Totowa railroad tracks.....

The track that crosses Rte. 46 is privately owned by the Passaic Valley Water Commision, not NS. PVWC pulled out its two sidings some years ago as they no longer have need for inbound rail shipments and all the other customers who formerly used it have long since gone out of business or relocated. At one time Elcon National Corp., a major supplier to the rail industry, had several sidings but they moved out some years ago. All of the buildings now house small companies that have no use for rail. The crossing will be removed under the current widening project now under way on Rte. 46.

Exempt status is not as easy to obtain as someone else stated. It involves a lenghtly process of meetings with all parties affected including the local board(s) of education. NJDOT must first conduct onsite observations and a judge must ultimately had down a court ruling establishing the EXEMPT status. I was personally involved in the Troy Hills Road case when I served as M&E's Superintendent. One local school board objected and almost caused the status to be denied. Only a serious rearend collision of a school bus stopped at the crossing changed their mind. Roads like Troy Hills Rd. which have no shoulder for these vehicles to pull over on are the ones most often granted Exempt status.

Al Holleuffer

It's too bad the EL never followed through on th decision because otherwise the service on the Boonton Line would take so damn long and Paterson would still have a good rail station. It's not the same as it was before and maybe weekend service would've still been retained and the line would've been easily electrified. EL really screwed this up bad.

Al Holleuffer wrote:The track that crosses Rte. 46 is privately owned by the Passaic Valley Water Commision, not NS. PVWC pulled out its two sidings some years ago as they no longer have need for inbound rail shipments and all the other customers who formerly used it have long since gone out of business or relocated. At one time Elcon National Corp., a major supplier to the rail industry, had several sidings but they moved out some years ago. All of the buildings now house small companies that have no use for rail. The crossing will be removed under the current widening project now under way on Rte. 46.

Exempt status is not as easy to obtain as someone else stated. It involves a lenghtly process of meetings with all parties affected including the local board(s) of education. NJDOT must first conduct onsite observations and a judge must ultimately had down a court ruling establishing the EXEMPT status. I was personally involved in the Troy Hills Road case when I served as M&E's Superintendent. One local school board objected and almost caused the status to be denied. Only a serious rearend collision of a school bus stopped at the crossing changed their mind. Roads like Troy Hills Rd. which have no shoulder for these vehicles to pull over on are the ones most often granted Exempt status.

Al Holleuffer

No problem with that, Al, and I'm sorry the school board objected. Sounds like it was a mess.

But, if the school board hadn't objected, the process would have been over in a few weeks. Report reviewed, affected parties notified, no objections noted, comment period closed, board authorizes, proposal published, proposal becomes effective.

The last trains to serve Passaic Valley Water were right around 1994. I know this to be true for 2 reasons,

1.) I used to ride the DJ-62 at night with engineer Bobby Apgar, and guys like Tony Falzo and Bob Bahrs,

2.) I have had the pleasure of crossing route 46 with these guys at night, and all I can say is "What an experiance"..

I was also told by Bobby A, that once NS took over, "Mysteriously" the signal cabinet at route 46 was "vandalized" and that was the reason why NS officially rid itself of the trackage, claiming it would cost too much to repair the damage.

Now, there was question on the old railroad.net about who actually did the Vandalizm, and there were claims that an NS signal maintainers truck was sighted in the area about a week prior to the abandonment...

If there is truth to this, I am not sure, I don't recall who made mention about it first, but I do remember Bobby discussing with me about how NS handled it, and apparently at one point, someone else was going to operate the trackage, but there was debate over who (NS, or shortline) would be responsible for the route 46 crossing, so it became a moot point.

Even when the Dover Drill was drilling beyond 46, the trackage towards Passaic Valley Water was terrible, and on a few occasions, we would derail, either a car, or a locomotive (usually spread guage).

Later on before the service there stopped, they would leave one of the locomotives on the run-around in Totowa, and only take one of the GP38/40's over 46, for fear that if they did hit the gorund, atleast they could walk back to the other loco, and continue with the rest of the work in Totowa, and perhaps out to Newark (OJ)..

If I recall, cars headed for PVW were tanks that either had Chlorine, or (Deffinately know Flouride).

Last time I walked the area a few years ago, Dragoco owned several buildings that could've recieved rail service, but alot of what they did was food dyes, fragrances, etc, and recieved all by truck..

Its a shame it was all let go, A friend of mine who worked for PVW told me they really wanted rail service because getting the chemicals was cheaper by rail, than by truck, but when NS came along, they started increasing the costs, and then came up with the vandalized crossing excuse to get out of the service..


After the shenanigans with a shortline operator, and lack of co-operation on NS's part, PVW gave up, ripped out the track in their facility, switched to trucks, and of course, the costs increase was passed onto the consumer.

Granted, crossing that route 46 was deffintely a high risk part of the job, But I know I mentioned on the old railroad.net that when the state finally does come along to repair the Union Blvd overpass, monies could be included in the funding for a new crossing, and the placement of crossing flashers on the center barrier 1/4 and 1/8 of a mile before the actual crossing, as well as another set of crossbucks and flashers on the west side of the overpass, facing eastbound traffic, on the eastbound side of 46, and a major part of the motor vehicle problem revolves around poor visibility because of that overpass.

It dosen't matter now, whats done is done, and most likely will not be reversed.

Last train in 1994 sounds right. That's about the last time I can remember seeing one there. In the mid-90s I used to come home from work about 1 a.m. a couple nights a week.

Before the "exempt" signs were posted on that crossing, every bus that passed there had to pull into the right lane and stop. Having a couple hundred buses a day come to a complete stop on a major highway posed a greater danger that the trains did. There were many accidents when drivers plowed into the rear of the stopped bus.

Idiot Railfan wrote:Last train in 1994 sounds right. That's about the last time I can remember seeing one there. In the mid-90s I used to come home from work about 1 a.m. a couple nights a week.

If you guys say 1994, I'll accept that, but it sounds awfully late in the game for me. Was that something like a few cars every week or two? I just can't believe they were switching that line a few times a week back then.

The nightime switch sounds right, too.

No, near the end, I want to say that the frequency was perhaps once every two weeks, if that.

The reason why the DJ-62 did the work was two-fold, 1.) the daylight turn was busy at that time doing work around the dover, denville area, and 2.) It was believed that it was easier to get the train accross the highway in the middle of the night than during the daytime...

I remember also that the flouride tanks were gray, and I am almost sure chlorine was the other chemical, just don't remember what kind of tank they came in...

After this service was stopped, I pondered a bit about delivering these cars, and still think that the best time to do this would be right at the afternoon rush-hour, between 4:30 and 6:30.

Anyone familiar with the area can attest that it is a parkinglot for those two hours, and that it would be alot easier to get automobiles to stop at 5 mph, than at 65 mph.

Does it stink for the commuter, sure does, but in terms of safety for the train crew, I think that the inconvieniance of the commuter is more acceptable, than having the conductor and brakie get turned into road-pizza.

There is alot of things about the Totowa branch I never understood, like why they never completed the "wye" track between Union Blvd Overpass, and Lackawanna Ave, in Totowa..

All they needed was one switch, as all the track was there.. But alas, never came to be.

JDFX wrote: There is alot of things about the Totowa branch I never understood, like why they never completed the "wye" track between Union Blvd Overpass, and Lackawanna Ave, in Totowa..

All they needed was one switch, as all the track was there.. But alas, never came to be.

The wye at Union Blvd and Lackawanna Avenue was fully in place until about 1970, I believe. As of Sheppard's Track Guide in 1974, the main line element of the wye was cut, but both the east and west legs of the wye were in place.

If I had to guess, I'd guess the Bomont switch at end of track was a push in, pull out siding. So, the drill would pull south on the west leg of the wye, clear the switch at Lackawanna Ave, and back up / push north onto the east leg of the wye, continuing onto the main and into Bomont. There was a run around track just west of Union Ave in 1974 to reform the train later

Sidings south of US 46 in 1974 included Clarkwood, Huffman Koos, Ellison, Caravan, and two tracks into the PVWC. One shipper (Federbush) was north of US 46

The runaround was still there up till the past few years, and I would assume it is still in place today..

I know they used to use the what was left of the why as a team track, Fountains of Wayne used to recieve some of their unique statuettes by boxcar...

Who was Bomont and what did they manufacture and receive?

Bomont was a plastics manufacturer controlled by a major NJ poliitico, Bo Sullivan. It received tank cars of resins and chemicals, horrendously smelly operation, which always had the neighbors in an uproar. The plant is now abandoned, I believe. There may be offices in part of the building, though.

If you're on I-80, it's the last building before the cemetery on your right, traveling east. The end of track is right there. If you're on Lackawanna Ave, heading east from Union Ave, cross the track, and turn left before the bethwood, Bomont's at the end of the long driveway

As long as we're in the area here, anyone recall the exact date or month/year that this ex-Lackawanna Boonton Line went OOS from east of Bomont thru to Paterson Junction ?

And the same for when the ex-Erie Greenwood Lake connection/merge to the Boonton Line track went IN SERVICE at Mountain View ?

I've got a load of questions once we get as close as possible to above openers....

I think it all happened in April of 1963 as part of the Main Line reroute project.

The Erie Main was ripped out of Passaic in April of 63 and all traffic was rerouted to Paterson over the DL&W Boonton. So I would guess it was all done around the same time as one large project.

Tri-State Tom wrote:
And the same for when the ex-Erie Greenwood Lake connection/merge to the Boonton Line track went IN SERVICE at Mountain View ?

I've got a load of questions once we get as close as possible to above openers....

I think the plant reworking at Mountain View was done in two stages.

Stage one built the shanty between the existing NYGL northbound track and the reworked SW leg of the wye, which now fed trains off the NYGL to the Boonton Line. There was a continuation of service to Midvale for a while on the NYGL, but not long.

Stage two took out the diamond, and built a new NE leg of the wye so a train could pull up on the NYGL, take headroom, and back down onto the eastern side of the Boonton Line.

Norm and I hiked that area a few years ago. You can see the foundations of the old tower, the gateways for the Morris Canal's feeder canal, lots of interesting stuff.

Lackawanna484 wrote:Norm and I hiked that area a few years ago. You can see the foundations of the old tower, the gateways for the Morris Canal's feeder canal, lots of interesting stuff.

Are these remains still there you think? I'm intresting in exploring it myself...

sullivan1985 wrote:

Lackawanna484 wrote:Norm and I hiked that area a few years ago. You can see the foundations of the old tower, the gateways for the Morris Canal's feeder canal, lots of interesting stuff.

Are these remains still there you think? I'm intresting in exploring it myself...

Yup. They were there 2-3 years ago.

Maybe when things calm down a little I can guide a walk thru the area.