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  • PSCT Greenville Yard, no barn?

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This forum is for discussion of "Fallen Flag" roads not otherwise provided with a specific forum. Fallen Flags are roads that no longer operate, went bankrupt, or were acquired or merged out of existence.

Moderator: Nicolai3985

 #162633  by bellstbarn
 
Thanks to help I received on this website, I enjoyed a trip on NJT 81 from Exchange Place last week, retracing much of the Greenville Public Service route. I found a modern bus garage on the site (west side of Old Bergen Road, Greenville), matching my memory of Greenville Yard in the 1940's. Today, I found my copy of Mankoff and Wrege's "Trolley Treasures: The Wartime Years in New Jersey, Vol. II." There are many shots of cars in Greenville Yard, but nothing about a car barn. Apparently, the cars were stored outdoors. Is my presumption correct?
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Not only is there a garage on the west side of Old Bergen Road nowadays, but there is outdoor storage of NJT buses in a lot on the east side.
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The authors' text (page 81) has a photo of a car in Greenville Yard captioned, "Barbed wire fencing, wartime security measure, kept out Axis spies and saboteurs, but not eager railfans." Shades of NJT and PATH photo psychosis: After the war, Dad went on a railfan trip to Western Electric, that rebuilt line out Federal Highway. At the end of the line, the fans snapped photos of the trolley car, only to have their film confiscated by the police.

 #162681  by Ken W2KB
 
I seem to recall reading of a barn. PSNJ had numerous barns. It may be that many cars were stored outside and the barn used for maintenance. The Greenville line was orginally a steam powered "dummy" car operation.

 #164580  by AndyB
 
There was a barn, it was located between Ocean Ave. and Old Bergen Road on the north side of Gates. This is the location of the present day outside bus storage lot. I have a 1928 map book of Jersey City with 1"=100', very detailed. It shows the barn fronting on Ocean Ave. with 10 stub tracks, each about 250' long, in the barn. There was also four tracks on the south side of the building, between building and Gates Ave. Three were run through from Old Bergen Road to Ocean Ave., the fourth a stub access only from Old Bergen Road.

The map shows the car storage lot, 210' wide by 500' deep on the west side of Old Bergen Road between Gates Ave. and Custer Ave, present location of the bus garage. The map shows two tracks entering at the corner of Old Bergen and Gates going to the back of the lot to a one track loop, comes out of the loop as two tracks at the corner with Custer Ave.. From photos of this lot it appears the map maker may not have put in all track work.

This location was a focal point for car lines in south Jersey City. From what I can determine it serviced the Jackson, Montgomery, Greenville, West Side, during the WW2 South Kearny and Federal lines.
Apparently it also serviced other Jersey City car lines as a photo in Hamm's book shows an "Oakland" (north Jersey City) car on the lot.