JANET BURNS

jburns@antonmediagroup.com

If you’re even a modest fan of Long Island history and/or railroad technology (and why on earth wouldn’t you be?) then there’s a lot to admire both trackside and track-wise in Mineola.

Mineola Station and surrounding tracks have also played a major role in this neck of the woods for more than a century.

Located on today’s Main Line and the Oyster Bay Line, Mineola has always hosted a key connection with the Oyster Bay Branch, and was first built as “Branch station” in 1837 on the south side of the tracks, about two buildings and one century before the current station building.

As such, Mineola has also been a historic hub not just for travelers but for those people that keep the lines running smoothly in both eastboand and westbound directions (and, for a period until the mid-20th century, running north or south).

From 1923 until 2020, in fact, all train traffic on these lines in Nassau as far as Locust Valley and Westbury, a.k.a. the Nassau Interlocking portion of the LIRR, was controlled from a tower and substation at Mineola Junction. just east of Mineola Station. Known as Nassau Tower, the building was demolished in 2021 as part of LIRR modernization efforts, but only after digital control of area tracks was transferred to Jamaica, Queens (and after select artifacts were removed).

Mineola Station, one of the busiest stations in Nassau County, was also recently renovated as part of the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) Expansion Project, and its finishing touches are nearly complete. Enhancements include a new parking structure, new canopies, charging stations, Wi-Fi, new digital displays, heated pavements for snow removal, new upright benches/leaning stations, new or renovated overpasses, and, right next to the historic station building, a larger-than-life sculpture depicting Roxey, the unofficial dog mascot of the LIRR, held aloft by pioneering aviator Dr. Bessica Medlar Raiche.

The eye-catching artwork in question is “Bessie & Roxey,” by New York City-based sculptor Donald Lipski, with modeling by sculptor Christopher Collins, clothing design by Terri Hyland, and bronze casting by Art Castings of Colorado.

According to Lipski’s website, “Over the last years, as statues were being torn down across the country, Lipski started thinking about making a classical bronze statue. The newly restored historic [Mineola Station] seemed the perfect opportunity [and he] sought historical figures who would forever stand the test of time.”

Overall, noted retired LIRR branch line manager and railroad historian Dave Morrison, “This is an exciting year in Long Island Rail Road history.”

He explained in an email to Nassau Illustrated News, “It not only marks the 100th anniversary of the opening of the Mineola Station building, but there is now a gorgeous statue, of great historical significance, in front of the building.”

“It is wonderful, too, that we know the name of the person who purchased the first ticket at the newly opened ticket office on September 22, 1923, that being George Eggers,” Morrison continued. “Upon contacting his granddaughter, Janet Eggers McKinnon of Happy Valley, Oregon, she sent me a photograph of her grandfather,” he said (included here).

LIRR’s

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