Nostalgia & History > NJ Morris County Traction Company

The Morris County Traction Company (MCTC) operated a network of trolley lines in the Morris County, Union County, and Essex County NJ area from just before 1910 to 1928. It maintained its fleet at car barns located in Dover and Summit. The Summit barn was taken over by Public Service, and served as its base for #70 and 72 bus lines for many years.

Since the early 1970s, the car barn has been used as an auto dealer's maintenance shop. It has been vacated and the property is not currently in use. The turntable area on the north side of the barn has been filled in, but the outline of the pit is marked by a circle of Belgian block. The large trolley entrances have been bricked over, but are quite visible.

The piers of the railway's bridge across the Passaic appear to be visible in the river behind the shops, but I didn't go back to investigate.

The Dover car barn is now used by Lakeland Bus company as its base of operations.

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This is the side view of the car barn. The trolley cars entered through two large doors, one of which is completely bricked over. The back of the barn has three sets of doors where the cars exited. The turntable pit is to my right, and the office is to my left.

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Ya know, I was born and raised in Dover, NJ and never realized that the Lakeland Bus Lines garage was the former Morris County Traction car barn! We are speaking about the structure at the east end of town very close to the Rockaway border, yes? There was a trucking company terminal there too (Lakeland Express?).

Tom Y

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> Ya know, I was born and raised in Dover, NJ and
> never realized that the Lakeland Bus Lines garage
> was the former Morris County Traction car barn! We
> are speaking about the structure at the east end
> of town very close to the Rockaway border, yes?
> There was a trucking company terminal there too
> (Lakeland Express?).
>
> Tom Y

Yup. One and the same. It's adjacent to the Morristown & Erie's Rockaway branch line.

If you plug this address (NJ dover 425 east blackwell street) into google maps, and then click the street view, you can see the actual building.