NJ & NY Railroad - location of Thiells station

Hello all.

I've recently taken an interest in the New Jersey & New York Railroad. I picked up a copy of "The Pascack Valley Line" by Wilson E. Jones. I have a question for the experts out there. Where exactly were the Thiells station buildings located? There are photos of both station buildings on pages 87 & 88 of the book. In both photos the road behind the station is elevated over the tracks. Does anyone know what road this is/was?

I've used the satellite view on Google Maps to try and follow the ROW through Thiells but the images appear to have been taken in spring/summer and the view is obscured by trees. This makes it hard to trace the route.

Any insights are greatly appreciated. thanks.

Jon

I am not 100% sure, but I believe the street overpass located at Thiells station was Rosman Road. Below are two jpegs. The first one is a topo map from 1910. This shows the track going under Rosman Road (or what became Rosman Road). This is located where the track begins to swing to the east, at about a seven o'clock position relative to the word "Thiells" on the map. There are several buildings nearby and a bold 'dash' on the track at Rosman Road overpass. That could possibly indicate a station there -I don't know that for sure, however it seems likely. The only other place the track went under a highway was to the east at Suffern Lane but there is only one structure shown there and it's on the far side of the roadway from the track. The second image is a Google Streetview of Rosman Road today, showing the overpass under which the Thiells station was probably located.

Tommy Meehan wrote:I am not 100% sure, but I believe the street overpass located at Thiells station was Rosman Road. Below are two jpegs. The first one is a topo map from 1910. This shows the track going under Rosman Road (or what became Rosman Road). This is located where the track begins to swing to the east, at about a seven o'clock position relative to the word "Thiells" on the map. There are several buildings nearby and a bold 'dash' on the track at Rosman Road overpass. That could possibly indicate a station there -I don't know that for sure, however it seems likely. The only other place the track went under a highway was to the east at Suffern Lane but there is only one structure shown there and it's on the far side of the roadway from the track. The second image is a Google Streetview of Rosman Road today, showing the overpass under which the Thiells station was probably located.

I tried answering this a few days ago. The station site was long filled in, but Rosman Road was the most obvious area and there is a 1972 document that said the depot was nearby.

As detailed on pg. 107 of Wilson Jones' The Pascack Valley Line, in the Fall of 1939 NJ&NY cut back passenger service from Haverstraw to Thiells. All that was left above Spring Valley was a motor car making a Sunday-only round-trip, probably to serve Sunday visitors to Letchworth Village. Letchworth Village was the sprawling state institution for the physically and mentally disabled located to the west of Thiells. The following Spring, March 1940, passenger service beyond Spring Valley was discontinued and the line between Haverstraw and Thiells was formally abandoned.

Why was freight service continued to Thiells? Undoubtedly to continue serving Letchworth Village. The facility was heated (and probably lighted) by coal which was delivered by NJ&NY via a mile long spur off the main line above Mount Ivy. In 1930 the institution had installed a coal trestle for dumping onto a conveyor belt. I doubt this traffic was very large, my guess would be in the range of 5-10 carloads a week. Plus whatever other material or supplies the facility may have had delivered by rail.

Below is a 1924 map someone on an Erie list sent me. It is of the Mt. Ivy-Thiells portion of the NJ&NY, showing the spur into Letchworth Village. The location of the coal boilers and unloading point is circled in red and the Thiells station location is underlined. Thiells station does appear to be located at Rosman Road. Below the map is an excerpt from an article in the Geneva (NY) Daily Times announcing the 1908 decision to build Letchworth Village in Rockland County. The excerpt notes the facility can be easily reached via NJ&NY. The facility opened three years later in 1911.

I apologize for the quality of the images. They are not the greatest.

Historic Aerials ( http://www.historicaerials.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ) clearly shows the station in the 1952 aerial. Seems there was a short siding at the station also.

Thanks Carter that's very interesting! I see from the aerial photo two things:

1. The station house (and that does look like the right size and shape) was -- using compass directions -- on the north side of the right-of-way and of Rosman Road. There is a fairly well-known photo by the late Robert Collins (it's on pg. 88 of The Pascack Valley Line) of Thiells station in 1948. We can now see it was taken by Mr. Collins standing north of the overpass and looking south.

2. The station was located one-hundred yards east of Minisceongo Creek, not adjacent to it as I previously had understood. Thus the Streetview photo above is NOT of the location where the station was, the Streetview is too far west.

Below are three images. One is the 1952 aerial photo with the station marked with a red X and a red line above the siding. Looks like there might've been a small industry there. Next is a current satellite photo of the same area. The small side street Langshur Ct intersects with Rosman Road almost exactly where the station was. In fact it looks like a private house partially occupies the former station grounds. Last is a current Streetview. The track used to go under Rosman Road where the guard rail is today. The private house you can glimpse through the trees is about where the Thiells station once sat.