Over the past few weeks we started posting dome of the history of the Pascack Valley line before NJ Transit took over in 1983.
In particular, we shared with you a bit about when the line was part of the Erie Railroad. Then we took a look at the years that it was part of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.
Today we go back to the very beginning.
As mentioned previously, for most of its history (until 1976), the line was privately owned and run It was originally chartered as the Hackensack and New York Railroad in 1856. In 1868 it became the New Jersey and New York Railroad, which was bought by the Erie Railroad in 1896. The line was originally chartered as the Hackensack and New York Railroad in 1856. The New Jersey and New York Railroad continued to exist as an Erie subsidiary until October 17, 1960 merger that created the Erie Lackawanna Railroad.
The Erie Lackawanna did not last long. The closure in the 1960s of old multi-story factories in the eastern cities, followed by the decline of the domestic automobile and steel industry in the 1970s, eroded much of the EL's traditional traffic base in its freight service. Similarly, competition from airlines, bus lines and the private automobile made them unprofitable made long distance passenger service unprofitable (though regulation for a time prohibited the railroad from abandoning such service). The Erie Lackawanna had operated long-distance lines such as the Phoebe Snow (between New York and Chicago) as well as the Lake Cities, and passenger services to Pocono resorts. By the mid-1960’s these had been all but eliminated.
On April 1, 1976 the Erie Lackawanna was merged with several other railroads to create Conrail.
Old passenger cars on local suburban routes continued to carry the Erie Lackawanna for a time until new rolling stock was secured (especially on the Morris and Essex Lines).
On our Pascack Valley line, the name would soon be replaced, first by the Department of Transportation logo and then by that of NJ Transit.
But in 2019 In 2019, as part of its 40th anniversary, New Jersey Transit wrapped ALP-45DP 4519 and a Bombardier Multilevel Coach into Erie Lackawanna colors (For the record we note that earlier (In September 2015), the Norfolk Southern revealed EMD SD45-2 1700, which had been painted back to its as-built Erie Lackawanna color scheme at Chattanooga, Tennessee).
Image: Vintage Bergen County