Question about DL&W Frieght...

When frieght that came into NJ over the cut-off or through Phillipsburg, which line did the DL&W run it down? Did they run their trains down the Boonton Line thorugh Lyndhurst or did they run them down the DL&W Main (NJT M&E)...

Just curious, because I'm trying to picture which line they had used. I'm leaning more towards the DL&W Boonton Line, but I could be wrong...

sully -

All the heavy stuff came east down thru Dover and took the Boonton Line at Denville....thru Boonton....down thru Wayne, Totowa....around Garrett Mountain thru Paterson and down thru Lyndhurst to the meadows.

That was pre I-80.

Post I-80, same route east till just west of Mountain View where a new loop connection/main was built to run east over the ex-Erie Greenwood Lake branch down thru Little Falls, Great Notch....thru Montclair, North Newark and down into the meadows.

The Boonton Line was designed and built as a low grade line for eastward movements. Other than a small bump in Montville, and a hint of a rise in Little Falls, the entire line was on a downgrade. That was very helpful when you had doubleheaded 2-8-2 units pulling 50 coal loads in 1919.

In Clifton, the line was six tracks wide, with the outer two for local switching, the next two for passenger trains, and the center two for freight and express trains.

I think somebody noted on the old board that there's less than two miles of upgrade, in total, from Stroudsburg to Hoboken via the Cut-Off and Boonton Line. Half of that is the approach to the Delaware River bridge.

Thanks much both of you. I knew that after the merger, the Greenwood Lake division was modified into a friehght line (once saw some nice pictures of a bunch of EL SD-45's running though the middle of the Kearny Cut), and how I-80 changed a lot of things, but the pre I-80 days are what was confusing.

So I'm guessing that all friehgt ran out to the DL&W Yard in Secaucus? I might be asking obvious questions, but still curious. I Plan on doing a web site on a lot of abandoned and historic stuff on Bergen County area rails and want to have the correct stuff..

Thanks again.

I believe all through freights went to Secaucus vea Boonton. In the 70's and early 80's I lived a few blocks from Mt. Tabor Station. I never saw anything more than local freights then either, Ever.

BTW. The entire cut off is up grade eastbound. I thinks it's .5 mostly.

Yes, freight DL freight traffic moved east of Denville via the Boonton line to Secaucus yard for switching and lcl transfer before some moved to interchange or on to Hoboken. Only local (switching or drill) freight service on the Morristown side: a) east from Port Morris to Summitt including interchange with Morristown and Erie at Morristown and Rahway Valley at Summit plus sometimes (varied by year, trainmaster, superintendent, etc) out the Gladstone Line; accomplished with Dover Drill days and Summit Drill nights; service from Harrison or Secaucus west including Newark, Oranges, South Orange, and Summit with RV interchange. Most freight travled the Cut Off from Stroudsburgh to Port Morris after it was built but even through the 60s there was one round trip via the Old Road. Phillipsburg was serviced with a night turn out of Port Morris for PRR, CNJ, and LV intercahnge as well as local work. There was also New England bound freight from the west to Port Morris to be interchanged with the LHR for Maybrook connections. Incidently, local work east of Denville was accomplished by up to two daily Boonton drills and sometimes a Paterson drill all from Port Morris; Paterson and east was worked west from Secaucus. Rosters, bullitens, and employee timetables all indicate that depending on the Superintendent, the trainmasters, and other factors, any one or combination of the above was true from time to time. Also out of Port Morris was a Sussex Drill to Branchville sometimes daily, sometimes the 7th day of the Dover Drill crew!

After Erie and Lackawanna merged, the Boonton Line via Lyndhurst worked fine for distributing incoming trains between Croxton (Erie side) and West Secaucus (DL&W side). Once the lines were reorganized, and the freight started rolling from Boonton to Great Notch to the yards, a "new loop" was installed to allow a train coming off the Greenwood Lake / Boonton Line to enter Croxton directly from the southwest.

I am a slightly familiar w/ex-ERIE Croxton Yard. But where was the ex- DL&W yard ? Was it in Secaucus and if so was it connected, adjacent, or associated w/Croxton yard ? Does anything remain of the ex-DL&W yard (area) ?

Since the post-1963 track re-alignments could freight going up/down the ex-ERIE So. Tier use the new Main Line too (i.e. ex-DL&W iron from Clifton to Secaucus) to enter/exit Croxton ?

Someone mentioned 6 tracks wide in Clifton. I would have liked to see that back in the day. Clifton must have been a decent RR town pre-1960.

Clifton suffers from an inferiority complex. Heck, even the cliffs for which it was named have been leveled.

BlockLine_4111 wrote:I am a slightly familiar w/ex-ERIE Croxton Yard. But where was the ex- DL&W yard ? Was it in Secaucus and if so was it connected, adjacent, or associated w/Croxton yard ? Does anything remain of the ex-DL&W yard (area) ?

Since the post-1963 track re-alignments could freight going up/down the ex-ERIE So. Tier use the new Main Line too (i.e. ex-DL&W iron from Clifton to Secaucus) to enter/exit Croxton ?

If you do a mapquest for new county road in Secaucus, you'll see three rail lines cpassing under the NJ Turnpike

The leftmost line is the old Boonton Line/NY&GL coming in past the Public Service plant.

The center rail line is the NJT Main Line / original Boonton Line from Lyndhurst. That line went thru west secaucus yard and up to west end with the M&E division. SEC Transfer is between this line and the Erie line

The right line is the Erie coming down from Rutherford, past HX and Harmon Cove and into Croxton.

I haven't been to the DL&W yard since they had their old Trainmasters on the rip track, but the area is now expansion for the Harmon Cove outlets. I don't think there's any rail presence at all. Plenty of very hot women looking for $10 Prada bags, D&G tops, etc, though

At one time was it possible to make a direct move from ERIE's Croxton Yard onto the DL&W iron for a move up to Lyndhurst and beyond (and vice versa) ?