Passenger Trains > Sloatsburg New York

I would never claim to hold a candle to PassFanatic's comprehensive coverage of Metro New York's commuter lines, but I do beleive that I came up with something he missed - Sloatsburg, New York. One day last week while passing through the area, my GPS drastically re-routed me to avoid congestion on Interstate 287. The alternate routing took me near the Sloatsburg station. I wondered, would there be a train soon to come that I could photograph. I found the station, but no schedules were posted on the platforms. This is a good practice to keep unwanted riders off the train. However, a man striding toward the station said that a train was due in less than fifteen minutes. I figured the wait would be worth my time. Eventually, four people gathered on the platform and the train appeared almost on time. This allows for a few comments.
As can be seen from the photographs, the Sloatsburg station, one that any town would be proud to call its own, is truly an intermodal center as evidenced by the bicycle leaning on the building.
Second, perhaps PassFanatic missed the Sloatsburg station while on his ride from Port Jervis because he could not see out of the window to notice that the stop existed. The cab car is covered by an extra coating of grime and dirt. Someone inscribed one of the windows with the word "Pat", perhaps a lasting tribute to their boyfriend or girlfriend. I say lasting, because it is unlikely that the etching will be removed any time soon by the car being washed.
Lastly, the locomotive pushing the train moved by. The number "4" had fallen off the locomotive cab, leaving its remaining number as "900".

 

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I've been enjoying passfanatics's series on the Erie and Lackawanna stations.  Lots of ground to be covered.  Sloatsburg was devastated in Ramapo River flooding two decades ago. Homes were washed away, the railroad was undercut in several places and shut down for months.

Back in the day, Sloatsburg (XJ) was unusual in that it was joined with Sterlington, (SJ) just south, about 0.2 miles away. SJ had a center "siding" which handled interchange with the Sterling Mountain Iron short line interests. The two stations shared a passenger and freight agent back in the day.  Sterlington Narrow gauge mining, the Sterling Mountain standard gauge, lots of timber and iron came down the mountain. Also magnetite, a "rare earth" of the day.

Commander EJ Quimby goes into detail about these iron and timber short lines and the Erie in one of his books. 

Erie also had a center siding on the Greenwood Lake line at Forest Avenue crossing in Upper Montclair NJ.  The NY&GL also tapped into the iron mines on the south side of the Sterling Mountain properties at Greenwood Lake.

Good thread about the destruction of the line during Hurricane Irene.  Ten inches of rain in 12 hours plus a long canyon is rarely good for the railroad

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,2558271,2558668#msg-2558668

Here's a vintage image of the Sloatsburg depot from about 1911.

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Are ANY of the stations north/west of Suffern better than clusters of bus shelters? That description certainly applies to Salisbury Mills, Campbell Hall, and Middletown, and I don't remember there being much more than that at Otisville 33 years ago.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/25 13:06 by toledopatch.

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Are ANY of the stations north/west of Suffern
> better than clusters of bus shelters? That
> description certainly applies to Salisbury Mills,
> Campbell Hall, and Middletown, and I don't
> remember there being much more than that at
> Otisville 33 years ago.
>  

Tuxedo has a delightful little stone station.  Looks like it would fit in an English countryside station.  Other than that and Port Jervis, the other stations are very basic.

Graham Line did not have regular passenger stations or stops until the early 1980s.