M&E Whippany Line---- After Rt280 where did it go???

It continued into Essex Fells where, originally, interchange was made with the Erie. After the E-L merger with the E-L at each end primary interchange was at Morristown with Essex Fells used for high and wide loads that couldn't come down the Morristown line with the catenary. This continued until the Caldwell Branch experienced a wash out which was never repaired and the branch was not included into the CR system. It was kept open by the M&E seeing occassional use into the early-mid 80's. When current management took over following the bankruptcy there was mild hope of getting Newark Steel back as a customer but it never happened.

I'm not sure what the official abandonment date was or if it was ever formally abandoned though the right of way is obliterated around the old cement plant so I assume it was.

There's a pipeline adjacent to the right of way from I-280 north to harrison Ave (at least), and the area is hiker accessible

Sometime after 1986 the M&E sold the right-of-way from Harrison Avenue to the Essex Fells border to Baer Industries and the track was removed. They also sold their portion of the Essex Fells yard, about 1/3 of the total, to a developer who planned to erect several luxury homes on the site. There is a fibre optic line, not a pipeline, that runs along the right-of-way to Harrison Ave. It was plowed in using special plow train up to the I-280 overpass. From there it had to be dug in using a backhoe as the track is impassable past M. P. 9.0 due to missing ties and rails. The M&E Ry., Inc., still owns the property and collects annual rent from the fibre optic company thus making it a very pofitable piec of real estate even though no trains run over it.

Al Holleuffer wrote:Sometime after 1986 the M&E sold the right-of-way from Harrison Avenue to the Essex Fells border to Baer Industries and the track was removed. They also sold their portion of the Essex Fells yard, about 1/3 of the total, to a developer who planned to erect several luxury homes on the site. There is a fibre optic line, not a pipeline, that runs along the right-of-way to Harrison Ave. It was plowed in using special plow train up to the I-280 overpass. From there it had to be dug in using a backhoe as the track is impassable past M. P. 9.0 due to missing ties and rails. The M&E Ry., Inc., still owns the property and collects annual rent from the fibre optic company thus making it a very pofitable piec of real estate even though no trains run over it.

Al,

Where exactly is M.P. 9.0?? The tracks are still in place a few thousand feet beyond I-280 correct??


Thanks,
Steve

Hi Steve,

M.P. 9.0 is just a couple of hundred feet past the I-280 overpass in the Long Cut. An interesting thing occured shortly after Ben Friedland's new company took over operation. Plasser-American Corporation was hired to accurately measure the Whippany Line and locate the mileposts using their new hyrail track geometry vehicle. Upon reaching Whippany Station it was discovered that MP 4.0 was slightly east of the depot where official records indicated it was. This turned out to be the result of the track having been relocated around the Whippany Paper Board Eden Mill and away from the Whippany River between MP 3.0 and 4.0 in several places. East of Whippany things really were out of place as it turned out the original mileposts after 4.0 were far less than a mile apart resulting in the fact that the railroad is almost exactly one half mile shorter shown in official documents and publications such as The Official Guide.