Train buff and author shares his fascination for the LIRR

When Teddy Roosevelt discovered a commotion, with people trying to shoo Roxey, the legendary Long Island Rail Road canine mascot, off the bed in his private train car, the 26th president said let him ride. And so Roxey rode the rails all the way from Garden City to Oyster Bay, home of Sagamore Hill, Roosevelt’s “summer White House.”

That’s just one bit of the history and trivia David D. Morrison shared with about four dozen people who attended his recent talk about LIRR history at the Village of Babylon Historical Society.

Aided by a slideshow of historical shots of trains, stations, grade crossings, coal silos and more, Morrison zeroed in on the Babylon train line and its 15 stations. The Lynbrook train station, they learned, was originally called Pearsalls; Wantagh was formerly Ridgewood; and Lindenhurst debuted as Wellwood. He also described how the Babylon line got a second track in 1892, years before Ronkonkoma’s, which wasn’t double tracked until 2018, and that the Rockville Centre station with its red tiled roof was built in 1901 for the sum of $6,000, but demolished in 1950 when the tracks were elevated.

Among the train enthusiasts at Morrison’s talk was Max Margolis.

“I really like trains,” said Max, 9, of Babylon. “I like the LIRR. I know different kinds of trains.” He was impressed with the new Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan that he recently visited with his grandmother.

After a 25-year career in labor relations and as a branch line manager for the railroad, Morrison, 77, of Plainview, has dedicated himself to LIRR history — in books and discussions. In 1988 he founded the Long Island Rail Road Historical Society, a group of LIRR employees who disbanded 11 years later when Morrison retired.

As a child growing up in Yonkers, in Westchester County, Morrison cherished the Lionel train set his father set up each year to run around the Christmas tree. His love for trains deepened each summer at his family’s bungalow in Croton Point Park, where he’d venture off to a sandbank overlooking the steam locomotives at the Harmon facility of the New York Central Railroad.

“I used to sit on that sandbank and watch those steam locomotives turning on the turntable at Harmon and being filled with coal at the enormous coal dock, and I just fell in love with trains,” he said. Railroads, it would seem are in Morrison’s blood.

“My great-great-great-grandfather was a coach trimmer, which was a car repairman, on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in the 1830s,” Morrison said. “That’s when railroads were being born and developed in the U.S.”

The LIRR, he notes, is the oldest passenger and freight railroad in the country still operating under its original name. It was chartered on April 24, 1834, and turned its first wheel two years later, with service from the Brooklyn waterfront to Jamaica, Queens.

Prizing stations

Morrison’s appreciation for stations continued to grow during his 11 years as a branch line manager responsible for 39 stations — parts of the Oyster Bay, Port Jefferson and Montauk branches — in charge of maintenance, upkeep of buildings and platforms, ticket offices and machines, and customer relations.

“My love and my specialty is in the railroad stations,” he said. “I kid around with the guys, I say, ‘Trains were created to give purpose to the stations.’ ”

Captivated by the architectural beauty, charm and history of the stations, Morrison has photographed LIRR stations over the years. Fourteen of the existing stations, he notes, were built in the 1800s, including Hewlett (1870), St. James (1873) and Port Washington (1898), the last to be built in that century.

“There’s such a human connection with the trains — it starts at the station,” he said, noting that the station is the first and last thing rail riders see on their journey. “Think about all the human drama that has occurred at railroad stations, with tearful goodbyes and also joyful reunions.”

As both an LIRR employee and retiree, Morrison has collected and placed historical photographs in railroad station waiting rooms, such as Port Washington and Babylon, where his displays have remained for more than three decades.

A member of Oyster Bay Railroad Museum’s station restoration committee, Morrison notes that the organization has restored two sides of the building, whose second level, made of stucco, has oyster shells embedded in it, and is now working on the other two, as well as the interior.

Whenever he gets questions about railroad history, John Specce, president of the Oyster Bay museum, refers them to Morrison. “His knowledge of the railroad is just encyclopedic,” Specce said. “If there was a PhD in the Long Island Rail Road, Dave would have it.”

Janet Marie Soley, president of Friends of Connetquot River State Park Preserve, invited Morrison to speak at the preserve this past November.

“Dave knows so many interesting facts about the LIRR,” she said. “He has a great sense of humor and made every story an enjoyable one.”

‘Hunting’ for eagles

After retiring in 1999, Morrison started writing a book series, “Images of Rail,” about LIRR history, focused on different train stations and branches, that is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and a few local bookstores. Like the others, his 10th and latest book, “Long Island Rail Road — Port Washington Branch” (2023), was released by Arcadia Publishing.

Morrison explores in his books how the railroad would typically bring service into the center of a community, with a few notable exceptions, such as Cold Spring Harbor and Huntington stations, which were placed miles from their established downtowns because of a dispute between the railroad president and community officials, and Port Jefferson, which was built on a hill along the existing train line and a distance from the waterfront village.

In his 2019 book, “Grand Central Terminal and Penn Station: Statuary and Sculptures,” Morrison diverges from LIRR history to detail his 30-year odyssey to locate all 32 eagles that had once adorned all four sides of Penn Station and the corners of the four towers of the original Grand Central Station, which was replaced by Grand Central Terminal in 1913.

“That took me all over the country: up to as far as Vinalhaven, Maine, and all the way down to Hampden Sydney, Virginia, and out to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania,” he said.

Tracking down one of the Grand Central eagles to a Bronxville, Westchester, backyard in 1993, Morrison didn’t get anywhere with the homeowner until 1995, when Laurie Hawkes bought the house.

“She said, ‘What would you like to see done with the eagle?’ ” Morrison recalled. “I said, ‘I’d like to see it returned to Grand Central Terminal and placed there.’ ”

Hawkes then contacted MTA board chairman E. Virgil Conway, a Bronxville neighbor, and the eagle was placed near the Lexington Avenue entranceway to the terminal in 1999.

A second eagle, found on the grounds of the Capuchin Seminary in Garrison, in upstate New York, was restored and placed on Grand Central’s building at Vanderbilt Avenue and 42nd Street in 2001.

“That’s one thing I take pride in: All of the years of my railroad historical research, my greatest pride is getting those eagles back to Grand Central,” said Morrison.

A whistle for a wedding

One of the highlights of his career was arranging the first and only wedding ceremony at the Oakdale LIRR station waiting room on Dec. 10, 1994.

The bride, Charlotte Hebert, whose fiance was a railroad buff, contacted Morrison saying she’d like to get married on the train.

“I said ‘Charlotte, that’s not going to happen, I can tell you right now,” he said. “But how about getting married inside the railroad station waiting room?’ ”

Since Hebert lived in Patchogue, Morrison recommended what he believed was the nicest station close to it: Oakdale, designed in 1890 by an architect working for William Vanderbilt, who paid the $20,000 for the new brick station with its porte cochère to welcome guests arriving for his daughter’s wedding at his nearby estate, Idle Hour.

At Morrison’s request, the engineer of a passing train leaned on the horn for an extended blow to celebrate the couple. Though it temporarily interrupted the ceremony, the unmistakable sound was a memorable touch for a one-of-a-kind wedding.

Whenever possible, Morrison has contributed historical artifacts to the Railroad Museum of Long Island, in Greenport, with a second visitor’s center in Riverhead.

Commending Morrison for his advocacy of the LIRR, Don Fisher, president of the museum, said, “Being a past employee of the Long Island Rail Road, Dave knows, understands and keeps alive the history of the Long Island Rail Road.”

Understanding the history of railroads is integral to understanding U.S. and local history, Fisher contends, noting a growing trend to build walkable communities around train stations on Long Island.

“Railroads in general built this country. The railroad, in general, built our Island, before it built our country,” said Fisher, adding that once the railroad reached Greenport in 1844, development on Long Island soon followed.

Learn more about the LIRR 

For more information about trains, railroads and their history, visit trainsarefun.com, a website David D. Morrison recommends and contributes to.

Morrison will be giving the following “History of Long Island Rail Road” talks, all of which are free:

Feb. 9, 7 to 8 p.m., West Babylon Public Library, 211 Rte. 109, West Babylon; 631-669-5445, wbab.suffolk.lib.ny.us; register online, by phone or in person. 

March 16, 3 to 4 p.m., Brentwood Public Library, 34 Second Ave., Brentwood, 631-273-7883, brentwoodnylibrary.org; register online, by phone or in person. 

May 18, 7 to 8 p.m., Bay Shore Historical Society, 22 Maple Ave., Bay Shore, 631-665-1707, bayshorehistoricalsociety.org; no registration required.