Trains & Railroads of the Past Extra Board

New York and New Jersey Area Freight Action

On April 3, 1975, the Penn Central’s “Paper Train” VN-4, appears to have its consist back together again after switching the yard at North Croton, N.Y. Today’s motive power is a solid set of General Electric “U-boats” led by U33B 2964; evidence of its prior New York Central number appears through the peeling paint below the current identification. The main line here bisects the freight yard on the left from the passenger facility on the right, which was used to store some of the electric multiple-unit cars used for the Hudson Line commuter service, as seen here. The closer M.U. car is still in the PC’s “pea-green” passenger car livery, while the other is wearing the relatively-recent silver and blue adopted by New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Underrunning third rail is visible on the passenger side of the facilities; it ends here at Croton North Station.

New York and New Jersey Area Freight Action

2022 3rd Quarterby George W. Hamlin/photos by the author except as noted

In reality, and in retrospect, events that occurred in 1957 and 1961 were very relevant to my railfan photography in the “greater” New York City area in the early and mid-1970s. First, however, let’s consider things that were happening contemporaneously and focus our photographic coverage on northern Jersey rails and lines in New York State that were used to move freight to and around the city.

In 1970, the previously “unthinkable” Penn Central bankruptcy had occurred. Now, if you’d been paying any attention to its equipment, roadbed and operations, it was hardly a surprise, but the thought that it might not have the resources to keep on operating without some sort of subsidy was hard to get used to.

Less than a year later, Amtrak was formed, and the privately operated passenger train essentially vanished overnight, with no guarantee that the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak’s formal name) would be successful. In any case, intercity passenger trains had been dying for years in the U.S., and it wasn’t clear that Amtrak was going to be anything other than an orderly way to wind up what remained as of May 1, 1971.

Penn Central

ABOVE: Former Pennsylvania Railroad twenty-four year old ALCO S1 9455 is passing the beautiful JH Tower in Jersey City on October 31, 1971. Despite its relatively good appearance, the 9455 was not picked up by Conrail. Not only its age, but the lack of an m.u. receptacle likely played a big part in its retirement. JH Tower is one of those rarely mentioned gems that was located on Pennsy’s Harsimus Branch at 6th and Henderson Streets, adjacent to the stockyards and near Ballground Yard. The PRR had built the Passaic & Harsimus line as an electrified freight cut-off from the Northeast Corridor and the Harsimus Branch diverged at Waldo Avenue to serve the waterfront in Jersey City. The amount of freight that was handled over this very short branch is incredible, including the trainloads of Pennsylvania bituminous that were headed for the Berwind-White coal unloaders at Pier M on the west shore of the Hudson River.James C. Herold photo, Dan Dover collection, courtesy of David P. Oroszi

With this as context, let’s take a look at the two previous years in question now. In March 1957, the legendary New York, Ontario & Western ceased to operate; the first railroad in modern times of any size to accomplish this feat. Some of the reasons include passengers that started driving to the Catskills on the New York Thruway instead of taking the train and a significant decline in the use of Anthracite coal, a major commodity for the NYO&W at one time, not to mention the low population density along their line.

The maze of trackage in the New York metropolitan region is shown above and I’ll try to simplify is by pointing out the main routes. Starting in Long Island, the patchwork of Long Island Rail Road lines is shown, with commuters dominating the action. The New Haven reaches Long Island on the New York Connecting Railroad that was opened in 1917 and electrified ten years later. Crossing Long Island Sound, you’ve got the New Haven main line between Boston and New York hugging the Connecticut shoreline. At Devon, the NH’s critical Maybrook Line funnels traffic from a number of anthracite roads to New England via the interchange at Maybrook, New York. At Berkshire Jct., the NH line to Pittsfield, Mass., splits off and at Brewster, N.Y., NYC’s Putnam Branch terminates and the Harlem Line continues north to Chatham.

Baltimore & Ohio

ABOVE: In February 1973, Dave Augsburger caught this pair of colorful Baltimore & Ohio Geeps on the Central Railroad of New Jersey at historic Somerville, N.J. CNJ’s roots date back to the Elizabethtown & Somerville Railroad back in the 1830s. B&O power was very common on the Jersey Central in the years leading up to the formation of Conrail. Look at the steam escaping from the train heat lines of those commuter cars on this cold winter day. Coach 1010 on the right was built in 1923 by American Car & Foundry. Commuters that listened to New York news on AM radio were very familiar with the jingle “1010 WINS!”Kevin EuDaly collection

Heading north and then east on the Maybrook Line to Hopewell Junction, another NH branch splits off to the southwest and heads for Beacon, located on the east bank of the Hudson River. At Poughkeepsie, the New York Central’s River Level Route main line to Chicago hugs the east shore of the river, while their West Shore line to Buffalo is located… well, you know.

Looking at the top of the map, you’ll find NYC’s Wallkill Valley branch pointed toward Kingston, along with the NYO&W Kingston branch heading to the same destination. Finally, you will see the New York, Ontario & Western’s line to Scranton, Pennsylvania.
We’ll now move to Port Jervis, New York, where three states meet, and the Erie main line strikes off to Chicago along the scenic Delaware River. At Unionville, the NYS&W branch meets the Middletown & New Jersey Railroad. The M&NJ was primarily a milk hauler. The branch meets Susquehanna’s main line at Ogdensburg. The original NYS&W (pre-Walter Rich and Delaware Otsego ownership), connected the Wilkes-Barre region with Little Ferry, N.J. Nearby are the Lehigh & New England Railroad and Lehigh & Hudson River Railway’s parallel main lines. Note that each of them used the Erie to interchange with the New Haven at Maybrook. The DL&W had two main lines, with one heading into the Cement Belt in eastern Pennsylvania and the other to Buffalo, New York. They used Hoboken as a base of operations in the area.

Lehigh Valley

ABOVE: One of my visits to Oak Island that actually resulted in gaining access to the engine facility produced this shot on the same day that I photographed those Erie Lackawanna U-Boats. A quartet of the Lehigh Valley’s newest power, EMD’s reliable GP38-2’s, are on the right and a couple of celebrated “pups” are to their left. The security at some, but not all, locations like this became more relaxed as the Conrail merger approached.

At High Bridge, the Central Railroad of New Jersey main line to Scranton, via Allentown, connects to the High Bridge Branch, which runs north to the Lackawanna near Dover, where the CNJ’s Wharton & Northern heads to the junction with the Susquehanna at Green Pond Junction. The DL&W split just east of here at Denville, with most freights tak-ing the Boonton Branch. The EL merger sent most freight over the Erie at Mountain View, but the severing of the Boonton Branch to make way for Interstate 80 spelled the end of freight on the Boonton Branch and the abandonment of the Cutoff that headed to Scranton. At Flemington, the CNJ met the PRR’s Flemington branch that acted as a bridge between the CNJ and the PRR’s Belvidere-Delaware.

Further south, the CNJ, LV, and Reading main lines all converge at Bound Brook. The Lehigh Valley essentially runs from the massive Oak Island yard in New York to Buffalo. Reading/CNJ pro-vides B&O’s connection from Philly to New York City. Near Bound Brook, the Reading built their own line to Port Reading, while their passenger trains, along with those of the B&O, used the CNJ to Communipaw, in Jersey City. B&O accessed their subsidiary Staten Island Rapid Transit via a connection with the CNJ at Cranford Jct.

Erie Lackawanna

ABOVE: A pair of squeaky clean Erie Lackawanna SD45’s cross the Hackensack River on HX Drawbridge with an eastbound merchandise freight at Secaucus, New Jersey, on September 17, 1967. The 3619 and 3620 were the last two diesels of a 20-unit order delivered just three months earlier. At the time of the photo, HX tower was still active and visible on the other side of the river in East Rutherford. The bridge was built in 1911 by the American Bridge Company and the Strauss Bascule Bridge company. HX Tower still stands, but has been long-since abandoned and in a state of disrepair.Allan H. Roberts photo, Dan Dover collection, courtesy of David P. Oroszi

Pennsy had two lines connecting greater Philadelphia with the metro New York region. The Camden & Amboy was built first, fol-lowed by the main line we now know as the Northeast Corridor. The majority of the trackage to the east belonged to Jersey Central, plus the New York & Long Branch that was jointly-owned PRR and CNJ.

I’ve saved the Erie for last due to its complexity. It ran west from Jersey City and split into three separate routes at Coxton Yard, near Secaucus. In addition to the main line, the Greenwood branch head-ed northeast through Great Notch and terminated near the New Jersey-New York state line, while the Bergen County Cutoff struck out north, roughly following the Hudson River, before bending back west to rejoin the main line just beyond Suffern. This was Erie’s predominant freight route in and out of the region, while the main line was clogged with passenger and commuter trains.

Conrail

ABOVE: The paint is still fresh on Paducah-rebuilt GP10 7551, as seen in Port Reading, N.J., on March 25, 1979. Conrail 7551 was built as New York Central GP9 6041 back in the 1950s, but has received a new lease on life thanks to the shop personnel of the ICG. The freight-only Port Reading Railroad was opened in 1892, heading due east from a con-nection with the Reading’s Philly-New York main line near Bound Brook and terminating on the New Jersey waterfront across from Staten Island, south of Carteret. Port Reading was a built primarily as a means of getting anthracite coal that was mined in Pennsylvania into barges for delivery to destinations in New York and New England via their own facility, rather than utilizing the CNJ. In 1917 the operation was vastly improved when the Reading started loading those black diamonds into barges on the Arthur Kill waterway using a monstrosity called a McMyler Coal Dumper (seen in the background on the right), which was very efficient, but worthy of a Rube Goldberg cartoon. With this new apparatus, Port Reading essentially became an amusement park for coal hoppers, complete with its own roller coaster. Today, this trackage is part of the Conrail Shared Assets Operation (CSAO) that is jointly owned by CSX and Norfolk Southern. —J.C. Smith, Jr., photo, Dan Dover collection, courtesy of David P. Oroszi

At Harriman, the main line split again, with the old main serving the towns of Chester, Goshen, and Middletown. The Graham Line was built as a high-speed freight route, including the construction of Moodna Viaduct over the Newburgh branch and Otisville Tunnel, located close to the western junction with the main line.

As a footnote, we have the New York Central’s West Side freight line connecting Manhattan with the current main line at Spuyten Duyvil. Interestingly, it was originally built by the Hudson River Railroad, connecting New York City with Albany…


2022 3rd QuarterRead the rest of this story in the 3rd Quarter 2022 issue of Trains & Railroads of the Past. Subscribe today!

This article was posted on: October 2, 2022