"Watching Trains at Nassau One Last Time"
With news that Long Island Rail Road's Nassau Tower in Mineola closing, several railbuffs, rail employees and others from near and far stopped by to pay their respects to an iconic piece of history. On the night of July 10th, after a long day at work, an employee decided to spend some spare time watching the last few trains of this tower's service life pass by, just as he and others did as a little kid growing up in this area.
The last revenue trains to pass were train 665 westbound and 1754 eastbound before this portion of the line was shutdown for the weekend. The tower stayed open till the next morning for maintenance of way purposes.
On July 11th, 2020 at 10:01hrs, Nassau Tower was closed and control shifted to LIRR's Jamaica Center Control while this portion of the line was shut down to support Third Track construction projects. This is the second tower outside of the Jamaica area to be shifted. Nassau Tower sits on the right of way of the new Main Line Third Track, which will span from Floral Park to Hicksville. Therefore it must be demolished along with the Mineola station platform located just behind the camera. Old photos of the tower were posted up on several of the poles in the area in an attempt to save the tower by having it relocated. Unfortunately, those efforts were unsuccessful.
