West side of Newark Branch

[kilroy]

Many pages back there was discussion of using the line for light rail. Some towns the line runs through doesn't want anything that connects with Newark and their town.

[WashingtonPark]

Many pages back there was discussion of using the line for light rail. Some towns the line runs through doesn't want anything that connects with Newark and their town.

Amazing how the Nimbys never consider bus lines or roads as connections to whatever town's residents they don't want near them.

[rr503]

It's equally amazing that we let people with those sort of exclusionary opinions dictate our transportation/land use policies...

Realistically speaking, though, something to preserve the corridor as a corridor (rather than a slowly evolving series of reclamations) should be done. A rail trail would likely nix any chance of future use, but maybe just some basic maintenance agreement?

[bk77]

It's equally amazing that we let people with those sort of exclusionary opinions dictate our transportation/land use policies...

Realistically speaking, though, something to preserve the corridor as a corridor (rather than a slowly evolving series of reclamations) should be done. A rail trail would likely nix any chance of future use, but maybe just some basic maintenance agreement?

My own $.02..... I don't really see it as a canidate for a rail trail as the section through Nutley would be the only nice portion worth walking through. The section through Clifton is decent, but can't be considered anyway as a portion of that trackage is still in use by NS. Anything south of Nutley is too industrial/urban where I'm sure area businesses would love to get their hands on the RoW for parking, expanding, redeveloping, etc, which has already been happening in Belleville and North Newark.

I'd say you'd have a better use for making it a Light Rail line, although I'm not sure where you'd connect to anything on the Newark end without buying up property and somehow crossing Rt. 21 to get to Broad St. station. Rebuilding the east end of the Newark branch to DB and a transfer station near West End interlocking seems more expensive.... which leads to an even bigger and realistic issue on why you probably won't see light rail on the newark branch: MONEY. There were already plans in place to extend the Hudson Light Rail up CSX's Northern Branch. Aside from town's like Tenafly protesting that project, I'm sure NJT and the state don't want to put up the funding right now considering the well publicized money woe's at NJT over the last several years (and not to mention the state putting the kabash on the new tunnels under the Hudson river). I'm not saying light rail on the Newark Branch won't ever happen, but considering other projects haven't already happened like the Hudson-Bergen extension, I'm not holding out much hope for the Newark Branch.

[Joseph DeLuisi]

Remember, no rail has been ripped out and wishful thinking it can become active again. The most likely shippers would be Rock Tenn, formerly known as Schiffenhaus, and Q-PAK on McCarter Hwy near the Belleville line. Then you have the little Industrial park on Riverside Ave near Chester Ave. where Frey Chemical used to be. Many potential customers there. Is the old WAS siding still intact, does anyone know? I know that it's probably unlikely, but NS never applied to the STB to abandon the Newark Industrial Track. The trucking company just leases property from NS and in the lease it states that rail service can resume again at any time, hopefully.

[bk77]

The old “horn train” (don’t know what NS symbol is) is currently switching Van Ness in Clifton at 11AM. NS 3029 leading east, a few covered hoppers and another geep on the rear... could not see what number as it was hidden behind buildings. Didn't stick around as I had to head home, but I could heard them blowing through Clifton heading back west around 11:25. One neat thing I noted is it sounds like the 3029 still has it's original 3 chime Leslie's.... brought me back to the Conrail days hearing those things blaring through Clifton this morning.

Pretty sure I’ve heard horns on certain Sunday mornings over the past year (and even certain late Sunday nights), so Sunday runs down the branch must be a somewhat regular thing.

[pdtrains]

Just saw a pic in the DEcember Railpace of 2 NS GP40's leading the H55 local across Crooks ave in Clifton with cut of covered hoppers for Bay State Milling. Photo date was Sept 22, 2020

Based on everything ive read here, I thought the Old Newark branch was completely dead...and theres been no mention of Bay State Milling. Admittedly, its at the north end of the branch, but still its something.

Anyone here keeping up with whats going on , on whats left of the Newark Branch?

[Sir Ray]

I believe those are two different branches, approximately 10 or so blocks apart. The line that Bay State Milling is on used to continue on south thru downtown Passaic and beyond (this was the former EL mainline), while the Newark Branch (west) splits off its mainline again about 1o or so blocks to the west and heads south to Newark.
Skimming along the Newark Branch in Google Satellite view, while the row has no permanent obstructions, I am not certain if the rail is fully there anymore (some of it may be buried under pavement it looks like - definitely buried in dirt at other places).

[pdtrains]

Thanks. They called it the "Patterson Industrial Spur", . Who knows what they call anything anymore. I asked the goog, and it referred me to the Newark Branch. I didnt know any of the old Erie main that used to go thru passaic, carlton hill, etc, was left.

The pic looked very single track...like it had never been double track before, so I kinda thought Newark Branch, too. But I guess a lot can change over the course of 50 years...

I'm totally familiar with the area...I'll just google earth it to see what's changed/what's left.

[Sir Ray]

You probably seen that the line doesn't go much further south than Bay Milling, stopping just 2 blocks south, short of Clifton Ave - and it's effectively 3 track right around Bay Milling, but 1 track blocks north of that.

Here's the Google Street view of the Crooks Ave. crossing shown in that Railpace image - seems decently wide enough for 2 tracks, although further on down while the ROW is still wide enough for 2 tracks it looks like at some point the remaining single track was centered on the ROW (they had 50 years to do this, so it's quite possible).

[Shalom]

On the west side of the track, just south of US46, I was looking on the satellite view, and there's what looks like an abandoned park, with overgrown tennis courts or athletic fields of some kind. DOesn't look like there's any access from local streets either. Anybody know what that is?

[Chrisgr]

That's probably the Athenia Steel park. There is road off of Clifton Ave to get to the park.

[Shalom]

So I posted in another forum, and it apparently belongs to the condos on the other side of Weasel Brook, but got flooded and nobody uses it.

[bk77]

Noticed today that NS removed the gates from the arms at the Allwood Rd. crossing in Clifton. Seems like yet another nail in the coffin for the Newark branch unfortunately

[Maverickstation1]

As we discuss the future of the West Side of the Newark Branch in it's entirety, I wanted to share a video that an urban explorer took of the Lower Boonton Line in 2019. Why I am posting this here, you ask ?
Simple, as he was approaching what was the North Newark station site, he had to detour since that part of the ROW has been leased to a private company who uses the ROW itself and the station site. That detour took him onto the section of the Newark Branch at the Belleville/Newark line that has been leased out to a trucking company, and he includes a picture of it.

This came up as the discussion about turning the Lower Boonton line into a rail trail has surfaced again, in part as the deadline to purchase the ROW from NS is coming up. I'm not against rail trail conversions, but the cost and issues facing that proposal have never been discussed.

Lastly, when you view the pictures you'll notice that the Lower Boonton line ROW is in pretty sorry shape, far worse than the West Side of the Newark Branch.

http://luckycigarette.com/walking_the_old_boonton_line/

Ken