I had the day off and rode some trains. With the openings of the Newark City Subway extension last June and the Montclair Connection this week, I had some new segments to cover. I had an errand in Morristown, so I decided to make a loop trip: NJT from Morristown to Newark, walk to the City Subway, ride to Grove St and back, return to Broad St station, NJT to Denville via Boonton, and back to Morristown. I stopped at the Morristown & Erie to see the 6 ex-Amtrak FL9's; two are in Cedar Knolls and the other four are in Morristown. The rides on NJT to Newark and on the City Subway proved uneventful and the rain stopped. The Orange Branch still goes through to provide service west of the City Subway - is Hartz Mountain still active? The new section is somewhat slow as the cars have to stop and wait for the protection to activate at the grade crossings; this costs about 15 seconds at each. I returned to Broad St well before 2pm and caught what used to be the afternoon train to Hackettstown; this has been broken to a train from New York to Montclair Heights and a shuttle from there west. The ride through the connection, about 1/4 mile of track, was quiet. NYSW 142 was on the siding at Little Falls, with railroad personnel working on it following bearing problems over the past weekend. At Montclair Heights, the transfer works but is not great. Connecting passengers get off and wait for the train to clear the crossing, then walk down to the waiting train. About 20 people (including one NJT crew member) did it this time, and only one of four cars was open. The train runs 'wrong rail' to CEDAR, so it's not fast even though both tracks are reverse signalled - DIB rules apply and there's no signal until the home signal for CEDAR. We reached Denville two minutes early and the train left. The extra two minutes made my return to Morristown easy as next eastbound is only two minutes after I was due; that train was two minutes late as well. Once I retrieved my car from the good hands of the M&E, I drove to Fanny Road to see the bridge work. The old bridge is GONE and forms are up for the new bridge's concrete work. This appears to be moving along well. I then went to Fox Hill Road in Mountain Lakes. This proved to be minor repairs to the bridge, which appear to be complete. Crumbling concrete has been repaired and exposed steel painted. Similarly, the US 46 bridge has been repainted in DoT green after having lead paint stripped. The new off-peak mid-day shuttles and Montclair Connection make it possible to "loop the Lackawanna" between Denville and Newark in either direction. Interdivisional ticket rules should make it possible to go from stations on either line to those on the other, then return for about $7. ===== Gary R. Kazin DL&W Milepost R35.7 Rockaway, New Jersey http://www.geocities.com/gkazin/index.html __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com ------------------------------ End of EL List Daily V3 #699 ****************************
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