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> Hi all,
> It seems like nobody minds talking about the MnE so here goes.
> I guess I'll start with the Whippany Paperboard Co. First how 
> much traffic 
> came and went from their plants?  What was brought in and 
> shipped out?  At 
> the Eden Mill it looks like there were 2 tracks going to the 
> Receiving 
> warehouse, maybe 1 track to the powerhouse and on the other 
> side of the plant 
> next to the river it looks like another track came from the 
> Shipping dept. I 
> only saw this stuff after the plant was half demolished so 
> I'm not sure what 
> was what. 

Whippany Paper Board took in LOTS of hopper of coal for its powerplant. I'm
not sure how the raw wood for the paper got there, though. It shipped out
paper in boxcars. I know that they received covered hoppers in later years -
there was a covered hopper "shaker" right next to the M&E main. The covered
hoppers probably held kaolin, a white clay that is often used in paper
production.
 
>  About the Stony Brook Mill, What was that plant like? 
> Judging from size of 
> the empty lot where it was, it looks like it could have been 
> just as big or 
> bigger than the Eden mill. When was it torn down? I've been 
> going threw 
> Whippany my whole life and I never remember seeing it. Was 
> the trackage there 
> set up so that they could switch the plant without blocking 
> Rt. 10? Was there 
> A run around track anywhere on the branch? 

I think the Stony Brook Mill was gone way before Route 10 was built! I
believe it was gone before WWII.
 
> On to the Hanover Mill. This place is tiny compared to the 
> Eden mill, What 
> did they do there? Did the RR serve this plant up until it 
> closed? I never 
> remember seeing tracks crossing Whippany Rd. However there is 
> an old bridge 
> and tracks that end just before crossing the road. It also 
> looks like the 
> bridge doubled as part of the dam for the Millpond, did it? I 
> remember the 
> day they tore down an old water tower there in the early 80's 
> and there is 
> also A water tower still standing at the Eden mill. Why have 
> water towers and 
> also Millponds? Did they use that much water? 

I don't know what they did there (paper rolling, maybe?), but after the
paperboard company stopped using it, it became a machine shop or some
similar industry. The RR ran there until at least 1982. I have seen a photo
of M&E 14 (in the "new red" paint) pulling the last carload out of there, a
gon filled with scrap metal. The tracks in Whippany Road came out shortly
thereafter. The bridge you see WAS the railroad. It connected up with the
M&E proper almost adjacent to Parsippany Road. If you look at the M&E
footage in the "Lackawanna Steam Vol. 2" video, you'll see one segment where
an M&E 2-8-0 is pulling a really rusty PRR boxcar. As it's going away,
you'll notice it's filmed from the Parsippany Road grade crossing, and
you'll see the switch leading off to the Hanover Mill. Not sure about the
watertowers, but paper production involves a LOT of water - primarily for
steam. Drive past the Marcal Paper plant on Route 80 in Elmwood Park, NJ,
and look at the voluminous amounts of steam emanating from that place!

 
> What did Whippany Paper Board actually make? Like what was 
> their product?

Cardboard products, primarily....


> Does anyone know when/why it closed or how many employees 
> they had? Did they 
> close all the plants at once? That had to be A real blow to 
> Whippany at the 
> time but I keep hearing the town was happy to see the company 
> go because of 
> pollution in the river's and something about the smell from 
> the plant's. 
> Anyone know about this?   

I think this was the case. They closed down the plants one by one. The
Whippany mill was the last to go - a Japanese concern purchased it, and
moved the papermaking equipment to Japan, and then tore down the rest of the
plant.

> How much time did the crew's spend switching the plants? Were 
> they able to 
> work the rest of the RR the same day or was there more than 
> one crew working 
> at A time? About how many cars did the MnE move in A typical 
> day back in say 
> the 70's? 

In steam days, the M&E has *two* jobs working the mill. Trains then were
40-50 cars! In the 1970's, I'd say a typical train was about 15-20 cars
worth, still very respectable, but nowhere near the volume of the 1940's.
 
>   Back to the Stony Brook branch for A minute. At work we do 
> Hanover Twp. 
> Police towing and when got on the towing list, they gave us
> A pretty detailed map of Whippany. On the map it shows the 
> Stony Brook branch 
> ROW. With the tracks ending at Rt. 10 but the ROW continuing 
> on, Crossing 
> Parsippany Rd., Renalds Ave., and Troy Rd. and going on into 
> E. Hanover. 
> There are utility lines on the ROW now. But were there ever 
> tracks on this 
> part of the ROW? If so where did they go and when were they 
> torn up? I heard 
> that Bee Meadow Pond on Renalds Ave. was once A Claypit for A 
> Brick factory 
> and that one-day while digging clay they hit A spring and 
> flooded the pit. 
> This pond is right next to the ROW. Did the MnE serve the 
> brick factory at 
> one time? What about the old Rowe manufacturing plant on Troy 
> Rd. witch is 
> also right next to the ROW?

A friend of mine, Steve Hepler, introduced me to this section of the
railroad (Steve is the author of the recent M&E softcover book, a worthwhile
read for anyone interested in the M&E). The ROW with the utility poles that
crosses Parsippany Road is not the Stony Brook Branch, but the Malapardis
Branch. This branch came off the M&E just about where Route 287 crosses the
railroad today, and heads north, crosses Parsippany Road, and continues
towars Bee Meadow Pond, where it terminated. As you said, there was a large
brickworks there (there are still some signs of it), and that was the reason
for the branch's existence. It disappeared in the 1940's, but the majority
of the ROW is still hikable in the winter - check it out now! The M&E never
served that Rowe plant, though, even though it would seem logical for it to
do so.

Lots of good questions there!

	- Paul

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