Bloomfield Station - Montclair Branch

snavely wrote:Vike, yes there was passenger service on the Orange Branch up until the mid 1950's or so, then it was replaced by an Erie sponsored bus. Picked up passengers by the Bloomfield Ave. crossing. The original station was between Bloomfield and Grove. On the Erie forum there is a link to an article from the old Newark Evening News about the last passenger run on the line, complete with photos. Dig around, you'll find it. Also I have seen maps and timetables for the Orange Branch on the web too.

Thanks for the suggestion. I will do some researching.

I can't remember the source but I hear that the Ampere station might be opened again. I can't imagine why. It doesn't look safe there.

I would like to do some more research on this branch. I can remember also seeing freight trains that passed through the Forrest Hill section of Newark. I believe there was a factory I believe called Tiffany's. It's now been converted into apartments or condos.

Where did the Orange Branch go from Forrest Hill? Was it Jersey City?

Thanks

" I can't remember the source but I hear that the Ampere station might be opened again. I can't imagine why. It doesn't look safe there. "

Not a chance Ken. The immediate area is bad - make that REAL BAD - and now totally void of the stores/shops/industry that once was. Plus, NJT years ago struck a deal with the town of East Orange that allowed them to close/demolish Ampere in return for massive renovations at the East Orange and Brick Church stations....which have been and continue to be in progress.

" Where did the Orange Branch go from Forrest Hill? Was it Jersey City? "

West of Hartz, the Erie Orange/Silver Lake Branch crossed over the Lackawanna Montclair Branch and snaked it's way basically west thru East Orange to a terminus near the Thomas Edison museum in West Orange. Most of the ROW has slowly been usurped by local companies but parts are still visible AND there is still rail present in 1 or 2 grade crossings in East Orange.

Tri-State Tom wrote:" Not a chance Ken. The immediate area is bad - make that REAL BAD - and now totally void of the stores/shops/industry that once was. Plus, NJT years ago struck a deal with the town of East Orange that allowed them to close/demolish Ampere in return for massive renovations at the East Orange and Brick Church stations....which have been and continue to be in progress.

West of Hartz, the Erie Orange/Silver Lake Branch crossed over the Lackawanna Montclair Branch and snaked it's way basically west thru East Orange to a terminus near the Thomas Edison museum in West Orange. Most of the ROW has slowly been usurped by local companies but parts are still visible AND there is still rail present in 1 or 2 grade crossings in East Orange.

I agree that this area is real bad so it really doesn't make sense to reopen the station.

Yes, I did notice some tracks in some areas of East Orange to West Orange at the Edision museum. Where did it go east of Newark?

Thanks

Ken

" Where did it go east of Newark? "

It didn't....it's 'other end' was a connection with the ex-Erie Greenwood Lake, nee-Boonton Line at FOREST HILL ( MP 8.4 from Hoboken ).

With the advent of the Montclair Connection, the Boonton Line east of Pine Street in Montclair has been reduced to a single-track spur sans commuter train service. NS owns this track, the crossover/switch at FOREST HILL and the surviving Orange Branch track to service the lone remaining freight client - Hartz.

Tri-State Tom wrote:" Where did it go east of Newark? "

It didn't....it's 'other end' was a connection with the ex-Erie Greenwood Lake, nee-Boonton Line at FOREST HILL ( MP 8.4 from Hoboken ).

With the advent of the Montclair Connection, the Boonton Line east of Pine Street in Montclair has been reduced to a single-track spur sans commuter train service. NS owns this track, the crossover/switch at FOREST HILL and the surviving Orange Branch track to service the lone remaining freight client - Hartz.

Tom,

Once again, thanks.

I wonder how much it costs NS to keep that line open for just one customer?

Anyway, I just returned from taking shots of the abandoned rails of L&HR today. Some of the places that still have track are Delaware, Belvedere, Manunka Chunk in NJ and Portland, Mt Bethel and Slateford in PA. I believe the train that ran through was not the L&HR but the L&NE.

The pictures came out fine but it would have been better in the fall or early Winter since the trees block out everything.

Thanks again.

Ken

Ken ( NJ Vike ) -

Totally forgot our recollections and exchanges in this thread 2 YEARS ago !

Tri-State Tom wrote:Ken ( NJ Vike ) -

Totally forgot our recollections and exchanges in this thread 2 YEARS ago !

Tom,

Didn't we discuss this same subject on another thread

Goes to show that we still enjoy this thread. I really miss the Ampere area. When I was a kid, it was just starting to turn bad at the end of the 60s early 70s. I remember walking there all the way from N16th street to the station. Sometimes, even as a kid, I would also take the City Subway to Penn Station in Newark to watch the trains there.

NJ Vike wrote:Yes, that's the one and that's what I heard. Two deliveries per week and I believe NS handles it and I believe they can only get deliveries after 12:00 am since they come across the City Subway tracks; something to do with class I using these tracks.

There are photos by the poster "shark" with Hartz Mountain getting daylight delivers and rolling through the NLR system.

About 2006, NJT issued a press release about how they and NS learned to "work smarter". In return for letting NJT run at all hours of the night, NS and NJT agreed to convince the Federal Railroad Administration that the NS freight train would take less than 15 minutes to pass over the joint use tracks. Since the larger capacity Light Rail Transit cars didn't have to run as often as the PCCs to haul the same number of passengers, mid-day intervals were at least 15 minutes. Therefore, the shutdown of the passenger service so the freight train could be allowed to run could be in any 15 minute mid-day period, without much delay to either party's traffic!