Summit siding

Tom,

I have a movie in my collection called "First Born" and part of that movie was filmed in the old Morristown coach yard in late 1983 or early 1984. The Mu's were clearly shown laying over in the yard. The EL engineer who was featured in the movie would know for sure on your question....

I wish I had a timetable from 1983/84 so I can see if there were many 500 series trains....

Steve

Another guess from me Steve....

Were those MU's paired sets ( power and trailor combinations ) ?

They might have have been 'stored' ( as opposed to in-service 'layovers' ) OOS in the Morristown yard at that time.

Also, I recall the M&E using 5-6 old MU's ( trailors only ) for a couple excursions in 83-84....might have been those OOS ones you saw around the filming of that flick.

Tom,

You should come over one day if you ever get the time and I'll show you that part of the movie!

The Mu cars were clearly paired sets..Some were even the orange/red cream combination and you can clearly see the steam coming off either the switches or the steam heat from the cars...Did they still use steam heat up until the end???

Steve

Regarding the Summit interchange with the Rahway Valley:

The tracks used for this are among those still intact in the 'lower' yard. The RVRR came in over the now missing bridge onto the track next to the wall. Interchange was held on the next track over givng RVRR essentially a run around track arrangement to come in pull forward and drop cars into the west end. They could then pull out, drop back and grab inbounds from the west end of the second track and depart down the hill again. The switch and track to the bridge were intact well into the 1990's.

The ex-EL interchange at Summit and the ex-CNJ interchange at Cranford were both embargoed by RVRR President & General Manager Bernie Cahil shortly after the creation of Conrail in 1976 in favor of the ex-LV interchange in Roselle Park. He saw no point in going to 3 places to connect with the same railroad and needing to maintain the line to Summit (which had no online business past Springfield) or the CNJ leg past Crossfields(?) who got an occassional tank car (that and sometimes car storage being the only use of that part of the railroad by the early 1980's till DO took over and starting going down that side to access the SIRT.). Post embargo Conrail delivered a couple of Monsanto hoppers to Summit - Mr. Cahill refused to accept interchange and Conrail was eventually made to bring them around to the ex-LV interchange.

Other than per-diem boxcar storage in the mid-80's the last past Springfield use of the RVRR main was for passenger specials to the US Open at Baltusrol in the summer of 1980 or 81. Those trains were sponsored by United Counties Trust Company and an on-line customer whose name escapes me using the RVRR engines, and RVRR boxcar with a generator and three passenger cars (including the dome car and business car) from Delaware Otsego.