Incorporation and construction The South Side Railroad was incorporated March 23, 1860, and organized April 20, 1860, to build from
Brooklyn to
Islip, with Willet Charlick, brother of the
LIRR's Oliver Charlick, and Charles Fox of
Baldwin in control. An April 12, 1867, supplement to its charter authorized an extension to
East Hampton. and it opened for regular service from
Jamaica east to
Babylon on October 28, 1867. Extensions opened to Islip on September 5, 1868,
Sayville on December 11, 1868, and
Patchogue on April 10, 1869.
Obtaining access to New York The SSRRLI was forced to build its own line west of Jamaica due to the LIRR's purchase of the
New York and Flushing Railroad on July 13, 1867. The South Side had been looking at using the New York and Flushing Railroad for access to
Long Island City. To gain access to ferry service to New York City, the South Side decided to build to Williamsburg. However, the
Flushing and North Side Railroad soon drove most traffic away from the New York and Flushing, leading to the portion east of Winfield being sold to the Flushing and North Side in 1869, and the rest lying unused. The
Hunters Point and South Side Railroad was incorporated on January 5, 1870 to connect Fresh Pond on the South Side with the
East River, and opened in 1872 to a point on the New York and Flushing.
Far Rockaway Branch The South Side Railroad incorporated a subsidiary, the
Far Rockaway Branch Railroad, on June 22, 1868 to construct a branch from the main line at
Valley Stream to the Rockaways. and opened July 4, 1872 to Beach 103rd Street at
Seaside,. Both companies were merged into the South Side on September 14, 1872, along with the Hunters Point and South Side and New York and Flushing. The New York and Hempstead Plains Railroad was incorporated March 1, 1870, to build from
Bay Ridge east to Hempstead, and was sold on September 16, 1874 to the Poppenhusens, who also controlled the Flushing, North Shore and Central Railroad. The South Side was reincorporated as the Southern Railroad of Long Island on September 25, 1874. The two Poppenhusen lines were connected at Babylon, and the Southern's branch to Hempstead was abandoned temporarily after only two years of operation. The Southern Hempstead Branch Railroad was incorporated on July 1, 1875 as a reorganization of the New York and Hempstead, and the Southern began operating it shortly thereafter. It was however closed permanently in May 1879, since Hempstead was already served adequately from the north (effectively the LIRR's current
Hempstead Branch).
Acquisition by the LIRR On January 26, 1876, the Poppenhusens acquired the LIRR. The line beyond Bushwick to Williamsburg was abandoned February 26, making the line to Bushwick a branch; passenger trains operated over a new connection into the LIRR's
Long Island City terminal. The LIRR leased the Southern on May 3, 1876. In June, the Southern became the main passenger route from Long Island City to Jamaica; most passenger trains on the Southern from Jamaica east to
Springfield Gardens were rerouted to the LIRR's Springfield Branch. This route east of Jamaica is still the main one for trains using the ex-Southern (
Montauk Branch) east of Valley Stream, but the "Lower Montauk" west of Jamaica has not been used by passenger trains since 2012. However, the LIRR entered receivership in late 1877, and the Southern was reorganized on November 20, 1879 as the Brooklyn and Montauk Railroad, The Brooklyn and Montauk opened an extension from Patchogue to
Eastport to connect to the LIRR's Sag Harbor Branch in 1881, and on October 5, 1889 it was merged into the LIRR. ==References==