NYS&W Garfield Branch

Quite a while back I had inquired about this branch which currently terminates at Garfield Lumber. I had asked about the service frequency etc. along with the customer base. Several people responded with a lot of very interesting info regarding everything from the line's current status to it's history including former customers and, it's long gone connections. Unfortunately, before I was able to read the entire thread which itself seemed to take on a life of it's own, Railroad.Net was re-formatted. I know somewhere that I read where there was a way to access info on the old setup. Can anyone help me with this so I can find this former thread that was very enjoyable reading until it was lost? Thanks in advance

Are there any mileposts along this line ? Just curious.

I remember the line when it extended just past DeWitt Street so the packaging/corrugated company could get 2-3 boxcars onto their siding.
Then one by one various customers disappeared and the line got shorter just ending around Lanza Avenue (i.e. lumber yard).

Much of the line was 80 lb. WW1 era stick rail spiked to ties w/o tie plates.
Very colonial type of RR IMO.

Is this the branch with the grade crossing across US 46?

7 Train wrote:Is this the branch with the grade crossing across US 46?

Yes it is.....fyi there are no active custmers on this branch and it has latterly been used to store cars. Last active customer was Garden State Paper in the "Bergen County Plant".

No active customers ?

What about the lumber yard ?

I just took a drive out there a few weekends ago to see at what point the line dissappears. That Lumber yard on Lanza Ave doesn't look like it has gotten cars in a long time. Question: Across the street is a building built on the ROW with a train sized door in the front...what was that all about? Part of the lumber yard? Going around the block, the tracks are gone southwards. Here and there you can see the ROW as it goes between houses but quite a bit seems to have been built on too. The tracks crossed River Drive/St? Right by a used car dealer...you can see by the shape of the building that houses the office where the tracks once went, also by the curve of the property line across the street...went looking for remains of the bridge across the Passaic to Dundee, but didn't find much.
Anybody an expert on this branch? I've been working on a map of the tracks and industries- could use some help with this one.

Jim

Ah, yes, Garden State Paper. Another victim of the scum that ran Enron.

I thought the lumber yard was doing a JIT (just in time) type of delivery with railcars where they could quickly unload a shipment while the loco waited and never had an empty railcar on the premisis. Maybe the plans never came to fruition.

Hasn't been a car down there in years............

Why did the NYS&W go through all the expense and work to revamp and protect (i.e. signalize) the crossings at Boulevard and RT46 only to have the line wither away shortly afterwards ?

I believe Garden State Paper's shutdown was unexpected.

The spur to GSP off the branch has some sections w/tight radius of curvature. I remember when they used a newly painted SD45 to drill GSP.

Thanks to all who responded to this thread. While I was hoping to be able to get hooked up with the original thread I mentioned in my first post, I must admit it is even more disappointing to hear that the line has no more active customers. I live in Mass,but, visit family living in Garfield. I wonder what ever happened to the proposed re-start of Garden State Paper. The company I work for gets the bulk of it's corrugated packaging from Weyerhaeuser in Closter which itself is a regular rail customer. One of the truck drivers delivering this corrugated had worked as a driver previously for Garden State until it closed down. Shortly before he was laid off by the trucking company hauling the Weyerhaeuser corrugate, he told me that the state of N.J. was going to assist in getting the operation re-started as it was a profitable operation despite it's ownership. He was hoping to go back to his old job. I take it nothing materialized? As for the lumber yard, I do recall one poster in the old thread mentioning that they would get cars as needed on an irregular basis. Sometimes they would have them spotted outside the building only to later push them inside for unloading and, at other times, they would have the railroad spot them inside the building. The opening on the other end permitted spotting cars in the outdoor yard across the street next to Garfield liquors.

New Haven 1 wrote:I live in Mass,but, visit family living in Garfield.

One can always pick up and move out of Garfield but in some aspect you cannot take Garfield out of him or her. BTW BobbyS lives right down the street from the ROW on this line in vicinity of Presto Lock and that yellow pedestrian bridge. Send him a PM (Private Message) to get him to post some stuff on this thread. I am very surprised he didn't chime in here already.

http://www.railroad.net/forums/profile. ... ofile&u=41

In my early teen years, in the mid 1950's, I spent almost all my free time along the old NYS&W Passaic Branch, either riding with the NYS&W crews or walking the length of the branch. I can try to answer any questions about anything to do with the branch if anyone is interested.