(erielack) Car Orders

[JG at graytrainpix <graytrainpix_@_hotmail.com>]

Paul,

By the late 60s, the EL had closed a lot of stations, but generally kept enough so there would be at least one freight agent or clerk for the region worked by a particular local crew.  But there were exceptions; at Dundee in Passaic, for instance, there was no agent.  The Dundee industrial area was overseen by Paterson Yard, and a clerk from there would drive out to exchange paperwork and discuss the work with the conductor on the Drill.  I believe that Paterson also covered the Garfield area on the Bergen County Line, maybe up to BT (Passaic Jct., or really Coalberg Jct. to the Erie).  From BT up to Glen Rock, the agent at Radburn-Fair Lawn handled the work.  So, the Garfield Drill would work with two different offices in its daily routine. 

If you go back before 1966, there were evening drill crews like the 2nd AC Drill that roved around quite a bit (although assigned to Passaic and Paterson, it would venture up to Ridgewood and down the Bergen County Line sometimes); also there were weekend crews that went beyond their normal areas (e.g., I recall one Saturday seeing a drill crew working on the Carlton Hill branch, so I asked the conductor what job this was; terse response: "third Northern").  I'm not sure how these crews were directed, since the agency stations were mostly closed on weekends and after 4 pm.  Perhaps they reported to a clerk in Croxton, who would coordinate the next business day with the regular agent.  

I forget where the Greenwood Lake Line was handled from.  I do recall that there was an agent in the Bloomfield Freight House on the Erie's Orange Branch, to handle that Branch.  There may have been an agent in Boonton for Drew.  I think there was an agent in that modern shack at Mountain View, who handled the Boonton Line stub to Little Falls (lots of business there back then, kept the Little Falls Roustabout busy).  The Pompton Jct. station may have handled the Greenwood Lake line above Mountain View (for the Greenwood Lake Haul).  Dover had an agent who may have handled Lake Jct. to Denville.  The NJ&NY was handled by a group of clerks in the new Wood Ridge station, up thru Hackensack.  There were some open stations above Hackensack for whatever business there was up there, maybe Hillside.  

I think that the Northern Branch had agents or clerks at Ridgefield, and further up the line somewhere.  The Newark Branch had agents at Newark, and at Franklin Ave. in Nutley (he was kept busy by Hoffman LaRoche back then).  On the Main Line, there was an agent at Kingsland for the Kingsland Drill, then another agent at Clifton for Delawanna thru Clifton, then the Paterson area had those yard clerks. The Passaic Branch (remains of Erie Main Line) was also worked from Paterson, although there might have been an agent at the modern Clifton depot thru 1965 or so, dealing with what industry remained on the north side of Passaic (there were quite a few old, dying factories in that stretch, along with the Passaic team tracks and the meat processing place). 

I don't recall ever seeing a local crew with a teletype printed list like the road freights had (e.g., the Paul Brezicki collection of road freight info as summarized so well on the ELHS web site).  They may have gotten a hand-written list from the yard, in addition to their waybill stack; the trains were generally 25 cars or less (although the NJ&NY "671" Drills could be up to 40 cars at times).  But usually they made up their switching plans "in the field", in consultation with the agent or clerk responsible for the area they were working.

I never worked a station, so I'm just passing on what I observed or was told.  Too bad about Ron Wallace's passing this year, he knew all this stuff by heart.  These are the kinds of daily operational details about the EL that are slipping away from us as time passes.  Mea culpa, I'm just as guilty as anyone in ignoring them and not documenting them, when I had the chance.

Jim Gerofsky



Very interesting! This is similar to a "switch list" that many model railroaders 
use, although those usually consolidate information for all towns along a 
local's route. I assume towns that didn't have an agent had adjacent town agents 
write car orders for the former? Did local crews leave with any switching 
paperwork at their point of origin, or did they have to stop at the respective 
agent's locations to get these car orders?
 
    - Paul

 		 	   		  

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