Last week, I mentioned the former Phelps Dodge site in Maspeth in this mission file about some nearby abandoned houses.
Currently the only building on the former Phelps Dodge property is a large warehouse used as a Restaurant Depot outlet. Behind the building though, one might find some remains of the narrow gauge railroad which used to exist inside the confines of the refinery (“Narrow Gauge” refers to the small width between the two rails – as opposed to the ‘standard gauge’ that most railroads as we know them utilize).
These tracks are a crazy swirl of rails with tight curve radius’s and close proximity to each other. It would be a neat project for any modeling nerd to try and replicate what the complete railroad looked like.
Hopefully, if and when this land gets developed (there’s some calm NYS Dot will create a park under the replacement for the Kosciusko Bridge), some sort of historic reminder of what this property used to be (like these tracks) will be preserved as a reminder of the areas former industrial might. Personally though, I think the space should be left exactly as it is now: hidden in plain sight and very secluded feeling. Once beyond the parking lot area the only persistent sign of life were the airliners making their way to LaGuardia.
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