The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1904-07-26
MORRISTOWN,S
NEW RAILROAD
The Morristown and Erie Road
Of Excellent Construction
Throughout the Line.
A HEAVY FREIGHT TRAFFIC

The posters announcing the excur
sion of the Methodist Sunday School
to Asbury Park and Ocean Grove has
brought forcibly to mind the fact that
Morristown now has rail connection
with the Greenwood Lake Division Of
the Erie Railroad, Although the
regular passenger service has not as
yet been put on, heavy freight trains
have been running between Norris
town and Essex Fells for a month. In
fact freight has been 50 heavy that 1t
delayed thestarting Of passenger trains
The new part Of the line from Whip
pany to Essex Fells was started some-
what over a year ago, and was only
recently finished. To properly grade
the line 10000 cubic yards Of earth
were excavated the greatest cut is
Dodd Hill, in Essex comfy, where a
cut / 800 feet long and twenty-four feet
deep at the deepest place was made.
Other cuts have made nearly as deep,
and fills have been made twenty feet
high. The main structure required
was the Passaic river bridge, where a
trestle on concrete foundations was
built, 464 feet long and thirty feet
high. This structure was built to
carry a hundred ton engine. The
bents are spaced sixteen feet between
centers six girders, each eight by six
teen inches, carrying the ties. Another
| long trestle is beyond Whippany, where
equal care was used to provide safe
structure.
The road is well laid out, four curves
and three tangents being used for the
seven miles. One of the straight
pieces Of track is 1880 feet or three
and a half miles long. The grades are
generally easy. The heaviest is that
running from the Passaic to Essex
Fells, where for distance the maxi
mum Of .2.2 feet per hundred is at
tanned, considerably less than the
Newark hill on the Lackawanna.
On this roadway standard track
with rails Weighing eighty pounds to
the yard, the same as lately laid on
the Lackawanna, have been laid with
a full allowance Of ties underneath
and the whole ballasted with gravel.
The train has been making Essex
Fells under fourteen minutes from
Whippany. The other end Of the line
lfrom Whippany to Morristown has had
many thousand dollars spent on it in
the last few years, taking out curves
and reducing grades, and is In shape foI
fast running. The worst grade on the
whole line is that from the Lacka-
wanna junction to Albeit avenue,
Here it is intended to raise the tracks
and go over Albeit avenue, doing
away with bad crossing and reduc-
ling the grade. This hill is now being
relaid with eighty pound steel.
| For the excursion, Pennsylvania cars
will be used with two engines to draw
the train. The time table gives plenty
of time for careful running over the
line.
| A meeting of the board Of director:
of the Morristown 81 Erie was held al
Whippany yesterday afternoon The
event Of the afternoon was trip q
inspection over the new part Of tht
lline. The return trip from Esse,
Fells to Whippany was made in tel
minutes. After the meeting, RicharC
| w. McEwan, the president OF the roaC
Ientertained the members Of the boar
/ at dinner at his residence. As it wa:
a railroad meeting, the ice cream was
served in appropriate forms l0c0m0
tiyeS, etc. Day was The caterer.
Fred Eggling, Of Bernardsville, ha;
purchased an automobile and will
make a business 0f carrying people Il.
luhat vicinity, making regular trips te
M0rristown and SQmerville.