Wyandanch (LIRR station)

Wyandanch
Wyandanch station, focused eastward on the platform in September 2014.
Location	Straight Path & Long Island Avenue, off Acorn Avenue Wyandanch, NY
Coordinates	40°45′18″N 73°21′28″W / 40.754889°N 73.35781°W / 40.754889; -73.35781Coordinates: 40°45′18″N 73°21′28″W / 40.754889°N 73.35781°W / 40.754889; -73.35781
Owned by	MTA
Line(s)	Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch)
Platforms	1 side platform
Tracks	1
Connections	Suffolk County Transit: S23, S33, 2A, 2B
Construction
Parking	Yes; Free
Disabled access	Yes
Other information
Fare zone	9
History
Opened	May, 1875
Rebuilt	1958, 1987
Electrified	January 18, 1988 750 V (DC) third rail
Previous names	West Deer Park
Traffic
Passengers (2006)	3,517
Services
Ticket Vending Machines Preceding station   LIRR   Following station Pinelawn toward New York terminals Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch) Deer Park toward Greenport

Wyandanch is a station along the Main Line (Ronkonkoma Branch) of the Long Island Rail Road. It is located on Straight Path (Suffolk CR 2) and Long Island Avenue, off Acorn Avenue in Wyandanch, New York. All parking near the station is free, and maintained either by Suffolk County or the Town of Babylon.

Wyandanch station was originally built in May 1875 as "West Deer Park". The station and tracks have always been at ground level. During the 1920s and 1930s, the vicinity of the station became the site of numerous horrific accidents involving crashes with trains at the unguarded grade-level rail crossings at Straight Path, 18th Street and Little East Neck Road. In 1935, after repeated protests from the people of Wyandanch, the Public Service Commission (PSC) ordered the LIRR to provide crossing guards at the 18th Street and Straight Path crossings during school hours on school days, so that school children living north of the LIRR to safely walk across the railroad on their way to the schoolhouse at South 20th Street and Straight Path on the south side.

In December 1948, a model railroading club called the New York Live Steamer Society built a miniature steam railroad ride along the line at Merritt Avenue at North 17th Street, on a plot of land which was owned by the LIRR. No fees were ever charged, and the rides proved to be quite popular. By 1951, three miniature engines were in operation on Sundays and holidays, "two of them steam and the other diesel." The miniature railway moved to Freeport in 1953, when the LIRR needed the land on which the New York Live Steamer Society had been using without charge.

The station was razed in February 1958. It was replaced with a non-descript, flat-roofed, 37' x 12', $40,000 concrete block depot on the north side of Long Island Avenue about 500 feet (150 m) west of the 1875 station. The relocated station was built in June 1958 and was similar to the current Bethpage station house.