How long have you been railfanning NJT?

I grew up along side NJT paying attending to rolling stock (e.g. U34CH & C1s) and system schedules since they came into fruition in early 80s. Still have recollections and a few grainy 110 pics of a family trip to Bay Head (or technically Bay Head Junction as the station sign indicated).

I did some footwork for my uncle (from s.w. side of Bergenfield) and got him to ditch the bus and take the PVL train (from No. Hackensack) to work in NYC. He did this for a few years and gave me some good stories about the trains. My dad use to ride the smoky 4 car RDC set on the evening BCL train too. Again some (horror) stories !

Rode trains to shore (from BCL origin) several times in 1985 plus direct service BSX in 1986 & 1987. Ask BobbyS about the time we bumped into one another in 1986 on the return leg from Point Pleasant.

Took a hiatus in following the trains during early-mid 90s. Did attend the 1981, 1986, 2001 & 2002 Hoboken festivals and watched the Montclair Connection test trains too. I have custom framed posters from 1986 & 2002 Hoboken festivals plus one HBO promo poster for the Sopranos too.

I started more out of necessity. Me and my friends would frequently want to visit far out places. We would frequently walk or bike to far out places, and it later turned to busses (mainly to NYC). Eventually, I wanted to expand even further, and travelling to far off places (at least for a high schooler) such as Princeton or Red Bank (from Ridgefield) made the train the most attractive option.

Even after the ready use of a car became frequent, trips to NYC were still on the docket, although certainly no rail service from Ridgefield. But, I still maintained the railfanning gene, that was originally a bus gene. This has also cultivated my mentality that transferring in NYC seems normal to me.

Over the years I have kept a spreasheet detailing my rail fan trips (at least in terms of number of trips and mileage). First exclusively NJT, then to Metro North, LIRR, Amtrak and SEPTA. Over the course of over ten years (with a notable four year gap), I have logged over 16,000 rail miles. The car actually made it much easier to railfan, since it allowed me to quickly get to major stations such as Summit and Ridgewood, where I could actually get rail service.

Now I actually do have service that is only about a mile drive from my house, but it is the PVL, so that certainly limits my choices. Here it to hoping for restored NYS&W service . I mean there is an RDC a mile down the road (in Rochelle Park) in storage just waiting to be used.

Just was curious how long everyone here has been railfanning NJT?

This is a nice thread and its more about how we became "railfans" as opposed to specifically NJT. Its quite interesting to hear how everyone got hooked...

My first train ride (that I can remember) was quite exciting for me. It was back in 1965, I was 5, heading to NYC with my mother and grandmother on a PRR local from Elizabeth to Penn, then switching to a LIRR out to Great Neck. I couldn't believe how cool this was... then that same year my parents and I rode the Panama Railroad from the Balboa to the Colon - I was hooked. I didn't take my first pics until the early 70's when my Dad gave me his Argus 35MM - but then I was hooked on photographing trains! It was all CNJ/PC/EL/LV/B&O/N&W etc all the time... I spent a lot of time wandering E'Port when it was railroad heaven.
Even out in Amagansett, where my family settled at the end of the 1800's, the main part of the family property ended on the LIRR mainline and I can recall the old trains bound for Montauk headed past Aunt Congietta's tomato garden... :-) (the family worked for the LIRR and bought a ton of property out there - we still have most of it, very nice place to go in the summer).
Like many of you, I have lots of wonderful railroad memories from growing up in the Northeast.... (and enjoying the occasional foreign railtrip in Asia, SouthAmerica, Europe, etc...)

BigDell

I was probably a railfan from the day I was born. My dad was a conductor on the Erie and worked for the successor lines until he retirled 10 years ago. He could hold onto a few passenger jobs in the early 60s, and once in a while he would take my brother and me along with him. We rode on Stillwells and Boonton coaches, though at the time I didn't know one car from another. Sometimes our mom would put us in the stroller for a walk down to the tracks to wave to dad as his train roared through Pequannock at 50 mph.

After the slashing of passenger service in 1966, my dad was on freight most of the time. Occassionally he would be on the Greenwood Lake Haul, which came right through my town. I'd ride my bike down to the same crossing (now sans passenger trains) where we'd watch for his train to come around the bend. One time he stopped the whole train over the crossing, hopped off the caboose and asked me if I wanted to get on. My answer was, like, "uh, yeah!" He carried my bike onto the caboose and off we headed toward Pompton Jct. The other kids were green with envy.

After setting off cars at Pompton Jct., we did the run around and stopped for lunch in Riverdale. It was very cool walking into the luncheonette with the train crew! My had to go to a pay phone to call home to let my mom know I was with him. No cell phones in those days.

We rumbled off to Jefferson Street in Pequannock were we stopped, and I got back on my bike and headed home.

I had gone to work with him before and after, but that was probably one of the best afternoons of my life because it was so unexpected!

Reading through the posts, I was struck by the commonality of our experiences.

Like Jtgshu - "... seemingly ALWAYS getting caught at the Oak Hill Rd. xing, well before electrification and seeing the 'Jersey builder'[s]...." For me, it was getting caught in traffic at the (then) water-level Rte. 35 bridge over Shark River and seeing trains hauled by CNJ's Trainmasters and Baby Trainmasters line up, waiting, like we were, for the boat traffic to clear and the bridges to be lowered.

Like pdman - "... [being] three or four and ... hearing a ... freight engine up in Stirling." "... my father picked me up and had me on his shoulders [and] we waited for the train." For us it was in Waretown hearing, running to, and watching a CNJ freight with its blue with gold-striped RS3 engine. Even more similarly, the CNJ was less than a thousand feet from our house through the woods to the tracks.

Like Steemtrayn - Although not quite old enough to have remembered seeing the PRR's K4s on the NY&LB, old enough to have seen its doodlebugs, on their runs as the last passenger trains (to date) towards Freehold.

Like alewifebp, "... hoping for restored NYS&W service." How about passenger rail (MOM) on what was CNJ’s Southern Division to Lakehurst again? Its been 52 years and counting.

Like PRRTechFan, taking the train to see the circus in New York City, watching the engine change to GG1 electric power, taking the train to college (Stevens Institute of Technology), and being briefly let into the cab and seeing the control "stand" of a Metroliner in Rahway when the Metroliners were new.

Here's a few additions:

Being in grade school and having three groups of heroes: Presidents, astronauts, and railroad engineers...

Working through college at the Pine Creek Railroad at Allaire State Park as a conductor and a ticket agent...

When I was four, my uncle took me fishing with him on the Pennsy bridge from Sea Side Heights that spanned the bay. I was scared that a train might come along. Yet, there must have been at least a hundred other fishermen on it that day. It was abandoned at that point. I still have a picture of it that he took that day. But, what I remember is the ties, cresote, and mostly the aroma of the old bridge/roadbed. Many flashbacks still occur even later in years that are triggered by the same stuff.

That was 1948, and some rail was still on that bridge.

Does anyone know when that bridge was taken down?

I remember at about 5 or 6 falling in love with the GG-1's of the PRR. I took up photographing the rails in highschool about 1975 or so (certainly before Conrail on 04/01/76). Like others, visited E'Port and SA. Wish I had shot more film, especially color, back then.

Ride the train every day to NYC, always sitting on the south (east) side of the train so I can check the yards along the way.

Can't imagine my life not being a railfan.

Pdman: see this site: http://www.octrainguy.com/PRRline.html

I've railfanned NJT since long before it was NJT. From 1946 to 1950 I played on and near the PRR tracks in Westmont (Camden County), from Maple Avenue to Cooper River.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/111 ... 5817gTanmo

http://community.webshots.com/photo/870 ... 5596HLNbcl

Both illustrated bridges are replacements.

Even though the railroad was PRR, all the scheduled trains were Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines passenger trains, hauled by PRR and Reading steam engines, until 1950 when an occaisional PRSL Baldwin diesel engine would show up.

In 1950 we moved to Collingswood, where nearly all the passenger service was provided by P-RSL Budd RDC's. This was P-RSL track, former PRR.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/285 ... rtbDOKMxTy

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... kxSIGoITZm

More recently (1975), I visited Bay Head.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/285 ... iRUkYaswqF

http://community.webshots.com/photo/285 ... BbGlMWWytV

In 1982 I heard about South Amboy and the engine change required by the end of the catenary.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... fzRerUuHBC

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... GeuopAXVNP

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... pQsyetwIkX

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... uFuDBeonUZ

I returned to South Amboy a year later,

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... ktGfotcnaB

and again for the last GG1 trip.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/286 ... IyFtaurrnu

Bob

I still have a picture of it that he took that day.

PDman, it'd be great if you could have someone scan it and post it online!
BigDell

BigDell,

I just got a scanner and am moving up to our summer place for the next couple of months. Will have this be one of the first ones I do and will post it.

Let's see...I'm 13 now, just got my first cab ride a few Fridays ago. And got to drive the train. 6002. Let's see...My very first NJT ride was from L.B. to Middletown on 1492 in 1994. And I've loved it ever since the first (and only) time I saw a U-Boat, 4178. WOW! Especially for a two year old.