Death, Burial, and Exhumation
What became of the ruins of the New York and North Shore?
The trolley line defunct, Mayor Hylan sent a delegate to approach the line's creditors. Much to their, well... credit, they refused to sell their interests to the regime that had done so much to force the NY&NS into bankruptcy. Unhappy with their refusal, Hylan tried to seize the entire system - but because critical portions of the route ran on private property, it could not be seized without judicial approval. The judge was unsympathetic, and refused to let the City condemn private real estate merely for the Mayor's convenience. John F. Hylan had to give up.
Abandoned Trolleys in Flushing from Seyfried, NY & NS Traction Company
Some of the line's trolleys found new life when they were sold to a Stanley-owned system in Virginia. The rest, and all the remaining assets of the NY&NS, were ultimately sold for scrap - in theory, anyway. In many places, the track was just abandoned in place, so as to avoid the expense and ill will that would have been incurred by digging up streets, removing the track, and restoring the streets afterwards.
As time went by, the towns and counties paved the roads, usually covering the old trolley tracks, which afterwards had a way of poking through here and there. Early in World War II, however, an acute need for scrap metal led the Federal government to unearth more than one million pounds of abandoned steel trolley rail in various Nassau County towns. The old NY&NS yielded its share.
Long Island News-Owl, 6 November 1942
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August Belmont Junior... George A. Stanley... John F. Hylan...
Manhattan... Brooklyn... Queens... Albany... Cleveland...
It never really was "Hicksville's trolley" at all, was it?
