The Erie Main Line - A Detailed Look from Suffern to Monroe by Doug Barberio

[@petersipp5247]

I appreciate you mentioning the Sterling Mtn RR. My 7th grade friend & I walked from Glen Rock NJ to this RR one day. . We walked up to where the golf course cuts off the tracks. We made this walk on Good Friday 1964. I saw the Sterling Mtn RR tracks from Rt 17 one day. I remember trees were growing in between the rails as I passed by on Rt 17. I had to see where they went. I remember how steep the incline was going from the Erie tracks up towhere the tracks ended at the golf course.. Famous Sterling Iron mines a little further than where we walked to. I picked up two small dark colored rocks on the Strlng Mtn tracks. Turned out to be magnetite. A magnet sticks to them. Still have them. Magnetite was the mineral that was extracted from the mines.

[@stephenheath8465]

The old Erie Mainline the fourth Trunk line between the Atlantic Coast to Chicago,which was the second best engineered Line besides the NYC Water level Route

[@billguider]

Great stuff! Thank you Doug. A bunch of these shots of my hometown (Suffern) that are new to me. A couple of times Doug refers to the station next to the still standing express building in Suffern as "original." It was in fact the third station at Suffern. The are no pics of the original (1841-1869) station but there is a drawing that shows the track in all its six foot gauge glory. There is at least one photo of the 1869-1887 station. The beautiful Victorian station shown several times in this presentation served from 1887-1941. The current station opened in 1941. Also while talking about Suffern, I think one time when he meant the express building Doug said freight house. The Suffern freight house was on the Piermont branch and appears in several of the pictures. The lead to the Ford plant was built in 1953. That year is cast into one of the concrete bridge abutments on the lead and is still visible today. There were two Erie stations at Sterlington. Both are shown in Doug's presentation. I learned from the presentation that the second one had been built by 1940. I've been wondering what happened to the first one, and when and why the second one was built. There is no bridge over the tracks near the Sloatsburg station. It is a grade crossing (Ballard Ave). The bridge Doug mentions and shows in one pic is Seven Lakes Drive which is maybe a quarter mile west of the station. Thanks again. I learned quite a bit.

[@fakecumberland]

So much great detail of the Suffern area and the old Ford Plant. Fills in a lot of gaps for me, a periodic NJ resident!

[@jameskarvonen6419]

Loved the presentation. Was an operator at SF tower from 1969 to 1972. This was something I was looking for

[@michaeljoyce4555]

Thanks for the look at an old friend

[@thomaszoufaly528]

What a fantastic presentation. I really enjoyed seeing some of the parts of the railroad i missed.

[@jamescirillo1652]

Great presentation, I grew up in this area but never got to experience any of this because I was too young. Got to see everything I missed! Also, milepost 46 was saved and relocated to Harriman square where it is on display.

[@SKYSCRAPERTELEVISION]

Awesome job. Love historical docs.

[@texhaines9957]

Thanks for posting. I have a standing commitment Thursday evenings

[@82fdny97]

The train ran near my house in Monroe. I remember hearing it as a kid

[@robertlerner5306]

This is great, thanks so much - anyway to get a copy of the photos in Suffern and the Piermont line?

[@biscuitag97]

Nice! Looking forward to goshen!

[@1990sRailfan]

Great presentation! There were two signals located on the Ford Plant lead. Both were G type tri-light heads mounted on masts and faced (RR west) toward Hillburn Yard. The first signal was located just south of SF Tower in the curve by the northern bridge (which spanned a dirt road). The second signal was located on the two track lead (across the Ramapo River) just north of the vehicle access bridge over the Ramapo. Anybody know the purpose of these signals? My guess would be they were controlled by the yardmaster to direct inbound movements?, as to not snarl a working switch job who may be working the lead at the time?. Any thoughts? Thanks.

[@erie910]

One of the early slides shows an Alco road switcher which appears to be #908. The caption identifies this as an RS3. I thought that Alco road switchers through #915 were the RS2 model. I could easily be wrong.

[@michaeljoyce4555]

Sloatsburgh north. A stone yard. Remember a l&n boxcar in 1979 in industry

[@Air_Devil_Leader_One]

The collision occurred when the operator in the signal tower at Suffern failed to hold the westbound train No. 53 at Suffern