EX Riverfront Terminals (All RR's)

I am looking for pics/maps, history's etc... of ALL the old river front Terminals. Erie, NYC, CNJ, etc... I know the riverfront was chockfull of railroads at one time and I did see some aerials. Was way different as compared to today!

Edgewater on southward along the Hudson River was packed with them from every major railroad. NYSW had the seatrain ops, NYC and NYWS&B, NYO&W in Weehawkin. DLW, Erie, PRR, LV, CNJ and im sure im forgetting some all had ops in Jersey City. Did Hoboken Shore have a river front/pier ops?

Here's a start,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:New_Y ... a_1900.png

but there were far many more on the NYC side. (don't forget to look also at Brooklyn and the Bronx)

http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloc ... iersta.jpg

Who has the link ?? A fews years ago on this forum (or NJ Transit?) someone posted a large photo overlooking the railyards in Jersey City etc "back in the day". I think the post said it was a photo of a photo in someone's office at NJT.
JS

There have been pictures online showing the yards in Weehawkin from the overlooks and also arial photos of Edgewater and southward. When you see them from that perspective it's just amazing how large the yard were and also how you would never know today that they existed.

Those were the days we actually made things in this country & people didn't mind getting there hands dirty !!! that waterfront was something to see in it's heyday!!!!

I took my father-in-law down thru Edgewater and Weehawkin last year, he couldn't believe what it had turned into since he remembured it in the 70's and 80's. He lives in upstate ny now.

[quote="Bobby S"]I am looking for pics/maps, history's etc... of ALL the old river front Terminals. Erie, NYC, CNJ, etc... I know the riverfront was chockfull of railroads at one time and I did see some aerials. Was way different as compared to today![/quote]

Google Images is your friend.

Steve F45 wrote:I took my father-in-law down thru Edgewater and Weehawkin last year, he couldn't believe what it had turned into since he remembured it in the 70's and 80's. He lives in upstate ny now.

Why would he have been that surprised if he had seen it in the 1980s - ConRail (and it's immediate predecessors) had closed most of the waterfront yards during the 1970s (due, among other things, to the end of most car-floating and lightering operations in NY Harbor), and construction of the shiny glass and metal office and residental towers of Newport began starting in the mid-1980s.
For example, wasn't Liberty State Park, which more or less replaced the massive rail yards surrounding the CNJ Jersey City Terminal, open in the late 1970s? That should have been a huge foreshadowing of what would become of the abandoned and unused rail infrastructure along the Hudson County waterfront...

Some aerial photos:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wavz13/4827215048/
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Jersey+C ... 9,r:2,s:59
http://www.flickr.com/photos/59635146@N08/6478913999/
http://hoboken.pastperfect-online.com/3 ... 5&type=102
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=Weehawke ... 9,r:10,s:0

Sir Ray wrote:

Steve F45 wrote:I took my father-in-law down thru Edgewater and Weehawkin last year, he couldn't believe what it had turned into since he remembured it in the 70's and 80's. He lives in upstate ny now.

Why would he have been that surprised if he had seen it in the 1980s - ConRail (and it's immediate predecessors) had closed most of the waterfront yards during the 1970s (due, among other things, to the end of most car-floating and lightering operations in NY Harbor), and construction of the shiny glass and metal office and residental towers of Newport began starting in the mid-1980s.
For example, wasn't Liberty State Park, which more or less replaced the massive rail yards surrounding the CNJ Jersey City Terminal, open in the late 1970s? That should have been a huge foreshadowing of what would become of the abandoned and unused rail infrastructure along the Hudson County waterfront...

might have been even later then those years. His father was a long shoreman in NYC and remembers alot of industrial along the hudson in NJ especially north of Hoboken. So when he's been gone (moved upstate) for nearly 20 years and hasn't seen what it looks like today, its a big surprise to him.

There's an Arcadia Book (the sepia-covered paperbacks of photos) that's titled Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City. Photos from about 1920-1960 if I remember correctly. Gives a relatively good summary of each railroad's operation along the waterfront. May be just the ticket. Amazon still has a couple of copies.

I'd also recommend Morning Sun's "New York Harbor Railroads in Color" Volumes 1 and 2 by Tom Flagg. Both contain plenty of superb images and informative text and are clearly among the very best of Morning Sun's efforts to date. I believe Volume 1 is sold out at the publisher so it may take a bit of searching to locate a copy.

During 1983 through '85, my bride-to-be and I frequented Edgewater to eat dinner aboard the old DL&W ferry boat Binghamton and then take in a movie at the neighboring theatre. There was still some activity on the Susquehanna at that time but it wouldn't last the decade. Morning Sun's NYS&W book contains several pages of coverage of the Edgewater Branch. There's even a picture of a Guilford C424m which visited Edgewater (and went on the ground).

Everyone....
I haven't seen anyone quote this website...

I've looked at this website for extreme detail drawing of all the yards in the Riverfront.

This is the main site.
You will have to browse through the town and different sections...

http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/MAPS.html

Now this one is the best one I found... my club donated this amazing record to Rutgers.

http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/HudsonCoAtlas/_Cover/

Thank you
Juan

I have to second what Earle Baldwin said about Morning Sun's Tom Flagg books. Good color shots in the last days, and definitely worth tracking down.