[1] When the LIRR began operations in 1836, it leased the newly opened Brooklyn and Jamaica Railroad, including its two duplicate steam locomotives, Ariel and Post Boy, both built by Matthias W. Baldwin.
It is also likely, that at some point prior to its re- sale to the B & J, the engine in question was modified to Stephenson's famous 2-2-2 wheel arrangement.
Long before modern piggyback services, the LIRR began carrying farm wagons aboard flatcars in 1885.
[2] In the early 20th century, the LIRR was a testing ground for the Pennsylvania Railroad's electrification, including Phoebe, its first electric (AA1), and was the first company to extensively electrify its primary lines.
[2] The Central Branch from Garden City east to Mitchel Field was electrified with third rail in 1915, but used ex-Ocean Electric Railway trolley cars until 1933.
The cars, if tests were successful, would provide an alternative to extending electrification, eliminate the need to change from electric to diesel trains at Jamaica, and speed travel.
[4] One of the most popular decisions by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller after the 1966 takeover was replacing the entire electric passenger fleet with M1 cars.
[6][7] By the late-1990s the LIRR diesel fleet consisted of 28 EMD GP38-2 and 23 MP15AC diesel-electric locomotives, along with approximately 223 passenger cars, mostly former electric multiple units.
[6] These trains were operated using 1950s-era P72/PT75 series coaches built by Pullman-Standard, with a diesel-electric locomotive on one end, and for the other end of the train, an older locomotives converted to a "power pack", in which the original prime movers were replaced with 600 horsepower (450 kW) engines/generators solely for supplying HEP (head-end power for the lights and heating) with the engineer's control stand left intact.
[8] In 1997 and 1998, the LIRR received 134 double-decker C3 passenger cars from Kawasaki, including 23 cab control cars, and 46 General Motors Electro-Motive Division diesel-electric locomotives (23 diesel DE30ACs and 23 dual-mode DM30ACs) to pull them, allowing trains from non-electric territory to access Penn Station for the first time in many years,[9][10] due to the prohibition on diesel operation in the East River Tunnels leading to Penn Station.
The cars were to replace the M3s and expand the fleet in preparation for service to Grand Central Madison via East Side Access.