nd shot posted is looking SE  into the early morning sun. ROW and tracks straight as an arrow in each direction.  Info: Dave Keller

H10s #108 is pulling an eastbound freight along the Montauk branch at the junction of the Montauk and Manorville branches at Eastport c. 1943 in this view looking northwest directly up the Manorville branch. An indication that this was a wartime shot (and wartime photos were very rare because of the security policy that was strongly enforced) is the color of the smoke box.  Smoke boxes of the locomotives during the war years were painted a dull, dark grey.  They were painted a lighter grey/graphite after the war was over.  

The locomotive is passing the "PT" unattended block limit signals.  The old signal masts are still standing but have had their semaphore blades removed.  In the foreground is the out-of-service "PT" cabin.  

Per the G.O. dates I have, the cabin was taken out of full-time service on January 19, 1933 and was open for summers only beginning on June 25 of that same year and was last placed out of service on September 9, 1942. It WOULD have been necessary  for the cabin to have been  in service during the summers due to the number of trains running past this junction on their way to the Hamptons and Montauk however, beach and Hamptons traffic was probably significantly reduced during the war years so the cabin was most probably no longer needed after 1942 and by the time the war ended, the railroad probably had a notion to eliminate this junction which they did within a few years. 

Only unattended block limit signals were used after that 1942 date. Train #12 the "Shinnecock Express" was the last train to operate along this branch in 1946 and the unattended block limit signals were removed on June 25, 1948 The Junction was taken out of service on December 27, 1949 and the track swiftly torn up and sold for scrap. Why there was a 3-year delay between the last train to run along that branch until it was officially taken out of service by General Order #1710 remains a mystery to me.   (Dave Keller archive and  data)

These are the semaphore signals when very much in use back around 1921, only looking from the opposite direction:

 PT Cabin Eastport - Manorville Jct.1921 View from between Montauk branch at right and Manorville  branch at left  (James V. Osborne photo / Dave Keller archive)

 PT Cabin Eastport - Manorville Jct. 1921 Alternate view from Montauk branch (James V. Osborne photo /  Dave Keller archive)

 
 PT Cabin Block Limit Signal (BLS) put into service on 4/25/49 (replacing the ones on the old semaphore signal masts) and taken out of service permanently on 5/6/2006 In the distance, the tracks make the sharp curve to the left with the former Manorville branch ROW continuing straight ahead. Eastport 1970 Photo/Archive: Dave Keller

Manorville Branch - Form 19s

Train order issued at "PD" tower in Patchogue addressed to eastbound Montauk train #4, indicating that PRR-leased K4s #1984 was to run passenger-extra from "PW" interlocking which was west of Pinelawn on the Main Line to Montauk, which required using the Manorville-Eastport branch. The extra was to run ahead of train #4 from "PT" (Eastport) to Montauk. The 200-series train numbers indicated Main Line scheduled trains. "EEE" at the end of the order represented Supt. of Transportation E. E. Ernest. Order made complete by block operator Gafney.

Train order issued at "PD" tower, Patchogue, addressed to eastbound Speonk train #38 indicating that PRR-leased E3sd was to run passenger extra westbound from Montauk to Manorville. Order made complete by block operator Panevich.

Similar train order indicating that PRR-leased K4s #5407 was to run passenger extra westbound from Montauk to Manorville. "HTF" at the end represented Supt. of Transportation H. T. Frushour. Order made complete by block operator Hawkins.

Train order issued at "PD" tower, addressed to G53 freight engine #142 with instructions to run extra (and light) from Patchogue to Manorville. This required a reverse move at "PT" cabin in Eastport as the west leg of the wye that would have facilitated this move much easier had been taken out of service in February, 1931. Order made complete by block operator Casey.

Wartime train order issued at "WH" (Westhampton) via "PD" in Patchogue addressed to H10s freight engine #110 to run extra (and light) from "WH" to "MR." "MR" was the block signal at the Manorville end of the Manorville-Eastport branch. "MR" cabin had been taken out of service by this time. "ELH" represented Supt. of Transportation E. L. Hofmann and the order was made complete by block operator Baldwin. It is noted that the order was relayed to Conductor Overton who received this order via telephone in a LIRR "T" box at Westhampton.

Wartime train order issued at "PD" tower, addressed to the driver of Track Car #8632 directing the unit to run extra from "PD" to Manorville. Again, like the earlier order, this would required a reverse move at "PT" in Eastport. Order made complete by block operator Gafney.