A Good Friday Afternoon Ride out to High Bridge to fully ride the Raritan Valley Line

I’ve had this week totally off and have been on a fix to try and finish riding New Jersey Transit. I’m not at all religious so Good Friday is meaningless to me. I’ve realized for photo essays its much easier to hop off at a station when I already know what to expect such as if there is a station house with limited hours I desperately want to photograph or if the station is boarded up and I don’t need to worry about things. NJT fares also mean that riding branches out to the end and back are by far more cost effective than doing intermediate layovers. If your only planning to go to an intermediate station than making a stopover can actually make a ticket cheeper A to B is cheeper sometimes if ticketed A to B to C. This afternoons branch was the Raritan Valley Line.

I began the day on the A train at 11:30am and had a nice time reading my book, getting a bit annoyed by noise emitting from riders earphones. I took this down to Chambers Street and stopped by the Hudson Newsstand to buy a paper disposable 10 ride SmartLink Grey card instead of refilling my plastic SmartLink Card. The reason for this transaction is to see what a disposable SmartLink Grey card is actually like. It comes wrapped in a cellophane package. A cardboard card that feels a bit flimsy with an expiration date (9/2/13) in my case, not that long to use it, printed on it. In the same piece of cellaphane is a pice of paper with what has foil on one side and is white on the other side. I try and put the whole package up to a SmartLink reader and it doesn’t even read. I open the cellophane (its one of the closeable types of packages) and put my finger between the silver piece of paper and the card, that’s even for it to deduct one fare from me and grant me entry to the PATH system.

My time getting the SmartLink Grey card and heading down to the platform means I’ve just missed the first Newark-bound train. I end up on the 12:31 train that is the connection listed in the Raritan Valley Line timetable. I get on the first car to witness any employee stops. The crew is in a very chatty mood and the conductor keys open a door on the non-platform side of the train to yell at someone on the other platform. The train leaves at 12:32 and we have an uneventful ride (with no employee stops) to Newark Penn Station arriving at 12:47.

I get off at Newark Penn Station and have to walk downstairs to the main concourse find a TVM. There really needs to be one at the exit from PATH, that would be really handy. The ramp down from the PATH platform to Platform 5 is still closed because of the ongoing rehabilitation of this platform. I end up boarding the train at 12:57, as the northbound Crescent is making its final intermediate stop 28 minutes early.

The train gets the double beeps and we leave on time at 1:07. My ticket is collected, we pass by the end of the PATH yards. Then a garbage disposal facility and curve off the NEC reaching the end of the catenary. There is a bit of commotion in my car because a man is trying to buy a ticket with a $50 bill that the conductor won’t accept. We follow Route 22 down the Lehigh Railroad Branch.

• 1:15 – Union Station with the gauntlet track, there seems to be new development going on here and the conductor I believe kicks the passenger who is trying fare beat by only having a $50 bill off the trian. We continue down the Lehigh passing the back of industry.
• 1:19 – Roselle Park, here I notice the beginning and end of the gauntlet track (that only exists on the opposite track here, both tracks at Union have it) has silver equipment boxes at each end.

A CSX freight train of mixed goods and empty flat cars, and tank cars passes as we enter the Aldene Connection down to the ex-Central Railroad of New Jersey that is the line all the way to High Bridge. We reach the overly wide ROW passing a former train yard with a bunch of overgrown tracks.

• 1:25 – Cranford that could accommodate six tracks. The Newark-bound track becomes parallel to ours but the abandoned outside tracks continue. An eastbound train passes us.
• 1:27 – Greenwood, the only stop I will skip on NJT today. The third extra freight track finally ends at a siding beyond the station.
• 1:29 – Westfield with the high-level platforms built on the former ROWs of the local tracks. We make good speed along the wide ex-CNJ main line, I notice plenty of now leafless trees form a buffer between the tracks and houses in summer when they have foliage.
• 1:33 – Fanwood
• 1:37 – Netherwood, we leave slowly because of bridgework beyond the station. We then pass an abandoned factory with a siding
• 1:39 – Plainfield, more abandoned railroad ties just before the station platforms. These are high level and built over the former local tracks. Leaving Plainfield I notice the other track now has concrete ties. We continue over lots of local streets on the green overpass bridges and by industrial warehouses covered in graffiti with some railroad cars sitting on a siding outside of it. This track I even notice has concrete railroad ties briefly over a rehabilitated bridge.
• 1:44 – Dunellen, with its ‘modern’ brick station houses. We get the announcement for Bridgewater to exit only between the last two cars.
• The ex-Lehigh Railroad becomes visible beyond the trees as we go through the first grade crossings of the day. This crossing has a grade crossing with NJT (ex-CNJ) but a small bridge over the Lehigh Valley. We go over another grade crossing, Cedar Avenue with consecutive crossings for both railroads. We then pass various chemical freight cars outside the Chipman Chemical Refinery. There is finally a connection between the parallel railroads at Brook.
• 1:50 – Bound Brook, afterwords the Lehigh Line diverges with a connecting track and we pass a yard full of hopper cars for Metal Fassenings, another factory. The grade crossings become more frequent and we go over a railroad bridge still with the capacity to hold four tracks.
• 1:51 – Its under I-287 and into Bridgewater, the vestibule between the last two cars only. The solar panels that are getting installed above parking spaces are still under installation. An eastbound train passes us as we leave.

I enter new trackage passing a scrapyard and giant collecting pond from industry. I notice the ex-Redding West Trenton Line going off into the distance.
We go through a train yard, the former Finderne Station (closed in 2006 with infrequent service only to serve nearby industry) with more hopper cars and continue through grade crossings.

• 1:58 – Somerville, with wide, modern high-level platforms, there is a parking lot to the south. I notice a modern waiting room and can even read the sign, its open until 3:00pm. The railroad becomes grade separated again. I notice more concrete ties.
• 2:01– enter Raritan with grade crossings at either end of the station. There is a nice stone station house set back from the low-level platforms.
• We slowly leave and go under a road at Boyd where there are a bunch of trailers, its the beginning of the Raritan Valley Line’s train yard. A sign says end auto-block.
• 2:04 – Make a yard stop in front of the modular buildings. A sign says NJT employee ID Required. We pass the compressor building and the large train yard with just one trianset inside of it.
   
• 2:06 – at Brad we become single track on what is rougher and I believe jointed rail.
• 2:07 – over water and fields and what I think is a farmhouse, but then I start noticing more industry and sprawl along the railroad.
• 2:08 – North Branch, 2 get of at the single short platform beyond a grade crossing with a TVM inside a single shelter. We leave going over more grade crossings and passing more warehouses and other industry. The line feels a bit rural except for the small industry along the railroad.
• 2:12 – Pass a factory that looks like it makes piping and over more grade crossings. I think I’m in trees again before another warehouse, making good speed on rough track.
• 2:14 – arrive Whitehouse. In a real town, some new subdivisions outside of it. The station has brick platforms and a stone station house turned library. There is a real Park & Ride Lot. We leave passing houses and nicely rolling hills. Then a siding with concrete ties.
• 2:20 – pass another modern warehouse and into Lebanon. It has a nice Victorian station house with a siding across from it. We continue through trees and fields in an open cut, roads pass over us on overpasses. There is another siding at Clinton, and another large, ugly subdivision.
  
• 2:23 – arrive in Annandale on the outside track with passengers boarding on small concrete blocks that cut across the side track. Spotting the train to stop takes a little longer with the exact line up required. The only amenity is a clearly modern shelter hosting a TVM.

The line stays grade separated and we rise onto an embankment, following a stream. The embankment gradually becomes higher and higher, with trees all around us. The train is going over one of the most unique engineering feats I know of, a highly elevated filled in embankment that gives High Bridge its name. (It was originally a wooden trestle). We go over the South Branch of the Raritan River that this huge filled in embankment was built to get over the valley of. The conductor comes through and collects our seat checks and we arrive to the elevated High Bridge Station at 2:30, 9 minutes early since even NJ Transit puts recovery time into their timetable.

I’ve chosen the mid-afternoon to come to High Bridge because its one of the only times a day that this limited branch line has two trains within a few hours of each other. I also know that I can spend the layover with a leisurely walk down to to the next stop Annandale. My first goal is to photograph the train I just arrived at leaving High Bridge at 3:10 in order to get some photos of the platform without a train stopped at it (this is always a goal of mine, if possible). I take a little walk through High Bridge and find The Commons on the Wye, partially formed where the CNJ once had a wye. I then find the beginnings of the Columbia Trail that leads up nearly to Hackettstown, the end of the Boonton and Morristown Lines.

I photograph the 3:09 train leaving, talking to a women who is putting her son on the train to attend the Taylor Swift concert. I check my iPhone because I’m curious to know where the concert is and where to expect crowds. Its at the Prudential Center in Newark so at least PATH won’t be crowded. I then get a photo essay of the High Bridge station platform without any trains and start walking south. First I take a short detour and am awestruck by the engineering fleet of the High Bridge which was originally a wooden trestle before it was filled with with dirt forming an extremely high embankment. Trees are now growing on its sides. I also notice the tunnels the railroad built for Arch Street and the Raritan Valley River.

I then have a nice (sidewalk-less) 2 mile walk to Annandale. The walk’s distance is marked by numerous signs for an extremely low hanging stone underpass that the road I’m on goes under during my walk.

Annandale station simply has a modern bus shelter, clearly built to cover the stations recently installed (June 2011) TVM. This shelter also has the station’s only bench. There is also a small free parking lot with some construction going on to enlarge it. There is a private grade crossing north of the station, and all trains seem to arrive on the outside track (boarding is via concrete walkways across the inside track). The inside track must be used for something else. Soon I hear announcement I can’t quite believe that I believe is being emitted from the TVM in the robo-voice: “Attention Annandale Customers, the 4:18 train to High Bridge will arrive in approximately five minutes.” This train (the same trainset I will ride back to Newark in 20 minutes) arrives 5 minutes late just as the voice says. I get some nice photos of the train entering. The TVM has departure vision as one of its displays and there is something kind of worrying knowing that I’m on the last train back to Newark and if I miss it I will be stranded (this is the first time I can think of in the Tri-State area that I lack a back up train)

  

I finish my photo essay waiting for the train to come back and arrives back right on time at 4:44 as I board with two other people. Stepping onto the train only two of the MLVs are open, one has a few passengers (already with seat checks) for passengers that have already boarded. The only MLV is empty at least for now. We leave the station.

• 4:48 – Lebanon, the station is opposite an abandoned small commercial building with a for rent sign and its own railroad siding. We go back to fields and houses. No annoucements for the station, the LED signs are blank simply saying NJ Transit. We zoom along a dirt road and under a small, steel bridge. The road becomes paved.
• 4:52 – White House, I get company in my car. There is a bar called “The Rail” across from the station. I like the Budwiser neon sign in the window with a picture of a train.
• The conductor comes and I get a seatcheck with E. and NWK punched. We go back to trees on this relatively rough track and then get to a sprawling buildings including industry including a yard of construction equipment. Then pass the Branchburg Sports Complex.
• 4:59 – slow down again for North Branch with a small, free parking lot. The one other occupant of my car is a cellphone screamer. I consider moving but know that the car will soon get more crowded as we arrive at the mainline Raritan Valley Line stations.

We go under a neat wooden road bridge and over a stream, picking up speed.

We then pass a large, modern subdivision and a Wegmans supermarket, didn’t realize New Jersey has them. There is a spur track that branches north. We enter an open cut with dirt on each side of the single track. Then another large commercial building that has solar panels on its parking lot.Pass a subdivision and slow down for the employee stop at 5:04 in the completely empty train yard for some employees.

We leave at 5:05 and slowly continue through the yard. We take the right hand track and enter Raritan that warrants the first announcement of the trip. There is a just arrived terminating train also in the station. We arrive at 5:07 and wait a minute for an on time departure of 5:08. We go over the grade crossing to leave the station, passing a bunch of waiting, just arrived home commuters, waiting to cross the tracks and get back to their cars. At this station boarding my car are my second encounters with Taylor Swift Concert attendees. A pair of mother daughters who hand their tickets over to the conductor and confirm that the return trip for the girls will be free since the NJT Kids Ride Free Program begins at 7:00pm on Friday evenings. (On my last weekend trip there was a father-son who had bought a ticket for his son to have it handed back by the conductor since he was free).

• 5:10 – Somerville. I notice this station with its modern, high-level platforms have a couple small buildings on its outbound platform. This is labeled elevator and electrical closet. We leave crossing Peters Brook that has a bike path alongside it. We pass a parking lot of school buses, and continue over plenty of grade crossings.
• 5:13 – through a yard Full of Hopper Cars labeled MLX. This is the location of the former Finderne Station. We pass industry and parking lots, including a Philips Concrete Plant.
• 5:15 – TD Bank Ballpark comes into view for our station stop at Bridgewater. No annoucement for the limited door options to use at this station. We go under I-287, over Middle Brook.
• 5:18 – I notice the sign in the parking lot at Bound Brook still looks like its about to fall down, three months after my visit here in early January. The car gets more crowded and loud, more Taylor Swift attendees. We pass more industry and the final grade crossings of the day and onto the high-speed grade separated 4 track main line of the CNJ.
• 5:24 – A westbound train passes and we enter Dunellen. We pass the overgrown remains of a rail yard along some industry that has another overgrown siding. MP-25. Next, passing houses I notice tons of abandoned trash along the railroad ROW. The overpasses begin to be much wider with the green painted remains and ballast of the former express tracks.
• 5:29 – Plainfield. We pass a single spur track that was once a larger freight railroad yard.
• 5:32 – Netherwood–(1 Photo added). I notice a backhoe parked along the Raritan-bound platform, it is owned by New Jersey Transit.
  
• 5:36 – Fanwood, there a bunch of people sitting outside the historic station house. I then realize their girl scouts selling cookies to commuters on their ways home. Still no announcements, the automated voice is also off.
• 5:39 – Over a modern concrete birdge that I notice can only accommodate two tracks, were going slowly, another westbound train passes.
• 5:41 – see a different war and the 9/11 memorial statues and enter Westfield.
• 5:43 – The car is quite loud now, mainly with young voices of Taylor Swift attendees. I notice multiple signs and I can’t hear an unintelligible announcement for Garwood that this train is actually stopping at. The main thing to cover is which doors will actually open.
• 5:44 – arrive at the tiny Garwood Station in the middle of a town but lacks parking. We leave land the ROW and overpasses expand to accommodate six tracks with only 3 intact.
• 5:48 – the wide Cranwood Station. We stop in the station and the one High Bridge-bound PM rush hour express train zooms though bypassing the station.

We pass some NJT owned hopper cars on a siding, I think full of railroad ballast. There are some trees growing in a former railroad yard. We come to a stop just before the single track Aldene Connection. We sit and nothing passes.

Soon we slowly rise up onto the Aldene Connection and take the guatlet track northbound track.

5:59 – We enter Roselle Park, another westbuond train arrives as we stop in the station. The platform soon fills with rush hour commuters heading home. Leaving we pass MP-16 and continue north. I feel the train switching off the gauntlet track and back to regular track north of the station. We pass industry, what looks like an abandoned factory and a new town house development.
We switch onto the opposite track for some reason at Townally and come into Union, stopping at 6:03, 7 minutes late from the slow running through the Aldene Connection mainly.
We pass another chemical plant and a river as the conductor collects our seat checks and does a final ticket sweep. We speed past houses and beneath road overpasses.
6:07 – the catenary system begins, I see some freight cars and we slow down at Log_n and High (names on switchboxes). We pass lumber yard with a bunch of freight cars and stop. Another westbound Raritan-bound train passes us also wrong-railing. One guy I overhear screaming into his phone saying we always stop at this spot. We get another hard to hear announcement who’s only word I can decipher is something blaming Amtrak. Then we get the first automated announcement of the trip claiming there were waiting for a train to pass and we apologize for the delay. Two NJT trains pass zooming together at nearly the same speeds heading southbound on the NEC or North Jersey Coast Line with commuters heading home.

6:11 – moving again passing another garbage facility. We slowly switch onto the NEC
6:13 – Prudential Center 1 mile ahead sign on nearby McCather Highway. The train keeps switching to get onto the correct track. We pass the tail tracks where PATH trains relay. Their empty, no PATH trains in story.
We arrive on track 1 at 6:15, 9 minutes late. I’m too slow getting off my train and just miss PATH. It’s announced that the connecting train to Penn Station will arrive on the same track. I tap my SmartLink Grey Card and sit on PATH, its doors open, I’m waiting for it to leave, getting cold from the open doors.

PATH finally leaves at 6:21, as we stop in Harrison, the NEC train that my RV Train connected with soon comes up behind my PATH train train. It passes us but we still run neck to neck, past the main PAHT train yard. We finally diverge and go through the CSX intermodal yard of double stocks and by the NJT Meadowlands Maintenance Complex. We go over the PATH bridge across the Hackensack River and I notice a slow moving Norfolk Souther freight train nearby. I’m in the mood for a seat on the A train so I decide to stay on this train and go into World Trade Center. A 33rd Street train has left JSQ just before us and we are stop and go before Grove Street. We get to WTC at 6:44 and I walk over to the A train at Broadway-Nassau for better seat availability to head home.