This route has always been a personal favorite of mine as far as the tight New York waterfront terminals go. A bit of history here, for those who don't know: in the 1900s, to provide better access to customers in the city, a number of railroads built small terminals along the Harlem River to service the local industry and markets in the area. Only the New Haven and New York Central railroads, however, had fixed rail connections in Harlem and the Bronx. All of the other lines that serviced the area (DL&W, Erie, Lehigh Valley, and the CNJ) owned small plots of land along the waterfront and shipped cars on ferries from their New Jersey terminals. This is why the 'length' above is listed as 3 acres - space was at a premium, and the smaller the lot, the better. General Location: New York Era: 1920s-1960s Length overall: 3 acres max speed: 15-20 mph/ 25-30 km/h Service types: Local switching/shunting # of tracks: n/a Locomotives #840 Baldwin 0-4-0T #1000 AGEIR Oil-Electric Boxcab #1023 ALCo HH600 #1001 Davenport Diesel-Electric (Note: due to the small size of the terminal, only one locomotive was ever present on site. #840 was in use 1907-1925, #1000 was in use 1925-1952, and #1001 was used from 1952 until the site's closure in 1961. #1023 was fitted with special couplers for use on the sharp curves, but how long it served is something of a mystery. It is believed to have arrived in 1952 and was removed shortly after.) The CNJ managed to cram 17 yard tracks into this tiny space, with capacity for 95 cars. The most unique feature of the terminal was the circular freight house. The loading doors on the sides were designed for 36' boxcars, the standard in 1907 when it was built. By the 1950s, however, freight cars were generally anywhere from 40-60 feet in length, which caused operational headaches. In 1961, facing declining freight traffic in the wake of reduced demand for the CNJ's major traffic, anthracite coal, and ever-dwindling passenger numbers because of the automobile, the Bronx Terminal was deemed surplus to requirements and shut down. In 1967, the road filed for bankruptcy, and Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City, the other end for car ferry operations and the center of the CNJ's commuter network, closed. The CNJ limped on until 1976, when it was merged into Conrail. The Route in TSW Although it is an incredibly small route, there is still a ton of traffic to switch on and off of the ferry. One thing I would love to see added is an operational ferry that will take the cars away and replace them with new ones at set times, otherwise the route becomes boring. The main challenge of this route is not steep grades or heavy trains, it's figuring out how to not block yourself in somewhere. Interestingly enough, the entirety of the single block this route sits on is in TSW already - at the north end of the Harlem River waste facility, there is a pretty poor representation of what's there today, but that's to be expected. Pictures The entire terminal was contained in a lot slightly larger than that building on the left. 1907 Railroad Gazette track diagram View of the terminal and car float c. 1955 from the Harlem River. View from across 3rd Avenue of the whole complex. Locomotives and Rolling Stock CNJ #1000 was built in 1925 by ALCo, GE, and Ingersoll Rand after laws banning steam locomotives in New York were passed. It is the first production-series diesel-electric locomotive ever built. As delivered in 1925 it was called an 'oil-electric' because 'diesel' is a German word, something which the manufacturers decided would probably not go over well in the wake of WWI. Today, #1000 is preserved at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. Standard 36' boxcar. Used to carry pretty much any general freight. Flatcar - used for any load that might not fit in a boxcar, like pipes, etc. At Harlem Terminal, these also would have been used as 'idler cars' designed to keep the heavy locomotive off of the float bridge and barge, whose balance could be upset. Gondola. Like a flatcar, but has sides so loads don't need to be secured. Can also be used for aggregate such as sand, gravel, and in some cases even coal. In conclusion, CNJ's Harlem Terminal would make for an interesting route for TSW, simply because of how much there is to do compared to the space it occupies. This would almost certainly be a candidate for a lower priced addon. In addition, the inclusion of a working car ferry would certainly be a huge plus for TSW. If you want to do some further reading, I would highly recommend this Trainweb article: http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/crrnjbxt.html It is very well researched, and if you want to see a video of the place in action, there is a video from 1958 that shows the Davenport switcher and some of the insane trackwork.
Agree and once the editors comes out I would like to see a third party Developer re-create the CNJ Main Line from Jersey City to Scranton PA
While I do realize this is for TS20XX and not TSW or TSW2, I did create a very basic version of the bronx terminal a few years ago. It's not great and needs a lot of work, but feel free to edit and reupload this as you please, just give credit to me if you do. I'll leave the link here for anyone who is interested and better at route building (and more motivated) than I am. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1943094142
That includes the Easton Phillipsburg CRRNJ Bridge then the Raritan Valley Line West segment High Bridge to Phillipsburg pre-1984.
