What is Left Of E'port ?

Working on a video project on the CNJ. Want to shoot both active and abandoned portions. I plan on visiting the Jersey City/ Elizabeth area.I want to shoot the location of the E'port crossings and station.Is anything left there? Any trains go south on the old E'port-Perrth Amboy line? Most important question: IS IT SAFE to go there ?

I would recommend checking the detailed satellite images on maps.google.com to see what is left. The shops area is now a mall. The yard areas have been transformed into a heavily-used intermodal terminal and a primary transloading facility. Plenty of trains. Definitely not "safe" on the Elizabeth side but you can drive through the mall area to see the intermodal yard.

I never tried to access the old station at the junction.

Good luck

The Chemical Coast line (CNJ Perth Amboy Branch) is a very busy freight line, you should not have a long wait for a train.

The impressive high level platform station complex is long gone, but some of the side low level platforms where you would catch the Newark
shuttles, or transfer to a Bay Head bound train are still there.

It's an area to be mindful of your surroundings, but not as bad as it used to be.


Ken

CNJ Fan Forever - good luck with that project! I'd LOVE to see it when it's done. That was Mecca for me growing up and I'd still go back to pay homage until they tore down the remains... I hope you can make it happen.
It's actually no where near as dangerous as it was "back in the day". There isn't much left to see of the old days (the overhead satellite photos are actually quite enlightening, you can see where the remnants of the ROW were and the overpasses on Trumball St. Lots of activity on the Chemical Coast, as was mentioned earlier, and it's fun. If you head down there, let us know how it goes and update us on your project, I'm really interested. Best of luck!

Thanks guys. I was past that area last summer. Saw a lot of ethanol cars in that yard. I'll have to check out the mall area.Do you access it from 1&9? Did not know that was there. Anyone with badges going to chase me out along CC? I heard security was pretty tight around that line due to all the tank traffic.

Scouted out the area this morning. Could not find a SAFE place to park so I just observed some things. CSX local was pulling a couple of lumber cars but I could not get the camera out in time. Came in on Dowd Ave. Tried to figure out where shops were. Also noticed where only one bridge remains over 1&9 (Spring St.).Drove all the way down Trumbull St. to where the Singer factory building is. Wow!! That place is huge.Takes up a couple of blocks.

I returned to E'port at sunrise on Wednesday. Walked in where the station parking lot was. There is some kind of conveyor machine set up near where the east-west lines were.Weeds were kind of thick to really explore right now. I plan on returning in late fall, when vegetation dies off. Looking at aeriel/satellite photos now, it appears that they cut the line down and there is a street running through now. Saw tank cars on a siding near where big shop building was.

CNJ Fan, definitely better to go back after the cold weather comes in. No vegetation to deal with and it's a bit "quieter" (safer). You'll see more. Wish I had taken movies of E'Port when I was a teen in the 70's. I can still "see" everything there. And the yards out back where they'd store old engines were amazing… Lots of old G's and E units sitting about. No one cared if you wandered the property (I always asked) as long as you didn't vandalize anything and you stayed off the tracks. I used to park my old black camaro just behind the shops and watch them work, then take lots of photos. Let us know how that project comes along….

I have a friend who won't even go back because he doesn't want to scar his memory of what it once was. I told him, he'll have to look away when I show the video.I remember how p*ssed I was when they knocked down the huge shop building. That was a landmark.

I was looking at the 1979 arials. Everything was still there including the pax platform station. Everything was so dirty and grimy in the 1970s. All the track infrastructure is still in place today except the E'port shop area.

I would not say the track infrastructure is in place. It has almost entirely been reconfigured into terminal areas. The shop areas are now a shopping mall.
But on a positive note, the terminals are important ones for NS and CSX, and the "chemical coast" is a very busy line now.

I was down there on Sunday morning (took everyone by Jerry's for the world's best Sausage Sandwich) and cruised the Eport area a bit. As bad as it is that the old E'port station and EVERYTHING ELSE is gone, it was still kind of neat seeing the overpasses over Trumbull St. right by Brophy Field. Right by Dowd Ave. The twin stairway is still there. If you feel sporting, you could park near Brophy field and try heading up that stairway (I don't think it's locked but didn't stop to check) and take a look at that curved overpass. That was one of the "cool features" back in the old days. I'm not sure if that's railroad property or city property, though, so it'd be prudent to check and be safe. But still - it's there. A remnant.