Elizabethport Question

[firthorfifth06]

I have a question about the layout of Elizabethport. What were the designation of the tracks? I know there were 6 tracks on the main, one track which sliced through the main, and also four wyes off of the main, some of which were single tracked, some double tracked. I just want to know what each one was called.

I've referred to them as:

The Main Tracks (1-6)
The Southeast Wye (A and B)
The Southwest Wye (C)
The Northwest Wye (D)
The Northeast Wye (E)
The Through Track (F)

What were the correct designations?

[GSC]

Don't know what the designations were, but it sure was a fascinating layout. And "upstairs" besides, with several holes open to the street below.

[Ken W2KB]

I have a question about the layout of Elizabethport. What were the designation of the tracks? I know there were 6 tracks on the main, one track which sliced through the main, and also four wyes off of the main, some of which were single tracked, some double tracked. I just want to know what each one was called.

I've referred to them as:

The Main Tracks (1-6)
The Southeast Wye (A and B)
The Southwest Wye (C)
The Northwest Wye (D)
The Northeast Wye (E)
The Through Track (F)

What were the correct designations?

For the main tracks, the numbering of mainline tracks was even numbers westward and odd numbers eastward, so westbound from inner to outer 2-4-6 and eastbound from inner to outer 1-3-5.

[ExCon90]

On that subject, I've often wondered why the CNJ was the opposite of other roads that numbered their tracks by direction; on the NYC, NH, Erie, and others, eastbound tracks had even numbers and westbound odd, like the train numbers. Does anyone know: was there a particular reason why the CNJ did it the other way round?

[erie2521]

Reading through this thread got me thinking about the one time I went through Elizabethport. It was August 1944 and I was on a troop train from Camp Kilmer up to Jersey City. (This started on the Reading out of Camp Kilmer, went to Port Reading, up to Elizabethport and on to JC by way of Bayonne on the CNJ.) This was a nighttime movement and we probably got to Elizabethport around 11PM. We were there for at least a half hour and what a busy place it was! Of particular interest to me were all of the center cab locomotives the CNJ had. Every time a firebox door was opened, the glow from the firebox illuminated the steam in the area and the whole scene looked like the Devil's playground.
Once we got to the CNJ Jersey City Terminal, we were loaded into a ferry to Brooklyn where we boarded our troop ship for Europe. New York City had a blackout during the war so none of the skyscrapers had any lights on making that a rather ghostly ride as well. Ted

[JimBoylan]

Did you go to a ferry dock in Brooklyn, possibly at the Brooklyn Army Base or 69th St., or was your boat used as a lighter to transfer you direct to the ship? Did Jersey Central RR have passenger and auto ferry routes to Brooklyn in 1944?
Thanks for your work so that I might have a world to be born in 7 years later.

[erie2521]

Jim, I'm afraid I'm not going to be of much help. I haven't a clue where we were in Brooklyn. At that time I had never been in Brooklyn and this was my first ride on the CNJ. I had to look at a map later to find out why Elizabethport was such a busy place. I would doubt that our boat ride was a regular ferry route. If it had of been, I would think that the dock in Brooklyn would have had some appearences of being a commercial facility which it did not. The ferry was not used as a lighter. We were deposited on a dock and walked onto the ship.
The ship, by the way, was the USS Lejuene which had been made over from a German freighter which they had unsuccessfully tried to scuttle off the coast of Brazil. This was the ship our regiment was assigned. The other two regiments in our Division (the 104th Infantry Division) got the George Washington and the Isle de France. Would you say we drew the short straw?! Ted