ROSELLE PARK

The Lehigh Valley Railroad was constructed through Roselle Park as part of its Newark & Roselle Railway extension, which was opened on February 16, 1891. The railroad was originally at grade level with grade crossings made at Locust Street, Chestnut Street, Walnut Street, and Galloping Hill Road through Roselle Park. The crossings at Locust and Chestnut were protected by manually operated gates, manned by a gate tender. The LV’s Roselle Park depot (called Roselle until 1901) was located at Chestnut Street.

The New York & New Orange Railroad made connection with the Lehigh Valley Railroad in late-1898 or early-1899. The physical connection was made near the later location of the W. Webster Ave. grade crossing (post 1920), where the NY&NO’s Lehigh Valley Branch and the LV’s Roselle Branch connected. Originally, the NY&NO connecting track was a single track that curved northeastward and paralleled the two track LV mainline as far as the intersection of W. Lincoln Ave. and Chestnut Street, ending across from the depot. There was a crossover to connect this track with the mainline. A tail track came off the bottom of the curve for the interchange of freight cars.

Several years later, sometime between 1906 and 1915, a small freight yard was established at W. Lincoln Ave. and Chestnut Street where the RV would interchange freight cars with the LV. The LV also utilized the yard for local consignees and maintained a freight house at the location. A runaround track was built west of the Locust Street grade crossing so the RV could run around its cars before returning to home rails. The yard itself was stub ended. The RV would have to cross Locust Street at grade to reach the yard. The gates would be lowered by the gate tender, whose booth was in front of the Roselle Park depot. 

The Aldene Plan, which connected the CNJ and LV at Aldene and allowed the CNJ to abandon its Communipaw terminal in Jersey City, necessitated the elevation of the LV mainline through Roselle Park. This would eliminate the four grade crossing through town. A new commuter depot between Locust Street and Chestnut Street, and accompanying parking lot, required the relocation of the freight yard at Roselle Park. The new yard, consisting of four tracks, was established to the west of Locust Street. The new track layout included two stub ended sidings and two other tracks that formed a runaround. The LV built a team track to a new freight office. The team track crossed the RV connecting track with a diamond.

Cars for the Rahway Valley were handled by the local, daily freight that ran between Oak Island Yard (Newark) and South Plainfield and return. Besides drilling local industries, this job drilled the team track and freight house at Roselle Park and left cars for the Rahway Valley. Taking cars from the RV, and the rest of its own train, it would proceed to Cranford where the entire train was backed over and down to Staten Island Junction. A two-way interchange would be made with the SIRT and the factory sidings drilled before proceeding to South Plainfield. The return trip to Oak Island was generally made non-stop unless there were rush cars to be handled. This job had been handled by Camelback 4-6-0s and 2-8-0s, which were all scrapped by 1949. They were succeeded by 4-6-0s, 4-6-2s, and 2-8-2s, all working day for day according to availability. 

The local LV drill became known as OP-5 by the early 1960s (Oak Island - Port Reading, sometimes referred to as the “Port Reading Local” or the “Clark Drill) and extended its run to Port Reading. After the diesel-electrics came, this job was sometimes handled by an ALCo FA which would come into Oak Island early in the morning on BJ-2 from Buffalo. The locomotive would be cut off, utilized on the local job, and then put back on JB-3 to Buffalo which would leave in the evening. More typically, OP-5 would be under the charge of one of the LV EMD switchers (called “pups” by the railroaders). 

The Roselle Park connection became the railroad’s primary interchange after the creation of Conrail in April 1976. In 1980, the RV’s cars were handled by Conrail job WJSP-26 - the “Townley Job” - which started in South Plainfield Yard at 8:30 AM and ran east along the former LV to Townley (in Union). By 1982, Roselle Park was being served on weekdays by WJMA-35- starting out of Manville Yard at 7:30 PM and running east. It appears that WJSP-20 and WJSP-60, both based out of South Plainfield Yard, may have also served the Roselle Park interchange during this time period. In 1986, Roselle Park was served by Conrail’s WJOI-21, which started at Oak Island Yard at 9:00 AM, on weekdays. This was the only local job covering industries and interchanges along the former LV mainline between Oak Island and Bound Brook, including Roselle Park, at this time. 

The connection was closed in 1987, after the NYS&W was able to consolidate interchange activities to Staten Island Junction on the Staten Island Rapid Transit line. The yard was removed in January 1992.

The LV’s Roselle Park Victorian-style depot (called Roselle until 1901) was constructed on Chestnut Street in the early 1890s. The depot was at the LV’s MP 16 (distance from Jersey City). At one time, the depot was rented out to the LV’s Supervisor of Stations as a house. The depot became disused as a passenger depot after the LV discontinued passenger service in 1961. It continued as a freight agency until the Aldene Plan was implemented in 1967. The grade separation project raised the mainline about fifteen feet - making it level with the second floor of the depot. The LV constructed a small freight office in the new interchange yard, west of Locust Street, to replace the old depot which was now a block away from the yard. The depot was demolished sometime after the Aldene Plan.