CROXTON YARD, SECAUCUS, NEW JERSEY

Located in the New Jersey Meadowlands, the Erie-Lackawanna's main freight yard in the New York area was known as Croxton Yard.
In addition to conventional freight car sorting, the E-L had a significant piggy-back facility here and was ideally located for their prime
UPS traffic.  The Conrail Shared Assests joint operation still operates the facility, but for mostly container traffic.

My first visit was in the fall of 1973, but I had a simple inexpensive camera.

A subsequent visit on March 10, 1974 with a new Canon 35mm SLR yielded better results despite being a very windy day.

This spot is now directly under the New County Road overpass, but the yard office is still there.

An old NW-2 works a cut of cars in 1975.

  SDP-45 3656 is getting ready to hook up to a westbound.  The E-L ordered their SD45's on the longer passenger version
frame to accommodate a larger fuel tank.  This allowed the units to make the New Jersey to Chicago trip without refueling.

    On the weekends, the E-L would borrow the passenger U34CH units owned by the State of New Jersey
for freight service, typically turning back at Hornell, NY.

  Two of the former Lackawanna Baldwin AS-16 units were converted into cab-less slug units.  They did not
appear to be overly successful judging from their appearance and they always seemed to be stored off on a side track somewhere.

  Several former Erie and Lackawanna GP-7's are parked on the ready tracks during the weekend.

   The F-units were on their last legs by 1974 and this was the only occasion I found one here.

  3655 has arrived from Chicago and the yard crew will break up the train.  Note the dust storm from the high winds !

    In April 1974, a C-425 is on the service tracks and a GP-35 has arrived with an eastbound.

    Poor CNJ RS-3 1700 was totaled in a wreck on the E-L at Lake Jct.  July 1974.

          Some shots from 1975.

    The U25B's were not the most reliable units, but the E-L made do with what they had.

  A quick stop on a November evening using car headlights yielded this image.  The SD45 on the left is one of three
units that were originally bought by the Delaware and Hudson, but they were swapped for three EL U33C's as the D&H never had any
EMD units.  They were swapped back just prior to the Conrail take-over day.

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