Exploring the Waterfront Rail Terminals of New Jersey

Another volume from Arcadia's Images of Rail series, author Kenneth French outlines each major railroad one by one and reviews the history and development of the passenger and freight terminals in his book Railroads of Hoboken & Jersey City. Included are the Jersey Central, the Pennsylvania Railroad, the Erie, the Lackawanna, and the Hudson & Manhattan (now PATH). The B&O and the Reading get honorable mention elsewhere in the book. The time period spanned in this book seems to be from about 1890-1955, with a brief look forward to 2001.

In the late 1800s, as railroads worked their way east toward the great port at New York City, it became clear that the Hudson River and New York Harbor were too large to span with the current technology available. On the New Jersey side, ports and rail terminals began to grow and develop to serve the traffic that was to be ferried to and from New York. Railroads of Hoboken and New Jersey documents the development and recession of the railroads on the waterfront.

This impressive view of Communipaw shows one of CNJ's massive Mikado's going for a spin on the turntable, while a tangerine-and-blue EMD F3 set watches. All this with the impressive 1940s New York City skyline in the background!

The first chapter is a general overview of the conditions and history of New Jersey's industrial waterfront. The second chapter about the Jersey Central is pretty good, although I was confused by the way the author referred to it as "the Central" (a term usually reserved in the East for referring to the New York Central). I would guess that the author is not a railroad enthusiast, as the captions are vague, and generally do not describe the equipment pictured. For instance, two CNJ RDC's waiting outside the Jersey City trainshed are simply referred to as "two cars." However, the information on the neighborhoods and locations makes up for this shortcoming. There are also fantastic photos of the once-extensive passenger ferry operations; as well as operations on the Bayonne branch, currently host to the new Hudson-Bergen Light Rail.

I made an interesting discovery in the third chapter, which described the Pennsylvania Railroad's operations to Jersey City. This was the Pennsy's first attempt toward reaching the New York City area. Even after the Hudson River Tunnels to Manhattan were completed in 1910, PRR continued passenger service to Jersey City until about 1963. There are numerous photos of the destruction of the old terminal, as well as the removal of the viaduct that brought trains into Jersey City. While there are plenty of photos of the facilities, there are none shown of any PRR trains or equipment.

This well-dressed crew must be on an inspection run of the H&M tunnels sometime near the turn of the century. The H&M was quickly nicknamed The Hudson Tubes, for the way the tunnels were constructed from steel creating a tube-like structure.

Equal time is given to both the Erie and the Lackawanna, both of whom merged in 1960 to form Erie Lackawanna. There are some neat photos of the Erie's old majestic wooden trainshed terminal in Jersey City (abandoned in 1956, razed in 1979), not to mention the Bergen Tunnel and the parallel Bergen Arches. The next chapter about the Lackawanna also covers Hoboken in general. There are nice pictures of Hoboken Terminal and surrounding neighborhood from a variety of time periods, but no pictures of Lackawanna's trains. Again, the great photos are lacking the detailed caption information railfans might be looking for.

The Hudson & Manhattan (known as "PATH" since the 1962 takeover by the Port Authority) was the only other rail line to punch under the Hudson River with its own set of tunnels. The H&M tunnels were commonly referred to as "The Hudson Tubes" because of the way they were constructed. There are some great pictures of the early H&M, mostly describing the Journal Square and Pavonia/Newport sections. Most of the photos are of the pre-PATH era, when the H&M was still a quasi-independent transit system controlled by the Pennsy.

Early B&O E-units head up a passenger train somewhere along the system. Many people do not realize that B&O and Reading passenger trains operated regularly out of CNJ's Jersey City terminal, until about 1958.

The next chapter is a kind of catchall for all the other lines not mentioned above, mostly related to freight service. The ex-PRR yards at Greenville open the chapter, followed by some random shots of Lehigh Valley action. Some of the photos of the B&O caught my attention. One shows a B&O Geep somewhere on the CNJ. A photo of a B&O passenger train includes the caption information that all B&O passenger service to New York ended in 1958. The captions also mention that the Reading used CNJ tracks to access Jersey City and the New York market. One questionable caption describes a brand new Penn Central/NJDOT Arrow MU car on display at Hoboken Terminal. The author mistakenly lists Penn Central as one of the railroads to operate out of Hoboken Terminal "for a while."

The last chapter is a great summary of trolley service in Jersey City and Hoboken, ending with the succession of Public Service busses, and later, the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail. Early postcard views predominate here, and a rough map would have been a nice addition.

The author did a very good job assembling an assortment of photographs from a variety of eras. While there are some minor technical and historical inaccuracies in this book, I found it to be a fantastic summary and primer for people interested in the terminals that dotted the Jersey shoreline. However, as a reference book, the captioned information leaves much to be desired. Little attention is paid to the details of equipment pictured, but more to the surroundings and impact of local life of the cities served. However, Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City is still a good read for the casual fan or interested local resident.

Railroads of Hoboken and Jersey City By Kenneth French $19.99, plus shipping and handling Arcadia Publishing 224 State Street Portsmouth, NH 03801 http://www.arcadiapublishing.com (888) 313-2665