“Lehigh Limited” trip
August 22-26, 2013

Going west out of Hoboken Terminal, the train took the NJT-built connection to the Northeast Corridor near Hudson Tower to make a passenger pick-up stop at Newark Penn Station, then at CP Newark (formerly NK) moved onto NS’s ex-Lehigh Valley main line (Lehigh Line) out to the turnback point in Bethlehem. Returning, the train retraced to Phillipsburg, N.J., diverting northeast onto the Washington Secondary, an old Lackawanna branch, to Washington, N.J., then on to Hackettstown (west end of NJ Transit commuter service) and back to Hoboken via Dover and NJT’s “Morristown Line," formerly known as the M&E [Morris & Essex, for the two counties], the former Lackawanna main line, with a passenger drop-off stop at Newark Broad Street Station. The 23 miles on the Washington Secondary between Phillipsburg and Hackettstown were the “rare miles” that attracted most of the “rare mileage collectors” on board, the last public excursion having covered the line in 1984. (I also picked up 19 new “Lehigh Valley main line” miles between Aldene Junction, where the NJT Raritan Line commuter trains branch off onto the old CNJ main line, and Port Reading Jct., near Bound Brook, N.J., where the former Philadelphia-New York Reading/Jersey Central trains, and years back B&O's trains on trackage rights), diverged from the CNJ main.

M&E’s website (http://www.anniversary.merail.com/train, for car details) had a very complete file of advance information. Accommodations were offered in five classes: Deluxe First Class, Bedroom Suites, First Class, Deluxe Coach, and Coach. So, early-on, Chuck Weinstock ordered tickets for himself, Rick Moser, and me in M&E’s parlor car “Morris County,” an ex-New York Central coach with individual swivel seats (first class). It was the 15th car on the 16-car train going west, 2nd car from the front going east. Among the “collectors” joining us in the car were Pete Stonitsch of Waukesha, Don Clayton of Kentucky, Judy Decker of Oregon, George Fleming and Mia Mather, both of New York City, Mike Rose of Toledo, Ohio, and noted train traveler and travel writer Karl Zimmermann of Oradell, N.J. Other friends and collectors were scattered in several of the other cars, in first class, deluxe coach (intercity cars), and regular coach (NJT Comet V commuter cars); more than 50 members of the private Internet “Mileage List” were on board.

The train’s 3-diesel, 16-car consist was thus, as arranged westbound: NS GP40-2 3031, M&E C424 18, and NJT P40BH 4802 as power, ex-Conrail; Toledo, Peoria & Western 800; and Amtrak 810, respectively. Cars, west to east, were: Babbling Brook, ex-NYC (later CP and Cartier) observation sleeper; Mount Vernon, ex-UP (later Amtrak) sleeper; Alexander Hamilton, ex-PRR (later PC and Amtrak) lounge, for M&E employees only; NS coaches 26 New York, 28 Powhatan Arrow, and 29 Powhatan Arrow, and an NJT Comet V coach, all for NS employees only; two more NJT Comet V’s, public coach class (I don’t yet have the Comet V car numbers); M&E’s coaches Magnolia (ex-FEC, later SAL, SCL, Amtrak) and Pine (ex-Santa Fe, later Amtrak – both borrowed from M&E’s Maine Eastern tourist line), as public deluxe coaches; M&E’s Birken (ex-CN, VIA, BC Rail), the commissary/souvenir car; NRHS C.P. Huntington Chapter’s coach lounge Braddock Inn (ex-PRR, later PC, NJT, MARC) and lounge NYC 38; M&E’s Morris County, ex-NYC 2936); and, as deluxe first class, N&W-maroon-painted PV heavyweight sleeper-solarium lounge Kitchi Gammi Club on the east end.

Morristown & Erie, officially formed in August 1903 with the merger of Whippany River Railroad and Whippany & Passaic River Railroad, says it is the second-oldest continuously operating short line in the U.S. M&E reminded us that this was the first major mainline public rail excursion operated in the region in over a decade. In addition to its original line east out of Morristown, M&E now operates the freight service on several segments of former Erie Lackawanna, etc., track now under NJT’s purview.

Chuck Weinstock and Pete Stonitsch each flew to Newark, while John Arbuckle (of Hutchinson, Kans., recently retired from a long career as an Amtrak station agent, mostly in Newton) and Rick Moser and I took Amtrak #30, the Capitol Limited, from Chicago to Washington on Thurs.-Fri., August 22-23, then Acela #2168 to Newark for Rick and me, and Regional #94 for John to Trenton, where he changed to an NJT train for Rahway, as he was staying at the Indigo Hotel next to the Rahway Station (as was Rob McGonigal, who flew to Philadelphia to rent a car and “tour” New Jersey ex-PRR rail points north on Friday and south on Sunday). I went to Chicago Thursday the 22nd on Hiawatha #338, while John came east on Southwest Chief #4. The weather on Thursday in the Midwest, and on Friday morning out East, ranged from cloudy to murky to drizzle to rain, and so I took no pictures at all, slides or digital, until I was on the Hoboken Terminal platform Saturday morning.

Rick, Pete, Chuck, and I were staying at the Gateway Hilton Hotel, which is connected to Newark Penn Station across the street. On Saturday morning, the other three took PATH trains from Newark Penn to Hoboken via Journal Square, while Rob McGonigal, with John along in his rental car, kindly offered to pick me up at the Hilton (saving my cranky knees some wear and tear via PATH), and we navigated over to Hoboken, going directly into the early-morning sun detouring our way east, using the “Truck Route 1-9” detour thru a typically disintegrating North Jersey infrastructure. Detours were well-marked, though. Rob dropped John and me at the Terminal and we joined the crowd waiting for the 7:45 a.m. boarding call (departure time was 8:30, and we left precisely then).