RE: (erielack) Montville Station

[Charles_Walsh_@_Berlex.com]

Paul,

I used to have friends who had a house up on the hill that you had to use
the Abbott Road crossing to get to off of Route 202.  Much of their
property was seized for I-287.  Anyway, the old man used to say that it was
a bit tricky to cross there when the Boonton Line was four tracks.

Chuck



                                                                           
             "Tupaczewski,                                                 
             Paul R (Paul)"                                                
             <paultup_@_lucent.c                                          To 
             om>                       "'Montgomery, Edward T'"            
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             erielack-owner_@_li         erielack@lists.elhts.org            
             sts.elhts.org                                              cc 
                                                                           
                                                                   Subject 
             10/25/2006 11:11          RE: (erielack) Montville Station    
             AM                                                            
                                                                           
                                                                           
             Please respond to                                             
               "Tupaczewski,                                               
              Paul R (Paul)"                                               
             <paultup_@_lucent.c                                             
                    om>                                                    
                                                                           
                                                                           




> After reading all of the comments about the Montville station
> I began wondering why it was there.  Could it be that it was
> created for workers to get to the Pennick factory or its
> predecessors?  Transportation was difficult before the 1930's
> so taking the train to work might have been the thing to do.
> The station is only about a mile from Boonton.


That's the only thing I can think of. Up until not-too-recently, there
really wasn't much "out there" on Taylortown Road where the Montville
station was (and its small size seems to emphasize that fact). Plus, as has
been pointed out, the Boonton station was about a mile west, and Towaco's
station about a mile east. (Towaco - another town where there wasn't all
that much "out there" in EL days)



> I always thought of Montville as the low rent district
> between Towaco and Boonton.  It's hard to believe how things
> have changed.  Montville has some things that never seem to
> change like Van Riper Real Estate on the corner.  There was a
> junk yard up the hill going to Boonton with a bar in front of
> it.  On the Main Road to Towaco just past Van Riper was a
> feed store.  I think it's now condos.  The railroad was
> tucked away from the central part of the town.

In the time I've been railfanning Montville (a short bike ride from my
childhood home in Boonton), the changes have been dramatic and drastic. I
used to enjoy watching trains at the Abbett Road crossing (a little dirt
road but with actual crossing flashers!) - right behind the Vreeland apple
farm and surrounded by not much else. Thermal Fused Quartz was the only
industry in that area at the end of EL days, and it received BN covered
hoppers of... quartz?

Fast-forward 20 years: Thermal Fused Quartz is now a gym (!!!), Vreeland's
farm is no longer, and all that empty space around the tracks has rapidly
filled up with "McMansions" (there's a notably HUGE one whose backyard is
literally right on the Boonton Line - how much you want to bet those folks
will be lobbying for fewer trains?)

"Progress."

             - Paul

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