Lafayette Street Terminal
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Where? Which city?
I believe this is located on Broad Street in Newark, NJ close to the Prudential Center arena.
http://goo.gl/maps/IpcOh
--Reed
Upper level trains...you can still see the bridge across the PRR/Corridor, just west of the Newark Penn station platforms. The line went virtually straight east crossing the Passaic and then Hackensack rivers. The NJT Hudson-Bergen Light Rail West St. line is on the right of way from the H'river to Liberty State Park.
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Ammong abandoned stations in Newark would be tthe Jersey Central's station, which was not on the main lline, but on a branch from Elizabethport. There was also the original downtown station for the joint PRR-H&M service to Manhattan, a service that was moved to the existing Newark Penn Station when that was built at the time of Trenton - Sunnyside-Queens electrification, 1935 or 1936. Both the CNJ and PRR-H&M lines were elevated.
It also looks vaguely siimilar to the New York Central's Getty's Square, Yonkers, station. The NYC competed with itself by running mu electrics from Getty's Sq. to Sedgewick Avenue - Bronx and a connection with the 9th and 6th Avenue Elevateds, and transfer to mu's to Grand Central at High Bridge. The lower portion of the Putnam was double track and electrified for this service, whcih replaced Forney elevated-type tank engines (2-4-4T) and gate cars shortly after WWI, abandoned about 1934-1935.
The station is a few blocks from Market Street walking toward the Federal Building. Lafayette Street runs off of Broad Street. The address is 836 Broad St. I've been by it many times.
So was there a "EL" train route for the New Jersey Central thru Newark and does it still exist? and if it does not how do i retrace it?
This has nothing to do with the EL and never did.
Facility became 'surplus' when the Aldene Plan (CNJ-LV bypass allowing CNJ trains to access Newark Penn via Hunter) was instantiated in 1967. Supposedly it was going to be rebuilt into a mall in 2004, and there is a fairly long (9 pages at present) thread over at railroad.net about it:
Railroad.net thread on Lafayette Terminal
Here are a couple of recent pictures of the interior:
showPicture.aspx?id=3003783
showPicture.aspx?id=3003784
(Thanks to John WR for correcting the mistaken original mis-paste of the second link)
In my post above I described what was left of the route....the facade on Broad St., the bridge skeleton over the Corridor west of Newark Penn Station, and the roadbed in use by the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail from West Ave to Liberty St. Park.. All else is obliterated or dismantled. But some things might be found south from the east side of Newark to Elizabethport. Someone sharp enough and/or old enough who remembers it intimately, might find more. By "EL" do you mean "elevated" or "Erie Lackawanna"? There never was an elevated train service in Newark but PATH does run into Newark Penn Station with the westbound track elevated above the rest of the tracks to a lay up yard and reversing lead west of the station. As for retracing anything...old maps of Newark, Essex County, and even some NJ road maps might help, probably the US Geological Topo maps of the era would show the railroads, etc. and even new maps might show the abandoned beds.
Elavated right of way of Nj Central into that station
Then I've answered your question..
Here is a link to the second interior short:
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3003784
What today is New Jersey Transit's Raritan Valley line was originally the Central Railroad of New Jersey's line. It ran east to the CNJ station in Jersey City where the railroad ran ferries to New York, The station today is part of Liberty State Park in Jersey City.
In 1967 the CNJ track was rerouted over the Lehigh Valley Railroad at Aldene Staton in Roselle Park to connect with the Pennsylvania Railroad at Hunter Tower in Newark and to run to Newark Penn Station. The line was and still is operated by diesel engines. It ends at Newark.
When the Aldene plan was implemented the decision was very controversial. Rail commuter service was continued to Bayonne because of the opposition although opponents to the Aldene plan warned that once the plan was in place Bayonne and other stations would simply be abandoned. In fact it was abandoned. Riders complained that the Aldene connection took longer than the trip to the CNJ station. In Newark people traveling on to Manhattan have to change either to a North East Corridor Train to New York Penn Station or to a PATH train to World Trade Center. Both changes require going down 2 long flights of stair and then either up a narrow escalator or up 2 long flights of stairs. If connections are close there is no choice other than the stairs. There are elevators at Newark Penn but they are both slow and out of the way. Today, over 40 years after the Aldene plan, and the Newark connection has never been improved. However, operating the ferries was very expensive and that expense was eliminated.
Note: This is additional information. The Raritan Valley / CNJ line did not run to the Lafayette Avenue Station on Broad Street in Newark.
John WR Here is a link to the second interior short: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=3003784
Thanks, John. Evil gremlins trashed my paste.
You are confusing the CNJ main line east from Cranford to Elizabeth and Elizabelthport across the rivers to Jersey City and the terminal. The Newark Branch ran directly west from what is today Liberty State Park in an almost straight line to the CNJ Broad St. Station in Newark, the one we are discussing. The HBLRT runs on the right of way from Liberty Park station to its terminal at West Ave....There also was a line that went South from east of Newark station to Elizabethport and crossed the mainline at grade to just north of Perth mboy where it connected with the NY and Long Branch RR., what is today the NJT Coast LIne.. The Aldene plan brought the CNJ commuter trains to the LV main for a sprint to Hunter Tower and the PRR main so as to enter Newark Penn Station and then layed up in a yard near Hudson Tower.
Actually I was trying to add information, Henry. The Aldene plan is very important in New Jersey commuter railroad history and even today the debate has not died down. However, I think most people would agree that on the whole it has been worth while. If the Raritan Valley line were electrified those trains could run directly into New York Penn Station.
But I can see that the juxtaposition is confusing. I added a note at the end to try to clear it up.
John
John WRHowever, operating the ferries was very expensive and that expense was eliminated.
To say nothing of a four-track bridge with drawspan over Newark Bay! an expense that was fully eliminated later, of course, after the Scoots stopped, but there *had* to be an advantage to maintaining just the one track... if I had to pick a reason for abandoning the residual Bayonne service, the bridge would be it.
The picture makes me upset and cry....How did we let a building like that get fked up!! Now I assume that there was a buitifull marble staircase that went up to the elevated tracks
When I get togther with Henry we will have to look this over
The bridge was not the reason....or at least the only reason. CNJ was dying. Period. Passenger service on the NY&LB and in from Raritan and Phillipsburg was take over by NJT. Freight service from PA was gone with their abandoning the CRRPA from Phillipsburg to Wilkes Barre and Scranton. They couldn't keep the whole together for passenger nor freight. The partnered more and more with the LV on the main and with PRR elsewhere. It was a slow and painful death both for them, for the customers and riders, and for the fans to watch. Then the Coast Guard squeezed the vice about the Newark Bay bridge and they had no choice but to leave the waterfront .
Bonas The picture makes me upset and cry....How did we let a building like that get fked up!! Now I assume that there was a buitifull marble staircase that went up to the elevated tracks When I get togther with Henry we will have to look this over
Only the facade of Broad St station is there....there is construction going up behind it.....
OvermodTo say nothing of a four-track bridge with drawspan over Newark Bay!
Yes, that too. The CNJ was really a short line. It is surprising it lasted as long as it did.
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