Queens Village
Bellerose is a stop located on the Hempstead Branch after that branch joins the main line, but before there are any switches meaning trains to and from other Main Line branches can't stop at this station. The switches between all four tracks are west of the station and are combined with the incorporation of where the Belmont Park Branch joins the Main Line (it enters like a wye, so trains could run from Eastern Long Island to Belmont Park).
The station itself has a single island platform for the southern two Hempstead Line tracks located on an embankment of the four-track line. Access to this platform is from a narrow and fairly dark pedestrian underpass tunnel. This tunnel has two staircases up to the platform in its midsection, which is canopied, and just east of the stairs is a decent sized station house in the middle of the platform with brick outside walls and cinderblock looking white inside walls. There are restrooms, a now sealed ticket window but surprisingly few benches. It's open from 5AM before automatically locking at 2PM, during weekdays. Access into the tunnel is via two staircases down to it at eitherside of the tracks, these entrances also have the 1950s brick and concrete walls. The southern entrance is along the sidewalk of Atlantic Avenue (which is directly to the south of the station), between Walnut and Chestnut Avenue. The northern leads to a tiny parking lot and an odd street pattern that intersects Superior Road.
Photo 1: May 22, 2004; 2-28: 5 January, 2011
