Train Riding in NYC Environs Circa 1947-1964

I also remember the last Queens streetcars that operated over the 59th Street Queenborough Bridge in the early fifties, though I never had a chance to ride one. I made many trips over that bridge as a passenger with my dad ferrying brand-new sportscars  (Jaguars, Austin-Healy's, MG's, and Sprites) from the J.S. Inskip docks to a dealership in Queens.

>>, and rode an RDC into Grand Central in the morning.

Did you change to an EMU at Croton-Harmon?

>> I also recall a Jersey Central trip to Hackensack aboard an MU train.

Please explain.  CNJ did not have EMU's, nor did it serve Hackensack.

Did you ever ride the Lackawanna to Gladstone?

Kent: I do not recall changing over to electric power at Harmon, but I believe we rode that unit into GCT. The exhaust on those 550 HP units was probably minimal, so perhaps it did enter the terminal. I remember going to Hackensack, so maybe it was the Reading? I am a little foggy about that trip, but it was a commuter train. Never made it to Gladstone. THANK YOU for your comments! 

My Oct. 1950 Official Guide has Hackensack served by New Jersey & New York and New York Susquehanna & Western.  NJ&NY had four stops in Hackensack, none of them named Hackensack.  (Today NJT's Pascack Valley line stops at Essex and Anderson Streets.)  Both lines operated out of Erie's Jersey City terminal. 

Kent: I was about 8-10, so it would have been 1950-52. We did take the ferry to the Jersey side, and it was not Hoboken. I remember the commuter style coaches, but not sure about the power?

Tinplate Art posted:

Kent: I was about 8-10, so it would have been 1950-52. We did take the ferry to the Jersey Shore, and it was not Hoboken. I remember the commuter style coaches, but not sure about the power?

Art,

I was also born and raised in that area of New Jersey (Cranford on the CNJ, and then Chatham on the DL&W through high school), and I believe that you took the ferry across the Hudson River, to probably the CNJ Terminal in Jersey City. Then a CNJ train south to the joint PRR/CNJ "New York and Long Branch RR" to one of the Jersey Shore towns along that route (obviously the ferry did not go to the Jersey Shore).

HOT WATER: Now that you mention it, that ferry most likely took us to the Jersey Central Terminal. Did the Erie have a separate terminal as well? I am mosr familiar with the Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, having ridden those wonderful green electric MU cars with my fellow teenage railfans! I know I once rode the Erie and once took a trip out of the Jersey Central station to what I vaguely recall was a town that sounded like Hackensack!

From 1949, we lived at the end of the Gladstone Branch of the Lackawanna RR, which ended in Hoboken, NJ. From there we will usually rode the ferry over to Manhattan. I took the same line to high school every day, in Bernardsville. One day, in 1952, while waiting for the trip back to Gladstone, I and my mother were looking at the diesel that pulled the Phoebe Snow. The engineer leaned out of the cab, and asked me if I wanted to climb up. Once in the cab, he let me turn on the rotating headlight. What a thrill for a 10 year-old!

Joe Hohmann posted:

From 1949, we lived at the end of the Gladstone Branch of the Lackawanna RR, which ended in Hoboken, NJ. From there we will usually rode the ferry over to Manhattan. I took the same line to high school every day, in Bernardsville. One day, in 1952, while waiting for the trip back to Gladstone, I and my mother were looking at the diesel that pulled the Phoebe Snow.

That would have been at Summit, NJ, as that is where the Gladstone Branch leaves the main line, and ends in Gladstone.

The engineer leaned out of the cab, and asked me if I wanted to climb up. Once in the cab, he let me turn on the rotating headlight. What a thrill for a 10 year-old!

Tinplate Art posted:

HOT WATER: Now that you mention it, that ferry most likely took us to the Jersey Central Terminal. Did the Erie have a separate terminal as well?

Yes, the Erie terminal was also in Jersey City, but sometime in the early to mid 1950s, the Erie vacated/closed their terminal, and moved into the DL&W terminal in Hoboken.  

I am mosr familiar with the Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, having ridden those wonderful green electric MU cars with my fellow teenage railfans! I know I once rode the Erie and once took a trip out of the Jersey Central station to what I vaguely recall was a town that sounded like Hackensack!

Erie’s terminal in Jersey City was located above what is now named the Pavonia Ave. PATH station.  If you’re in the station note that the columns in the station have the letter “E” for Erie.

As late of the 1950's, there were FIVE terminals on the NJ side of the Hudson.  CNJ, PRR (Exchange Place), ERIE (Pavonia), DL&W (Hoboken), and NYC West Shore (Weehawken).  All except PRR operated ferries to Manhattan.   The CNJ station also served B&O and Reading and Lehigh Valley had a "doodlebug" commuter  that operated into the PRR station.

Tinplate Art posted:

Growing up in Brooklyn and Queens, NYC in the late forties through the early sixties afforded many opportunities to ride the then many railroads that terminated at both New Jersey and Manhattan terminals. On the Jersey side, we principally had the Lackawanna, Jersey Central, Erie and the NYC Westside Line, while in Manhattan, we had the Pennsylvania, New York Central, New Haven and long Island railroads. In terms of freight operations, there was the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal and the Cross Harbor operations, and the New York Connecting Railroad. My first rail travel memories as a young lad were riding behind those amazing LIRR G5 steam engines from Jamaica Station to my grandfather's home in Hicksville. We also traveled by ferry to the Erie Terminal to take a short trip on the Erie to Port Jervis on our way to my aunt's summer home in Forrestburgh, NY. I once rode on the Lackawanna Flagship train, the Phoebe Snow, to Stroudsburg, PA for a Poconos vacation. There was a nice A-B-A set on the front end and that square end observation car on the rear. Another memorable trip was on the New Haven from Grand Central Terminal to New Haven and a visit to the A.C. Gilbert Co. at Erector Square! Two memorable New York Central trips were from GCT to both Beacon and Peekskill, NY. Beacon was across the Hudson River from Newburgh, NY, and in the early fifties, there was no bridge, only a ferry. Later, in my Army years in 1964, I once caught an Air Force "hop" flight from Colorado Springs to Stewart Air Force Base aboard a C-123 to Newburgh. After landing, my buddies and I hitched a ride across a bridge to Beacon to catch the NYC into GCT. We slept in the Beacon depot that night, and rode an RDC into Grand Central in the morning. I can also remember a Niagara pulling into Peekskill on one 1950's trip, and the changeover to electric power at Harmon, NY. The LIRR also used RDC's in the early sixties, and I once rode one from Hicksville to Jamaica Station. Another favorite rail activity was riding the ferry across the Hudson to the Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, NJ and riding those wonderful dark green MU electric cars with their pantographs to places like Dover or Montclair, NJ. I also recall a Jersey Central trip to Hackensack aboard an MU train. The Hudson Tubes, as they were then called, were also a great diversion for me and my friends in my early teens and we rode those ancient cars to Manhattan Transfer several times. The multiple times I rode the LIRR from Jamaica to Penn Station, I would always enjoy the trip through Sunnyside Yards, where you could catch GG1's and DD1's and other Pennsy electric power and the many passenger trains being serviced and assembled there. The LIRR ride under Atlantic Avenue to their Flatbush Terminal was also interesting, and there was a brief eleveated section in Brooklyn at that time. One of my favorite el rides was the old Myrtle Avenue Line from Navy Street to Fresh Pond Road with those ancient open gated platform cars. I attended Brooklyn Technical High School from 1956-1960, and the Myrtle Ave. el was just on the other side of Ft. Greene Park, and we Queens kids would take it to Broadway Junction to catch the el heading to Woodhaven in Queens. Ah, Those were some great days to ride some trains!

Interesting info.  Please don't be offended, but my older eyes would appreciate if it had paragraphs.

DAN: SORRY, I went a little "Faulkner" on this post! It was also a kind of stream of consciousness/memory thread with a few miss-recalls along the way! Heck, I was 5 or 6 when some of these events took place and I am now 76!  I DO know I never rode anything on rails I did not enjoy, nor would I trade growing up in NYC (Brooklyn and Queens) for anything!