Poll Time--Who are you?

This is easy....NY&LB (aka NJCL), follower by CNJ Southern Division (aka Southern Secondary) follower by PRR main line (aka AMTRAK NEC) and finally the NYC West Shore (aka CSX river line) .

This was a good idea since postings seem to have dropped off.

I'd also like to know why Transit doesn't like Mike.

The old Erie & DL&W systems are my favorites along with the NYS&W & the CSX River Line because I miss the huge frieghts that don't run on the Bergen Line anymore. The River Line is the closest place to see them for me.

SteelWheels21 wrote: ... I'm also a big fan of Mike DiMunno's website, though I'm curious about why NJT doesn't like him.

Stay safe,
SteelWheels

Must be his personality!

Seriously, Mike was seriously hassled by NJT police several times relatively recently for photographing NJT trains. The NJT police were under the mistaken impression that he shouldn't have been photographing their trains. An educational program has been undertaken by railfan photographers, with assistance from the NJ ACLU, and NJT management has been informing their police that the Bill of Rights still applies. Mike was in the forefront of being the recipient of rogue police misbehavior, and has handled the whole situation very well.

Bob

I'm a both. My favorite line is Amtrak NEC. Nothing like 4 track territory with high speed (well almost) passenger trains.

I've spent a lot of time on the Mainline, Bergen, Boonton and the M&E's from West End west yet I've never riden a Hoboken train.

My favorite railroad was the CNJ. I pretty much find intrest in any trackage located in the Garden State. As soon as I might see some trackage along a road or highway, I try to locate and figure out what rail line or spur runs or ran on it. Rusty rails usually mean ran! It's even harder to find former rail lines after they have been removed and made into trails.

sullivan1985 wrote:The old Erie & DL&W systems are my favorites along with the NYS&W & the CSX River Line because I miss the huge frieghts that don't run on the Bergen Line anymore. The River Line is the closest place to see them for me.

Living here in Sussex County, I can say the same. Well, almost. I was too young to see the DL&W, L&HR and L&NE since those fallen flags went out in the very early 60s but I still get to see the NYS&W.

Ken

Trainbuff109 wrote:My favorite railroad was the CNJ. I pretty much find intrest in any trackage located in the Garden State. As soon as I might see some trackage along a road or highway, I try to locate and figure out what rail line or spur runs or ran on it. Rusty rails usually mean ran! It's even harder to find former rail lines after they have been removed and made into trails.

You can purchase A Delorme Topo Map which depicts rail tracks throughout the Garden State. I find it very useful if you're looking to see where it goes.

In addition to the Delorme map, I recently purchased a railroad Atlas (NE region) that provides the name of the rail company on the existing AND abandoned lines.

Ken

My vote was for North Jersey.

I grew up along the Boonton Line in Bloomfield and when I was a little kid my grandfather would always take me to Upper Montclair to watch the trains (I'll never forget the 4:00 train, the first one out of Hoboken in the afternoon). Kingsland on the Main Line was another hot spot, as we would go to the bakery next door and then wait for the train. Because of that, those two are my favorites.

But now I live in central New Jersey near the Amboy Secondary and the Northeast Corridor, so those two are favorites as well.

I voted South Jersey because that's where I played on the tracks as a kid, and I've lived in South Jersey most of my life.

I played on the PRR track in Westmont, from the Maple Avenue Bridge

http://community.webshots.com/photo/111 ... 5817gTanmo

to the trestle over Cooper River.

http://community.webshots.com/photo/870 ... 4172lbBjuM

Even though it was PRR, all the trains were PRSL, so I'm a PRSL fan.

We moved to Collingswood when I was 9, and I often walked (and sometimes played) on the PRSL track there. It's PATCO now.

transit383 wrote:My vote was for North Jersey.

I grew up along the Boonton Line in Bloomfield and when I was a little kid my grandfather would always take me to Upper Montclair to watch the trains (I'll never forget the 4:00 train, the first one out of Hoboken in the afternoon). Kingsland on the Main Line was another hot spot, as we would go to the bakery next door and then wait for the train. Because of that, those two are my favorites.

But now I live in central New Jersey near the Amboy Secondary and the Northeast Corridor, so those two are favorites as well.

I also grew up in Bloomfield and remember seeing the Erie Lackawanna at Ampere Parkway (Station now gone) and near the station near Westinghouse.

I can also remember seeing the freight trains cross Bloomfiled Avenue (Orange Branch) make stops at Hartz Mountain. I did see them also near Charms and the GM parts area but I don't know if they were customers or not.

Ken

NJ Vike wrote:

transit383 wrote:My vote was for North Jersey.

I grew up along the Boonton Line in Bloomfield and when I was a little kid my grandfather would always take me to Upper Montclair to watch the trains (I'll never forget the 4:00 train, the first one out of Hoboken in the afternoon). Kingsland on the Main Line was another hot spot, as we would go to the bakery next door and then wait for the train. Because of that, those two are my favorites.

But now I live in central New Jersey near the Amboy Secondary and the Northeast Corridor, so those two are favorites as well.

I also grew up in Bloomfield and remember seeing the Erie Lackawanna at Ampere Parkway (Station now gone) and near the station near Westinghouse.

I can also remember seeing the freight trains cross Bloomfiled Avenue (Orange Branch) make stops at Hartz Mountain. I did see them also near Charms and the GM parts area but I don't know if they were customers or not.

Ken

Ken,

Hartz Mountain as far as I know is still a freight customer.....I believe NS serves them once a week during the middle of the night.....

Steve

I was born in Union, NJ and spent the first six years of my life observing the CNJ, LV, PC, and RV. Moved to Middletown, NJ in 1977, spent time observing the North Jersey Coast, the USN line to Earle, and the old CNJ southern out of Red Bank. I now live in Lakewood, about a mile from the other end of the Southern Division.

I work full-time as a signal maintainer for the NYS&W, and volunteer as a trainman for the Pine Creek Railroad on weekends.
Favorite Railroads:
1) NYS&W (current employer, so it has to go first)
2) CNJ
3) New York and Long Branch
4) Delaware, Lackawanna and Western.

Geoff

njt4172 wrote:

NJ Vike wrote:

transit383 wrote:My vote was for North Jersey.

I grew up along the Boonton Line in Bloomfield and when I was a little kid my grandfather would always take me to Upper Montclair to watch the trains (I'll never forget the 4:00 train, the first one out of Hoboken in the afternoon). Kingsland on the Main Line was another hot spot, as we would go to the bakery next door and then wait for the train. Because of that, those two are my favorites.

But now I live in central New Jersey near the Amboy Secondary and the Northeast Corridor, so those two are favorites as well.

I also grew up in Bloomfield and remember seeing the Erie Lackawanna at Ampere Parkway (Station now gone) and near the station near Westinghouse.

I can also remember seeing the freight trains cross Bloomfiled Avenue (Orange Branch) make stops at Hartz Mountain. I did see them also near Charms and the GM parts area but I don't know if they were customers or not.

Ken

Ken,

Hartz Mountain as far as I know is still a freight customer.....I believe NS serves them once a week during the middle of the night.....

Steve

Steve,

You're correct. I don't know why I failed rto mention this. Yes, it comes across in the late night or early morning before NJ transit starts the Newark City Subway, I believe.

I can remember looking in the Steele's Harley Davidson-Yamaha store when I was a kid and feeling the movement of the train in the store.

Ken

My favorite is, well, the CNJ's Barnegat Branch. My interests are the CNJ routes through Monmouth and Ocean Counties, the PRR routes through the same counties, the old Camden and Amboy, NJT, and the proposed MOM line to Lakehurst.

Spent a lot of time watching the CNJ run through Waretown. The SA31 when it runs on the Toms River Industrial track is the sole survivor. Also watched the CNJ and PRR on the NY&LB at Belmar and Sea Girt when I was a kid. Same for CNJ and PRR in Farmingdale.

Spend a lot of time recently at NJT's Trenton Station going to and from DC, the New Brunswick Station making connections to Trenton, and at EWR.

Grew up along the Gladstone Branch. So my first thoughts and nostalgic memories are in Northern NJ -- DL&W, Rahway Valley, CNJ, L&HR, L&NE, and Greenwood Lake Division.