In an effort by the city of Passaic to revitalize the area, abandoned equipment was cleared out of the New York & Greenwood Lake Railway Dundee Yard at the end of February.
I grew up in Passaic and I remember when the city was served by three railroads, The Erie , Lackawanna and the Susquehanna . That Dundee spur trackage was busy it served the Okonite Corp, Manhattan ( or US Rubber Company) and a chemical plant.
I didn't realize how much equipment Jimmy Wilson had tucked away. I worked with Jimmy when he was a conductor with NJ Transit, quite a character but a good railroader. He owned Benson St. station in Glenridge on the former Greenwood Lake. He had the station available for the morning riders and sold coffee and pastries on the honor system.
Thanks for watching. The trackmobile did do a great job of getting the job done. It was pretty impressive. Although when all of the equipment is moved to the Bergen County Line connection they may need to bring a locomotive in for the job.
I'm not that sad to see this go. I grew up in Passaic, Garfield, and Wallington. I can recall from the late 50's seeing warehouses, cement plants, the rubber factory, etc.. NYSW would drill down that way aside from the Erie/EL . Almost all the businesses disappeared and so did the rail traffic .That whole area was an eyesore full of discarded items. I don't think they could even do anything with the property.
I have seen several videos covering this event. The funny part of each video is watching the fat guy and the cowboy racing each other to the switch. It’s also funny to see the fat guy riding the cars as if he works for the railroad. When the interchange crew arrives, you see the difference between those that work for the railroad and those that play railroad.
Fat guy works for the railroad. Cowboy used to work for the railroad. They were in the process of saving the equipment. Should be grateful they did that.
I finally come and check my comments again and this is what I find. It's just a video, man. Relax and enjoy it. No need to nitpick everything. As far as I'm concerned, they got the equipment out of the yard (which is now ripped up by the way) and they did it without any problems. I was there to watch the historical equipment move, not to watch the crews. How they work is their business, not mine.
So if the railroad closes down, and it still has foreign road cars on it, isn't it the responsibility of the foreign road to get their cars back, or do they normally just abandon them in place? Hopefully the locomotives can be returned to service by a leasing company / rebuilder. Anyone know the financial circumstances that led to the abandoned equipment? Cool video but a sad situation. Lots of trash in and around the area. You might think the town would want that cleaned up.
All the equipment is safely stored on the Stourbridge Line in Honesdale PA! I don’t know what the status of the equipment but this shortline has been pretty active whenever comes to restoration!
Well, on railroads that use engines, I believe it use to be a safety violation. For the same reason that you couldn’t wear your wedding ring. It could get snagged on a grab iron or anything. Listen and learn Grasshopper
