Chatham
 next stop to theupleft  Madison 
 next stop to thedownright  Summit 
Home<New Jersey<NJ Transit Rail<Morristown Line (MidTOWN DIRECT)<Chatham

Chatham is a historic station and the first stop on the two track Morristown Line after the Galdstone Branch separates. It normally receives service hourly or better mainly from Midtown Direct trains. The station consists of two very low-level side platforms with portions nearly beneath track level and just wide yellow lines along each edge. These can only accommodate 6 cars so longer trains overshoot the platforms. The station is located on a slight embankment as the platforms each begin at their eastern ends with a staircase up from Fairmount Avenue.

In the middle of each platform is a historic 1915 station building that last received historic exterior renovations in 2009-2010. The Hoboken-bound platform has the station's main depot. This large brick single story building clearly once included a freight area (there is a wide now unused door) there is green trim and a Spanish tiled roof with the remains of a chimney that provides some overhangs at each end (and the only shelter for passengers when the station is closed) with larger areas along the eastern and western ends where high brick pillars also hold up the roof. Inside is a ticket office open only from 5:30am to 9:00am luckily the signs say the building stays open until 1:00pm and passengers were witnessed inside from a train stopping around 2:30pm. Inside are walls waited a lime green colored with darker green trim and two wooden benches that clearly have heating built directly in them. On one corner is the single ticket window and the other wall has a former newsstand. This business was owned by Chatham News Service and closed for the last time on October 31, 2013 by the current proprietor Gregory T. Henrich that inherited the family business from his grandfather, Charles Henrich that began at the station back in 1912. The women's room is directly from this waiting area. To reach the Men's room a small doorway leads to an additional wooden bench (without heating) and a men's room. The library also sponsors a paperback book trading shelf inside the station.

The depot is along the edge of the station's main 305 space parking lot that is at the same level as the platform. This parking lot includes the Diversity Garden of the Chathams, greenery that breaks up the parking lot and includes a modern statue Crescent by Richard Jolley. The parking lot is on the edge of ECLC of New Jersey, a special needs school and school buses line the parking lot to pick up and drop off the students. Access is provided both from Fairmont Avenue along its eastern end and Railroad Plaza South that continues west of the station down a small incline below the tracks (offering an interesting photo angle, there isn't a fence) to Lum Avenue.

Just outside the depot (within its eves) next to the stations two TVMs is a staircase down to an underpass tunnel. This leads to a staircase up to the Hackettstown-bound platform and continues to two half staircases up to a smaller 113 space parking lot (basically spaces on each side of Bond Street) that is at at a lower level than this platform. The underpass arrives to the Hackettstown-bound platform directly beneath the platform shelter that is a small mini version of the station house across from it. Inside is a small waiting area (with signs saying its open the same hours of the main station) with two black wooden benches. Additional access to the Hackettstown-bound platform is provided by the already mentioned staircase from Fairmont Avenue, staircases on each side of the shelter and finally a staircase at the western end of the platform that was fenced off and closed when I visited in November 2013 for a rebuilding.
All Photos taken on 4 November, 2013

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Comet V #6053 and is the last car of a single-level Midtown train of different Comets heading to Dover
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A train fades into the distance, can't leave the platform here, its closed
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The taped off for reconstruction staircase at the end of the Hackettstown-bound platform
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A bypassing train heading towards Dover of MLVs skips on the normal Newark-bound track
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ALP-46 #4614 pushes a deadheading train of MLVs wrong-railing up the Morristown Line
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ALP-46 #4614 fades into the distance of fall, pushing a wrong-railing deadheading train
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This closed exit is to Parking Lot
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A modern sign on one end of the shelter built above the pedestrian underpass
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Ads dot the historic shelter
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Inside this shelter that is still open with black wooden benches and a radiator
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Restored light fixtures hang and light the historic shelter
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A passenger waits for a train on a bench outside the shelter (its roof is the only shelter for passengers when its closed)
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Across from the main depot
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The two Spanish tiled roof buildings
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Home<New Jersey<NJ Transit Rail<Morristown Line (MidTOWN DIRECT)<Chatham
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Last Updated: 8 April, 2013
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