Morris & Essex Line Cab Ride Hoboken to Dover, NJ 1979 (Silent)

Climb aboard U34CH #4161 for a head-end ride on train #959 from Hoboken to Dover. I only know this was taken in 1979. From the lack of foliage on the trees I would say this was winter or very early spring.

This was taken by former Erie-Lackawanna (and at the time Conrail) tower operator Phil Albano, Jr., who was tracing the former Erie-Lackawanna mainline from his native Ohio. I was privileged to have digitized his several reels of silent Super 8mm films from the late 70s and early 80s using a RetroScan HD to scan the movies with some additional (visual) clean-up in Avisynth. In time, those will be uploaded to YouTube as well.

Back then it was a little easier for railfans and employees to get in places they ordinarily wouldn't, and I'm guessing working for the railroad got you a "pass" to ride on the head end of a commuter train (I think it was a weekend).

Since all of the trackage this video was taken on still exists, this is a nice time capsule to show the former DL&W mainline during the transition between Erie-Lackawanna, Conrail, and NJ Transit. The only major things I can think of that are gone today are the terminal tower at Hoboken that was replaced with a modern brick structure in the early 1980s, and the station at Denville that was torn down on Halloween 1992. In addition, this pre-dates the Meadows Maintenance Complex and the connections to the Northeast Corridor at Karney Jct by almost two decades.