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From: "Tupaczewski, Paul R \(Paul\)" paultup AT alcatel-lucent DOT com
Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2008 09:09:47 -0600
Subject: Boonton overview, annotated
"boonton-annotated.jpg" - image/jpeg, 2202x1650 (24bit)

Hi folks,

Been a little under the weather lately, so I'm just getting to this
today. I've annotated Ed Wheeler's excellent Boonton overview shot and
it's attached.

I've roughly outlined where Route 287 is (it's the light blue line that
pretty much follows the Morris Canal bed) and noted key streets. I also
outlined roughly the path of the Morris Canal in green - as you can see,
287 follows the path. The canal made a hard turn by Main Street and
headed towards the iron works and a plane to carry it up the "Main
Street hill" in Boonton, ducking under the DL&W. If you go to this
location today, you can still make out where the canal crossed under
parallelling Morris Avenue there.

I've noted some DL&W customers there, including the large Drew Chemical
complex and Boonton Feed. I've also outlined the Van Raalte silk mill
(still there today as a distributor of parts for Packard automobiles!).
I highlighted it because I've seen in DL&W customer lists this
particular factory - always wondered how the DL&W served them: Did they
just get stuff at the freight house and truck it over? There's quite an
elevation difference between the two locations so I doubt there was a
track, but there appears to be a bridge of some sort there.

The "turntable" is the one that can stil be seen today. Also note the
right-of-way of the former RR&M at the very bottom of the image, which
later became a street.

To further drive home the point of why I'm such a big Boonton Line fan,
I've highlighted where I grew up about two blocks south (left on the
map) of the Boonton Line - albeit not in the house that is there!)

To answer some of the questions posed about this image:

* The aerial of Boonton I posted earlier was taken further southwest of
this image (left and up), taken looking more northwest (up and right)
* In the earlier days, Drew had its own Plymouth critter that switched
the plan. By the early 1960s, the EL was able to handle all the
switching and the critter was sold to the Morris County Central Railroad
(see? Tying this into the photos of the 385 I posted yesterday :)
* The line coming off the main by the freighthouse led to the former
Boonton Iron Works (as noted on the image). This actually was the
original end of the Boonton Branch as it came east from Denville. It
extended to just beyond the right edge of the photo. In EL years, the
line terminated at a Lennox Air Conditioning distributor, and I actually
did see a flatcar with a large piece of A/C equipment on it being
switched into there. Rare movements! The deck truss bridge *IS*
substantial (see our "Boonton Discovery Day" images of this same bridge
at:

http://el-list.railfan.net/discdays/boonton/dd-10.jpg
http://el-list.railfan.net/discdays/boonton/dd-12.jpg

As I said, traffic on this spur was rare, so the DL&W and EL both used
it to store tank cars from Drew Chemical.

* I have to look up in my DL&W "customers list" to see the name of that
customer towards the bottom of the image, but that building is STILL
THERE (they tore down the overhead walkway over Myrtle Ave. in the early
1990s, though). Today, the entire area around that building is built up
(no surprise there, I guess)

* The large V-shaped gash in the terrain by Main Street isn't the Morris
Canal, it's the Rockaway River which cuts deeply through the terrain at
this location.

Hope this helps!

- Paul



<>

________________________
Paul R. Tupaczewski
Alcatel-Lucent
CDMA/IMS Trials and Demos Group
67 Whippany Road, Room 15D-116
Whippany, NJ 07981
Phone: 973-386-4966
Fax: 973-386-4147
Cell: 973-650-5871




boonton-annotated.jpg

Image EXIF Data:
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Y Resolution   300 Pixels/Inch
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Photometric Interpretation   RGB
Compression   Uncompressed


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