This information is courtesy of James Knecht, Copyright (c) 1998, allrights reserved.
Here is some information on the West Shore Line from Weehawken to Albany.
I lived in Bergenfield, NJ on the West Shore Division from 1941 (when Iwas born) until 1965.
I regularly spent time at Bergenfield passenger station until service was eliminated in 1959. The line was four track to Dumont, NJ until 1957.
The evening rush-hour service consisted to expresses to West Haverstraw,Newburgh and Kingston supplemented by locals to Dumont. The Dumont trainsterminated in a passenger yard beyond the train station, complete with wyefor turning engines. The five sets which were domiciled there were alwayspowered by rare Baldwin RS-12's and had very old non air-conditionedcoaches which were originally built of wood with steel underframes. Theywere rebuilt with steel bodies in 1928 and 1929 by ACF, retaining theirsix or four wheel trucks, as originally built. They were painted in"pacemaker green' with imitation gold lettering These cars had beautifulwooden interior walls, green plush pull-over seats and dim lighting from adecorative glass lamp fixture over the central aisle. The beyond Dumonttrains were pulled by RS-3's, sometimes with a baggage or RPS orcombination coach in the consist. These cars were air-conditioned andwere part of the Central's large fleet of Spec. 700 coaches. Starting in1953, these cars were repainted into the two tone gray paint schemefamiliar on NYC passenger cars. The interior of these cars were veryutilitarian compared to the older coaches.
Service levels on weekdays on the West Shore were as follows:
Sept. 1940: 32 northbound trains daily, 4 to Albany, 4 Newburgh, 1Kingston.
April 1955: 21, 2, 2, 1.
Oct. 1957: 17,1,2,1.
April 1958: 17,1, 1, 1.
In October 1958, service was reduced to weekdays only and West Haverstrawas the the most northern destination. Service throughout the day was alsoeliminated with only 12 southbound in the morning and 12 northbound in theevening. The Dumont operation was eliminated in 1957.
The reduction in service in October permitted the NYC to remove thecenter two tracks from service, ending the four track operation begun inthe 1920's. The rusty rails and weeds were an eyesore for quite a longtime until finally removed.
Not being able to secure ICC agreement to eliminate all passenger service,the Central cleverly justified discontinuance of the ferry service betweenfirst Cortland Street in New York and then 42nd Street. This effectivelyeliminated the need for the trains as the passenger was dropped at theHudson River with no really satisfactory means of reaching New York City.The Public Service Coordinated Transport bus at the Weehawken station wasvery slow and uncomfortable. Attempts began before he last train ran andcontinued after the last train to restore service by running the trains toHoboken over the Erie Railroad and to Jersey City on the PennsylvaniaRailroad or to Susquehanna Transfer, but to no avail. The end of 1959 wasthe end of passenger service on the West Shore.
An excellent video is available from Mark 1 Video called New YorkCentral: "Along the Hudson" which covers West Shore passenger andfreight trains, along with the ferry operation on the Hudson River, forabout 20 minutes. The video costs $19.99 and can be obtained by calling1-800-66-MARK 1. Several passenger trains are shown with Boston & MaineRDC's and Canadian Pacific streamlined coach on the rear. This is avery unusual sight but makes sense as the cars would be coming from theBudd Company plant destined to Albany for interchange.
Another historical aspect of the West Shore is its hosting of passengerand freight trains of the New York, Ontario and Western betweenWeehawken and Cornwall, NY. Passenger service ended in 1953 and freightin 1957, with the closure of this railroad. In its latter days, thedaily O&W; passenger train (1) was shown as making flag stops at any WestShore station between Ridgefield Park, NJ and Cornwall, NY. This was theroute to the Catskills and operated in its prime with Camelbacks pullingwooden coaches, operated in multiple sections on weekends and holidays.The end of service consisted of an F3 pulling a heater car (ex steamtender), Baggage, RPO and coach open ended observation (formerly parlorobservation). Freight service was tri-weekly to Weehawken to the end in1957.
After West Shore passenger service ended, NYC freight trains consistedof Flexi-Van, TOFC, Multi-levels and general freight pulled by FA, F3,F7 and RS-3 combinations. In time, more modern power from Alco and GEbegan to replace these older models. Seeing a GP7 or GP9 was a rarityon the West Shore in the early days. Reduced volume on trains on theline following the end of passenger service saw the line reduced tosingle track, with new bi-directional signaling. The former northboundmain became an extended siding from Ridgefield, NJ to Dumont, NJ. A farcry from the days of four mainline tracks.
Click here to view the proposal to restore passenger service on the West Shore line.
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