> > This arrangement, I understand, unraveled not long after Granton Junction > Tower was > destroyed by fire and both railroads resumed independent, bi-directional > operation of their parallel tracks. Years later, however,someone on the > NYS&W Not quite. Most of tracks 2 and 4 (the second/freight tracks) were OOS by the time Granton burned. what remained were switching leads in a few places, and a passing siding at the Transfer on the NYS&W side. The NYS&W installed CTC between the Transfer and Ridgefield Park -- removing the second track from service between Granton Junction and the Route 46 overhead bridge. The installation allowed trains to run on signal indication and without train orders -- including coming out of Little Ferry Yard. There wasn't much to the installation -- a "home" signal westbound at the Transfer, dwarfs on the lead into/out of Little Ferry, and the end of double track at Ridgefield Park. It all cost about $8,000 to install. IIRC, there were three controlled switches, two mast signals and maybe five dwarf signals in the entire installation. Control was at the Dispatcher's desk at Broadway (with room for the rest of the railroad!). This actually saved a huge amount of money -- the Erie wanted a large sum to restore Granton, and the NYS&W didn't need the extra trackage for the four passenger trains left at that time (soon to be three). Operationally, the NYS&W would send a train of up to six coaches and three RS1s down to the Transfer -- I have a slide of one of these pulling out of Little Ferry. They'd do the switching to send out three two-car trains at the Transfer. This soon became two one-car and one two-car (train 923) job. Mornings, the equipment would back up to Overpeck Creek, then pull into the yard -- with just enough time between trains so the next -- at worst -- would get stabbed for a moment or two at the end of Double track at Ridgefield Park. But I don't think there was an regular through-train use of the "second track" on either the Northern or the NYS&W after the early 1950s. Cheers, Jim Guthrie The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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