The Long Island Railroad announced last week that they have closed the gap at the Southampton Railroad Station. To get on the train at that station, up until now, you had to step over an empty space between the railroad platform and the train that was 14 inches across. This had been a pretty daunting task for the disabled, the elderly or the children of the community over the years, many of whom had to be helped across the gap by conductors or friends. But that’s what they were there for, these people always said.

The gap at Southampton rivaled that of about a quarter of the railroad stations on Long Island in size (none of the others were on the East End) and the gaps at these stations, as large as they were, existed without serious incident for many years. But then, on August 8th of this year, an 18-year-old girl named Natalie Snead fell down into the gap at the Woodside, Queens Station and moments later, as she tried to scurry under the platform to an open track, was hit by an oncoming train and killed. Since that time, the railroad has embarked on a program that might have been subtitled “If You Can’t Raise the Bridge Lower the Water” and after measuring the gap at every station on the Island, proceeded to send railroad construction crews out at night to relocate the railroad tracks a few inches closer to the platforms to solve the problem at the worst of them.

The railroad did Woodside first, of course, and then prioritized others that they felt did not meet the criteria of five inches or less, and then proceeded with that work. They’ve done about half the stations on the list, and Southampton did not make the list, but then last week, at the last minute, they added Southampton and moved the tracks there. The job was completed October 27.

It’s been interesting to read outraged letters to the editor and demands that officials be fired and so forth and so on, mostly in Newsday where all the publicity about the gaps first was made public. Since Ms. Snead was killed, there have been numerous twisted ankles and other injuries by those trying to negotiate the gaps, including a lawsuit from one older lady who broke her foot while trying to get on a train. That none of this really seemed to be a problem until now is curious, but now it is, and so they are fixing it.

What has not been revealed, however, is just exactly what it is that has been found in the dark area beneath these gaps. People would step on the train, things might be jarred loose from their persons as they made the step and they might not even have known that anything was lost. Then, the train would lurch forward with them on it and that would be that.

An employee of the railroad who did not want us to reveal his name did tell us he was present during the night that the gap was fixed at Southampton, and that the workmen , working by flashlight, made the following haul.

1. Eleven sets of keys, including four for Mercedes and three for BMWs, two for Rolls and one for a Bentley and one for a Toyota Corolla.

2. Eight bottles of suntan lotion.

3. Nineteen wallets, including one which dated back to the 1920s and contained a special card giving the name and address of the Duke Box, a famous speakeasy in Southampton during that era.

4. Two suitcases filled with money. One was leather and moldy and when opened revealed great stacks of brand new ten dollar bills that were issued in 1919, the other was more recent and had stacks of thousand dollar bills issued in 2002. No identification was found on either of them.

5. Five purses, including one that had a love letter to somebody named Martha from “Pierre in Paris.” It was dated May 14, 1945.

6. One wooden folding deck chair with the canvas all rotted away.

7. One duffle bag containing men’s clothes, including two bathing costumes, a pair of knickers and a fur hat dating from the 1930s.

8. Nineteen ladies hats, seventeen of which were floppy, wide-brimmed straw things.

9. Seven wedding rings of various sizes, three of which seemed to have been stomped by feet.

10. A portable AM radio built in the 1950s which when found was seen to be tuned to 1010 WINS.

11. A Honeywell portable air conditioner with the number “7” on it in felt marker.

12. An envelope containing the Federal Income Tax returns of Henry Jackson Cobb Rathskill from the year 1983. Total income was $71,312.14.

13. Six tickets to a Yankee baseball game for the night of July 14, 1949. They were for the second deck left field bleachers.

14. Eleven assorted right shoes and sneakers, and one left. Our source says the workmen believe it involves a shoe getting caught on something as the step was made and whether a person was right handed or left handed.

15. Two brassieres, one by Maidenform size 42C and the other by Victoria’s Secret size 36B.

16. Five Rolexes

17. One ticket to P. Diddy’s White Party in East Hampton in September 2004.

18. One NIXON FOR PRESIDENT poster.

19. One mounted deer head.

20. Six skateboards, used.

21. A giant Styrofoam right hand with the index finger pointing up and the inscription #1 on it in orange.

22. One pair of roller skates

23. One very large black metal trunk, two feet by three by five, containing all the paraphernalia used by a professional magician.

The railroad is currently attempting, according to our source, to find out who the magician was that might have lost a trunk down into the gap.

They want to know how he did it.