RE: (rshsdepot) Maywood, NJ

["Don Dorflinger" <donnielee46_@_hotmail.com>]

Remember Jim, the answer was speculative in view of the reporter's ignorant use of "Hoboken" as destination for NYS&W Trains.
E-L Employee and Public Timetables (Form 9) from 1960-1966 do show Trains 1202/1203 with a scheduled stop at the Transfer weekdays. There are no notes in any timetable placing any restrictions on the stop. E-L employees might have been given "side orders" to make the boarding/detraining difficult, which was S.O.P. when the railroad wanted to dump a station, or service on a line, and it was no secret by the 1960's that the NRR would go as soon as the PUC gave the E-L the option to pull the plug. Unfortunately for the E-L, in this case, the stop at the Transfer lasted until at least the Spring of 1966. I didn't have time to search for the last E-L with NRR service to see if it outlasted the NYS&W passenger trains until the end of E-L service in October, 1966.
The implementation of the Northern Branch back-up move in 1960  would probably have had as much, if not more of a negative effect on the commuters as the abandonment of NYS&W service to Jersey City, as it now took nearly 20 minutes to navigate the last 4.9 miles of track from Susquehanna Transfer to Hoboken. With an extra 13 minutes to play with, it was probably easier to drive over to a station on the NJ&NY Branch (which ran directly to Hoboken without the time consuming double reversal of direction at Croxton Tower and Bergen Jct. on the inbound and outbound Northern Trains), or take the subway downtown. A real shame too, as the line could probably been carrying a pretty good commuter load today, had the E-L wished to spend the money to install a more direct connection across the lower end of Croxton Yard.
Don

> 
> > From: rshsdepot-owner_@_lists.railfan.net 
> > 
> > Here's a thought: Hoboken-bound passengers on the NYS&W from 
> > Maywood could detrain at Susquehanna Transfer and pick up a 
> > Northern Branch E-L Train to Hoboken (at least after the Croxton 
> > "Back up Move" was created for NRR trains in the early 1960's). 
> > E-L Employee timetables of the era do show a stop at Susquehanna 
> > Transfer for one train. The only advantage would have been to 
> > downtown commuters. For uptown commuters it would have been 
> > senseless, since buses from the Transfer went to the PA at 42nd St. 
> 
>Huh? 
> 
>Susquehanna Transfer was ****never**** a stop where passengers could 
>transfer. In fact, Erie, and later E-L crews were specifically instructed 
>NOT to let passengers board at the Transfer. In later years, passengers had 
>to purchase a ticket **at the depot** and make it clear to the conductor on 
>the Hoboken-bound train that they wanted to make the Motor Coach Connection 
>for the train to even slow down at the Transfer, let alone stop to let 
>someone on. 
> 
>Going toward Nyack and Sparkill was even tougher -- the Northern trains 
>**might** slow down if they saw someone waiting to board, but if they didn't 
>see you, you were out of luck. 
> 
>The Transfer also had no "local" tariffs -- all tickets were through tickets 
>to and from the Times Square Station, and later Port Authority Bus Terminal. 
> 
>Believe me, if the connection had been possible, the number of daily 
>passengers on the NYS&W would not have dropped from 1400 to 200 the day 
>trains ceased running to Jersey City. 
> 
>Cheers, 
>Jim Guthrie (who used to spend alot of time hanging around the Transfer) 
> 
> 
>================================= 
>The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing 
>railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org 
> 
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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