(erielack) Re: Paterson and Passaic Trackage

["Curtis Brookshire" <curtis.brookshire_@_gte.net>]

I know this was last week's news, but I thought I would weigh in just in
case there are one or two who haven't heard this.

From what I've read in books like "Erie Lackawanna East" and the Tabor
books, there were corporate politics at work in the early 1960s - mainly
Ex-Erie vs Ex-Lackawanna - not unusual for post-merger corporations.  The
Erie was the surviving corporation, the Lackawanna was mergered into it, not
a "merger of equals".  Erie men dominated management in the early
(pre-return of William White) years.  While most through passenger traffic
was routed through Scranton, freight rolled over former Erie lines. Second,
the city of Passaic wanted to get that darned railroad out of the middle of
Main Ave.  While direct service to Jersey City/Hoboken was convenient, they
didn't like having crossings blocked when long freights passed through.
(Localities still complain about blocked crossings.  Warren County, VA has
signs posted at every crossing with the Sheriff Department's phone number
asking anyone blocked more than five minutes to call them.  Apparently they
got aggravated by an NS train that miscalcluated train length and blocked a
state highway crossing while switching.)

When the NJ State Highway Department approached the EL about the line around
Garrett Mountain, and a proposed interchange just south of Passaic for Route
20, the ex-Erie management saw an opportunity to make a deal.  Since
freights were moving over the Delaware and Susquehanna Divisions, it was no
problem to sever the excellent ex-Lackawanna Boonton Line.  The state did
offer room for a single track, but EL declined the offer.  It was, after
all, "that other railroad's" line.  Since the ex-Erie Newark Branch crossed
the Boonton Line just west of Athenia (Clifton) and joined the Main Line at
South Paterson, they had a by-pass for the line through the center of
Passaic.  The Main Line was cut between Carlton Hill (Rutherford at the
Passaic River) and South Paterson.  I believe there was a lead below South
Paterson for industry.  Freights still had the Bergen County Line for the
short-cut to Croxton.  The Boonton Line (now the east end of the "new" Main
Line) did not connect directly to Croxton.  Trains had to make some kind of
reverse move at West End to enter Croxton.  Can an EL employee with more
intimate knowledge tell us how they did this?  The old Boonton Line was lost
beyond Athenia, and on the west end a connection was made with the ex-Erie
Greenwood Lake Branch, which was became the Boonton Line until a couple of
weeks ago.  The Totowa Secondary was the remnant of the Boonton Line east of
the Greenwood Lake Branch left to serve industry.

When EL decided to reroute freights through Scranton years later, the
decision to cut the Boonton Line came back to haunt them as the Greenwood
Lake Branch was not built for heavy-duty freights.  Any ideas of running
freight on a reconstructed Cut-Off must take the eastern NJ route issues
into account.  I'm sure the state would not be in favor of trying to lay a
single track next to Route 80 now, as that road is pretty congested.

Don't know if NS ever read this little bit of history, but you can see how a
corporate decision has repercussions many years down the road.  Conrail made
several of those in its history that NS is now forced to live with.

Curtis Brookshire
Manassas, VA
ELHS 1289

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