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  • Caldwell Branch

  • Discussion relating to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie, and the resulting 1960 merger creating the Erie Lackawanna. Visit the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society at http://www.erielackhs.org/.
Discussion relating to the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, the Erie, and the resulting 1960 merger creating the Erie Lackawanna. Visit the Erie Lackawanna Historical Society at http://www.erielackhs.org/.

Moderator: blockline4180

 #760596  by SemperFidelis
 
http://maps.yahoo.com/#mvt=s&lat=40.872 ... ch%2C%20nj

My ex-wife and I hiked the trail from the Great Notch end. The ROW was not at all hard to find. The end nearest Great Notch station comes very close to people's backyards, but no one seemed to mind us being there. I'm not sure if that part of the ROW is actually considered part of the trail, though.
 #845233  by HSSRAIL
 
The crossing of the Caldwell Line under Bloomfield Avenue was this actually a true tunnel or just a long Overpass?
 #845517  by snavely
 
Just an overpass, and not a particularly long one either, although the ROW did go under Bloomfield Ave. at an angle which made it a little longer than if the intersection was the normal 90 degrees.
 #846043  by Erie3319
 
The underpass was a vast improvement over the grade crossing it replaced. That ever shallower crossing angle made crossing the Bloomfield Avenue trolley tracks problematic.
 #846391  by snavely
 
I don't recall a grade crossing there. When was it replaced by the overpass?
 #847964  by snavely
 
Ahhhh. A bit before even my time. I recall seeing the RS-2s and RS-3s with their Stillwell coaches laying over in Caldwell in the mid-1950's. I always looked for them when we went up Bloomfield Ave. to visit my uncle in then quite rural Pine Brook. ln later years there'd be an occasional GP-9, and the water tower for the steam power was still there. We always went on a weekend so there wasn't any opportunity to see anything moving on the line, as by then it was Mon-Fri only.
 #848100  by Erie3319
 
Do you recall when the water tank finally disappeared?

According to a former agent, it stood unused for some time before it practically collapsed under its own weight.

Like you, I often had my nose pressed to the glass of the family auto's window as we passed Caldwell and along Bloomfield Avenue. As a young child, I was often baffled when the tracks descended into the cut for the underpass, and then never resurfaced in the cut east of Fells Road. The Alco RS unit was certainly the norm for both passenger and freight.
 #848441  by snavely
 
I really don't recall when the water tower disappeared. I seem to think it was there in the early '70's, but I can't be sure. My relatives moved to Texas around 1967 and I hardly ever went by there after that.
 #1147794  by RS115
 
Bumping up this old thread with new questions. At Essex Fells there was a turntable. I'm assuming it was Erie/EL owned though the M&E could apparently use it but rarely did. Does anyone know of pictures of it? How large a table was it? Installation and removal dates?

Thanks
 #1148626  by Erie3319
 
CALDWELL BRANCH CUSTOMERS:

At the time of abandonment, Overbrook Hospital (Cedar Grove; in service but seldom used); Bahr Lumber (Durrell Street, Verona); West Essex Building Supply (Depot Street, Verona); Caldwell Team Tracks (Caldwell station); Roseland Lumber (Harrison Avenue, Caldwell; connected but overgrown); the Morristown & Erie Interchange (Essex Fells). The Caldwell team track served a variety of off line customers, as well as Roseland Lumber in the end.

Add to the above previously abandoned sidings: W.P. Johnson Coal & Oil (Fairview Avenue, Verona); Slayback-Van Order Lumber Company (Oak Lane, Caldwell just off the Caldwell Yard); Harrison Feed and Speer coal company (both on Harrison Avenue, Caldwell).

In the deep, dim past there was the Francisco Brothers Quarry (Francisco Avenue, Great Notch before 1925); a branch to the Cedar Grove Reservoir (Bowden Road, Cedar Grove 1901 to circa 1905); Overbrook Team Track (Overbrook station dates??); Newark City Home siding (Fairview Avenue, Verona 1890's to ??). Slayback Brothers also had a siding at the Bloomfield Avenue grade crossing in Verona, prior to the grade crossing elimination which caused their relocation to Caldwell yard. Overbrook Hospital may have had a siding that ran from Durell Street in Verona through the hospital grounds paralell to Fairview Avenue to facilitate the construction of the 1920's addition. This is in addition to the known siding to the power plant and commissary. The stub of this was in service opposite Bahr Lumber until 1959.

Other than this, I know nothing.
 #1148627  by Erie3319
 
RS115 wrote:Bumping up this old thread with new questions. At Essex Fells there was a turntable. I'm assuming it was Erie/EL owned though the M&E could apparently use it but rarely did. Does anyone know of pictures of it? How large a table was it? Installation and removal dates?

Thanks
The Essex Fells turntable was 90 feet long and powered by air from the locomotive brake system. It was gone by about 1960. A former agent recalls that it was scrapped on-site.

The prior turntable was a 60 footer, replaced circa 1929 with the 90 footer. Whether the 60 footer was the original table or not is open to question, as there are several imprecise references to improvements at Essex Fells in period Caldwell newspapers.

When the Roseland Railway arrived in Essex Fells in 1892, they did not bother to install a turntable. The first turntable was installed after a public subscription to a turntable fund, circa 1895. This allowed through service to begin since the lack of turning facilities on the branch hindered dispatching trains direct from Jersey City. Previously, the branch train just ran back and forth to Caldwell Junction without turning the locomotive.