Hospital Train Down The Street
I had no intentions in going to New Jersey this weekend. With autumn leaves at peak in the north country I had intended to head back to New Hampshire or upstate New York. But on Wednesday night I got word from a friend that Saturday was shaping up to be the big hospital train move off the long defunct New York and Greenwood Lake Railway in Passaic. These moves would constitute one of the very last on the line as it had been condemned and was going to be entirely removed.
What makes the old NYGL special is that they were the operators of the former Conrail (originally Erie) railroad Dundee Spur that included one of the longest stretches of street running left in the east for 3/10ths of a mile down Monroe Street. Much has been written about this line over the years and I'd known about it for decades thanks to seeing photos and reading about it in Railpace magazine. This street running while popular with railfans has long been a sore spot with the city of Garfield that has tried for decades to restrict or remove railroad operations. In fact their efforts even made a story in the New York Times decades ago: www.nytimes.com/1978/07/08/archives/new-jersey-pages-judg...
Conrail operated the route until 1996 when much to the delight of the city they petitioned for abandonment. But the line's one remaining shipper objected and it was sold and became the shortline NYGL. For a while they were able to grow business and seemed successful giving the line a new lease on life and delighting fans with a roster of vintage motive power wearing a pseudo Erie Railroad scheme.
But the lines major shipper closed for good in 2009, and the railroad ceased all operations in 2012. Having sat in limbo for half a decade with its connection to the outside world severed (where the line met NJT's ex Erie Bergen County Line) its future was uncertain. Seized due to unpaid taxes the railroad finally relinquished all rights in 2019 and allowed it to be cleared abandoned. The new owner of the property swapped land with the city of Passaic so that the location of Island Yard could be revitalized from a homeless camp into a waterfront park.
In February of this year the collection of former NYGL equipment was moved up the line from their one time shop and trans load facility at Dundee Yard up to Island Yard so that track removal and site clearing could begin on the lower portion. There it sat until this past Saturday when a special move contracted to the Morristown and Erie Railroad took place. The M&E used their SW1500 to shuttle the hospital train out to the NJT main where they made the short trip north to deliver it to the NYSW's yard. The equipment has been donated to Operation Toy Train and would be headed to Honesdale, PA for safe keeping via an NYSW special on Sunday to Lackawaxen and the connection with the Stourbridge Line.
After delivering the derelict equipment the SW1500 would return to Garfield and make a second trip light engine down the street to pick up five loaded flats and gons of salvaged rail and hardware before making a third trip shoving north (railroad west) this time back to the NJT main before taking that back to their shop at at Morristown via their trackage rights over NJT.
I never made it to see the Dundee Spur in CR or NYGL days and the line died before I moved back east. So when the opportunity arose on my day off to get one truly last chance at photographing this iconic piece of east coast Street trackage I knew I had to go. Considering I'd recently traveled all over the midwest seeking out street trackage, to have this chance come up relatively close to home was truly a gift and to not attempt it would be just wrong, So,despite the throngs of easily 200 fans out chasing it was a day for the ages with good friends absolutely worth the effort!
There will probably be only one more set of runs down and back up the street with the last of the rail, but I won't be able to make it whenever that happens. So, let's take a look at nearly the last gasp of the old Erie Railroad line down Monroe Street and over halfmoon trestle into Passaic. I have dozens of photos to share but here is one to start.
Making the first move of the day on the line, ME SW1500 (EMD blt. Oct. 1966 as RFP 91) leads a long hospital train of derelict former NYGL equipment up Monroe Street headed to the NJT Bergen County Line connection. They are being walked up the street with a railroad and police escort as they approach the intersection of Cambridge street with the Albanian American Islamic Center mosque providing an interesting backdrop.
Garfield, New Jersey
Saturday October 4, 2020
Hospital Train Down The Street
I had no intentions in going to New Jersey this weekend. With autumn leaves at peak in the north country I had intended to head back to New Hampshire or upstate New York. But on Wednesday night I got word from a friend that Saturday was shaping up to be the big hospital train move off the long defunct New York and Greenwood Lake Railway in Passaic. These moves would constitute one of the very last on the line as it had been condemned and was going to be entirely removed.
What makes the old NYGL special is that they were the operators of the former Conrail (originally Erie) railroad Dundee Spur that included one of the longest stretches of street running left in the east for 3/10ths of a mile down Monroe Street. Much has been written about this line over the years and I'd known about it for decades thanks to seeing photos and reading about it in Railpace magazine. This street running while popular with railfans has long been a sore spot with the city of Garfield that has tried for decades to restrict or remove railroad operations. In fact their efforts even made a story in the New York Times decades ago: www.nytimes.com/1978/07/08/archives/new-jersey-pages-judg...
Conrail operated the route until 1996 when much to the delight of the city they petitioned for abandonment. But the line's one remaining shipper objected and it was sold and became the shortline NYGL. For a while they were able to grow business and seemed successful giving the line a new lease on life and delighting fans with a roster of vintage motive power wearing a pseudo Erie Railroad scheme.
But the lines major shipper closed for good in 2009, and the railroad ceased all operations in 2012. Having sat in limbo for half a decade with its connection to the outside world severed (where the line met NJT's ex Erie Bergen County Line) its future was uncertain. Seized due to unpaid taxes the railroad finally relinquished all rights in 2019 and allowed it to be cleared abandoned. The new owner of the property swapped land with the city of Passaic so that the location of Island Yard could be revitalized from a homeless camp into a waterfront park.
In February of this year the collection of former NYGL equipment was moved up the line from their one time shop and trans load facility at Dundee Yard up to Island Yard so that track removal and site clearing could begin on the lower portion. There it sat until this past Saturday when a special move contracted to the Morristown and Erie Railroad took place. The M&E used their SW1500 to shuttle the hospital train out to the NJT main where they made the short trip north to deliver it to the NYSW's yard. The equipment has been donated to Operation Toy Train and would be headed to Honesdale, PA for safe keeping via an NYSW special on Sunday to Lackawaxen and the connection with the Stourbridge Line.
After delivering the derelict equipment the SW1500 would return to Garfield and make a second trip light engine down the street to pick up five loaded flats and gons of salvaged rail and hardware before making a third trip shoving north (railroad west) this time back to the NJT main before taking that back to their shop at at Morristown via their trackage rights over NJT.
I never made it to see the Dundee Spur in CR or NYGL days and the line died before I moved back east. So when the opportunity arose on my day off to get one truly last chance at photographing this iconic piece of east coast Street trackage I knew I had to go. Considering I'd recently traveled all over the midwest seeking out street trackage, to have this chance come up relatively close to home was truly a gift and to not attempt it would be just wrong, So,despite the throngs of easily 200 fans out chasing it was a day for the ages with good friends absolutely worth the effort!
There will probably be only one more set of runs down and back up the street with the last of the rail, but I won't be able to make it whenever that happens. So, let's take a look at nearly the last gasp of the old Erie Railroad line down Monroe Street and over halfmoon trestle into Passaic. I have dozens of photos to share but here is one to start.
Making the first move of the day on the line, ME SW1500 (EMD blt. Oct. 1966 as RFP 91) leads a long hospital train of derelict former NYGL equipment up Monroe Street headed to the NJT Bergen County Line connection. They are being walked up the street with a railroad and police escort as they approach the intersection of Cambridge street with the Albanian American Islamic Center mosque providing an interesting backdrop.
Garfield, New Jersey
Saturday October 4, 2020