23-06-19 PHOTOS: Summit and Denville

One of my bigger blind spots has been NJT's non-NEC operations in North Jersey. In fact I can count the number of trips I've taken on this part of NJT over the last 20 years on one hand. In the summer of 2023 a surprise mid-week day off from work granted me the opportunity to plan a trip that would not only visit the notable junction stations at Summit and Denville, but also ride the Newark City Subway and HBLR. This set of photos will cover NCS, Denville and Summit parts of the trip with Hoboken Terminal and HBLR to follow. You can see the full set of photos here ( mirror ).

The trip's itinerary actually involved going first to Washington to meet up with a railfan friend to use an Amtrak BOGO coupon to go to Philly. After laying over a night we would continue to North Jersey before returning back south that afternoon. The first leg of my journey was an Amtrak Regional hauled by ACS-86 #638.

After that it was a transfer to and Acela trainset with power car #2029.

We had booked cheap tickets on an early AM Keystone which required an even earlier AM PATCO connection, dutifully provided by PATCO rebuild car #1005.

Departing Philly and passing the stored Acela II sets in the Penn Coach Yard before making all the local commuter stops on the NEC.

Our Keystone train continuing on to NYC while being pushed by ACS-86 #617.

Kinky LRV #114 would be our ride out to the intermediate terminal at Branch Brooke Park.

Branch Brooke Park had been the terminus of the City Subway when it had been serviced by PCC cars before their retirement in 2001, the old PCC loop being replaced by a pocket track.

Short turning at Branch Brooke Park instead of riding to the end of the line at Grove Street afforded some additional photo opportunities such as LRV #120 departing for Penn Station and #107 arriving for the headway after that.

Quick front facing video of the inbound ride from Branch Brook to NJIT. The NCS runs along the former Morris Canal right of way.



Making a quick transfer to LRV #119, I would take my first ever NCS trip to Newark Broad Street Station.

This was also my first time visiting Newark Broad St, which has remained an impressive facility despite the City's ups and downs.

As it was still pretty early I was able to catch the tail end of the morning rush. From the eastbound platform I snagged NJT Arrow III #1517 on the tail end of a Gladstone local and ALP-46 #4632 pushing its way towards Penn Station.

The D&LW's ND (Newark Drawbridge) tower is still standing adjacent to the Passaic River swing bridge.

While waiting for our departure I was able to photo a parade of inbound NJT trains including split level cab car #7059 and ALP-45 #4532, Comit V #6072 and ALP-46 #4655 and Comet V #6062.

Unfortunately there was a bit of a mix-up when I boarded a Hackettstown bound train that was going to go via Boonton instead of the M&E. This resulted in me getting off at Watsessing Ave to catch a train led by Comet V #6024 back to Newark Broad.

Back at Newark it was time for another round of trainspotting from the westbound platform with ALP-45's #4525, and #4510 appearing along with an outbound encore by Comet V cab car #6062.

I also got to see a live example of the capacity loss from PTC as #4510 was facing a stop signal at BROAD interlocking, but was unable to platform because the positive stop point is a full train length short of the signal.



Finally my Dover bound push-pull arrived led by ALP-45 #4546.

The trip out was largely uneventful and at Denville I grabbed a photo of Comet V cab car #6044.

The goal of the trip was the former DL&W DENVILLE tower, which was still standing proud in the station's parking lot.

Denville is also home to one of 4 mercury arc converter stations that supplied 3kv DC power to the original DL&W traction power system. These were taken offline in 1984 when the electrification system was changed to 25kz AC.

Interesting, our return train was the same set with Comet V #6044 we had ridden on the outbound leg.

Summit, located at the junction of the Gladstone Branch, was another location I had yet to visit in person, so I decided to spend a headway checking it out. Here is our ALP-46 #4647 departing eastward.

The main reason for stopping by Summit was to check out the old interlocking that was built into the wall of the cut. It was closed when the line was re-signaled around the same time the traction power was changed from DC to AC.

Gladstone local stopping at and then departing Summit with Arrow III's #1314-15 and #1378-79.

The next push-pull train heading towards Hoboken led by Comet V #6053.

Passing by the closed WEST END tower.

Passing PL42 #4027 and the inactive TERMINAL TOWER enroute to Hoboken Terminal.

I'll finish up Part 1 with the NJT GP40P-2V #4212 under the Hoboken train shed. This class of locomotive is typically seen on the Atlantic City Line.

That's all for part 1, in part 2 I'll cover Hoboken Terminal itself and the HLBR to Tonnelle.