Nostalgia & History > RDCs on the Erie Lackawanna Pascack Valley Line

All right, it was Conrail by then, but still - by the late fall, early winter of 1979 the ex-CNJ Scoot from Bayonne to Cranford had been elminated and NJDOT had some spare RDCs. For awhile they ran them as the last train down in the morning and the first train back up in the evening on the Pascack Valley Line to Spring Valley, NY. During Winter Break from college I was working at my family's store in NYC and would, when I had the chance, ride the RDCs to or from work if I could get away with the "bankers' hours" as my uncle called it.

On December 24, Conrail ran two trains early in the day, and one of them was the the RDC set. I had been planning out getting pics of the RDCs at Oradell for a few weeks already and this was basically my one chance. Unfortunately it was foggy, and I mean foggy. These two photos don't do justice to the fog. I recall I couldn't see my mom's car from our front door (and we lived in a small house). 

Conrail's extra afternoon run from Hoboken to Spring Valley is seen coming and going with a set of four ex-CNJ RDC1s on 12/24/79.

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Very interesting photos and story.
ALLEN  

I love fog/train pictures and the first one is a really nice one.  Too bad you had to take it in New Jersey with all that clutter and mud.

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/17 00:53 by MartyBernard.

"erielackawanna", thank you very much for posting the pictures.  I grew up in the area (Haworth) and I have been over the crossing at Oradell Avenue hundreds of times, dating back to steam and Stillwell coaches.  Never would have expected RDCs on Pascack Valley Line.  A few points on your pictures.  The historic Oradell station can be seen in the background of your first picture.  Not all those RDC's were ex-CNJ.  Note the difference in pilots between lead RDC in picture 1 and rear RDC in picture 2.  Rear RDC was likely ex-CNJ.  In the early days, line was known as the NJ&NY, and was originally double track most of the way.  It was single-tracked sometime before 1950.  There were some interesting signals and sidings before NJDOT got involved,

BTW, the mud in picture 2 was likely from road construction.  The Hackesack River runs behind where the pictures were taken.

JL
 

Thanks for posting these and other vintage shots, Charles.  Always enjoyable to see pics of operations in other parts of the country that I rarely, if ever, got to visit back then.
GK