I see dates of 1879 and 1900. What is their historic significance? I am guessing 1879 was when the RR was founded, and 1900 when the station was built?
That's a good question. I had to research it and have only a partial answer. The P&LE's main line northwest to Youngstown, OH was completed in 1879, but I'm not sure about the 1900, but your guess looks like a good one to me.
Taken May 1982, this is the Erie's Pompton Riverdale NJ depot, perhaps 30 miles from Newark on its Greenwood Lake branch. Happily, I think the structure still exists and houses a business of some sort. As best I can figure, this is the station that my grandfather commuted to New York from. My father once told me that as a boy, he rode with his Dad into work one Saturday and asked why he saw so many Erie steam locomotives stored. This was during the Depression and it was explained that there was no work for them and that their trust plates were still valid and they couldn't be scrapped.
I always wished that someone would reproduce this sign as new. Seen in March 1981 in Denville NJ under DL&W catenary, 3000 VDC.
It was still there, intact. Amazingly, Google Maps shows it just as it was with the same track running perhaps a mile north to cross the NYS&W at Pompton Jct., but with covered hoppers and tank cars on it!
The DL&W's wire ended 43.1 Miles west of Hoboken at Dover, NJ. Notification was made with a very cool sign which could befit a train room too! (Kodachrome, September 1982) This line is still electrified, since upgraded to 25kV 60Hz AC.
Sometimes you just never know what you're going to find out there, such as this really neat NYS&W wooden crossbuck on a segment of mainline that hadn't seen a train in nearly 10 years. [Charlotteburg, NJ - March 1980]
I've been away from the region for so many years now, that I'm not sure. The last I read was that the railroad still operates the same lines (a segment of the original NYS&W in NJ, plus DL&W branches in NY, connected by a lease of the Erie main). The railroad is now owned by NS and CSX, but retains all other facets of independent ownership. NS and CSX wanted ownership, so as to prevent a recurrence of the headache suffered by CR when the NYS&W arose from the ashes to compete and win tonnage.
A hurricane struck NJ in 1971 and washed out the NYS&W, cutting off what remained of its west end and its interchange with the Lehigh & Hudson River. The NYS&W chose to leave it be and cut service back to Butler, NJ. I took this shot in July of 1980: The scene below was taken on the same day at Smiths Mills, just west of Butler. (Credit Fotomat for the loss of color on both shots, borne of their crappy Kodachrome processing. )
In the woods near Butler, NJ, I was amazed to find the site of a very old NYS&W engine terminal, with turntable and ancient equipment. I've seen a lot of vintage NYS&W photos, but none of this facility. Butler was the western terminus for Jersey City passenger service and I suspect that the arrival of RS-1's in the late 1940s put an end to the need to turn the locomotives.
I found this nearly 40 years ago, but I still greatly enjoy this sort of discovery. No doubt though that it's getting more difficult to find relics that have escaped vandals and arsonists. Case in point is this 1980 picture of the CNJ's Nesquehoning Jct. Tower, abandoned and deep in the Lehigh Gorge. Its inaccessible location offered protection, but in the years since, it's become covered in graffiti. I can't understand what motivates people to bring spray cans everywhere. That's the abandoned CNJ main on the bridge, crossing back over the Leigh River to run beside the LV main which I am standing above. The branch to Nesquehoning ran behind the tower.
Denville, NJ is a junction where the DL&W's main line met their Boonton Branch. The Boonton "Branch" is a misnomer, as it is actually a well-engineered freight bypass that serves to minimize freight traffic on the commuter-heavy mainline. I shot this photo in 1981. Unfortunately the depot suffered a fire and was demolished in 1992. Happily though, the long-inactive interlocking tower at Denville survives. You can see it in the distance to the right of the depot and in the second photo below, also shot in 1981.
A short wait at Denville that day brought two westbounds, a CR freight off the Boonton line appropriately led by ex-EL SDP-45 6695 and a commuter train off the DL&W main led by a GE U34CH. It was not unusual for diesel powered commuter trains to appear on this electrified line. The original DL&W mu cars were weary and would survive for only three more years.
You say that you ran out of number decals for your numberboards? No sweat. Just do what Conrail* did in the spring of '82 and use whatever font you have handy. *Conrail operated the trains under contract with New Jersey Transit at the time.
