(erielack) branches, Spurs, tracks, etc.

["Len VanderJagt" <lvj911_@_worldnet.att.net>]

With regard to the topic of "branches":

The Sussex Branch was a proper branch my name, identified as such in the 
employee's timetable.  On the Erie side, the Piermont Branch had similar 
status, although, I believe, it constituted the original Erie main.  The 
Gladstone branch (P & D), Harrison branch, Caldwell branch, Chester branch, 
and Pine Bush branch are other examples of designated branches.  The 
original Lackawanna Main through Washington was the "Old Road", the 
Phillipsburg Branch beginning at Washington.

Tracks and locations acquired names which might later be incorporated into 
the timetable, becoming "official."  Red onion, cherry tree band, Devils 
hole, Paradise curve, come to mind.

The Greenwood Lake was originally a "division" by name on the Erie, later a 
"branch."  The Boonton Line was just that, not the Boonton branch.

Just because a spur may be long, does not make it a branch.  A long spur 
serves one or more industries, but does not have identified stations or 
locations per the timetable.

Names of tracks changed in the modern era when Conrail imposed its 
nomenclature on parts of EL trackage.

The track to the state hospital and Greystone was, in my experience, pretty 
much identified as such.  Spurs into particular customers were identified by 
the name of the shippers/receiving entity.  Those names would tend to stick 
at times.  K&E, Dixon's, etc tended to retain their names even when the 
original entity had gone belly up.  The Totowa water track was a multiple 
spur track, not a branch.  In some cases, names outlived both the track and 
structures they were originally describing.  They then became a place, 
functioning much like a milepost number.


Len VanderJagt
- ----- Original Message -----  


	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	Sponsored by the ELH&TS
	http://www.elhts.org

------------------------------