Ever A Carlstadt Station?

If you drive along Rt. 17 in Carlstadt and look out over to the Pascack Valley Line, you will see an old green pedestrian bridge that crosses over the tracks with a functional railroad crossing that has no road access to it.

I'm just curious if there was ever a station here before NJT, because I have seen that Carlstatdt used to be a stop on old route maps for the Erie and the NY & NJ RR.

I have photos of it too...
1. http://www.deviantart.com/view/6343344/ (360 Degree Panoramic Image of Area)
2. http://www.deviantart.com/view/6348642/
3. http://www.deviantart.com/view/6348690/

If anybody has any kind of info to back this up, that would be awesome, because so far the only proof of a former station spot is the old Erie maps. The are could also have been a demolished factory, because a lot of the ground is capped off with concrete.

That site is a toxic waste site and sits in both East Rutherford and Carlstadt. I had a client in a building on Paterson Plank Road (the bridge you see crossing the PVL) that had contaminated ground water from that site. I can't remember the company, but it was a well-known name.

I don't know if there was a station.

JLo wrote:That site is a toxic waste site and sits in both East Rutherford and Carlstadt. I had a client in a building on Paterson Plank Road (the bridge you see crossing the PVL) that had contaminated ground water from that site. I can't remember the company, but it was a well-known name.

I don't know if there was a station.

Oooo, lovely... no wonder its all capped off...

Hmm, im trying to find a site with the old Erie Commuter Map, because Carlstadt is marked down as a station stop.

There was a station there at one time(not sure when it was demolished). The crossing was for the old industry that once exsisted there. I was told that it closed down due to the nature of the materials it was receiving/producing and its proximity to New York City. The plant relocated to the midwest, I believe sometime in the 80's. They used to get about 8 tank cars about every 3 days. The switch for their siding comes off of the Long Siding on the PVL just east of the Paterson Plank bridge. There were two tracks going in, but now they are ripped up past the switch. I looked at it when the circus train was set off there and much of the siding and switch was not visible. The plant area is now off limits due to the hazardous materials in the ground and I would not recommend walking around back there.

The site is Universal Oil Products site. Here is some superfund information on the site. http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods ... 299122.pdf

Who says you can't learn anything important watching trains?

JLo wrote:The site is Universal Oil Products site. Here is some superfund information on the site. http://www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/rods ... 299122.pdf

Who says you can't learn anything important watching trains?

The rails run right through the center of everything in this state. In one way or another, the rails link into every towns history.

From 1978 into 1980, I worked dispatching Acid tankers from the DuPont plant in Linden [Grasselli]. We used to ship some Nasty stuff to U.O.P. and I rememer the drivers all complained about the place being a nasty, dirty place.

I've seen the plant outside of Chicago [McCook] and it's alot cleaner.

I used to work for Royal Doulton China on Paterson Plank Rd.back in the mid-70's.They're long since gone bit anyway I believe trains stopped there at that time.That plant was BRUTAL.Especially on hot,humid day at this very same of year!!Between that&low tide in The Meadowlands
it was quite aromatic!!LOL!!!

There was a cancer cluster in Rutherford/East Rutherford and they thought it might have been linked to U.O.P. Later on I had to do some work on a piece of equipment there. That was one nasty place.

I spoke with an EPA agent back in 1999 about the area. All along Paterson Plank Road, you had manufacturing facilities, most of them using chemical processes with by-products that were just dumped in lagoons. On top of that, the whole area was built on fill that the EPA believes was contaminated. UOP probably contributed to the problem, but the whole area is a toxic stew after 200 years of industrialization.

My grandfather worked as a dispatcher at Carolina trucking on Paterson Plank during the sixties and seventies. Across from that trucking company is now a site cover with plastic and vent pipes. Supposedly 8 to 10 coworkers passed away during the 80's and early 90's, as my grandfather did, with leukemia or cancer.....Talk about a cancer cluster?? For years nobody put the pieces together back then....

Kinda makes ya think about tail-gating in the lots of Giants Stadium, doesn't it ?

Yunno, this is how NJ got it's rep....plus those now 'green' mounds along the Turnpike that in the 1950's-1960's were HUGE SOLID WASTE GARBAGE DUMPS ! For you youngsters - Yup, that's what is under there !

Try and picture dozens of garbage trucks atop those mounds just dumping their loads IN THE OPEN....much to the delight of hundreds of seagulls that constantly flew overhead.

The aroma between Route 3 south to the Pulaski Skyway this time year used to be absolutely AWFUL !

If you look at the first picture, you will see a building on the right just past the concrete bridge that passes over the PVL. Adjacent to the siding and next to that building you will find a length of concrete "curbing" which looks identical to that found at other old station locations along the PVL. Without having checked old maps, etc., I had always assumed that this had been the location of the old Carlstadt station.

Any thoughts on this? Thanks.

Tri-State Tom wrote:Kinda makes ya think about tail-gating in the lots of Giants Stadium, doesn't it ?

Yunno, this is how NJ got it's rep....plus those now 'green' mounds along the Turnpike that in the 1950's-1960's were HUGE SOLID WASTE GARBAGE DUMPS ! For you youngsters - Yup, that's what is under there !

Try and picture dozens of garbage trucks atop those mounds just dumping their loads IN THE OPEN....much to the delight of hundreds of seagulls that constantly flew overhead.

The aroma between Route 3 south to the Pulaski Skyway this time year used to be absolutely AWFUL !

I moved to NJ the first time in 1978 & they were still dumping on the mound west fo the trunpike. Used to drive that way to work & see the cloud of gulls [yes they ARE Rats With Wings!] swarming around the dumping trucks. I think they closed the last dump in the mid 80's and the smell got alot better...

As a very young guy in the 50s I recall going out to the New York Society of Model Engineers open house by bus from Jersey City. They are located about three blocks away from this locaton. On the other side (safe?) of Rt.17. Paterson Plank Road, now the bridge, was a grade crossing then and the station was at the grade crossing.

In 1974 the Railroadians did a photo book on the New Jersey and New York RR. There are two photos of Carlstadt in it.

Mike, that photo 1 is a nice piece of work.