Old Coal Trestles - Morristown/Murray Hill

Both are concrete....

The one in Morristown - right in the middle of BAKER interlocking off the westbound main directly west of the Morristown & Erie connection with the Morristown line....kinda gets buried out of sight in the Summer months but now quite visible with the leaves gone. Obviously dates back to Lackawanna days and appears to still have rails.

In Murray Hill - just east of the station and the switch to/from the runaround siding....definately still has rail and there is also rail still in place just west of the grade crossing ( do a little foot digging ) that becomes more visible this time of year. Appears this is a remnant of this trestle's lead siding....also Lackawanna heritage.

Anyone have any historical info or pics on either or when these went OOS ?

Tom,

Don't know about timing - I do remember being told (many years ago) that the dock at Morristown was definately a Lackawanna customer not the M&E's. I've not been up there is quite some time but years ago it definately still had most if not all of the rail - pretty much looked like the switch and some close in rail was removed and the rest just abandoned in place.

Andy

The Lackawanna coal trestle on the Boonton Line at Garrett Mountain in Paterson just came down within the past year or so. Outlasted the railroad by almost 40 years...

There's also the John Alden / Orange Coal & Lumber trestle on the Morristown line, just east of Orange station's eastbound track. There's a trestle (unknown owner) on the westbound track between Brick Church and East Orange.

I believe the footings for the trestle just east of the Lackawanna's Marshall street station are still visible. I was exploring Morris Canal artifacts last year. The road bridge spanned both the railroad and the canal in Paterson.

Lackawanna484 wrote:The Lackawanna coal trestle on the Boonton Line at Garrett Mountain in Paterson just came down within the past year or so. Outlasted the railroad by almost 40 years...

.

If you mean the Dowling Fuel trestle, I think it's more like 5 years ago that the trestle came down. The smokestack still stands, though.

gravelyfan wrote:

Lackawanna484 wrote:The Lackawanna coal trestle on the Boonton Line at Garrett Mountain in Paterson just came down within the past year or so. Outlasted the railroad by almost 40 years...

.

If you mean the Dowling Fuel trestle, I think it's more like 5 years ago that the trestle came down. The smokestack still stands, though.

was it that long ago? doesn't seem like it.

Poster German posted the following in a separate thread last night....

" Tri State Tom's post got me wondering about another trestle in Butler, along the NYS&W. This one had a structure built over it. My in-laws' house is a few blocks away and I've often wondered about its history. Anyone know when it was last used? "

Andy -

".... the dock at Morristown was definately a Lackawanna customer not the M&E's. "

You might recall that prior to the reconfiguration of BAKER several years ago, the switch and lead track to/from the M&E was located further west nearer the bridge over MLK road. There was also an extension of this lead to the east into a stub-end siding ( under catenary wire ) serving the still standing Morristown freight house as well as an additional storage track on the bend above the M&E's shop complex where the M&E interchanged with the Lackawanna.

This dock was indeed accessed off that lead track....which was definately Lackawanna turf/rail....and NJT rail today ( The O-MILE post is located about halfway down the hill above the M&E shops ).

Other Coal Trestles/Docks ?

* remnants of a concrete one off the westbound main just east of the Grove St. grade crossing in Montclair on the M-B line ( John Blondell & Sons ).

* was once a huge elevated concrete trestle ( also John Blondell & Sons ) just east of today's Bay St. station on the M-B line ( formerly Lackawanna Montclair Branch )....basically where the new firehouse and catenary sub-station stand today. When they were digging the foundation for the firehouse 2 years ago, all of the massive concrete foundation pads for the trestle were uncovered still neatly in place.

* is the large one just east of the tunnels on the north side of the mains in Hoboken still standing ?

Morristown coal dock was DL&W (Morris and Essex) and the switch was a bit further west than Baker. The long siding dipped back into the house track at the Railway Express building, not frieght house (freight house on eastbound side in Morristown Yard). I remember riding #633 The Bankers Express, 4:15pm out of HOboken with John Zipay as engineer. He would drop a Subscription car and motor in there at about 5:10 each evening. As for when the coal dock went out of service, I would have to say before the late 50's when I was riding quite often.

"Subscription car and motor "

What kind of motor?

RS115 wrote:"Subscription car and motor "

What kind of motor?

In DL&W-speak, motor refers to the power car of the two car MU set. The other is a trailer.

I remember that 10 or 15 years ago you could see the year rolled on the rail at the Murray Hill coal dock it was per 1900. There is also a coal dock in Whitehouse just east of RT 523 rd crossing it also has rail per 1900.

The Murray Hill concrete coal dock was recently (last spring?) cleared of brush and sort of "stabilized." Either NJT or the town (I think the latter) has converted the north side (where I think coal as loaded into trucks from the individual chutes) into parking spaces. It looks good! And yes, I think there is still rail on it.

BTW, there's another extant coal trestle (wood) in Annandale off the old CNJ main.

A different line, but there used to be a coal trestle on the Carlton Hill Spur in East Rutherford at C.H. Frommer which just came down about a year ago. There are also remains of one along the Lower Boonton Line in Kearny just east of Schuyler Ave.