Morristown & Erie 110th Anniversary Excursion

[nick11a]

Nice photos guys.....
Nick, I saw you trackside with someone who had a Red Sox hat??????

Kudos goes out to the M&E, NS and staff and the volunteers for creating a very enjoyable trip!! I didn't hear any complaints.

Steve

May well be. I was traveling solo, but met [new] people along the way.

[therudycometh]

The trip, which had over 700 people aboard, was a resounding success and a fantastic celebration of the M&E's history. Thanks to all that participated and made it a very special day for both passengers and crew alike!

For those of you that were trackside, please feel free to enter the M&E photo contest to win a cab ride in an M&E locomotive! Contest details are available here: http://anniversary.merail.com/photo-contest.

[CGRLCDR]

One of the volunteers on the train told me that it was stored in the Bergen Arches overnight before the run. I didn't know that there were tracks still in there. The volunteer went on to say that NJT frequently stores cars in there. Can anyone confirm this information?

[umtrr-author]

Not sure how long it will be available, but here's a link to the Allentown Morning Call pre-coverage of the excursion. My brother showed me the hard copy version yesterday.

http://www.mcall.com/features/family/mc ... 9876.story" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair use quote (including someone here we know!):

When Rudy Garbely was a boy, his dad took him to train crossings so they could photograph passing trains.

"The first photograph I ever took of a train was in Allentown when I was 3," the former Bethlehem resident recalls. "It was of a Conrail locomotive."

Like his father, Garbely became a lover of trains. On Aug. 24, he will be one of 650 people riding the Lehigh Limited, a passenger train that will make a historic trip through the Lehigh Valley on tracks normally reserved for freight.

One of my friends caught the train at Potter, westbound on the LV. He said it looked like you were at full track speed.

[R36 Combine Coach]

One of the volunteers on the train told me that it was stored in the Bergen Arches overnight before the run. I didn't know that there were tracks still in there. The volunteer went on to say that NJT frequently stores cars in there. Can anyone confirm this information?

Doubtful. It is an active Conrail line and only single track.

[therudycometh]

One of the volunteers on the train told me that it was stored in the Bergen Arches overnight before the run. I didn't know that there were tracks still in there. The volunteer went on to say that NJT frequently stores cars in there. Can anyone confirm this information?

The equipment was assembled in the Morristown MU yard on Friday, then brought to Hoboken Friday evening. We were shoved into track 17 around 1:00 AM on Saturday.

[BigDell]

One of my friends caught the train at Potter, westbound on the LV. He said it looked like you were at full track speed.

My Turf! Anyone have pics to post from there? Had wanted to catch it from Oak Ridge park (former golf course) at a nice stretch where the trains pass, but duty called and I was in NYC all Saturday. Hoping to see some good pics from that area. All I could think was "My gosh, they have PERFECT weather for this trip!". Glad to hear it all went well and everyone had a great time. Hope this means more trips in the future!

[TSTOM]

CGRLCDR wrote:One of the volunteers on the train told me that it was stored in the Bergen Arches overnight before the run. I didn't know that there were tracks still in there. The volunteer went on to say that NJT frequently stores cars in there. Can anyone confirm this information?

Doubtful. It is an active Conrail line and only single track.

Entire train was assembled Friday morning and then moved ( in sections ) to the Scale track / old Lackawanna MU coach yard in Morristown where it was arranged further. NJT moved it out of this location Friday night ( 11:15pm ) and headed East. Entire train was at the ready on Track 17 by 2:00am Saturday morning.

[baldwr]

One of my friends caught the train at Potter, westbound on the LV. He said it looked like you were at full track speed.

I tracked the speed with an app on my iPhone... Not perfect, but it showed us running at about 50-55 mph at least up to Clinton. There were two exceptions - We were held at Aldene and also at Port Reading Junction. Unfortunately, my battery died, so I did not get the speed on the Morristown Line. We were flying right up the line though. Haven't covered the tracks between Chatham and Hoboken in that amount of time in a long while. In some other post on a different forum, I referred to as an inverse Tom Taber.

Great ride, great food, great day. Thanks to all.

[TSTOM]

baldwr -

We were held at Aldene and also at Port Reading Junction

.

We had a crew change stop ( NJT to NS ) at Roselle Park....not Aldene.

Unfortunately, my battery died, so I did not get the speed on the Morristown Line. We were flying right up the line though. Haven't covered the tracks between Chatham and Hoboken in that amount of time in a long while. In some other post on a different forum, I referred to as an inverse Tom Taber.

Train was cleared for 65mph on NJT turf. Sure felt like we hit that from Morristown thru to just West of Chatham. We were trailing Eastbound in Babbling Brook and leaving quite a dust trail thru those parts !

[baldwr]

That makes sense... I was in the back of the train when we stopped. Knew we were shy of Rosell Park, but not by how much. At the time some rail fan posted on the Lehigh Line Yahoo group that we were clear Rosell Park. I replied at the time - not my half of the train. That was all I knew.

[alewifebp]

Here are some pictures I took.
http://sdrv.ms/1doM1wJ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[wolfboy8171981]

baldwr -

We were held at Aldene and also at Port Reading Junction

.

We had a crew change stop ( NJT to NS ) at Roselle Park....not Aldene.

Unfortunately, my battery died, so I did not get the speed on the Morristown Line. We were flying right up the line though. Haven't covered the tracks between Chatham and Hoboken in that amount of time in a long while. In some other post on a different forum, I referred to as an inverse Tom Taber.

Train was cleared for 65mph on NJT turf. Sure felt like we hit that from Morristown thru to just West of Chatham. We were trailing Eastbound in Babbling Brook and leaving quite a dust trail thru those parts !

Slight correction. The train had a Maximum Allowable Speed (MAS) of 65MPH. The track speed from CP-Aldene to CP-Bethlehem is 50MPH for freight, and since there is no speed for passenger trains, they too must not exceed 50MPH. On Conrail between CP-Newark and CP-Aldene Freight speed is 40 MPH and Passenger Speed is 60 MPH the train could have reached 60MPH if the crew change was at Newark Penn.

[OCtrainguy]

I've been busy trying to upload and edit the captions, but nonetheless, here are some photos from Manville, NJ on Saturday.

http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=3604121" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=3604122" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=3604123" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And some of the coaches for anyone interested:
Morristown & Erie car "Birken": http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=3604127" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Former PRR car "Braddock Inn": http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=3604128" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Morristown & Erie car "Morris County" and Virginia Rail Investment "Kitchi Gammi Club: http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=3604129" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
M&E drumhead on the end of "Kitchi Gammi Club": http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=3604119" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks to the railroads and people involved for making this excursion possible.

[Off Pending]

Slight correction. The train had a Maximum Allowable Speed (MAS) of 65MPH. The track speed from CP-Aldene to CP-Bethlehem is 50MPH for freight, and since there is no speed for passenger trains, they too must not exceed 50MPH. On Conrail between CP-Newark and CP-Aldene Freight speed is 40 MPH and Passenger Speed is 60 MPH the train could have reached 60MPH if the crew change was at Newark Penn.

Could is the key word. Had more than one locomotive been online leaving Hoboken, we would have made some pretty good time. But, a tripped power cutoff switch on M&E 18, and a balky MU connection between it and the NJT P40 left only the NS GP40-2 as power from Hoboken to Roselle. Even so, the NJT RFE had us up in the mid-40 MPH range on one locomotive between CP Newark and Roselle. The situation with the power was rectified while stopped at Roselle, which allowed us to go track speed the rest of the way to Bethlehem ... excepting, of course, the fact that we were catching up to the advance track patrol on NS, and had to slow down to give them time to release their track authorities. The extra time we encountered because of them was actually a good thing. Had we made track speed the whole way, we would have arrived at the old TV ramp an hour ahead of schedule, with the caterers still setting up lunch.

Incidentally, the NS crew was on the head end right from Hoboken, and we only booted the NJT train crew off at Roselle.