The trains that commuters used to ride mingled with those they currently board tell the story of rail history in New Jersey, and the state itself.
They were on display Sunday at NJ Transit’s Heritage Festival, held at Hoboken Terminal.
The assembly of trains on the Hudson River side of the station represented the locomotives and passenger cars that NJ Transit inherited when it was created in 1983 after Conrail got out of the commuter hauling business.
Railroads were credited with the states initial development in the 19th century and with developing the commuter suburbs in the mid-20th century, historians said.
“What they did in its day was brilliant and it still works today,” said Kevin Phalon, president and executive director of the United Railroad Historical Society, URHS. “Historically they are how people got around, even more than now. They are the reason our suburbs are where they are, the reason our towns are built where they are.”
A mixture of railroad hobbyists of all ages and families attended to see exhibits of some of the trains operated by railroads that influenced how the state grew.
For commuters, the older trains also represent something familiar that’s faded into the past, when they were replaced with newer ones. The sight of one, such as, a towering General Electric U-34CH locomotive built for the state DOT can invoke memories of a particular time and place, Phalon said,
“It’s is not the biggest or fastest or the most powerful or the first or the last, it is that it was completely mundane and part of people’s everyday lives,” he said. “When people see this (they say) oh I remember these from when I used to commute out of Ridgewood. They made this distinctive sound, people said you could hear them from miles away.”
This 1971 locomotive and the “diesel liner” cars it pulled also was the first modern commuter train and is the only one left, he said.
“We have iterated past this one,” Phalon said. “Everything NJ Transit runs is based somehow on how they designed this locomotive.”
In addition to moving the train, the locomotive was among the first to provide power for heat, air conditioning and ventilation and lighting for the passenger cars it towed. Its technological children and grandchildren were NJ Transit’s Comet V and Multi-level cars which were also represented in the exhibit.
For a glimpse of how trains looked in the early Twentieth century, the Whippany Railway Museum brought its restored Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad 1912 commuter club car #2454.
The olive-green rail car was a Lexus on rails of its day, with wood paneling trimmed in gold leaf paint. Posh rattan easy chairs with plush green cushions made this luxury ride that was used on the Hoboken to Gladstone “millionaires express.”
It’s also representative of an entire fleet of electric powered trains that filled Hoboken Terminal’s platforms and yards for 50 years until NJ Transit rebuilt the the Morris & Essex lines’ aging electrical system and replaced the olive green electrics with rebuilt stainless steel Arrow cars, the last of which are the Arrow III’s which also as slated for retirement.
The 2454 led the last train of green electric cars from Hoboken Terminal on Aug. 24, 1984.
After the subscription car was retired, NJ Transit donated it to the URHS, which donated it to the Whippany Rail museum in June 2014. It underwent a seven-year, $1 million award-winning restoration to its original 1912 appearance, funded by the Liberty Historic Railway Inc. and the Morris County Transportation Officials Association.
NJ Transit provided three of its own heritage locomotives that pay tribute to the railroads and railroaders that ran the lines it inherited.
NJ Transit also included it’s dual mode locomotive wrapped with an educational design to commemorate Black History Month. The sides of locomotive 4508 sides list the names of Black Americans who were prominent athletes, authors, elected officials, scientists and elected officials. Included on the rolling roll call is the late U.S. Rep. Donald Payne Jr., the state’s first Black congressman.
For those who want to see more trains, the URHS is holding its annual “Museum for a Day” open house on Sunday, Sept. 29, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at its Boonton Yard at 104 Morris Ave., Boonton. Tickets are available online.
Like many commuter agencies born in the early 1980′s, NJ Transit ran the elderly trains it inherited form Conrail, which were hand me downs from predecessor railroads.
NJ Transit officials had the foresight to recognize the historical significance of those trains when they were retired and donated examples of different types to the URHS.
“That is the story of NJ Transit, a lot of what UHRS is came from NJ Transit in an era where everything they owned was ancient,” Phalon said. “Since the 80’s they have been both combining these legacy rail systems with each other and building new equipment, you have to understand that legacy of continual progress.”
What does rail historian Phalon hope the exhibit accomplishes?
“If we can make people love trains the way we do, they’ll support NJ Transit and public transportations and help it become.” he said. “Railroads hit their low point in the 70′s and been on the way up ever since. We can want to invest in rail, it benefits everyone whether they ride it or not.”
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