Once Upon A Time In "Trains"

I recently found 6 near mint copies of Trains Magazine at a community yard sale. They all date from 1947 and 1948.

They have made for some very interesting reading as this was a time of still unbridled optimism about Passenger Trains, with some dary clouds on the horizon.

Some intersting articles inlcude;

The New Haven's annoucement that it was seeking to end all Old Colony Route passenger trains (it did by 1959). The MBTA finally started to restore service in the mid-90's.

Then NJ Gov. Driscoll wanted to fund "union" type stations both for Newark Airport, and the Meadowlands.

Repeated calls from both the CNJ and LIRR for government funding of essential commuter lines.

and the most interesting article.

"Costliest Railroad Now Half Abondoned" This story is about the CNJ's Direct Line or NY & NJ Branch, and the accident that damaged the Hackensack River Swing Bridge. The article stated that the CNJ was plannng on fixing the bridge, but the Dept of The Army (todays' Army Corp of Enginiers) required that a much taller bridge would have had to be built (it does not say but I would assume a lift bridge ??). The CNJ said that the cost of a high bridge would be too great and it opted to dismantle the bridge and cut the branch in two. Passenger Service on the Eastern leg was soon discontinued, and as Trains reported the line quicly became a freight only single track garbage dump. Trains thought this whole thing was tragic since the line (complete) was a large traffic generator and also served as a CNJ Mainline Detour route. It stated that most of the passenger traffic was from people heading to the plants in Kearny and downtown Newark.

One question that begs to be discussed, if in fact the Hackensack Bridge was rebuilt?, would there have ever been an Aldene Plan???

Ken

It stated that most of the passenger traffic was from people heading to the plants in Kearny and downtown Newark.

I think the above answers the question. Intra-state commuting for blue collar jobs was dying in the 60s, and is now dead. White collar jobs in NYC, Newark and JC have long taken their place. The NY&NJ simply did not provide that kind of service.

RHETORICAL QUESTION....but in the long run, it didn't make a difference in reference to the Aldene plan since the larger, lower H' draw was the bigger problem by the time Aldene came along. That coupled with the dire straits CNJ was in financially...the operating and tax savings east of the H' river!

It's hard to believe now, but when the NY World Trade Center was proposed in the early 1960s, jobs and traffic were disappearing from lower Manhattan at a furious rate. Ships were moving to the new Port Newark. When the towers were opened in 1972 and 1973, the state of NY had to rent many floors just to keep the lights on.

The Jersey Central's ferres went to the wrong place, downtown. Although their commuters were angry, the JCL didn't have the money to upgrade their bridge to USCG specs, and was just as happy to go to Newark if the state would pay for it.

The state believed that making Newark more accessible would mean more people from Westfield, Plainfield (then a leafy, wealthy suburb) etc would help Newark's economy. The launching of the Newark riots three months after the Aldene plan put a 20 year spike in that idea...

>>>The Army (todays' Army Corp of Enginiers) required that a much taller bridge would have had to be built (it does not say but I would assume a lift bridge ??). <<<

Probably not. The Army and Coast Guard want bridges built with more clearance above mean high tide so that vessels can pass underneath without the need for opening a draw. They probably wanted the bridge clearance elevated 20 or more feet above the then level. That would have required a lot more costs on the land sides as well as the water.

Take a look at the new 35 and Rt 9 bridges over the Raritan. No draws, 55 foot clearances, I believe. Something over the Hack above Port Newark would require at least that, if not more.

When the towers were opened in 1972 and 1973, the state of NY had to rent many floors just to keep the lights on.

Not quite true. The lights were always on in the towers, regardless of tenants. There were no on/off switches on any floor when the buildings were first built (pre-energy crisis).

On 22 August 04 I tried to follow this line thru Kearny; I got access (from a friendly security guard at a factory/warehouse entrance) close to the Hack bridge area...all that's left are pylons of the bridge sticking up thru the water. The line East/West thru Kearny is still used, access being from an old CNJ line coming from the North, and can be followed in places, until fencing is hit. Most interesting is the bridge across the Passaic River...it can be accessed, as a security gate is open, and there are no signs preventing snooping. I drove out to the water's edge by the bridge...it still goes about 1/3 the way across the water, and is elevated about 10-15 feet above Kearney elevation, with no trestle works remaining from the River's edge into Kearny. Bridge structure can also be seen on the other side of the river, with a wide gap between both river edges. It looks like tracks still exist on the Kearny side of the bridge; I was too lazy to climb up to bridge level, but it could be done. Definite bad smells were evident here. 5 days later I accessed the area on the Newark side (Doremus Avenue). I saw the bridge structure from the road (Doremus Avenue), but, as it was a week-day, and the chemical stink was overwhelming (I got sick), I had to bail out. I have never been so overpowered by air pollution as at that spot; right next to a prison.(Poor people, both guards and prisoners!) Is this still legal in 2004?

JLo wrote:Take a look at the new 35 and Rt 9 bridges over the Raritan. No draws, 55 foot clearances, I believe. Something over the Hack above Port Newark would require at least that, if not more.

When the towers were opened in 1972 and 1973, the state of NY had to rent many floors just to keep the lights on.

Not quite true. The lights were always on in the towers, regardless of tenants. There were no on/off switches on any floor when the buildings were first built (pre-energy crisis).

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I hadn't noticed this before. You're correct on the lights on issue. I'm correct on the absence of tenants, requiring the NY state government to take many floors of both towers until private tenants finally came in.

Semaphore Sam wrote:On 22 August 04 I tried to follow this line thru Kearny; I got access (from a friendly security guard at a factory/warehouse entrance) close to the Hack bridge area...all that's left are pylons of the bridge sticking up thru the water. The line East/West thru Kearny is still used, access being from an old CNJ line coming from the North, and can be followed in places, until fencing is hit. Most interesting is the bridge across the Passaic River...it can be accessed, as a security gate is open, and there are no signs preventing snooping. I drove out to the water's edge by the bridge...it still goes about 1/3 the way across the water, and is elevated about 10-15 feet above Kearney elevation, with no trestle works remaining from the River's edge into Kearny. Bridge structure can also be seen on the other side of the river, with a wide gap between both river edges. It looks like tracks still exist on the Kearny side of the bridge; I was too lazy to climb up to bridge level, but it could be done. Definite bad smells were evident here. 5 days later I accessed the area on the Newark side (Doremus Avenue). I saw the bridge structure from the road (Doremus Avenue), but, as it was a week-day, and the chemical stink was overwhelming (I got sick), I had to bail out. I have never been so overpowered by air pollution as at that spot; right next to a prison.(Poor people, both guards and prisoners!) Is this still legal in 2004?

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The factories in south kearny were huge employers into the 1950s. Western Electric made telephones, those huge, heavy bakelite jobs and switch / frame relays. Federal Ship built destroyers and cruisers (and later dismantled them), Allied Chem made all kinds of chemicals.

Public Service ran a trolley line through south kearny, I don't recall the number.

Semaphore Sam wrote:5 days later I accessed the area on the Newark side (Doremus Avenue). I saw the bridge structure from the road (Doremus Avenue), but, as it was a week-day, and the chemical stink was overwhelming (I got sick), I had to bail out. I have never been so overpowered by air pollution as at that spot; right next to a prison.(Poor people, both guards and prisoners!) Is this still legal in 2004?

Actually that Prison is brand new (I think it opened in 2003) - it was built on the former site of another chemical processer (not sure how much remediation they did - there's enough empty land in the area to build a prison without picking a former chemical plant site, so not sure why they picked that site).

After the Hack bridge was hit in the '40's (1948?), I assume Kearny was still accessed over the Passic River bridge from Newark. When was the last train over this bridge? Was it shut down due to loss of traffic from Kearny factories? Kearny looks quite desolate now, but in past years it seems it was pretty busy. Was the line on the Kearny side elevated most of the way thru the isthmus?