NOTE: This message had contained at least one image attachment. To view or download the image(s), click on or cut and paste the following URL into your web browser: http://lists.elhts.org/listthumb.cgi?erielack-04-02-06 Erie1.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x432 315802 bytes, BF: 0.79 ppb) Erie2.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x432 292394 bytes, BF: 0.85 ppb) Erie3.jpg (image/jpeg, 432x576 268060 bytes, BF: 0.93 ppb) Erie4.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x432 326390 bytes, BF: 0.76 ppb) Erie5.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x432 268814 bytes, BF: 0.93 ppb) Erie6.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x432 311005 bytes, BF: 0.80 ppb) Erie7.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x432 253435 bytes, BF: 0.98 ppb) Erie8.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x768 464093 bytes, BF: 0.95 ppb) Erie9.jpg (image/jpeg, 576x432 364256 bytes, BF: 0.68 ppb) Friday's weather being a splendid as it was, I went for a bike ride. I had two things in mind. One was to get some exercise; the other was to photograph the damage to the Upper Montclair station and get a good look at the other remaining ex-Erie stations along the line. So I took my bike on the 10:30 NJT train from Denville to Montclair State and rode from there. On the way there, we had a close call with a trespasser roughly behind the Mountain Lakes Diner. The engineer blew the horn, then dumped the air. Because we were underway again in a minute, I figured we'd missed whatever it was. Montclair State, of course, is a brand new high-level NJT station so I didn't take any photos of that. Montclair Heights was completely rebuilt during the electrification, so I skipped it and went to Mountain Avenue (Erie1). By the way, the connecting train from MSU had given me a head start and was here when I arrived. Upper Montclair looks pretty bad. The walls are still standing but the roof is gone and the interior is gutted. Historic preservation forces, the NJT lease to Montclair and the Montclair sublease to the restaurant will probably get it rebuilt much as it had been (Erie2, 3). A nice stone building is to the north of the station (Erie4) - does anyone know what it is/was? Watchung Avenue (Erie5, 6) is another nice station building. In the small strip mall to the east is the Wah-Chung Chinese Kitchen. Someone has a sense of humor! Walnut Street (Erie7) appears to be a 1950's era replacement. Does anyone know its history? I headed for Bloomfield and rode down Broad Street. I saw a typical NJT Rail sign (Erie8) pointing up Benson Street to Jimmy Wilson's building (Erie9). Are the shuttle vans to Glen Ridge still running? I saw one car in the parking lot and no signs to tell people ANYTHING. After that, I went on to Branch Brook Park, but it was too early for the cherry blossoms. I looped through the park and rode back to MSU in time for the 2:30 shuttle to Denville. We had ANOTHER close call just west of Great Notch, three boys riding their bikes alongside the track... Gary R. Kazin DL&W Milepost R35.7 Rockaway, New Jersey __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List Sponsored by the ELH&TS http://www.elhts.org ------------------------------
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