LIRR: Labor Day Weekend Friday Rush Hour in the Hamptons & Amagansett Ft. Cannonball Final 2016 Run

Since the Friday of Labor Day Weekend is a very busy weekend for the Long Island Railroad's Montauk Branch, decided to do something I haven't done in a while with my buddy freeskierinvt (Josh) and head out east to the Hamptons & Amagansett to get some cool shots of the large crowds getting off the trains and try out my Canon R600 out here which I wasn't able to do last year since I only had my phone. Normally I do not videotape people getting on and off of trains as a general rule, but the rush out east on the Montauk Branch is the only exception I make to this rule since the seemingly large crowds are quite a spectacle to see. Lots of the trains during a Friday on Memorial Day, 4th of July, & Labor Day Weekends end up being standing room only due to the large volume of people traveling out to the Hamptons & Montauk on the LIRR and as a result of limited diesel equipment.

In fact, to provide sufficient capacity for the high volume of passengers traveling out east, the LIRR came out with a special timetable effective on this Friday, September 2nd only that changed a number of things:

1.) EB Train #'s 2704 & 2706 from Jamaica to Montauk will NOT stop at Bay Shore, Sayville, & Patchogue as they usually do to provide extra room for those using those two trains to travel out east. Passengers getting off at Bay Shore, Sayville, & Patchogue were asked to use the relief trains 9704&9706 for service to these stations. Trains 9704 & 9706 ran every summer Friday from July 1st through September 2nd to provide relief to the commonly overcrowded Montauk trains 2704&2706, but this was the only day that 2704&2706 did NOT stop at Bay Shore, Patchogue, or Sayville.

2.) An extra relief train #9708 was added to the schedule to provide extra relief for the normally scheduled train #2708 (the "Advance Cannonball"). This relief train ran express from Jamaica to Westhampton, then made all local stops to Montauk.

3.) Due to the fact that a large majority of the diesel equipment was on the Montauk Branch, EB Train #666 which runs from Long Island City to Port Jefferson Monday-Friday was scheduled to be cancelled this Friday only so enough equipment was available for the relief train #9708.

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I provided train information in my video for each clip, but in case the font is hard to read, here are the trains you will see in this order:

1.) WB Train #2709 from Montauk to Jamaica taken at Easthampton Train Station.

2.) EB Train #2708 "Advance Cannonball" from Hunterspoint Avenue to Montauk taken at Amagansett Train Station. Note that to provide extra capacity for travelers, the LIRR put an 11-car set on this train which is normally an 8-car set or less. Amagansett is only a 2-car platform, so we thought it would be interesting to see if this train would make several stops to unload passengers. Instead, it only made a single stop and all passengers had to walk up to the first two cars to exit the train. THIS WAS THE FINAL 2016 RUN OF THIS TRAIN.

3.) EB Train #9708 (Relief Train for #2708) from Jamaica to Montauk taken at East Hampton Train Station.

4.) EB Cannonball Express Train #2798 from Penn Station to Montauk taken at Napeague Meadow Rd. Railroad Crossing in Amagansett, NY. Note that the crossing hut was raised on a platform held up by ballasts and because of that (and also b/c we didn't see a "No Trespassing" sign), we went up there and were able to get the Cannonball from an elevated angle. THIS WAS THE FINAL 2016 RUN OF THIS TRAIN.

5.) EB Train #2712 from Hunterspoint Ave. to Montauk taken at Amagansett Train Station.

6.) EB Train #2714 from Penn Station to Montauk taken at Bridgehampton Train Station. THIS WAS THE FINAL 2016 RUN OF THIS TRAIN. After this, it runs as Train #2740 from Penn Station to Speonk, not Montauk, until summer Fridays starting next year on Memorial Day Weekend.

7.) EB Train #2716 from Jamaica to Montauk taken at NYS Route 27 Railroad Crossing (aka Southampton Bypass or Sunrise Highway) in Southampton, NY.

8.) EB Train #2718 from Jamaica to Montauk taken at Southampton Train Station.

9.) This was EB Train #9708's equipment going back west as a deadhead & it met with EB Train #2720 from Jamaica to Montauk at Hampton Bays Train Station.