(erielack) Re: Shot of 401 In Erie Power, BR

["Paul Brezicki" <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>]

If that's the case, what line is on the closer through girder bridge, an
industrial track? Acc to your map, it can't be the PRR Marion connector,
which should be behind the photographer.

Paul B

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "JG at graytrainpix" <graytrainpix_@_hotmail.com>
To: <doctorpb_@_bellsouth.net>
Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 6:31 PM
Subject: Shot of 401 In Erie Power, BR


> Paul,
>
> That Victor Hand shot in Erie Power of the 401 with the pigs was taken on
> the Tonnelle Avenue overpass, looking more or less SW.  The passenger
train
> in the background is on the old DLW Boonton Line, later the reconfigured
> Main Line, just north of West End, heading west (probably for Suffern).
>
> As to Jim Dalberg's comment about Conrail stack-train operations in the
> area, he's making a point about the torture that a s/b stack train had to
go
> thru to get from Selkirk Yard to the unloading terminals near Port Newark
> off the old CNJ Newark line near Newark Airport if it was too high in
> clearance.  If the train was low enough, it could get a straight move
> through Weehawken Tunnel, down to National Junction / NAVE, then continue
on
> the National Docks, over Upper Bay Draw, onto the ex-PRR Waverly running
> tracks south of Oak Island Yard, onto the connector to the CNJ Newark Line
> near the former CY Tower (now called Garden, I think), then down to the
Port
> Newark Terminals.  Not sure if any stacks could go thru that tunnel,
though.
>   So next option was to get the Swamp Switch (later termed CP2 once they
put
> in power switches) onto the ex-Erie Northern just north of the Weehawken
> Tunnel, then go down the Northern to where BR once was, now called
"Croxton"
> (which is what BR was called on the EL Northern Br. listing in employee
> timetables).  The train could then pull down into the Erie freight tunnel
> and continue onto the National Docks at CP Nave.  BUT -- there was still
the
> Waldo Ave tunnel (wasn't much of a tunnel, actually) clearance problem.
So,
> if that couldn't be done, the third route involved pulling into the Erie
> tunnel, then backing up into Croxton Yard, then going forward on to the
> Marion lead (a zig-zag move); around 1995 this was re-arranged so that the
> Northern had a straight connection to the Marion lead.  Back to the
torture
> trip, next get to Marion Jct., which pointed the train east, not west, on
> the former PRR P&H Branch.  Run around train there, between the hand-throw
> crossovers and CP Waldo (was double track).  Pull west thru S. Kearny Yard
> (former PRR Meadows).  This is all called the Passaic & Harsimus Branch
> (P&H).  A few miles west of Kearny Tower (west side of yard), there was a
> hand-throw connection at "Stock" to something called the "Back Lead".
(Later
> was made power switch, became CP Stock). This was the traditional
connector
> between the PRR and LV.  The Back Lead then led the train to CP Valley,
> which was the west end of the LV Oak Island Yard.  Pull up to clear CP
> Valley, engine now perhaps at NK Tower (where the LV passenger trains used
> to change power to get into Penn Station).  Then back up all the way thru
> Oak Island Yard, staying south and getting on to the old ex-PRR Waverly
> running tracks (which split away from the LV yard going west and joined
the
> PRR P&H branch at Waverly 5, a hand-throw manned tower in PRR and early CR
> days).  Then come  into Garden from the west side, take the wye from that
> side onto the CNJ; or keep backing towards Upper Bay Draw, then go
> engine-forward down the CNJ.  Then down the CNJ for a mile or two into the
> Port Newark Terminal.
>
> That must have taken all day.
>
> Jim Gerofsky
>
>


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