rscott417 wrote:Thanks for the help guys, so the run down so far is..
A)
B) Pascack Stone
C) Station
D) Freight House
E) Team Track
F)
G) Reuten Window
H) JJ Demarest
J)
K) Hercules Powder
L) Weyerhaeuser
M) Stevens Millwork
I also just got a very detailed map of the whole branch that I'm going to post, I just need to see what quality level I can get it at.
Pascack Valley Stone never had it's own siding. In the 70's it was a small operation that if any, got cars via the team track. In the mid 80's they moved across the tracks to the present locations, they then lease then south end of the siding (or runaround) and put in a pit. They got into the Salt business. They would get hopper cars of rock salt and bag it for home use. The first year they did great, but then we had two mild winters and they got out of the business.
Just north of Demarest Ave (southern most crossing) there was a small chemical company that moved in the late 60's. ( the property is still vacant due to Hazmat issues). The actual siding was only removed 2 months ago to clean up the property.
In the mid 70's Freight House was leased out to A.B. Massa, a small paper company in Northvale. They would get box cars of rolled container board, then truck them to Northvale. Around 1980, Massa moved to a new building in Northvale and got there own siding. This is the siding just north of Cove siding. They got cars until early 90's. They have since moved out of the area.
Reuten Windows got about 6 or 7 cars a month, the wood work to make the windows. They went out of business about 1979. The family then went into the property business and still own and lease out the buildings.
John J. Demarest is about the oldest business in Closter. They are on a Erie track map from 1930. They had two sidings back in the day. A dry track, to unload lumber and other items and coal track which was like a trestle. The whole yard burned in a fire in about 1960 (this was the biggest fire in Closter until the Weyerhauser fire in 2007). When they rebuilt, the coal siding was removed, as by that time coal was no longer a business in this area. They still got lumber loads until selling the business to Dykes lumber in about 2010. By this time, the lumber yard was only customer north of Englewood. CSX put a surcharge on any cars coming north of Englewood, so it was UN-economical for Dykes to continue to receive cars, as they had other locations with RR sidings.
Weyerhaeuser was the big customer in Closter. They operated the plant from being built in 1954 to the fire in 2007. It was vacant land at the time. The plant was built with 4 loading docks. Two back ones that open to the warehouse and two that were off the operations floor. In the early 70's, business was good and they knocked a hole in the wall and made a fifth dock off the operations floor. The fire was in the warehouse section of the building, which had to be torn down. That is loading dock area in the google maps at the time. The company that is now occupying the building, rebuilt the warehouse section in 2011.
I do not know to much about Hercules Powder they left before my time on earth. I would say some time in the 50's. Steven's Millwork was small in the 70's and 80's and got about 10 cars a year at best.
In Northvale, there was also a siding north of the A. B. Massa siding. The switch was right on the state line. This was Johnson Wax. It was there NYC distribution building. It was built around 1970. They would receive box cars of consumer products to be transferred to trucks. They left in the late 80's and the siding was removed during the 1990 abandonment and removal of the New York state trackage.