The RV Shuffle: Passenger Movements

In the late 1890’s the Rahway Valley Railroad got its start. Only it wasn’t called Rahway Valley yet, it was called the New Orange Four Junction Railroad, and earlier the New York & New Orange Railroad. At its earliest, the NOFJ began to haul passengers from Aldene and Roselle (not yet called Roselle Park), to New Orange and later, under the Rahway Valley Railroad banner, to Springfield, and then up the hill to Summit. A connection was made with the Central Railroad of New Jersey at Aldene, where their new Cranford yard was beginning to come alive. Passenger service began to make commuting to the City and larger towns easier to local citizens. You could travel on RVRR trains from Springfield to Townley on the Lehigh Valley, off the Lackawanna at Summit, or to Jersey City on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. This was real progress.

The NOFJ (or NY&NO) had built a station in Aldene along the CRRofNJ mainline. From all indications NOFJ trains, usually a combine and coach, were backed down from New Orange, the engine running backward at the end of the train. Old records mention a crossing guard at Westfield Avenue (then North Avenue). Although traffic was light, mostly horse and wagon, a few early autos, and an occasional trolley, there were no air whistles and a flagman would have to guide the train across.

Locomotive No. 3 in the old photographs appears to be one of the ex-PRR 4-4-0’s. After meeting the CRRofNJ connection No. 3 would pull, locomotive leading back across Westfield Avenue, along Valley Road, and across Michigan to the junction. Again, No. 3 backs down to Colfax and Webster Avenues and around the curve into the track alongside the Lehigh Valley’s main. Passengers just crossed the tracks to the LV’s big Victorian depot for connecting trains, possibly swapping express or LCL.

Then it was off to New Orange and points west. At Springfield, the only passing siding on the line, the engine would uncouple and run around to the rear of the train and push the coaches up the steep hill, through Baltusrol, to Summit, protecting the cars from a runaway with the locomotive on the rear. There was an incident of the coaches getting away downhill prompting management to act to avoid future thrill rides.

If the rails were wet, or the trains were particularly heavy, the locomotive would use the siding at Baltusrol to split the cars and take one or two at a time up the stiff grade, hence “doubling” the hill, obviously a time consuming process. I guess the schedule went out the window there!

Photos at Summit’s small terminal show the engines on the downhill end of the train. On reaching Springfield, and the flat land, the swap was again made and the cars led the way, engines running backward to the start. Remember, a 1906 timetable shows 10 trains a day were run in this fashion. Hoo-boy!