Edgewater was definitely a significant terminal for the railroad. The Ford plant was, in it’s heyday, one of the largest in the US. They made the Model A there, and that was a huge seller in the 30’s. Lever Brothers, Alcoa, all were big shippers at one time, not to mention the coal traffic up until WWII. Even after that you had SeaTrain for a while. Operating under yard-limits however, it just probably didn’t warrant extensive signaling on the order of the CTC they had between Jersey City and Little Ferry.
The Edgewater Branch was originally double-tracked, but sometime in the late 1920’s was singletracked, at least through the tunnel. Timetables after that had a “Positive block signals at each end of Edgewater Tunnel will govern normal direction of traffic through tunnel” entry in them. It doesn’t seem as if this was much more than a light at each entrance to the tunnel that would come on as a train made it’s entry into the bore.
Thing is though, I kind of remember, back around 1968 or so, that there was a signal of some sort, right around where the Edgewater branch goes over the Riverline, on top of the embankment. I think that it was facing east. Perhaps it was used to control entry of westbound trains into Little Ferry yard. I’m pretty fuzzy on this though since I was only around 12 at the time.
By the way, in the “History of the New York Susquehanna and Western” by Walter Lucas, there is a picture, dated 1894 the year when Edgewater yard was officially opened, that clearly shows a turntable, water tower and 5 – 6 stall roundhouse. In a later 1921 shot the turntable and roundhouse look to be gone, so whatever facilities they did have there weren’t used very long.
