History and Future of NJT Rail Lines

[John from RI]

Walking the Old Boonton Line is a vicarious experience Wheeler Abtabanez offers to us today. This section of the former Erie Railroad will be purchased by the State of New Jersey to be rebuilt as a linear park though Essex and Hudson Counties. For many years the line carried freight including a lot of coal to the Hudson River as well as carrying many New York commuters. I do not suggest a personal visit to the line. But the video gives us a sense of the past of American railroads and a part of their legacy.
Walking the old Boonton Line - Montclair to Jersey City - Wheeler Antabanez - Fall 2020 (luckycigarette.com)

 

[jis]

Neat! I have actually traveled by train on the Old Boonton Line many times before Montclair Connection was built between Montclair Bay Street and Montclair Walnut Street, thus making the Old Boonton Line redundant. I actually used to live just 6 blocks or so from the Montclair Bay Street Station on Roosevelt Place on the other side of Bloomfield Avenue. I saw the connection getting built and electrification extended through it to Great Notch near MSU (Montclair State University)

 

[John from RI]

Neat! I have actually traveled by train on the Old Boonton Line many times before Montclair Connection was built between Montclair Bay Street and Montclair Walnut Street, thus making the Old Boonton Line redundant. I actually used to live just 6 blocks or so from the Montclair Bay Street Station on Roosevelt Place on the other side of Bloomfield Avenue. I saw the connection getting built and electrification extended through it to Great Notch near MSU (Montclair State University)

I never rode a train on the Old Boonton Line. Right now I do take NJT at Bay Upper Montclair Station and on weekends at Bay Street to go to Providence from New York Penn Station.
When you rode the train was all of the graffiti in place?

 

[jis]

I never rode a train on the Old Boonton Line. Right now I do take NJT at Bay Upper Montclair Station and on weekends at Bay Street to go to Providence from New York Penn Station.
When you rode the train was all of the graffiti in place?

Some was there, but most came after abandonment.

I rode it from Walnut Street to Hoboken on the old Boonton Line or from Bay Street to Hoboken on the Lackawanna Montclair Branch. Before Montclair Connection and electrification Montclair had weekdays only commuter hour service. Nothing like what it has now.

The original Bay Street terminus head house was then a small shopping mall with a Pathmark super market in it AFAIR. It was a while back. The NJT station was a block from it roughly at its current location with low level platform.

 

[Seaboard92]

I've always thought the old Boonton Line would make a great Children's Railway ala the Soviet Style that you can still find in eastern Europe and Russia today. My thoughts were this is an area with a large population, and relatively busy railways between NJT, Amtrak, LIRR, MN, NS, CSX, and a few shortlines here and there. Imagine if we could get kids started learning these important trades when they are young. Maybe we wouldn't have the staff shortages we have now with a steady pipeline to replace people as they retire. As that's another staffing crisis we have to worry about what happens when the Baby Boomers start to retire.

 

[jis]

As that's another staffing crisis we have to worry about what happens when the Baby Boomers start to retire.

Start to retire? Retirement among us Baby Boomers is currently in full swing and many of us are already retired for several years. Baby Boomers were born in 1946-1964.

Anyway, the idea for having a children's operating railway is a good one I think, though it is unlikely that the Old Boonton Line will see that. Most of it is slated to become part of a bigger train system apparently instead of becoming a light rail system as it rightfully should be.

 

[Seaboard92]

Start to retire? Retirement among us Baby Boomers is currently in full swing and many of us are already retired for several years. Baby Boomers were born in 1946-1964.

Anyway, the idea for having a children's operating railway is a good one I think, though it is unlikely that the Old Boonton Line will see that. Most of it is slated to become part of a bigger train system apparently instead of becoming a light rail system as it rightfully should be.

Good point I'm more thinking the later baby boomers because that is where my parents are more so.

I really think that is something we should do in this country especially in regions that are dense in passenger rail. The Boonton line made sense because it's already there and intact. Major metro area with transit access, and it has a pretty decent running distance. The best place for it would be Central Park but it would be a complete new build which would be a problem.

 

[jis]

The ideal use of the lower Boonton RoW in my opinion would be an LRT system connecting Jersey Coity to Bloomfield and Montclairwhile serving Kearney, Bellville and such on the way. Connecting with the upper Boonton Line at Walnut Street.

Even if they wish to avoid the cost of fixing th Hackensack Bridge, there are other possibilities like hanging a left on the west bank of Passaic River and heading to Paterson.

 

[Maverickstation]

Despite the effort to build a linear park, that plan is still in doubt, and at least one of the towns that the lines runs through (Kearny) has already voiced objections. One of the biggest obstacles facing the line is the WR swing bridge across the Passaic River between North Newark and Kearny. The bridge was in "condemned" status when NJT was using it for commuter trains (requiring a 10 mph sped restriction. Although WR has been left in the closed position (it's height is not considered a threat to navigation), the CWR on the bridge was cut in the spots where the bridge would open, no opening was ever attempted, despite requests from Kearny for this. WR has also been sinking into the murky Passaic so your looking at an entirely new bridge, pilings and all, for a potential rail trail. Freight trains have not used the bridge since Conrail Day (4/1/1976), and before that the E-L spent countless time to keep it secure for service then. Lastly, before the question comes up, the last freight trains to use the line east of Montclair, were to service Hartz Mountain along the Orange Branch. Those trains operated via Montclair, and the junction at Forest Hill, they never had to go near WR, let alone rumble across it.

Wheeler also has an excellent paid book, Walking The Newark Branch, which shows major decline of industry in this section of NJ. Here is a video preview.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

Thanks for that link, the industrial history out that way is really fascinating and varied.

 

[Joe from PA]

I lived at the end of the Gladstone line. From 1956 to 60, I took this train to high school in Bernardsville.

 

[John from RI]

Some was there, but most came after abandonment.

I rode it from Walnut Street to Hoboken on the old Boonton Line or from Bay Street to Hoboken on the Lackawanna Montclair Branch. Before Montclair Connection and electrification Montclair had weekdays only commuter hour service. Nothing like what it has now.

The original Bay Street terminus head house was then a small shopping mall with a Pathmark super market in it AFAIR. It was a while back. The NJT station was a block from it roughly at its current location with low level platform.

Thanks for the response. I've been riding it occasionally for 10 years now and I find the history interesting.

 

[Seaboard92]

I lived at the end of the Gladstone line. From 1956 to 60, I took this train to high school in Bernardsville.View attachment 27032

Thanks for the response. I've been riding it occasionally for 10 years now and I find the history interesting.

I just looked at this picture and thought it would be fun to point out what has changed and what hasn't.

Other than the obvious Lackawanna cars are gone, and the two automobiles are also considered antiques. The station is now green in color with red trim. Boarding is now completed by high level platform with the platform in this picture being fenced off from the trains. The telephone booth is completely gone at this point. And the yard is still just east of the station. And the gravel lot has been paved.

 

[John from RI]

Despite the effort to build a linear park, that plan is still in doubt, and at least one of the towns that the lines runs through (Kearny) has already voiced objections. One of the biggest obstacles facing the line is the WR swing bridge across the Passaic River between North Newark and Kearny. The bridge was in "condemned" status when NJT was using it for commuter trains (requiring a 10 mph sped restriction. Although WR has been left in the closed position (it's height is not considered a threat to navigation), the CWR on the bridge was cut in the spots where the bridge would open, no opening was ever attempted, despite requests from Kearny for this. WR has also been sinking into the murky Passaic so your looking at an entirely new bridge, pilings and all, for a potential rail trail. Freight trains have not used the bridge since Conrail Day (4/1/1976), and before that the E-L spent countless time to keep it secure for service then. Lastly, before the question comes up, the last freight trains to use the line east of Montclair, were to service Hartz Mountain along the Orange Branch. Those trains operated via Montclair, and the junction at Forest Hill, they never had to go near WR, let alone rumble across it.

Wheeler also has an excellent paid book, Walking The Newark Branch, which shows major decline of industry in this section of NJ. Here is a video preview.

As I write this response on February 9 I understand Governor Murphy has committed the state to buy the abandoned line although I don't know that the purchase has been made yet. Once the rail line is purchased no doubt it will take a good long time to even begin to convert it to a linear park.

 

[lstone19]

I got fooled. I assumed this was about the original DL&W Boonton Line. This is talking about what was originally the Erie Greenwood Lake line. Post-merger, the lower part of the Greenwood Lake line was combined with outer end of the original Boonton Line at Mountain View to form the Greenwood Lake-Boonton Line, later shortened to just Boonton Line. But the original Boonton Line from Hoboken to Mountain View was what is now the (Erie) Main Line (to Suffern) up to where the Erie Newark Branch crossed it (you don't seriously think the town of Delawanna was on the Erie, do you?), then along what is now the rights-of-way of NJ19 and I-80, and finally along what was later known as the Totowa Industrial Spur.

 

[jis]

You can find a relatively well written history of the construction and modification of the various lines over the ages that has got us to where we are today culminating in what today is officially called the Montclair-Boonton Line.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boonton_Branch

 

[Joe from PA]

I just looked at this picture and thought it would be fun to point out what has changed and what hasn't.

Other than the obvious Lackawanna cars are gone, and the two automobiles are also considered antiques. The station is now green in color with red trim. Boarding is now completed by high level platform with the platform in this picture being fenced off from the trains. The telephone booth is completely gone at this point. And the yard is still just east of the station. And the gravel lot has been paved.

As some of you may know, the Gladstone station was the "departing" station in the movie "The Miracle Worker" starring Ann Bancroft (who I met). The storage building, across the tracks, was used as the "arrival" station. The passenger cars were from the nearby Black River & Western RR. The town had a "theatre guild", which provided the "extras". My mother was a nun on the train.

 

[neroden]

I got fooled. I assumed this was about the original DL&W Boonton Line. This is talking about what was originally the Erie Greenwood Lake line. Post-merger, the lower part of the Greenwood Lake line was combined with outer end of the original Boonton Line at Mountain View to form the Greenwood Lake-Boonton Line, later shortened to just Boonton Line. But the original Boonton Line from Hoboken to Mountain View was what is now the (Erie) Main Line (to Suffern) up to where the Erie Newark Branch crossed it (you don't seriously think the town of Delawanna was on the Erie, do you?), then along what is now the rights-of-way of NJ19 and I-80, and finally along what was later known as the Totowa Industrial Spur.

You had me going through the maps there. I know they're currently hoping to turn it into a path (sigh) but the inner Greenwood Lake / Boonton line looks like a terribly logical extension of the Newark City Subway from Branch Brook Park. (as Jis has already suggested). And the original Erie Main Line looks like a somewhat more questionable extension of the Newark Light Rail from Broad Street.

 

[Cal]

Scrolled though the pictures. Railroad history is fascinating.

 

[jruff001]

Very cool!

 

[Maverickstation]

Here is an article from November of this past year from the Kearny Observer, Mayor Santos wants some questions answered before he views
the project in a favorable light. Cost to do the conversion aren't even being brought up yet, and they will be expansive.

https://www.theobserver.com/2021/11...s-coming-but-kearny-is-nowhere-near-on-board/
Ken