Walking the Old Boonton Line - The Movie
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- Опубликовано: 29 окт 2022
- Buy the book here: amazon.com/dp/B0BGNC7T2W
The Old Boonton Line of the Erie Railroad is the proposed route of a paved bike path that will stretch from Montclair to Jersey City. Wheeler Antabanez (Writer, Photographer, Weird NJ Correspondent) walked the rails one last time before the tracks disappear
Formerly part of the New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad, the abandoned Old Boonton Line of the Erie Railroad runs through; Montclair, Glen Ridge, Bloomfield, Belleville, Newark, Kearny, Secaucus, and Jersey City. This book and movie stands as a marker for the winter of 2021/2022, the last moments when the Old Boonton Line remained perfectly abandoned, wild, and free.
Buy the book here: amazon.com/dp/B0BGNC7T2W
Music Credits:
(in order of appearance)
artist: Audionautix
track: Meditation 1
artist: Esther Abrami
track: No.5 The Day I Met Her
artist: The Mini Vandals
track: Lobe
artist: Amulets
track: Nocturnally
artist: Twin Musicom
track: Love of All
artist: Amulets
track: Length of Light
artist: Audionautix
track: Running Waters
artist: I Think I Can Help You
track: Surviving the Asteroid Belt
artist: Density & Time
track: Water Lillies
artist: Anno Domini Beats
track: Coast
Meditation 1 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: audionautix.com/
Running Waters by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: audionautix.com/
Love of All by Twin Musicom is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: www.twinmusicom.org/ 
Развлечения
You did a great job on this video. I am a retired NJT conductor and worked that line many times. I can't believe how deteriorated it got in 20 years.
Was the line under A different name back then? I am a DeCamp bus operator and I pass under the old Boonton line under Broad street
Awesome job sir. I use to take the boynton line going to Wayne nj. All I can say is awesome job.
Wheeler, you are an amazing and brave man. I hopped my first freight ride thru Long Dock Tunnel on Easter Sunday in 1967! My friend & I were 14 years old when we hopped the freight on the Weehauken Line and rode on the East side of the train, on the opposite side of the very close tunnel wall at the West Portal. Before passenger service ended, Long Dock had 2 tracks & one had been removed. After 1967, the remaining track was moved to the middle. My father used to take me down to the J.C. Terminal where the Newport Parking Lot is now. He worked for the E/L for 45 yrs. and he had a Pass and we rode the trains for free. I never walked the Newark Branch. That radio station you saw was WMCA-AM. The Cedars were cut down to build Paterson Plank Road. I once saw a red fox walking along the tracks. This area was also the home of minks. My first sight of DB Kearney was in 1968, and finally walked over it in 2001. It was still closing and passenger trains sped by us at high-speed! I never walked up to the Kearney Cut. The earth removed from excavation of The Cut was used to fill in the incline leading down into the marshlands. The Bergen Arches were built by the ERIE RR and the N.J. Dep’t. of Transportation. The Ornamental Art Deco work around the tunnel portals were done by the ERIE RR. That’s how to distinguish which Arches were built by Erie. 23:11 The area under Dickinson H.S. was once a trolley station. You can see the concrete abutment of the trolley bridge by the last Arch under Palisade Avenue. The old Erie Station was closed partly because the passenger area flooded during storms. I suggest a FERRY to get people across the Hackensack. There could be a schedule & The Trail should have a 10:00 PM Curfew. The men who built Deadman's Tunnel lived in Shanty Town, which was on the site of Dickinson H.S. today. Thank You
We’ve been watching your videos on the 60 inch tv screen in the living room today. The quality is amazing.
Incredible video, Wheeler. Always been into trains as long as I’ve been alive. I remember when the Boonton line was in active service till its shutdown in 2002 when NJT merged the dead-end Montclair branch into the Boonton line near Bay St, creating the modern-day Montclair-Boonton line. Sad to see the old portion of the line, what once was, and what has become. Thanks for the tour, keep the memories alive. KL
What a privilege to have known Glenn Jones and X-Ray Burns. Their radio show was magic; I always tuned in.
I saw my house at 24:15 in Kearny. Been living here since 2006. I also lived here in 1979 a block away when the train was still operating. I also recognize Rapps boathouse. Sad to see it so worn and Sandy damaged.
I remember learning of that accident in 1963 when the 3 school boys were killed at Elm St Station. I live right here. I came to Kearny in 1961. I would have to ask my parents if they remember that.
This is very informative and I am glad I came across this. It was tagged in an article about the Greenway. Thanks for giving me so much historic information! The track rails have been removed since the state purchased the land recently. The article that lead me here said Norfolk Southern Corp had to pay to remove them. And it happened pretty quick. From purchase to removal. Now we just wait to see what the state does.
I love it, give this man an Academy Award!!
Growing up in Hudson County Walking the Old Boonton Line brought back plenty of memories. Loved the movie!
My Dad used to tell me stories about when he worked for some company in either Newark or Harrison, during the 60s. He said that he would periodically drive drums of hazardous waste on a flatbed to the Meadowlands. Maybe 12 to 18 drums at a time, they'd be sloshing around, waste spilling onto the roadway as he drove. When he finally reached the Meadowlands, he'd pay some guy in a shack, maybe 10 or 20 bucks. Other trucks from other companies would be coming and going. Apparently a lot of companies in the area used this place. I'm assuming it was all legal at the time. Basically they'd just dump all the waste into the swamp. He told me it was right around where the old Giants Stadium was. I remember that story today and it makes me sick. All the birds and sea-life destroyed. I imagine that was once a huge staging point for birds moving up and down the coast during the change of seasons, all gone! As horrible as it sounds, that's what companies did back then, before environmental concerns came to the forefront.
How about your Dad. Did it effect his health. My dad was an Ironworker up north & always talked about cancer alley up that way.
@@samanthab1923 My Dad passed away 3 years ago from both cancer and lung ailments. He was a good man and I miss him. 😞
@@berjaboy Sorry to hear that. Just know you have your own guardian Angel 👼
@@samanthab1923 He died 3 years ago, of emphysema, lung cancer and heart issues. However he lived 87, so he lived a long life. Miss him to death.
@@samanthab1923 Sorry, I forget I already replied to you. 😆
5:39 I dug 2 "Railway Express Agency" Enameled/Painted signs out of a pile of dirt/gravel just past that station a lifetime ago. Had them displayed in my home in Glen Ridge man cave, then in my bicycle shops in Asbury Park & Allentown Before ultimately selling them on ebay over a decade ago. I see the exact same one on display at Steamtown in Scranton since moving here; and wonder if it may actually be one of those I dug up... Your content is AWESOME! Peace
Thanks for making this film. I'll order the book and share the film with the students in my environmental lit and film class. It goes perfectly with Robert Sullivan's The Meadowlands.
Awesome! i love the meadowlands book. one of my favorites 😃
WOW! Awesome tribute! I grew up in Boonton and spent a lot of time track side watching the local drill switching cars around between the two factorys and the morning and evening commuters. Had no idea that end of the line existed. Thanks again for this.
I'm a Locomotive Engineer for Transit and frequently run on the Monclair Line. The Old Boonton line is still cut in on the westbound track, west of Baysteet. It's called "Clair" switch. I always wondered what the old Boonton Line was like!
That's not thw Boonton Line. The line east of that switch is the former Erie Greenwood Lake Branch. The former Lackawanna Boonton Line is intact from Hoboken to South Paterson as the Main Line. It then follows the former Erie Newark Branch right-of-way to connect to the former Erie Main Line just east of the Market St. station. Theonly part of the Boonton Line that has been abandoned is the part from South Paterson to Mountain View, where the Greenwood Lake Branch connects with it.
@Kenneth Bush ah, ok thanks. I always thought the Boonton line started right there west of Bay Street Station off the Montaclair branch.
@@erie910 In Clifton, NJ - up to 1963, (I was in elementary school) - there were 3 train stations in Clifton - the DLW Boonton Line station near Clifton Blvd.(now the "Main Line" station of NJT), the old original Erie Main Line station near Getty Avenue and Clifton Ave that ran through Main Ave Passaic (my favorite place to watch trains as a kid), and the
(relatively quiet) Newark Branch station in the Athenia seciton of Clifton near what was the US animal quarantine (now Clifton civic center). The Erie Main Line had a lot of commuter trains. My father remembered the DLW Boonton Line through Clifton as having a lot of heavy freight traffic (in the 30s-40s-50s).
I grew up hanging out on the Booton line,riding dirtbikes and just spending time with friends down there and through out the meadowlands in Hudson and bergen county,awesome times,it will truly be missed for what it was,great video man,this is awesome👍🏼 looking forward to seeing other ones
This was an informative video. I just wish that the opening scene wasn’t of you walking in the middle of the tracks. As a railroader, the #1 lesson it to treat any line as live, just as gun users treat any gun as loaded.
The engineer is the one who operates the locomotive and blows the whistle.
I walked the line from Pine St., Montclair to Mill St., Bloomfield this past summer.
I'm really going to miss the tracks, which they are already ripping up.
Good job.
had to go an see the NX bridge after watching this. went at night, that shit was so creepy lol. one of the most beautiful structures i've ever seen, thanks for inspiring me.
Wow, you know some really cool history around the sites. It was nice to hear at all, especially about the Atlantic Pines. I have never known that there was a forest or much of anything of that area. Appreciate it!
Got the book … cool stuff
Great video, great job. Correction: On September 8, 1965, three Kearny High School students were struck and killed by a two-car Erie Lackawanna train. I was living in Kearny when my mother told us the news.
Great production. Thanks for sharing
thank you for this when I was a little guy in the late 40s my grandfather and I would get on the trainat Benson Street, giant steam engins and then on the ferry to NYC. Was afraid that the train would fall off those bridges because you could not see the girders from the car. Some great times, remember the "W" marker and the bridge at Ridgewood Ave. Also the bench on the street end of the station.
Another great video thank you so much for doing what you do I will purchase both books in a few weeks I love these kind of videos Another job well done its like a history lesson I could watch these kind of videos all day
From Kearny and grew up on Devon St. 1 block from the 6.4G block signal (cant believe its still there). Rode my bike when the mills were there. Played stick ball at Elm Park (Arlington Station). Can still hear the U Boats roaring by. 1982, Almost died under Kearny Avenue. My routine trip was Devon St to Snake Hill & back. In the 90s I ran my boat from Carlstadt to points south. Always saluted when passing by. Excellent video. Unbelievable narration. Thank you 🤘🏻🤘🏻
Great video ! I can't get over how much the line deteriorated. I remember when NJT trains stopped at those stations. This section of the line was originally the Erie Greenwood Lake Line that until 1935 went all the way to Greenwood Lake via Montclair, Little Falls, Mountain View Wayne, Wanaque Midvale. Wanaque Midvale became the Western terminal of the line in the 1930s.. Old timers used to tell me about the ice trains from Greenwood Lake - ice was harvested on the lake and brought down to Newark, Jersey City. When the Erie and Lackawanna merged they interconnected the DLW Boonton Line with the Erie Greenwood Lake line - and called it the "Greenwood Lake Boonton Line". NJT I think just called it the Boonton Line - now it's the Montclair Boonton Line. The Erie DLW merger in 1960 brought about a lot of consolidation of trackage and facilities and discontinuation of branch line service as well as cutbacks on the Erie Main Line and even the Lackawanna Morris & Essex Division.
Another FANTASTIC video!
0:28 I rode this line to Mountain Lakes when I worked for the railroad in Hoboken Terminal.
Nicely edited and paced. Really love these off the beaten path time capsules
Love the videos keep them coming
Beautiful JC graveyard sequence.
Great video and the information
Thank you for this. Very well done.
This is an amazing and extensive video, thank you very much. I will be buying the book. The irony of this for me is that I grew up in Bloomfield so I know the line and former stations pretty well. I live in the "Boonton" right now. I also work in that huge red building near the end of the line just outside the east end of the Bergen Arches. That to me is extremely interesting as there used to be 2 sets of double tracks in our building - one upper and one lower that went thru the building. A few tidbits: When I was younger living in Bloomfield (probably in the early 70s) there was a major derailment on the line just beyond the bridge that goes over Broad Street. It looks like there is an empty lot on the east side of Broad Street now. The freight trains tumbled down the embankment behind that business and the homes on New Street. It was major news and seemed to take a long time to clean up. One of the bridges you walked over(Belleville Avenue) had a major bus accident in the 80s. It was a charter double decker bus that I believe was heading to Atlantic City. The driver either didn't know the bridge was low or forgot - I don't remember the exact details but there were definitely some deaths. Also it was tradition every year to paint the graduating year for the nearby Bloomfield Hight School seniors(not sure if it was done legally or not) on that bridge. Every year the graduating class walked Belleville Avenue under that bridge and over to Foley Field on JFK Parkway for graduation ceremonies. This was a bit of a full circle moment for me.
I can't wait for your next project.
Great production, keep ‘em coming
Nice work, cool perspectives
phenomenal job! i thoroughly enjoyed every single second of this. thanks wheeler!
Thoroughly enjoyed this video. As somebody who lives in Newport Jersey City, I've been really excited about the greenway, but I had not thought about the implications of its impacts on the wildlife that have made the old line home over the last 2 decades.
Beautiful brother, thank you.
Great stuff....
Excellent video!
It has only taken me about 3 hours to watch this video. I have a lot of distractions, and I am ADHD. But I will watch it again, because it is well done and I like your perspective. We know some of the same people and I am sure we have crossed paths before, maybe not in this lifetime but in another. You have my support.
Fantastic.
Nice job! Very interesting.
great video!!
This is beyong excellent.
Just finished watching this movie! Another tremendous film you've done! I enjoy all of your work. Being a Hudson County kid who played by the RR tracks in the 60's & 70's, this stuff is near & dear to my heart. My home town of North Bergen had 3 different freight lines running through it. (Passenger service ended in 1966) And we spent much time along the tracks of Penn Central, Erie Lackawana & NYSW. Peace brother & keep up the great work!
Love your videos. Just found them today through a friend. Oct 30th, 2023.
This is amazing. I grew up at the other end of the state but rode/drove by much of this on my way up North to visit family in North Jersey. Amazing stuff and well done!
That was me too. Monmouth Co. we were always going to see relatives or into the city for a game or circus/ice Capades. That sight of Snake Hill always freaked me out.
Great video
I grew up on Rowe St Bloomfield and that station was very busy. I remember the Erie Lackawanna freight trains and passenger trains going through there and the NJT. Sad that that line is gone. Great job in showing us the old line.
Great job!
MY house is on the tracks at the Rowe street train station. I lived in Jersey City close to Manhattan Ave on Kennedy Blvd at the time when the explosion happened. It rattled our windows and woke us out of bed. We only went to bed about 4 or 5 am that morning
Enjoyed your cinematography, particularly the detail shots. Nice narrative too. I rode the Boonton line from Denville back in the early 1980s
Thank you for this. Brought back memories of looking at the tracks from the car window. Will be getting the companion book. Btw, you have a very generous & loving wife. That helicopter trip was genius. ⭐️
Nice video, those 3 little lakes in Croxton have a lot of fish and turtles in them. Locals have fished there for years. Very beautiful area
I remember back in the 90's I mistakenly took the Boonton line to Kearney from Hoboken. I was trying to get to Lyndhurst but apparently was too dull to understand how the rail lines worked as a kid. Anyway, it's hard to believe only 30 years later it's totally abandon! I clearly remember station (Arlington I think?) and how busy it was.
Watching your video was the best way to enjoy my coffee this a.m. I'm a (former) Kearny kid. Lived there from birth (1963) - 1989. I can totally relate to your words and feelings. The movie took me back. The Kearny Cut was a regular adventure spot for me and my friends in the 70s, although I had no idea that what it was called. I mostly explored the abandoned line that runs (ran?) perpendicular to the Boonton Line at Gunnal Oval in Kearny because the former was active, and usually patrolled.
I still love exploring abandoned industrial areas. And I've cycled on many rail trails in New England (moved to Boston in '89). Your comment about the animals getting displaced made me think.
Anyway. I'll close with a hardy "thanks for the memories," and two questions: 1. Where can i get your book? 2. WTF is up with that fox on Newark?
yeah the fox in newark was sad. hate to see animals struggling out there…. thanks for the kind words and memories! glad you liked the movie! the books are on amazon www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGNC7T2W
Just ordered it. Long live urbex! 🤜🏻🤛🏻
@@charleskielt8069 Awesome! enjoy it!!!
My dad worked on that big Kearney PO building for years.
I live on Elm St right by the stations concrete platform, the station is long gone. Just last year 2022, I saw a small mangy fox running from Devon,Elm,and Forest Streets toward the swamps east. I was surprised to see an animal like that running across. I was actually getting into my car and it ran right past me! I'm glad you saw memories of where you used to play in Kearny.
I just ordered this book .
I rode that trai alot from hoboken to mt veiw wayne thanks for sharing bring back alot of memories god bless bd safe
WOW! Uses to travel that line behind NJT GP40s back in the 90s....
........never knew it had closed....
Another awesome video!!! As a side note, the death-blow of the American White Cedar forest in that area was the damming of the rivers upstream. As far as trees go, they can handle some saltwater, but when the rivers were dammed for "progress' sake" upstream, the saltwater of the high tide was just too much. Whatever wasn't harvested succumbed to inhospitable soils and brackish groundwater. There is a reclamation project where they have raised the land level and are replanting the cedars.
Well done video. Thanks for make it. The line is right behind my house parallel to E. Midland Ave. I'm yet to walk the whole length out to the DB bridge. Defintely brining my drone.
Ethan! I live here too on Elm St 😄
Awesome video bro. Greenwood Lake is NJ by the way.
Really great documeatry Wheeler really enjoyed your take/perspective along the line. Ohh and that's not the American Dream Mall... It's the American Nightmare! Supposedly the trail will detour at DB draw via those dirt access roads and use the Wittpenn Bridge.
What I heard about the stumps was there was pirates in the area and the law needed to get rid of them so they burned the forest down cause that's where they would hide out and ambush people.
yes. also the salinity changed from the dam upstream. the salt eventually did them in. i love those old pirate stories about the meadowlands. crazy to go out there and imagine the history that took place in the meadowlands…
this os really good dude.... those finger nails were too
hate to report but these tracks were all torn out this week. glad I got to hike it a number of times over the years (and ride it when it was active)
yes been watching the demo. check out my facebook and instagram in the coming weeks for photos…
Here in Kearny the rails were torn up immediately when the state purchased it in late 2022. Norfolk Southern Corp who sold it had to do that. 👍
Awesome video dude! I've wondered myself how they plan on getting across the Hackensack, i don't really see it happening. Slowly but surely they're trying to get rid of every interesting thing in our state and turn this place into a giant quickchek.
Not only that, who is going to feel safe riding their $500 bike thru a pathway in Newark. Not scene from the street either.
I rode the Boonton line from 1993 - 2000. It terminated in Hoboken.
My Family lived in Upper Montclair for like ever As in I don't actually know for how long. Prospect Ave. For those that want to know. Don't try to dox me because they built a mall over it, and I believe the mall itself has been torn down. The family business was a rather sizable brewery in Jersey City some of the buildings lasted until very nearly the turn of the millennium before they were torn down for redevelopment. So I remember meeting my Dad at the Glen Ridge station to walk him home after work in the midsixties.
Well shit, that was rad
A sick bridge is the lyndhurst draw which goes over the Passaic river from Clifton to lyndhurst. Lots of graffiti there and ladders u can use to climb down onto the levels by the river with hella graffiti check it out it’s really cool
How do you take these long journeys? Do you have someone meet you with a car at certain points? Or get hotels along the way? I've biked pretty much all of the Northern NJ familiar rail trails, and have started biking the abandoned. I did the Delaware Raritan canal line and followed a particular line into Trenton. Which led to another line. It got kinda sketchy, to be honest, and it was a 15 mile backtrack to my car (30 total miles nearly did me in haha). So I'm really curious how you manage this.
They should just put in a trolly line Instead of a greenway
Sadly they already have removed most of the rails since this video
Progress on one side and abandonment on the other
👍
27:19 a rail washout.
itll be really cool to make a fan film of fallout 4. these tracks are so abandoned like if they are part of a wasteland
I heard these tracks are already ripped out 😭
33:27 The reason the train disappeared out of nowhere is because they pulled the cars out of the storage Boonton track so they can tear the tracks up later that year to build the rail trail.
Outf^^kingstanding. So that's where my CB750F ended up.......
that's where it was in 2022. it has now embarked to parts unknown
sneakers from power lines is criminal activity
There is only one "e" in KEARNY
Should have been rebuilt
Correction: This is the old Erie Greenwood Lake Branch, not the Boonton Line. The Boonton Line still exists from Hoboken to South Paterson, where it joins the former Erie Newark Branch right-of-way to connect with the former Erie Main Line. NJT calls this the "Main Line." The only part of the Boonton Line not used for passenger service is the portion from South Paterson to Mountain View. The former Erie Greenwood Lake Branch connects there to continue to Dover and beyond. There is some freight service on the old Boonton Line east of Mtn. View in Totowa.
where i come from we call it the old boonton line. montclair to jersey city
That might be, but this NEVER was part of the Boonton Line. I commuted on this line from Great Notch. It always was called the Greenwood Lake Branch.
@@erie910 locals refer to the NYGL between Montclair and Jersey City as the "Old Boonton Line" if you actually watch the movie you will understand
Walk this next: www.rahwayvalley.com/
Golf Sucks.
next time wear a reflective vest
Wonderful video, love the aërial drone footage, helicopter shots are amazing. (You have a great, thoughtful wife!) Going through Newark will guarantee the greenway will be lightly used, too dangerous for the ordinary cyclist, unless he’s strapped and even then…
Amazing video mister, amazing piece of work.
Boonton was a place a littie west of where I lived as a young one, with the NYS&W crossing the road I lived on heading west in Pompton Lakes NJ. It crossed a 90 degree junction with the Erie Lackawanna at Riverdale Jct and was interesting to be a shoort distance from my home. I actually have glass slides I scanned to preserve from a gent who saved them for me to scan. It was called Pompton Junction. A fellow who grew up in an old home as a child was a man whose family called the land they owned from Pomton way out towards the PA border and the Moks Family named it MONKSVILLE. I remember seeing pictures of the long gone turntable in Boonton NJ on the tails from JC NJ to Greenwood Lake, NY many years ago before I was born in 1947. He was tall as a young boy and worked on the Newark Watershed giant pipes to brush for the welders who came next to weld the giant pipes than delivered the water in a pipeline all the way to Newark, NJ. His home was further away from the old stage coach road in what became the Wanaque Reservour. His family raised cows for milk nd swapped for milk to get ice from the train heading to the icehouse in Riverdale NJ to be delivered by a Mr. Walter Post who we called the iceman!!!
The land was sold for development to many small towns in the countryside suchas Butler, West Milford, all the way to the PA border. The Wanaque Resevouir has been enlarged covering much of the old homsteads like where Coyt Monks lived but a few large drouts have left many visits finding his old hole out ny the Erie Train tracks wagon wheels and even the road beds of the old road heading up through Hamburg, Sussex, and beyond. From there to the Greenwood Lake area and to further up state NY. So I had many nice times watching these 2 r/r passing through where I lived for many years. I actually have a HO scale r/r of the B&M still building and adding to it and also the Ashuelot branch complete from Dole Jct all the way to Keene in my home. It is now Wireless Digital and I have 2 very large mountains for exiting the area and then moving via rail to another very large mountain to staging tracks as if trains go somewhere or enter as if from somewhere to make it appear larger that what you see. see it here but still building gcn.cx/myray
The prototype is from friends that worked the road, engineers, and 1 special neighbor that retired years ago the I met right here in Florida in my street!!! I have a real clear signal lantern, brass REAL lockbos key to the swithches, and an engineers license. He sadly passed last year after moving a bit north for cooler weather. He actually ran a 4 engine consist with many cars during a flood and the only was to bypass flooding was down the Ashuelot branch ONE TIME in History it ever happened. I have all 4 engines in HO scale!!
I have Ashuelot in HO Scale in the header to choose what you want to see or read. All lanscapes were built by me by hand no kits stuff. It is also lit for night video if necessary. And the Turntable is real, countersunk for appearance. I love your book and website. RC Florida
Did this Boonton Line end up in Hoboken? Also, excellent point about animals needing wildlife in which to thrive. Love your video. Keep up the good work. Save the animals.
When NJT shut this Boonton line down, did another line take over service to Boonton?