
After hearing from Jack Norris last week about AC Tower in Waldwick, New Jersey, I sent him an email saying that the Akron Railroad Club would love to make a trip out to New Jersey to see the restored tower if we could ride the Lake Cities of the Erie Lackawanna. But the Lake Cities didn’t stop in Waldwick in the late 1960s and much of the ex-Erie is out of service in Ohio east of Ravenna. He responded to say how we could have gotten to Waldwick back in 1969.
After the Erie Lackawanna merger, all mainline trains went on the Lackawanna side via Scranton, Pennsylvania.
You could take a connecting train on the Erie side via Port Jervis and Binghamton, New York, and switch to the mainline train at Binghamton for the remainder of the trip to your area.
The connecting service stopped at Ridgewood, New Jersey, which is about two miles from Waldwick.
Today, one can ride the Lackawanna side to Hackettstown, New Jersey, and ride the Erie side as far as Port Jervis, New York.
Port Jervis is home to Erie 833 and in the late ‘90s was the destination of Chesapeake & Ohio 614.
[Former ARRC President] Dave McKay stayed with me and we rode a 614 trip. Here is a recent picture (eight months ago) of Erie 833 on the operational Port Jervis 115-foot turntable as well as some 614 pictures.
Alas, the old coaling towers were torn down in the early 2000s.
Article and Photographs From Jack Norris


