The Pascack Valley Line Thread

what color was the boxcar? There was a very faded green boxcar in the kuiken bros property last week.

Steve F45 wrote:what color was the boxcar? There was a very faded green boxcar in the kuiken bros property last week.

I think it was a brown colored box car if I recall correctly.

It was a brown box car. And there was also a yellow center beam lumber car in the yard as well. And it appeared from what I could see (from a distance) the two cars were not hooked up to one another.

BlockLine_4111 wrote:

Port Jervis wrote:What's the feasibility of extending service from Spring Valley to Suffern so that Woodbine can be closed?

You forgot to add the possibility of allowing PJ riders to transfer to PVL trains for destinations on PVL (e.g. Hackensack Medical Ctr, industrial parks in Teterboro).

Another use I just dreamed up. The morning of March 11 the PV was shut down due to a fire in the River Edge - Oradel area, and PV riders flocked to the Bergen County Line, crowding the trains. If the track was usable, and crews qualified, they could have sent trains from Spring Valley, (or where ever they are yarded,) to Suffern, and run them as second sections of regular Bergen County trains, to ease the crowding. They'd have to put green flags on the first sections, and white flags on second sections. (I think that's the way it used to be done.). Not in the NORAC rule book? Well fix it.

philipmartin wrote:

BlockLine_4111 wrote:

Port Jervis wrote:What's the feasibility of extending service from Spring Valley to Suffern so that Woodbine can be closed?

You forgot to add the possibility of allowing PJ riders to transfer to PVL trains for destinations on PVL (e.g. Hackensack Medical Ctr, industrial parks in Teterboro).

Another use I just dreamed up. The morning of March 11 the PV was shut down due to a fire in the River Edge - Oradel area, and PV riders flocked to the Bergen County Line, crowding the trains. If the track was usable, and crews qualified, they could have sent trains from Spring Valley, (or where ever they are yarded,) to Suffern, and run them as second sections of regular Bergen County trains, to ease the crowding. They'd have to put green flags on the first sections, and white flags on second sections. (I think that's the way it used to be done.). Not in the NORAC rule book? Well fix it.

I believe the section of track that formerly connected the PVL with the main/bergen lines has a washout of some kind (don't know how bad) in the middle somewhere. If I recall that trackage (on the spring valley end) was last used in the 90's to serve 1 remaining freight customer a lumber yard? Perhaps those with more knowledge can expand further.

MN owns what remains of the branch between Suffern and Spring Valley and currently OOS.
Was an Industrial track under Conrail,understand there was an attempt to reopen the branch but was
under NIMBY attack,was "banked" instead.

The connection, washed out, out of service, prohibitely expensive to rebuild, subject to nimby attack, etc., has been said above. My suggestion was meant as comedy, but a connection could come in handy if either the Bergen County or the PV was cut.

This branch was called the Piermont Branch on the Erie and EL.
It was a part of the original NY&LE Railroad, which ran from the Piermont Pier on the Hudson
to Dunkirk, NY on Lake Erie. It was the first long distance rail line in North America.

Lee

ebtmikado wrote:This branch was called the Piermont Branch on the Erie and EL.
It was a part of the original NY&LE Railroad, which ran from the Piermont Pier on the Hudson
to Dunkirk, NY on Lake Erie. It was the first long distance rail line in North America.

Lee

I love railroad history, in any part of the world, but particularly in my own.

Moderator's Note: Fixed quote coding.

And the reason it was built from Piermont was that the New York State Legislature refused to issue a charter for a railroad running through a FOREIGN STATE like New Jersey. As a result, passengers had to make the trip by water from Manhattan to Piermont until the Erie acquired the New York and Hackensack(?) and the Paterson & Ramapo(?) and began running through trains to Jersey City. If it hadn't been for that original charter there might never have been a railroad from Piermont to Suffern.

I go for history. The late John T. Cunningham's paper back history book "Railroading in New Jersey" describes how Erie trains used the Pennsy's (I forget the name of the original railroad) cut through Bergen Hill, as far as Marion, where they headed north on their own rails (I guess.) The switch tender at Marion had to figure which train was coming at him, a standard gauge Pennsy or a broad gauge Erie, and he didn't always get it right.

Saw an interesting equipment move today... Late morning I just caught a quick glimpse engine #4302 going engine lite long hood forward thru Westwood towards Spring Valley. Sometime after lunch he returned and he was pulling a 3-car set with engine #4109 trailing. And the middle car of the 3-car set was a comet 4. Rare to see a long hood forward move on the pvl. And also rare to see engine forward towards Hoboken.

ebtmikado wrote:This branch was called the Piermont Branch on the Erie and EL.
It was a part of the original NY&LE Railroad, which ran from the Piermont Pier on the Hudson
to Dunkirk, NY on Lake Erie. It was the first long distance rail line in North America.

Lee

I don't know the location of this photo, but it dates from 1867.

Per my wife who just happened to see this... NS is switching Kuiken bros lumber yard right now as we speak. @ 1:20pm. Didn't get any car count only saw the engine with it's lights on.

Went by kuiken bros and no cars dropped off. It appears they just took 1 Southern Pacific boxcar that was there and left.