NJ Transit Tracks at Croxton Yard?

In a earlier and separate post on NJT tracks that are owned by the transit agency but, not utilized for passenger train operations there is mention of the following section of track: HX Interlocking (Hackensack River)-Croxton Yard: realigned for Secaucus Junction.

I have seen a photo labeled as Croxton, of a passenger train running along side a fence with containers inside the fence. Photo hangs in a North Jersey railroad building and unfortunately has no internet link to share. Putting that photo and the post together it appears passenger trains ran outside the fence at Croxton at some time in the past. So my questions are: Is the line in question what NS calles the Croxton Runner today?

If so passenger train ran along the southside of Croxton Yard passed through the new Yard at Croxton and out onto the bridge. Is that correct?

Was this route CTC and signaled at the time? No signals are intact near Croxton yard currently.

Based on the rail infrastructure I see today, how did passenger trains get on this track from the east? Today the only access is off the Northern Branch via CP Marion and CP Croxton. These are not passenger alignments today but freight tracks that turn south and west. Inquiring minds want to know.

When was this track realigned?

And if this is not the track I am thinking of, please offer any addition info as to where this is talking about.

MODERATOR'S NOTE: Fixed the thread title.

they didn't run through croxton yard, they ran next to it and croxton yard then joined the county line by the old harmon cove station which has been closed down since they opened secaucus junction and rerouted the tracks. And yes it had signals.

The Croxton Runner and the Croxton Industrial are not owned by NJ Transit. The signals on those tracks are controlled by NJ Transit for access to the Bergen County Line. Everything east of those signals is owned and operated by Norfolk Southern.

Before the Bergen County Line was re-routed for the construction of Secaucus, the line ran along the south side of the yard, but was not part of the yard.

OK if the current NS Croxton Runner was not the track, I see no other track a Croxton Yard that would have been possible for a passenger train to use. That would imply the track has been completely removed or the passenger trains used a track that ran through what is now the yard but is so rebuilt as to not be apparent?????

The current Croxton runner runs outside on the south side of the fence of the yard today. It has crossings and truck container and chassis parking area south of the runner, but it is the only logical track that this could have been.

And of course the track would have needed to lead to a passenger terminal closer to the city of NY and none of the tracks today lead anywhere near a line that goes that way. So I am still not sure where this track was?

A large piece of Seaview Drive is located on the former right of way for the "Passenger" tracks. Try google maps for Secaucus Junction, you'll see the road from the original Erie 1950's Boonton line connection west to beyond County Road where the tracks were.

Dave Mackay

Starting to narrow this down a bit: I see where there is a track that leads up to an overpass that appears removed where it jumps over some NS tracks that are known as the wye and the Third track at Croxton. (I had even wondered if the wye and Third track was the track in question but, now it looks as if not.) then this right of way lines up with Seaview Dr. and than leads to a point where a right of way devoid of tracks angles off the alinement of Seaview runs along the south side the New Yard at Croxton (the freight yard west of the intermodal yard and Amtrak) and lines up with the drawbridge. Is that the general alignment?

And where did the passenger trains go to on the east end? Did it join what is today the NJT elecrtifed line? With trains passing through the Bergen Tunnel to Hoboken? Or did it have something to do with what is called the National Docks line that heads off at CP Croxton in the direction of the Jersey waterfront? Keep in mind this may be related to pre NJT operations I am thinking of?

Any help is appreciated.

And one followup question: the Third track at Croxton that forms the wye in the wetlands heads out in a more western or southwestern direction. I also followed that line out a ways and I see where it crosses under the NJTurnpike, crosses water on a fill. There was an obvious junction out on the fill. What line is or was this and what was this junction called?

The east end was "grafted" onto the Lackawanna Boonton line, which connects with the M&E Electric Division at West End. The other end ran to HX as you describe.

Dave Mackay

Se the bridge abutment where the Erie passenger main crossed above the westward NY&GL track?
https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=40.7489 ... 5&t=k&z=19" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the link to the photo of the bridge abutment. Once across this bridge where did those tracks go on the east end? I see no old right of way to climb up and join the NJT electric line into Hoboken. The right of way coming off the abandoned bridge curves down and turns 90 degrees and crosses under the NJT electric line at West End tower. If you follow this today it joins the Conrail Shared Assets line passes through CP Marion and turns back west to Hack, Karney and Valley. This routing of today took you no where near NYC. So what I am trying to understand is how a commuter got from your abandoned bridge to somewhere useful, like Hoboken or other terminals from this bridge abutment?

(There is an obvious old connector track ROW on the opposite side of the multi-track electrified line from the abandoned bridge abutments you reference that would have when the track was intact allowed a train to come in off the line across the fill to the west, the abandoned line under the turnpike out to the mid-fill junction and head into Hoboken. I think that is the old Boonton line but I am still not 100 percent on this.)

The bridge abutment in the aerial is SE of the connection from the Erie main to the DL&W Boonton line that got Erie trains into Hoboken after 1956.

Like you said, the Erie passenger main went southeast from that abutment, under the DL&W main (beneath the thru-trusses just west of the DL&W tunnels), then thru the Bergen Arches parallel to the old Erie tunnel that's still in use. And on to Jersey City.

Have you looked at historicaerials.com?

Here's a piece of a 1942 Port Authority map that may be of help. So much of the area you are trying to trace has been changed (several times in some instances) it's untraceable.

Mackdave

I have been told that the line that heads under the DLW and through today's CP Marion at one time turned east at the TOPPs building (baseball card manufacture, and still labeled as the Topps today. Tracks would have gone through what is currently the Topps parking lot and that would have brought the alinement parallel to the Path and what is called the Waldo tracks today. (or perhaps it joined the Waldo, but I thought the Waldo might have been PRR.) Is that the routing you described in your last post?

This fill
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.72957 ... 5&t=k&z=17" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
carried Erie passenger trains to Erie's Jersey City terminal. To get there, eastward Erie passenger trains ran thru the Bergen Arches, the trench here
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.7356, ... 3&t=k&z=17" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
after running beneath these two DL&W truss bridges
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Jersey+C ... ersey&z=20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other connection you're asking about (by Topps) was NYS&W to PRR-- dunno what other purposes it might have served. Once upon a time NYS&W passenger trains ran to PRR's Jersey City terminal. The present reversed-direction connection dates from... 1994?

Got it, sot my theory the line was today's National Docks line was correct.

One problem to getting a grasp on this is you can buy a book on each railraod that may or may not address everything, but what I need is a map of everything today with what it was originally.