Old Erie Newark Branch

Hey Sullivan, boy was i surprised when I saw my handle in a photo caption at RRpicture Archives.Net during my daily sweep of new photos

Thanks for the pix, they are great. Had I known you were going out there I would have had you take pictures of the old interlocking tower(s) onsite. DB was an active itnerlocking station up until it closed and I would be interesting in the interlocking machine there and if it is still in place.

Did you see any evidence if the interlocking used to be an air plant or not?

Jersey_Mike wrote:Hey Sullivan, boy was i surprised when I saw my handle in a photo caption at RRpicture Archives.Net during my daily sweep of new photos

Thanks for the pix, they are great. Had I known you were going out there I would have had you take pictures of the old interlocking tower(s) onsite. DB was an active itnerlocking station up until it closed and I would be interesting in the interlocking machine there and if it is still in place.

Did you see any evidence if the interlocking used to be an air plant or not?

I have photos of the towers... inside and outside. Ill post them tonight. Very awesome stuff in those buildings. All old vaccum tube electronics and all.

Jersey_Mike wrote:Had I known you were going out there I would have had you take pictures of the old interlocking tower(s) onsite. DB was an active itnerlocking station up until it closed and I would be interesting in the interlocking machine there and if it is still in place.

Did you see any evidence if the interlocking used to be an air plant or not?

Not quite sure what an Air Plant is, but I do have pictures posted of what I got of the towers. Sorry, they arent the best shots. I plan on returning to DB Junction sometime soon though. Pictures are on page 2 of the gallery if you browse with 2 collumns.

Those aren't vacuum tube electronics, they are glass-cased relays. The operation is entirely electro-mechanical. Those tub shaped ones in your picture look like slow-release relays.

If you go back try to get some pics of any interlocking machines that may be left behind there.

Oh, an Air plant is an interlocking with pneumatic switch machines. There appears to be a pipeline on the west side of the bridge which could have been used to feed pneumatic switch machines. If there is further pipeing and air tanks around the tower there is a good chance that at one point the interlocking was equipped with air switches.

Nice Pics!

Really cool photos, I'm glad you had the time and foresight to take them.
I've always wondered when I passed over the line on the turnpike what the purpose of the cross track overhead supports were, as if the line had been intended to be electrified or something, it gives that portion sort of a PRR look, (or more like NYLB with the triple targets)

Boy, those pictures are hard to believe. I remember running trains through there like it was just yesterday. The lower Boonton Line was, and still remains, one of my favorite pieces of railroad to run over. As I was looking at those pictures, so many memories came back to me of all the trips I had made through the infamous DB Junction. Too bad it had to go, but such is progress, and DB and WR both need to be replaced for trains to run again.

Sirsonic wrote:Boy, those pictures are hard to believe. I remember running trains through there like it was just yesterday. The lower Boonton Line was, and still remains, one of my favorite pieces of railroad to run over.

As a passenger, it was also a pleasure. Observing flocks of seabirds rising out of the reeds. Seagrasses blowing in the breeze. Water levels changing with the tides. A fisherman every now and then. In some places the train appeared to be gliding on the water.

Lackawanna484 wrote:

Sirsonic wrote:Boy, those pictures are hard to believe. I remember running trains through there like it was just yesterday. The lower Boonton Line was, and still remains, one of my favorite pieces of railroad to run over.

As a passenger, it was also a pleasure. Observing flocks of seabirds rising out of the reeds. Seagrasses blowing in the breeze. Water levels changing with the tides. A fisherman every now and then. In some places the train appeared to be gliding on the water.

Reading these only makes me whish more that I had taken a train from Kearny to Hoboken to go through this portion of the meads on rails. I guess now I'll just have to save up and buy a speeder, or put road-to-rails wheels on my car like NJT MOW Trucks

Sullivan loved your pix of DB, Unfortunately its doesn't look at all like the place that i was a junior operator in the summer of 71.DB was single tracked but the Booton branch/Greenwood lake line was very busy with 8 passenger trains a day east bound in the morning and westbound in the afternoon. the silver lake would come west in the morning to go past "WR" and get shunted down the orange branch. I do remember sending a freight down the Newark Branch and it would drill cars right past the junction in the meadows. Looking at that board really freaked me out having not seen it in 34? years. I lived in Kearney for a year when I was very little and do remember hearing the Passenger train horns going over the Passaic Draw. Get all the pix you can get its just a matter of time when the tracks will be torn up and the Erie will lose another branch
chris[/b]