Nostalgia & History > CR electric

CR #4429 E44, May 1979. No location.

---

We ought to be able to figure that location,
but I don't have it. The bridge in the distance --
a swing bridge or lift bridge? Highway or RR?
Guess that can't be the Pulaski Skyway above,
so what is it?

Low degree of confidence, but how about the P&H branch East of Oak island / Newark NJ. With US 1/9 and the Turnpike behind?

Posted from Android

Question is, where does a black steel
highway bridge parallel PRR catenary
that closely, with the track on concrete
piers like that. I can't find such a spot.
Let alone explain the other bridge.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Low degree of confidence, but how about the P&H
> branch East of Oak island / Newark NJ. With US 1/9
> and the Turnpike behind?
Would this be Kearny, NJ, or am I too far to the west ?

CPMorris Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Lackawanna484 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Low degree of confidence, but how about the P&H
> > branch East of Oak island / Newark NJ. With US
> 1/9
> > and the Turnpike behind?
> Would this be Kearny, NJ, or am I too far to the
> west ?

Very close. If this is where I think it is, South Kearny yard would be about two miles in one direction, and Oak Island about a mile in the other.

The Pennsylvania Railroad's Passaic & Harsimus freight branch ran from the NEC past Oak Island, and alongside US 1-9 on the east side of Newark NJ. Crossed the Passaic River at Point-No-Point, and went into South Kearny / Meadows yard. And on into Jersey City

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Low degree of confidence, but how about the P&H
> branch East of Oak island / Newark NJ. With US 1/9
> and the Turnpike behind?

For all the billion times I drove that segment through the years that was my guess too. Tracks right next door to the freeway, lots of CR activity in the late 80s through the 90s and the catenary posts still in place I seem to recall...

JG

When the tracks are right next to "the freeway"
(meaning US 1 I assume), the freeway looks
nothing like that. The Pulaski Skyway is a black
steel thru truss when it crosses the rivers,
but when US 1 is parallel to PRR it has
no steel above the pavement, as you see

ACME Mapper 2.2 - 2.8 km ExSE of Harrison NJ

(And the camera would be looking SE,
into the sun.)

The black steel looming above the train
in the pic should be easy to find, but I
can't find it in the NY area. Thought
maybe it was the highway over the
Hackensack River, but the railroad
there isn't on concrete piers like that.

Looks like maybe 1/9 (plus PRR) crossing over Wilson Ave., or somewhere else nearby along the P&H from the 1/9-I95 crossing down to Oak Island (not the part of 1/9 east of I95 on the high bridges). Highway and railroad at various heights next to each other on the Newark segment, one sometimes higher or lower than the other, and of course the surrouding landscape has obviously changed in that many years.

JG

The highway has no steel above the pavement
anywhere west of the Passaic River bridge.

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The highway has no steel above the pavement
> anywhere west of the Passaic River bridge.

Yes, it does. Or used to, I've driven it too many times for a calculator to count...

JG

Then they must have painted the steel
to perfectly match the pavement. No sign
of it on the online aerials. Try looking.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/27/24 13:26 by timz.

timz Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Then they must have painted the steel
> to perfectly match the pavement. No sign
> of it on the online aerials. Try looking.

Well, aerials can't possibly tell what line of sight elevations and structures are anywhere, esp. if they're made 50 years after the photo shown. My driving alongside the P&H once did, but that was at least 20 years ago. It may not actually be the P&H but seems very likely, as I stated, but I suggest with your level of curiosity you see if there's a google streetview place that matches the photo or consider visiting the area to know for sure. I'm just not that curious...

JG