Why Ridgefield Park?

[riffian]

I have always been puzzled by the choice of Ridefield Park as the main Suskie terminal on the east end. When the Little Ferry yard was closed, why they chose such a cramped and traffic plagued location seems to defy logic. At both North Bergen and Passaic Junction there existed long stretches of track without crossings and with room to grow laterally. Can anybody shed some light (and logic) on this subject??

[Steve F45]

to me passaic junction would be to far west. bring the train all the way down to little ferry and trek west for servicing. north bergen would've made a good spot, but where? on the east is csx 69th street yard, to the west is marsh. I dont think they had much property to work with on the west side of the tracks. RP, that was all there's already, wide enough for 3 tracks (1 just for the offices/fuel tank cars that were originally there) and long enough for a decent fuel track.

[cjvrr]

Turntable is also nearby in Little Ferry to turn engines if need be. Most of the switching occurs east or west of Ridgedfield Park with the western extent of the daily switching probably being Passic Junction. So RP is pretty centrally located for the southern division.

Chris