The Central Railroad of Long Island branched from the Flushing and Northside Railroad (now the LIRR Port Washington branch) at about where Shea Stadium is now and ran generally east, with stops at Flushing Central Depot, currently Sanford Ave. and DeLong Street; Hillside, at Main Street (then called Jaggar Street); Kissena, at Jamaica Road (now Kissena Blvd.); Frankiston, at Black Stump Road (now 73rd Avenue), the Creedmoor Rifle Range stop at Range Street, crossed Jamaica Avenue on an elevated ramp and continued on into Nassau County. The line ran for only six years—until 1879, although a spur to Creedmoor hung on until 1955 when steam engines were retired from LIRR passenger service, and rails from the spur can still be found on the grounds of Creedmoor State Hospital.
Yet, tangible remains of the old line were visible 100 years later. Unused tracks snaked around the site of Flushing Depot, and the elevated trestle crossed Jamaica Avenue in Bellerose into the 1970s as well. Kissena Corridor Park follows the route almost exactly; Stewart Road, in Hollis Hills, is named for the line’s builder and runs on its old roadbed.
The City has marked the presence of the Central Road at the southeast corner of Rose Avenue and Kissena Boulevard with a small concrete slab; blocks of concrete imitating railroad tracks lead off into Kissena Park where steam engines formerly chuffed.