Day and Night in northern Jersey – NJT, NS, CSX, M&E and Whippany RR Museum

After work yesterday, I decided to swing by the Bound Brook New Jersey Transit station to see what I could see.  Well, I knew that I’d at the very least see some NJ Transit action, but the question was, would I get any freight?  Boy was I unprepared for the answer to that one.  And after that, I headed north to Morristown to watch a slideshow at the Tri-State Railway Historical Society meeting, which was of course followed by some night shooting at the Morristown & Erie Railroad as well as the Whippany Railway Museum.

As I left the office, I was again greeted with cloudless skies.  Not wanting to pass this up, and wanting to catch more than one train, I opted to head for the NJ Transit Bound Brook station.  At the very least, I’ll get a parade of NJT commuter runs in and out of the greater New York City area.  And if I was lucky, I might catch one or two freight moves on the Conrail Shared Assets Lehigh Line.

When I finally got to the Bound Brook station parking lot, I could hear a local switching somewhere nearby.  OK, I’d have at least one freight – that works for me.  So I parked, grabbed my gear, fed the meter and headed out to the southern platforms of the station.  When I got there, looking to the east I found a local switching a customer.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8673]

After a little while, they finished up and began heading west.  Just then, a westbound NJT commuter came into view.  So of course, I got a shot of both of them.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8672]

Then a closer shot of the commuter train

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8671]

With that done, I turned my attention back to the local, getting a couple of them approaching, then slowly stopping clear of the CP-BOUND BROOK interlocking, where they had a red signal.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8670] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8669] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8668]

Now that they were sitting tight at the signal, I headed over to the track 1 platform to get a shot of an eastbound NJT pulling out of the station.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8667]

Then a little different angle of the freight at the interlocking

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8666]

Not long after that, he got the signal to proceed west.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8665]

Cool, one freight in the bag.  And with the lack of action on the Lehigh Line, I took the opportunity to get a few shots of the next NJT eastbound through the station.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8664] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8663] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8662]

With that done, I was chatting with a couple local railfans at the station.  During that chat, we saw a headlight approaching from the west on the Lehigh Line.  Cool, another freight!

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8661]

As it turns out, this was a unit empty trash train bound for Staten Island, heading down the Port Reading Secondary.  But that wasn’t it, just then my scanner picked up the detector to the east – a westbound was also in the picture!

A few minutes later, a CSX stack train came into view to the east.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8660]

And stopped at the red signal at CP-BOUND BROOK

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8659]

Once stopped, the conductor got off to get a snack at the store near the station

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8658]

And the engineer also climbed down to stretch his legs

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8657]

But that wasn’t the interesting thing – what was interesting was why they stopped both trains there.  That could mean one of two things – one was coming east behind the trash train, or up the Port Reading Secondary.  A few minutes later, we got our answer – a general freight ran around the trash train, and crossed over in the interlocking to pass the stack train.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8656] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8655] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8654] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8653]

Then it was back to the waiting game.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8652]

But only for a few minutes.  In that time, I got another NJT coming into the station.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8651]

Then the stack train pulled out, heading west.  So what do I do?  Of course, I get a shot with the two other railfans there!

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8650]

After that, a going away shot of the NJT westbound heading into the sunset

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8649]

Then back to the idle time.  Don’t forget that the trash train is still sitting at the western approach to CP-BOUND BROOK.

A little while later, another NJT westbound pulled into the station

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8648]

And while shooting that, something to the east caught my eye – a headlight!  It was a pair of CSX widecabs running light.  A quick look at the interlocking, and they had an approach signal, so they were riding right through.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8647] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8646] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8645]

Well, it’s been quite the parade so far!  Never imagined there would be this much action – I’m not complaining!

To continue, the scanner picked up the detector to the east again – sounds like another westbound was coming at us.  A few minutes later that was confirmed, when an NS local rounded the bend to the east.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8644] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8643]

And this time, he had a stop signal at the interlocking, so he came to a stop in front of us.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8642] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8641]

Not long after that, an NS job pulled through the interlocking, passing the local.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8640] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8639]

And then back to the waiting game.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8638]

So if this guy ran around the trash train, and now these two were still sitting here, that meant that something was probably coming up the Port Reading Secondary.  A little while later we got an answer as we heard squealing flanges on the other side of the local.  A unit ethanol train (my guess would be empty since there was one unit on it) pulled off of the secondary and onto the mainline at Bound Brook

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8637] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8636]

Finally, the trash train pulled through the interlocking and onto the Port Reading Secondary.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8635]

Leaving clear tracks for the local to head west

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8634] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8633]

Not long after that, yet another NJT pulled into the station, so as a parting shot, I got that guy

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8632]

So that means I caught 14 trains in the span of two hours.  Not too bad at all!

But I ain’t done yet!

After that, I headed north to Morristown.  Like I mentioned, to kill some time I attended the Tri-State Railway Historical Society’s meeting, which featured a slideshow by Bob Goin – Trackside around the Garden State.  A very enjoyable show of material from the 1950s to the 1970s – nice variety of stuff, including EL, NYSW, NJT, Metro North, CNJ and more.  But after that, I headed to a couple other places after dark.  First stop was the Morristown & Erie Railroad’s shops in Morristown.

I took a couple telephoto shots of the stuff outside the M&E shops.  A couple things of note – there’s a former Amtrak Vermonter baggage car there, along with an-ex New Haven (in Amtrak colors) EMD FL-9 there.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8631] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8630] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8629] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8628]

With that in the bag, I headed a bit further north and east to the Whippany Railway Museum to get a few shots of some of their equipment.  Note to self – I need to visit this place when it’s open, only thing is I think they’re only open on Sundays (I’m usually in NJ during the week).  Anyways, here’s the shots I got at the museum.

[cpg_imagefixthumb:8627] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8626] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8625] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8624] [cpg_imagefixthumb:8623]

And that was it for the day.  Got back to the hotel room by about 11pm, and stayed up until about 12:30am downloading and processing the images…

Thanks for looking!
Tom