A rain shortened trip only as far as Short Hills to photograph the Duel-Mode ALP-45DPs on diesel from Hoboken to Newark and electricity beyond on the Morristown Line and Gladstone Branches

This morning I have an early morning appointment that was done before 9am. Although rain is in the forecast I decide I might as well try my next transit adventure. The goal is getting some of the rare diesel trains running on the Gladstone Branch that normally uses Arrow IIIs but are running diesels (except for the couple of rush hour midTOWN DIRECT) trains because of the damage to the substation at Hoboken that has rendered their catenary system out of commission.

My original plan is to take PATH to Harrison (a stop on my list for more platform photos) and walk up to Newark Broad. My appointment is at 168th Street and I’m in the mood for a nap and a seat downtown so I sit on the C local. Sitting on C train, looking at the paper print out for the M&E schedule I had printed a few days before and along with waiting rooms only open until 12:50 and rain in the forecast I decide to just spend the extra $2.80 on a midTOWN DIRECT train from Penn Station. I got to Penn Station at 9:40 and go into the ClubAcela for a blueberry muffin (its the only breakfast pastry available) and coffee (my $2.80 at work).

At about 9:50 as I was leaving to buy my ticket I asked the attendant the track for the 10:04 train to Dover. He asks me the train number. Once I looked up at the departure board (the boards in ClubAcela include NJT) and told him the number 6619. He tells me track 3. I leave, the track is announced to the public. I visit a TVM and buy my ticket it to MAPLD via Sec and BNW.

The train leaves on time from the sub-end track 3 (It lacks escalators, I have to go down to the Exit Concourse to board). We slowly go through the yard switching quite a bit to head over to the westbound Hudson River tube. There quite a few idling NJ Transit trains and a random P32AC-DM (I wonder if this unit is for protection).

At 10:11 leave the tunnels and head through the Meadowlands. We stop at Secaucus on the middle platform at 10:14. The tracks combine back to two for the portal bridge. At the Kearney connection we go down, lose ventilation briefly as the voltage changes and I notice the PATH tracks as I see their yard and we go straight instead of south at Harrison and follow I-280 highway over the Passaic River and into Newark Broad Street. We curve onto the middle track briefly before stopping at the outside track 3 at Broad Street.

I hear the traps banging for our next stop as enter the trench through Newark, I notice the Roseville abandoned interlocking, bypass East Orange, stop at Brick Church and Orange, before bypassing Highland Avenue and Mountain Station before stopping at Orange and then getting to Maplewood, my stop. Maplewood is has a nice old Lackawanna Station house the tunnel between the platforms, tracks and streets has some of the most intense artwork I’ve ever seen. I photograph my train leaving as a New York-bound train enters. The MidTOWN DIRECT trains keeps me guessing because I have no idea which end of the train the electric locomotive will be on. The Arrows can’t run on these trains because they can’t make the voltage change on the fly at Kearny connection (The Arrow Fleet is semi-fixed, either Hoboken Division or Newark Division). At 11:00 a Hoboken-bound train comes into the station and I do a double-take when I notice a pantograph on the locomotive pushing the train. I walk back to the locomotive and notice that the train is indeed using a new single ended Dual-Mode Bombardier
ALP-45DP with Bombardier proudly plastered on the side.

At that point its time to start walking to my next station stop for a photo essay, Millburn, a bit of a disappointment because the original depot has been torn down and replaced with a professional building on the westbound track and the station house on the eastbound track is in a 1960s concrete building. I meet and briefly chat with a friendly railfan out with a camera.

I continue my walk to the next stop of Short Hills, passing alongside a railroad bridge with a cornerstone of 1893. It starts raining, I guess the weatherman is correct for once. I get to Short Hills and photograph a diesel Gladstone Branch train entering and realize some of its Comet Vs are Metro-North, there a little far from home. As it leaves I notice a Morristown & Erie Freight train on the opposite tracks. I’m not that big a railfan for freight trains except when it involves them going through commuter rail stations. I jog down into the underpass, and nearby bump into two older women who say “Let this crazy man through” in a nice teasing manner as I apologize. Locomotive 19 is going slowly enough that I get a few blurry photos. At that point I realize its just going to rain all afternoon and there’s no point going with my original plan. I use the TVMs (forgetting the ticket office is still open) and buy a ticket Short N to NWK BRD. I head inside the depot, one of the strangest I’ve been too. There a bunch of televisions in four of the corners showing soccer and tables at the old wooden benches that also have candles on top of them. The ticket office is in one corner along with restrooms. I then realize that this waiting room does double duty in the evening as the Box Car Bar and Grill, half the depot closed that is the core of the restaurant. What a strange place, especially with four TVs on (too bad the depot/ticket office closes at 12:50pm, can’t think of anything to watch that early).

There is a 12:40 Morristown Line midTOWN DIRECT TRAIN and a 12:48 Gladstone Branch Train. I get a few rainy photos of the 12:40 Morristown Line train going through and wait for the Gladstone Branch train to at least get a ride on one of the dual-modes (not that you notice any difference in the passenger cars). It comes in on time as I notice the pantograph on the ALP-45DP is up, were in electric mode. We make every local stop and get to Newark Board Street, “Passengers going to Penn Station, New York Get off and wait five minutes on the same platform for the next train”. We get to Newark Broad Street and I rush up to the front of the platform where NJT has unfortunately installed a DepatureVision monitor at the perfect railfan vantage point. The train leaves making different noises as I notice the exhaust rising and that the pantograph has been lowered for the rest of its now diesel trip to Hoboken. It leaves at 1:16, a little late.

I photograph the train leaving and reorient myself with the complex station so I can finally write a description and upload a photo essay. I then decide I need to witness the pantograph raising in action, with a Hoboken-bound train all the way from Hackettstown due in 25 minutes. The same M&E freight locomotive comes through #19, heading the other way (the direction of the locomotive hasn’t changed), its now pulling a single car of gypsum. I guess that’s shortline freight to customers on a busy passenger railway.
The 1:41 train from Hackettstown comes in 7 minutes late, at the same time as a Midtown Direct Montclair Train. The Hackettstown train is using a ALP-46DP but its mode doesn’t switch, it clearly didn’t enter diesel mode in Dover just to leave it in Newark and has been operating under wire for most of its trip.

At 1:54 the Gladstone Branch train to Bernardsville I’ve been waiting for comes in in diesel mode. It arrives, someone comes out of the cap to double check the pantograph is going up. There is a slight spark and the locomotive becomes noticeably more quieter. I have enough time to rush over to the New York-bound platform for a photo of the train leaving.
The Raising of the pantograph:

Then its time to take a walk through Newark, I consider even spending the $1.70 on the Light Rail to Penn Station but it currently only operates every half hour and isn’t worth waiting for. I then remember the Newark Museum has reciprocity with the Transit Museum and try and go there. It’s closed. At that point I decide in the rain I might as well just go home. I realize that I’m closest to the Washington Street City Subway Station and decide I might as well buy a 70¢ underground only ticket and finally get off a train at Newark Penn Station (I’ve only ever gotten on trains there). We arrive and the voice says to stay on board around the loop to transfer trains. I get off and follow the crowd up the escalator that passes a very old ticket booth and deposits me in a location I wasn’t fully familiar with (this is all improving my website description of Newark Penn Station).

I wander around Newark Penn Station, clarifying a few more things for my under construction photo essay and then head for PATH. I tap my wallet and it successfully reads my SmartLink Card. The WTC train soon leaves and we stop at Harrison. We stop again at the small employee shack (there is a door to a little room, plus a bench) along the main yard at Harrison. We then start heading through the Meadowlands, and as we go through the huge CSX yard stop at another tiny employee platform. I’m unfortunately in the last, not the first car and don’t know why any PATH employee would need access to this train yard. We stop at Journal Square. I notice another tiny platform just before the tunnel portal for PATH employees. I decide to transfer at Grove Street-(2 Photos) and get a few photos as well as clarify a few things in its description. I take the next 33rd Street train (already crowded, many seats taken, no wonder I normally transfer at Journal Square) to Chirstopher Street-(3 Photos), where I’ve clarified a few things on the entrance to the station, and notice that some scaffolding is up.

Since its raining I walk over to Christopher Street on the 1 train. I sit on the local reading all the way to 168th Street, 59th Street is an easier transfer but I’m trying to get more photos of the dimly lit, hard to photograph underground cavern at 168th Street. I finally get on the elevator and am feeling lazy. I walk over to the A train and hear the voice say “There is an uptown express train one station away.” Then a crowd rushes off of the staircases and I just miss the train! Soon the voice says “There is an uptown express train two stations away.” This is nearly immediately followed by “There is an uptown train now arriving, please stand away from the platform edge.” I head home, after a surprisingly good day on the rails, even with the rain. As much as I want train service to get back to normal for the Morris & Essex Line riders there is the part of me that hopes I’ll have time for one more diesel trip to really head out a bit on the Gladstone Branch.