Suffolk Traction Company

The Suffolk Traction Company is a former streetcar system in Suffolk County, New York. It operated primarily between Patchogue and Holtsville, but also included a route that served Blue Point, Bayport, and Sayville. It was opened in 1909 and ceased operations in 1919.

Main Line
The four current roads that originally carried the trolley line between Patchogue and Holtsville are South Ocean Avenue, North Ocean Avenue, and what today is Old North Ocean Avenue. The PD Tower at Patchogue Railroad Station served as a control tower for both the Long Island Railroad and the trolleys. Traction Boulevard (also known as Suffolk Traction Boulevard) continued the line, which crossed over the southeast corner of Canaan Lake and headed in a northwesterly direction. North of the Patchogue Highlands area, the paved road became a dirt trail and carried the former ROW towards Holtsville Station. The trolleys that used the road were storage battery cars that ran down the center of the street.

North of Holtsville, Suffolk Traction planned an extension through Farmingville, Selden, Terryville, Echo (now Port Jefferson Station), and eventually Port Jefferson. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt, even as a bridge was being built over the LIRR Main Line for the Suffolk Traction Main Line on the way to Port Jefferson.

The ROW was abandoned, and much of it was sold to private and public developers later in the 20th century, although the road was still depicted on numerous maps. The dirt trail was visible where it crossed Woodside Avenue and then disappeared entirely at the latter-day site of the town dump where it was obliterated (see below). It picked up again in the woods on the east side of Waverly Avenue just south of Katz's Farm which was located directly south of the LIRR station in Holtsville. The ROW ran along the edge of Katz's Farm so was not discernible.

The Town of Brookhaven installed a landfill on part of the former ROW, leaving a portion of it as an entrance at Blue Point Road. The landfill was transformed into a town park in the early to mid-1970s. During a 2009 repaving project of North Ocean Avenue by the Village of Patchogue Department of Public Works, the former trolley tracks were uncovered and removed for preservation.

<!--In Patchogue, the trolley line ran [East-] West along Main Street, from what is today Ocean Ave. and North-South along what is today N. & S. Ocean Avenue (then Pine St. and Ocean Avenue, respectively). Looking at a photocopy of part of an unidentified period map, it appears to run diagonally across streets and through properties from S.E. to N.W. between "Canaan Lake Park, Sec. A" and just short of the Holtsville R.R. Station of the central line of the LIRR. In the lower Canaan Lake... section, the line runs between Seaside Ave. to the S. and Grand and Lake View Aves. to the North. Then moving slightly N.W., it lies between Cedar St. (to the N.E.) and Highland St. (to the N.E.). The latter 2 Streets run N.-S., on either flank of the trolley line. After the line passes across Woodside Ave. (to the N.), it is again flanked by 2 N.-S. streets, Division St. (to the N.E.), and N. Pine St. (to the S.W.). The line then proceeds across the Southwesternmost corner, of Canaan Lake Park, Sec. B., passing over the Western terminus of the then proposed Linden St., then paralleled to the N.W., by the very short Macon St. During all this portion, there is a designation on the map "Bould.", which may mean Boulder St. or Ave., and this portion of the line seems to follow a street (two lines on either side of the track. This may either be a street or indicate a right of way.  As the trolley line leaves Canaan Lake Park, Sec. B., the (possible) trolley road ends, and the line proceeds by itself for the rest of its length, passing first across the N.E. section of the Jas. Hughes property., then across the Hait Est[ate] (no boundaries shown), then across the S.M. Keiper property, then turning Northward at the approx. boundary between the Wm. Schreve and J.H. McCormack property.  It seems to follow the Shreve property's Western boundary, until it follows a slight N.E.'ward bends, then quickly turns N.W., passing by the house and outbuilding of J. Brade and ending on the S. side of an unnamed path opposite the Holtsville Station and the Mrs. E. Bloomer property, in Holtsville. The S. end of the Port Jefferson Line, only a short portion of which is depicted, begins just North of the Holtsville RR Sta., on the N. side of Long Island Avenue, running between the properties of a P[ublic]. S[chool]. and a Bapt[ist] Ch[urch]., proceeding N'ward. I've checked our local map drawers without much success, for further depictions of where the lines ran. It may be that Sanborn atlases, for various villages and years, cover portions of the route, though probably not the entire route. I checked our "L.I. - Transportation - Trolleys..." vertical files. The above was the only map included. There is additional written material, in the files, but finding streets over which the line might have run, paralleled, or roads that were adjacent to the line in some way, and property boundaries through or along which it passed, and/or adjacent houses, would involved a lot more time than I have to spare, these days, esp. as I am on the road a great deal more, have projects, workshops, and training sessions to plan and execute, at the request of my employer, SCLS. The LIRR Historical Society may have or know of a Suffolk Traction Co. archives. Perhaps it is in private hands. A search of the NYS Historical Documents Inventory records on the state Library/Archives Museum's Excelsior Catalog yielded no holdings of such records, and a general search of the Catalog of all three institutions was equally unsuccessful. Anyway, hope the above is of some help to you, for the Holtsville line. Mark-->

Other branches
Besides the main line, Suffolk Traction Company had the Bayport-Blue Point Line between Sayville Railroad Station and Patchogue at Bicycle Path, a section of which is currently NY 112. The line was originally owned by the South Shore Traction Company and ran primarily along Middle Road, Blue Point Avenue, and Montauk Highway. It served the LIRR stations in Sayville, Bayport, Blue Point and Patchogue. A proposed eastbound extension into Bellport and Brookhaven was also on the books, but collapsed along with the Port Jefferson extension of the main line.

A third line called the Sayville Line ran exclusively within Sayville, from the Railroad Station along Sayville's Railroad Avenue, Montauk Highway, and Candee Avenue down to the Great South Bay. This line was originally a horse-drawn trolley, and like the Sayville to Patchogue Line, it was originally owned by the South Shore Traction Company.