row in cedar grove

is anyone here familiar with the trestle in cedar grove on pompton ave?

what line was it and are there still tracks on the row?

did this used to be a station too? becuz i saw a set of stairs.

rail__debris wrote:is anyone here familiar with the trestle in cedar grove on pompton ave?

what line was it and are there still tracks on the row?

did this used to be a station too? becuz i saw a set of stairs.

The trestle arried the ex-ERIE Caldwell Branch from Great Notch to Essex Fells/Roseland. There was a station there many years ago but no more tracks.

The last "real" train on this line was in 1975 as mentioned somewhere else on the list. In 1977 the M&E retrieved a lone box car that was trapped out side of Essex Fells...The tracks were finally ripped out in 1979........The line is now a walking trail from Caldwell to Great Notch....

Steve

You can find a map at showing the line at

http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.as ... 3&z=18&w=1
(enter it all as one line)

The map shows a station on the west side of the pompton road crossing,
between Grove and Myrtle Ave

The line connected with the Erie (Greenwood Lake line) (now NJ transit
Boonton line) just north of Francisco Ave in Little Falls.
Going the other way, the line went down through Verona and Caldwell along
Bloomfield Ave, then southwest through Grover Park to Essex Fells/Roseland. Past Roseland
the line was (and is) Morristown and Erie (a separate company), which is still active from
about route 280 in Roseland all the way to Morristown, connecting with
NJ transit

I think the map above has an error, in that it labels the line
"Morristown and Erie" even into Verona and Cedar Grove. That
part was the Erie Caldwell Branch as noted above.
JS

You can find a map at showing the line at

http://www.terraserver-usa.com/image.as ... 3&z=18&w=1
(enter it all as one line)

The map shows a station on the west side of the pompton road crossing,
between Grove and Myrtle Ave

The line connected with the Erie (Greenwood Lake line) (now NJ transit
Boonton line) just north of Francisco Ave in Little Falls.
Going the other way, the line went down through Verona and Caldwell along
Bloomfield Ave, then southwest through Grover Park to Essex Fells/Roseland. Past Roseland
the line was (and is) Morristown and Erie (a separate company), which is still active from
about route 280 in Roseland all the way to Morristown, connecting with
NJ transit

I think the map above has an error, in that it labels the line
"Morristown and Erie" even into Verona and Cedar Grove. That
part was the Erie Caldwell Branch as noted above.
JS

Correction; the multi purpose trail built on the old ROW extends from Arnold Way in Verona to the active Boonton Line in Little Falls.

The ROW south of Arnold Way in Verona was sold off and has been developed. There may still be some undeveloped ROW in Caldwell, but it is not part of the multi purpose trail.

The trail is officially known as the West Essex Trail. Official web site is here:

http://www.last-exit.net/essexcounty/in ... ept/p/west

Passenger service from Essex Fells out to the main line at Great Notch
ended in 1966. Not sure if you had to connect there or if there were
through trains to Hoboken (or Pavonia?) See the interesting list:
http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib003/NJPASS.TXT

js

There were a few thru trains to Jersey City, but most required an across the platform change. There was a center platform at Great Notch GA, as well as a platform in the current location.

Cedar Grove was telegraph CG, and was located at the west side of Pompton Avenue. (That's from Sheppard)

In 1910, the trains to Caldwell continued on to Essex Fells, where the Official Guide says there was a passenger connection to the M&E toward Morristown. Interestingly, the OG mentions the departure times from Morristown in the Erie listing. These trains ran in the low "500" block.

By 1960, the OG lists 9 west daily trains on the Greenwood Lake / Caldwell line, with four west on minor holidays. Of the 9 west trains to GA, just one ran thru to Fells.

Train 1409 left Hoboken (!) at 518, following arrival of the Barclay street ferry. Arrived GA at 550, CG at 554, Verona at 558, Caldwell at 601, and Fells at 604. (Anybody wanna check today's Hob to GA (MSU) in 32 minutes? Done with an RS3 and Stilwells)

Trains 1413 and 1419 were connections.

The ROW does still exist from beneath 280 through to a few hundred feet west of the old Roseland Avenue grade crossing. It is nearly impossible to trace however.

There is a concrete plant which covers part of the right of way in Roseland.

The ROW is built over on the west side of Roseland Avenue. An apartment complex has taken the place of the line.

East of Roseland Ave, the ROW is again quite visible and walkable (with many ties, concrete footings, and a few rails strewn about) until the parking lot of a Baskin Robbin's store along Bloomfield Avenue encroaches once again.

Beyond the parking lot there is one incredibly ugly building completely covering the right of way. Beyond the ugly building the right of was is visible next to Bloomfield Avenue. The ROW dips heavily to an underpass (removed a little over a decade ago) of Bloomfield Avenue. From that point to Great Notch, the line is walkable and is quite interesting.

The line comes within a stones throw of several older (tasteful) houses in the Verona and Cedar Grove area as well as several newer (tasteless) houses towards the Great Notch end of the line.

The ROW also skirts the property of the former State Hospital in Verona which has some fabulous architecture and used to recieve rail service.

The ROW crosses an impressive trestle over a beautiful creek in Cedar Grove.

There is no hope (or specualtion) of any restoration of this line.

SemperFiSep11 wrote:The ROW does still exist from beneath 280 through to a few hundred feet west of the old Roseland Avenue grade crossing. It is nearly impossible to trace however.

There is a concrete plant which covers part of the right of way in Roseland.
.

Just north (rail: east) of the concrete plant is the old turntable. It's on the Roseland Avenue side of the tracks. Concrete lined pit in the ground.

The circle in Essex Fells marks the location of the station. The most recent station has been demolished, its predecessor is three or four houses down on Oak Street. The give away is the operator's bay window.

There are a few artifacts in the woods behind the Exxon and Dunkin Donuts on Bloomfield Ave in Caldwell. The area behind Exxon and the construction site marked the west end of Caldwell yard. The strip mall with the Forte's and Gelato's marks the approximate site of the station on the "Erie Bend"

Steve (NJT4172) and I explored the area 2-3 years ago near some golf course in Roseland. There was track still in place but unused going east of 280. What is the name of this golf course ?

Fernwood (sp), I think, is next to the line.

Any recent status update on the ROW between Great Notch and Verona?
Did they re-deck the bridges in CG? Is the trail being used now for recreation purposes?

Are there any pictures of these passenger stations that were located in Essex Fells, Verona and Caldwell?

Just for grins I'll throw in a scan of the station list from a 1963 EL ETT.



Now don't get a headache from the stations shown for the Greenwood Lake Division or the Boonton Line also shown. When they abandoned the section of the original Erie mainline that went through the streets of downtown Passaic, they did a major re-designation of trackage.

Some of the original mainline became the Begren County Line, Some of the Boonton Line became the mainline and some of the Greenwood Lake Division became the Boonton Line.

The whole station pages of that ETT can found here:

http://mil.iowa770.org/el.html