M&E Alcos on Black River

I now recall an image in a magazine or book that showed M&E's red Alcos running on the Black River, probably in the late 1980s or early 90s. I would assume it was an special excursion or charter.

This also makes me wonder how did they get there. Simplest would be west on the Washington Secondary to Allentown, then east on the Lehigh Valley to Three Bridges. (Had the High Bridge Branch remained fully operational, perhaps south to High Bridge, east on RVL to Bound Brook and west on LV to Three Bridges)

June 10-11, 1989. I'm not sure what the occasion was or how they got there though.

Flemington, June 10, 1989:


Flemington, June 10, 1989:


Ringoes, June 11, 1989:

There was also a New Jersey Transit train with a F40 there that day too. BR&W excursions were push pulled with CF7 #42 and T6 #56 that day as well. The occasion was to promote Flemington, NJ as the site of the URHS's proposed New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center.

Actually, it was a trip to promote the Railroad Museum of NJ. They were looking at several plots of land along the BRW. The thinking was along the lines of Strasburg and the RR Museum of PA relationship.
Was a volunteer with the BRW at the time. Train came in at interchange with Conrail. Don't remember the routing but believe it went via Washington Secondary to P'burg.
I was the BRW Conductor when the NJ Transit train came onto our railroad. The late Tom Barkovsky was the BRW Engineer(sad he's gone).

wolfboy8171981 wrote:There was also a New Jersey Transit train with a F40 there that day too. BR&W excursions were push pulled with CF7 #42 and T6 #56 that day as well. The occasion was to promote Flemington, NJ as the site of the URHS's proposed New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center.

I was a passenger on such a NJT train, must have been that one. Train left from Newark Penn Station and continued on the Lehigh Line from Aldene to Three Bridges. A few residents of homes along the Lehigh Line west of Aldene working in their backyards appeared quite startled when the NJT passenger train passed by.

If I recall correctly the M&E train with the dignitaries backed into the [then] Flemington PRR station for some speeches or whatever, and thereafter continued on south while the NJT train remained at Flemington.

Wehre is the museum going to be? Or is it jsut not going to be one? New Jeresy really shoud have something.

bystander wrote:Where is the museum going to be? Or is it jsut not going to be one? New Jeresy really shoud have something.

For now Boonton is the makeshift site. There is a storage yard there, along with a restoration facility. Open houses and special events are held as well.

@Ken W2KB, that must been an interesting trip, running from NWK to Flemington. Sounds like a future passenger service that could give Trans-Bridge a run for the money (and speed)?

If memory serves me right, I believe there was a mix up at Roselle Park Station. The ConRail dispatcher knew the train was going on the Lehigh Line but routed it to the gauntlet track instead of the platform track to pick up passengers. They had to pull through and reverse back into the station.