ALDENE

The RV’s connection to the CNJ was called “Aldene” (alternatively pronounced “ALL-dean” or “AL-dean,” the former being the correct pronunciation). Aldene was the name of a real estate development project promulgated by Silas A. Condict, and named for his son, Alden, that straddled the borders of Cranford, Roselle Park, and Roselle. The CNJ’s Aldene depots were located in the Borough of Roselle Park, which is where the RV physically connected with the CNJ. The interchange of freight cars, however, was conducted slightly westward, just beyond the town line and into the Township of Cranford.

The New York & New Orange Railroad made physical connection with the CNJ in October 1897. Originally, there was no rail yard at Cranford. The RV’s track curved eastward and parallelled the CNJ mainline, went beneath the LV, and made physical connection to the CNJ in front of the original Aldene depot. A tail track at the bottom of the curve extended westward, paralleling the CNJ mainline, and was used for the interchange of freight cars.

The CNJ had maintained a coach yard and engine terminal, to service its locomotives, at Roselle Park (east of Aldene). Several commuter trains would originate from this yard each morning and tie up there each evening. Strings of passenger coaches would be kept and serviced in the yard for these trains. Locomotives would be watered, coaled, and serviced here as well; however, due to the unavailability of adjacent land, the prospect of expanding this facility for the CNJ’s growing commuter service was moot.

In July 1910, the CNJ purchased a tract of land in Cranford, north of its mainline and south of North Ave., for the construction of a new, larger coach yard and engine facility. In April 1913, the CNJ began constructing its Cranford facilities and laying its mainline Track 6 to accommodate a growing volume of trains. This necessitated the removal of the RV’s original interchange and physical connection. A yard track, Track 8, was laid between the LV bridge and the west end of the coach yard. The RV’s mainline was connected to this track. The Cranford coach yard and engine terminal were completed in October 1913. Afterward, the RV customarily interchanged cars with the CNJ on Track 10.

On the east end, Track 8 folded into Track 6 just short of the LV bridge. The distance between the RV’s switch and the end of Track 8 could only accommodate about six car lengths. In consequence, RV trains would have to temporarily foul Track 6 to come in and out of Cranford Yard.  

Cars to and from the Rahway Valley were primarily picked up and set out by four different CNJ trains: 

• AJ-2 - Allentown to Jersey City 

• JA-3 - Jersey City to Allentown 

• JG-1 - Jersey City to Phillipsburg 

• GJ-2 - Phillipsburg to Jersey City  

Westbound trains would set out their RV cars, among others, directly in the Cranford Yard. Eastbound trains would set out their block of Rahway Valley and local Cranford drill cars on Track 2 in the SIRT’s East Yard at Cranford Junction.  

The local Cranford Road Drill, which drilled all lineside industries between Westfield and Roselle, would be responsible for classifying all inbound and outbound cars at Cranford. The Cranford Road Drill started its day at 8:10 AM after the last commuter train had departed the Cranford Coach Yard for the station. After 1959, when commuter trains vacated the yard, the drill started its day at 7:30 PM. 

All cars for Allentown were placed on Track 8. Other cars for western points were placed on Track 12. The other tracks were used to make up the eastward drill for Roselle and the westward drill for Garwood and Westfield. The drill would use another track for all Rahway Valley cars and another for cars that needed to be crossed over to the SIRT.  

In the 1940s and 50s, the Plainfield Turner (Jersey City to Plainfield, turnaround) local freight left Jersey City at 5:30 AM with cars for Cranford and Plainfield. It would pick up cars at Elizabethport for those locations as well. This train would set out Cranford cars for the Cranford Drill on Track 10. It then crossed over with the SIRT cars, would run around them, and leave them in the SIRT’s East Yard. The cars on Track 2 would be crossed over the mainline to Cranford Yard for classification by the local Cranford Drill. The turner’s engine would then couple to its Plainfield cars and head to Plainfield, where a road drill did the industrial work in the territory. Returning, eastbound cars would be handled.  

The RV crew would shove their cars into Track 10, uncouple, and travel back to the east end of the yard. Later in the day, the RV crew would come into the yard, run up a clear track, couple onto their train from the west end where the drill had placed it, shove back to Aldene, clear their switch, and pull back onto home rails.  

In 1954, the CNJ discontinued operation of the last of its steam motive power. Many of the facilities at Cranford, in consequence, became superfluous. The coal and water towers were removed. The roundhouse was sold off and eventually became Polaris Plastics, and is today (2025) utilized by the Cranford Department of Public Works. The northernmost tracks of the Cranford Yard, immediately abutting North Ave., were removed, the land sold, and warehouses constructed thereupon. In early 1959, changes to train schedules brought about the discontinuance of Cranford Yard as a coach yard and origination point for commuter trains.

In 1959, the State of New Jersey released a plan to reroute CNJ commuter trains at Aldene onto the LV and Pennsylvania so their eastern terminus would be in Newark Penn Station rather than Communipaw in Jersey City. This would permit the CNJ to close its Jersey City terminal and discontinue its costly ferry service to New York. In June 1964, the CNJ and the State of New Jersey contracted to effect this change. State aid subsidized the necessary improvements.  

At Aldene, construction of a ramp to connect the CNJ with the LV began in 1965. The ramp’s construction necessitated the rearrangement of a number of tracks. Track 4 was cut and rerouted onto the ramp. A switch was installed on Track 2 to connect to the ramp. Tracks 6 and 8 were stub ended on the east end of the yard. The RV’s track was flipped from curving eastward to westward and now formed the eastern end of Cranford yard, connecting to Tracks 10, 12, and 14. The yard was essentially stubended with the CNJ only able to access the yard from the west end. The yard was protected against the RV with a spring derail on the east end.

The CNJ (along with the RV’s other connections) was folded into Conrail on April 1, 1976. The former LV interchange at Roselle Park became the preferred connection. The ex-EL connection at Summit closed. The ex-CNJ connection at Aldene fell out of favor. The yard at Cranford was being serviced by Conrail trains EH-1 (Elizabethport to High Bridge) and HJ-2 (Rutherford, PA to Elizabethport). The Cranford Drill was classified as CW-1/2 and customarily ran between 7:30 AM and 3 PM. Conrail consolidated all of the RV’s interchange movements to Roselle Park around 1977 and the Aldene connection fell dormant, more or less.

The New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway, through its corporate parent Delaware Otsego Corp., took over operations of the RV in 1986. The NYS&W also operated the nearby Staten Island Railway and sought to connect the two operations. In 1987, arrangements were made so that NYS&W trains could cross over the former CNJ mainline. This allowed the NYS&W to consolidate interchange movements to Staten Island Junction (ex-LV/SIRT) and warranted reutilization of the RV’s old Aldene connection, albeit not for the interchange of freight cars. The last car movements off the RV through Aldene were made on April 21, 1992. 

The Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) and Reading (RDG) railroads had a presence on the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) mainline between Bound Brook and Jersey City. In 1879, the Reading reached Bound Brook and began operating to New York terminals via CNJ trackage rights. A year later, the B&O discontinued a decades-long relationship with the Pennsylvania Railroad and began utilizing the RDG-CNJ route north of Philadelphia to reach New York.

The B&O, RDG, and CNJ had a three-way haulage arrangement for freight north of Philadelphia, whereby each railroad was responsible for its own portion of the traffic and shared revenue based on mileage. The RDG obtained a controlling interest in the CNJ in 1901; the B&O gained controlling interest in the RDG in 1903. The B&O also operated a subsidiary, the Staten Island Rapid Transit (SIRT) line, which connected with the CNJ at Cranford Junction. The RV leveraged this B&O-RDG-CNJ familial relationship in attracting industrial concerns to its rails through advertising connections to all three railroads. Haulage agreements between the three railroads afforded RV clientele competitive freight rates across the three systems and, for years, Aldene was the railroad’s heaviest interchange. Utilizing the RDG-CNJ north of Philadelphia, the B&O and Reading operated several named trains into the CNJ’s Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City: 

• Capitol Limited (B&O) - Jersey City to Chicago via Washington, DC 

• National Limited (B&O) - Jersey City to St. Louis via Washington, DC, and Cincinnati

• Royal Blue (B&O) - Jersey City to Washington, DC

• Shenandoah (B&O) - Jersey City to Chicago via Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh

• Crusader (RDG) - Jersey City to Philadelphia

• Wall Street (RDG) - Jersey City to Philadelphia

The B&O discontinued passenger service north of Baltimore on April 26, 1958. In 1967, the Aldene Plan rerouted RDG passenger trains from Jersey City to Newark Penn Station. The absorbtion of the RDG and CNJ into Conrail in April 1976, effectively squeezed the B&O out of the New York market. The railroad continued to operate one train a day to Cranford Junction until 1985, when it spun off its SIRT freight operations to Delaware Otsego Corp. SEPTA and NJDOT continued to operate the Crusader and the Wall Street into Newark, via Aldene, until 1982. 

CNJ No. 786 sits in front of the Cranford Roundhouse on December 9, 1950. (Photographer unknown)