old tracks in woods in Radburn?

Looks as though there was a factory in Radburn on the Suffern side (near the field close to the Radburn sign on Plaza road, just past Route 208 overpass). The area is fenced off and in the 20+ years of riding the rails, I never remember seeing a factory here but recently I had noticed old tracks within the trees. Given the direction of the tracks it looks as though a train would have to come down on the west bound tracks and after crossing fairlawn ave, it would venture off onto the field.

Does anyone have any info on the factory that was here? Thanks in advance...

Most notably, on that spur was/is Nabisco!! (flour and sugar by rail) There are several other industrial firms (Lee & Perrins, Kodak, A&P Warehouse and others) also along Nevins Road, but not sure if they ever had rail service.

Actually, you're on the wrong side. Nabisco is on the east bound side between glen rock and Radburn stations.

The remnants are on the west bound side just to the east of the fair lawn ave crossing before the bergen line goes under 208.

you got me curious, time to get google earth up.

well im on google earth, there is a rectangular space. Just the foundations between plaza rd and the bergen line. You can just see an old row. BUt i have no idea what building this was. Maybe stop into fairlawns building dept.

yeah, only stuff left are the tracks in the woods and the foundation. I'm assuming some type of chemical factory was there as it's fenced off.

Re Nabisco side, looks like that may have see nsome decent freight action way back when..I think I saw the remnants of a diamond in there with the freight tracks crossing over each other....

elan201 wrote:yeah, only stuff left are the tracks in the woods and the foundation. I'm assuming some type of chemical factory was there as it's fenced off.

Re Nabisco side, looks like that may have see nsome decent freight action way back when..I think I saw the remnants of a diamond in there with the freight tracks crossing over each other....

you just gave me somethign to do now while im at work.

where did you see the possible diamond. Im using google earth and not finding it. Im am seeing what looks like an old row, but is the clearing for the power lines.

as you enter the siding - at the end of the first building there was spur that went to the side of the building. a reverse move on the current siding led to another siding that crossed this old siding and left cars at the front of the building. boy, is my description poor.....

|
[building] |
-------\ /
X
-----------/--\------
--/------------ [east bound ] ------
-------[west bound ] ------

there is a track diagram website out there (i don't remember the link) that has track layouts of the various old passenger lines.....

elan201 wrote:as you enter the siding - at the end of the first building there was spur that went to the side of the building. a reverse move on the current siding led to another siding that crossed this old siding and left cars at the front of the building. boy, is my description poor.....

|
[building] |
-------\ /
X
-----------/--\------
--/------------ [east bound ] ------
-------[west bound ] ------

there is a track diagram website out there (i don't remember the link) that has track layouts of the various old passenger lines.....

im going to have to look again. I couldn't see it yesterday.


EDIT:

I still dont see it. Im looking at the siding come off the main line, split again to have 2 tracks. 1 runs right ontop of the first building. The second continues to nabisco where there is a reverse move to that power substation it looks like. Then it splits off to the old kodak building then the nabisco. It also looks as if there was another switch right by the substation that went towards nabisco, but where the new Jack Daniels Audi/vw/porsche service center is.

Am consulting Track Charts of the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad

MP 15.3 Broadway Fairlawn has the following off the northbound track
From South to North.

Leone Lumber
General Motors
Glen Rock Lumber

Morlot Ave
Route 208

Stub track for Dant & Russel

Fairlawn Ave Road Crossing

MP 15.3 South Bound track heading North
Columbia Modles stub track

Morlot Ave Rd crossing
Rte 208 Rd crossing

Forbes Fuel stub track

Fairlawn Ave Rd crossing

Stub track that holds 40 cars
first tail track heads off to
Fairbanks-Morse in a Northernly Direction
One stub off of this goes to Coats & Clark

Next Stub track heads South and crosses over first stub track
this goes to Lea & Perrins

Next Stub track heads North and goes to a 2 way split. One end goes into Public Service and the other into Nabisco
a stub heads off of this in a southernly direction and goes to
Fisher & Scientific

So the diamond you are talking about did in fact exist.

wow, how long ago did all this exist? If someone could maybe post a pic from google earth and highlight where the tracks once stood and where this diamond was. I really cannot for the life of me find it.

The track charts I consulted are after 1963 because Mr. Sheppard has a note on the Boonton Line going out of service 11-6-1963. I doubt he compiled them just after the Boonton Line went out of service so maybe he started this project in 1964. I would think that the industrial sidings we have been discussing were in service until at least 1971. The oil crisis caused a major recession in the Northeast, many plant closings occured between 1971-1976 so I would think that all bets are off on how much of this trackage was active after 1973.

To help try and pin point when the industrial activity along the Bergen County Line became dormant I offer the following:

There were five major recessions after World War II the three mentioned below seem to have hit the northeast especially hard.

The first one was in 1958 when the bond market collapsed. New England was badly devastated by this one and did not recover. Industry in the Northeast recovered but generally not to the same level as before. Steel Mills in Youngstown and Pittsburgh were operating at the begining of 1970 but at reduced levels.

The Oil crisis of 1970-1973 closed a lot of plants in the Northeast.
The Youngstown Mill Closings I think date from this time.

The next big recession came in 1980-1982 most industry that had survived up to this time did not survive afterwards. I believe the Ford Mawah plant closed in the early 1980's. By 1983 many cities in the Northeast had become the rust belt. 1982 is described in a book I read as the worst postwar year to date Unemployement hit 7.1 %.

Add to that the 'tax and spend' philosophy of the NE states governments at those particular times and the 'flight to the south' was even more dramatic.

I remember being called as a fireman off the extra list in 69-70 for a job out of the Paterson yard called (I think) "the Getty Ave. drill". The job, which was called for a 4pm start, would first switch the large flour mill in Clifton located on the old Erie main, then return to the Paterson yard and pick up cars for the Fair Lawn industrial park. By the time the train would head west to Ridgewood, the commuter rush was over, and the train would pull west of the Ridgewood tower, reverse onto the eastbound Bergen County line main, and back, caboose first, to the Fair Lawn industries. Nabisco was the biggest customer, although there were others. There were a few hours of work there, and the job usually didn't finish until 1-2am, when the train would pull west to Ridgewood Jct, and reverse back east on the main line to the yard.