Northern Branch customers through the years

I'd vote for Closter!

Cool pocket siding for the stone seller, great station, lots of interest north of Closter Dock Road for the team track, JJ Demarest, Reuten Windows... and that team track had a fantastic 'stopper", not exactly a bumping post, but sort of a forged or cast low level arcing rail stop. Wish I had a picture!

And I have what has to be the most paperwork from the station (not that much really, most of it got thrown out by the RR, and the station signs!!! Which are worth more than paperwork, i think.....

3 freight crews on the northern during its heyday of 1960's and early 70's.

1st northern...during the passenger train days On duty croxton 8am ish. Mon-Sat. Had cars for everywhere along the line. Average train anywhere from 20 to 60 cars. A lot depended on whether Owens-Illinois Glass plant North Bergen was still operating. They got 10-20 cars a day of sand and soda ash. Cars for North Bergen and Ridgefield were dropped off along the way. !st northern generally worked Englewood north to Northvale, and back, It was usually a 12 to 14 hour job.

After the commuter trains ceased, and the piermont branch was abandoned between Nanuet and west of Orangeburg (1968 ish) the 1st northern ran north to work Piermont, Orangeburg pipe, and Glenshaw glass, along with the other stuff it usually did. More of it work in englewood was turned over to the 2nd or 3rd northern at this time.

Power was generally GP-7's (occasional a switcher or a GP-9) during passenger train days, with an SW/NW on saturdays. After the passenger trains stopped (1966), NW/SW switchers were the usual up until they started working up to Piermont and orangeburg. Then RS-3's became the usual.

2nd northern left croxton about an hour after the 1st northern. Light power with caboose..switched north bergen thru englewood. Usual power was an NW/SW. It worked Mon-sat.

3rd northern....This was an on again, off again thing, depending on traffic. It was a relief crew, and i cant for the life of me remember if it was relief for the 1st or 2nd northern. I think once the 1st northern started working to piermont, ist was relief for the 1st northern. Operated Mon-fri, and sundays. Never worked north of englewood.

RichM wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 4:07 pm I'd vote for Closter!

Cool pocket siding for the stone seller, great station, lots of interest north of Closter Dock Road for the team track, JJ Demarest, Reuten Windows... and that team track had a fantastic 'stopper", not exactly a bumping post, but sort of a forged or cast low level arcing rail stop. Wish I had a picture!

I wish you had a picture of it also. Any chance you can draw something up with guesstimate dimensions?

pdtrains wrote: ↑Wed Nov 11, 2020 5:01 pm 3 freight crews on the northern during its heyday of 1960's and early 70's.

1st northern...during the passenger train days On duty croxton 8am ish. Mon-Sat. Had cars for everywhere along the line. Average train anywhere from 20 to 60 cars. A lot depended on whether Owens-Illinois Glass plant North Bergen was still operating. They got 10-20 cars a day of sand and soda ash. Cars for North Bergen and Ridgefield were dropped off along the way. !st northern generally worked Englewood north to Northvale, and back, It was usually a 12 to 14 hour job.

After the commuter trains ceased, and the piermont branch was abandoned between Nanuet and west of Orangeburg (1968 ish) the 1st northern ran north to work Piermont, Orangeburg pipe, and Glenshaw glass, along with the other stuff it usually did. More of it work in englewood was turned over to the 2nd or 3rd northern at this time.

Power was generally GP-7's (occasional a switcher or a GP-9) during passenger train days, with an SW/NW on saturdays. After the passenger trains stopped (1966), NW/SW switchers were the usual up until they started working up to Piermont and orangeburg. Then RS-3's became the usual.

2nd northern left croxton about an hour after the 1st northern. Light power with caboose..switched north bergen thru englewood. Usual power was an NW/SW. It worked Mon-sat.

3rd northern....This was an on again, off again thing, depending on traffic. It was a relief crew, and i cant for the life of me remember if it was relief for the 1st or 2nd northern. I think once the 1st northern started working to piermont, ist was relief for the 1st northern. Operated Mon-fri, and sundays. Never worked north of englewood.

Really great information, and it's awesome you were able to acquire the Closter station sign. Great piece of history. I think it's a no brainer to include Closter over Englewood at this point just because it gives me the option of operating at least 2 northern crews.

Are you able to identity or recall any of these customers like their commodities, rolling stock and/or facilities? In Ridgefield, I see company's called Cont. Folding paper box, Relph Mat'l, Whittier-Ruele millwork, Standard Pkg., and J Turner & Co. Also in Englewood "Englewood yard" lists Sam Braen which I think still is a mason or stone supplier. Interstate transportation co and Standard Bergen plumbing supply. Any ideas on these 3 as far as rolling stock, commodities, facility etc.?

Anyone remember when they were building the second deck on the GWB and I 80?
South of the Leonia station there was siding with a rotary car dumper installed to bring in construction material, sand and rock I think.
I use to see it when riding the Public Service 82 bus from Fort Lee to Hackensack where I took swimming lessons at the Y.

Lower level of GWB opened aug 1962. Any movement on the northern then, is before my time. I just remember there being a 10-20 car siding near the Leonia station, that never seemed to be used much. I remember 1st Northern wheel reports showing an occasional freight car load for a consignee in Leonia, which as far as I knew, was for the Leonia Team Track. Remember team tracks? There used to ones in Ridgefield, Leonia, Englewood, Tenafly, Cresskill, Closter and Sparkill. Maybe Paiisades Park, too..

Re; The Wheel Stop on the Closter Team Track

Drawing isn't my strong suit, but I found a more modern representation of an Aldon product

http://www.westernsafety.com/products/a ... ilSkid.jpg

Rather than an attachment, I believe this was an actual forging / casting of some sort. The wheel catch had a curved but taller "ramp" and catch, and the stop also had an arcing curve that might have been 16-24 inches taller than this modern version. There was a steel rod, about 2-1/2 inches in diameter that spanned the rails at the top of the stop, with more a knob-like finial on each end that stuck out about 8-12 inches, than a simple threaded nut or welded closure.

Imagine the typical ornateness of something fabricated, my guess, before 1920...

Just a quick observation, admiration foods looks like they no longer get plastics hoppers which means they likely no longer make their own containers. There’s new piping crossing the track extending way down the length of their storage track to almost every spotted tank car. There’s also a new track bumper before the new pipes. Looks like that old covered hopper they used is completely land locked now.