Eastern Railroad Discussion > The number 27

I often walk my four legged friend adjacent to these mostly dormant tracks near by home in Riverdale, NJ.

Riverdale was originally known as Pompton, NJ due to the nearby Pompton River.   A predecessor of the Erie Railroad was the first to reach this area to serve the communities; mainly farms, tourists to Greenwood Lake, NY and some iron mines.   The line became the Erie Greewood Lake Branch running from Jersey City up to Greenwood Lake, New York.   The New York Susquehanna and Western Railroad crossed the line on a diamond just a short distance north of here at Milepost 28.   

By the time I was born in 1971 the Greenwood Lake Branch had been cut back to MP 28.5 the northern end removed from service a short time before.   This kept the diamond and a small interchange intact with the NYS&W Railroad.  One customer remained in Riverdale at that time receiving hopper cars with plastic pellets.   By 1976 (I was not a railfan) but remember seeing an Erie Lackawanna crew passing MP 27 going north to service this customer.   By 1983 Conrail placed the line out of service and transferred that customer to the NYS&W.

Many days, while walking my dog I look at the artifacts along the tracks, old ties, tie plates, broken insulators, and the rail itself.   The rail, 100# ARA came from Lackwanna Steel in 1927.   Who knows if it was originally placed here when new or migrated here from some other line.

But recently I realized not only was the rail from 1927, but Riverdale is also home of Milepost 27.   The JC refers to Jersey City being 27 miles away from this spot.   I did my best to capture both "27s" in the photo.

The concrete foundation at right originally held the approach signal for Pompton Junction.

The derail marks the end of the active portion of track for the NYS&W.  They use it for car storage and loading scrap rail into gondolas for shipment out.    Soon the line from MP 26.5 south to about a 1/2 mile north of Mountain View, NJ will be repurposed as a rail trail.   The last train having used that portion of the line being 1983. 

I wonder how much longer these two 27s will remain.  

CV the Civil E in NJ



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/26/20 09:56 by cjvrr.

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Very nice.

Love the historical perspective of this...thank you.

Interesting to consider how much shorter the Greenwood Lake branch to this point than the NYSW main. I think the jct us like mp 33 on the squeak.

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