My train went under that site about an hour and a half ago. Sad to see that the stairs have been boarded up since before we were in SRL. I guess at one time Roseville was a bedroom community for commuters to New York and that station probably thrived. Now the walls are all filled with graffiti. It was really bad graffiti a few years ago--sloppy and amateurish, but now it looks as good as what you'd see in New York... I wonder if that's a good thing?
Roseville station was still in business in the mid-1950s, when Brian Bowler, Tom Donoghue and I used to take the train to Millburn to go out in the Great Swamp and chase snakes and turtles. Still, even then, there was that faint aura of stale beer and urine on the steps down to the platform, so I suppose it was on its way out even then.
I used to love taking the train with the Girl Scouts!We'd get off in South Orange and then hike up South Orange Avenue to the Girl Scout camp. We must have looked weird. I wonder what the actual distance was - it seemed like 10 miles, but I'll bet it was only about one! The trains were so neat with their reversible wicker seats. It's funny - I don't remember the Roseville station having an unpleasant smell, but maybe it was still fine when I rode the train in the mid and late 50's. I do remember the RR underpass on 13th St being dark and stinky and scary, though. We O'Briens (or at least the girls)were warned by our parents never to walk home to East Orange via that underpass. Of course, we did. We also sometimes crossed over Indian Hill from some little block-long street off of Orange St instead of following the proscribed route (7th Ave W. to Eaton Place to Greenwood Ave to Grove Place and to our home 5 houses up from the East Orange Oval (city park).
The train station was our stamping grounds, although I don't remember ever being inside the station itself. It always seemed to be locked. The platforms were the places we hung out, as on hot summer days they were cooler.
Enclosed in a wooden cabinet at the very end of the platform, where the lines split, was an old-fashioned crank telephone that connected to the switching tower behind the White Circle. From it we frequently made "crank" calls, during which we would learn new swear words from the switchman.
At exactly 5:05 every afternoon a big westbound diesel would come through the "Roseville cut," making a racket you could hear all over the neighborhood. (When I heard it I knew I would have to start heading home, because we Irish ate at 5:30, not at seven like the Italians.) I sometimes would stand on the platform just beyond the white line while the diesel thundered by a couple feet away. Technically safe but a big rush.
Yeah, sometimes the place smelled like urine and you had to step over an empty Night Train bottle occasionally, but the train station was a cool place.
I took that train for my first and part of my second year up to Our Lady of the Valley High School. That was in 68 and 69. There were a few of us that met on the platform. I never did go into a station - you paid the fare once you were on the train to the conductor. We got off at Scotland Road in Orange and walked down the hill for two blocks (I think) and were at the school.
You're right. I remember the seats being able to switch back and forth so 4 people could sit together. I also remember people calling it the "dreary erie".
The weather we're having now in NJ reminds me of those cold mornings waiting for the train in a skirt. I thought my knees were going to freeze!
For my third year at the Valley, I switched to taking a bus up Park Avenue and transfering to another bus in East Orange that went over Scotland Road. I caught the bus on the corner where the stairs were that went down to the subway station on Park Ave.
I had the same experience in 1957-58, my first year at OLV. I took the train from Roseville. The walk from the station seemed longer than two blocks, though. In my sophomore year I switched to the bus. I recall taking a crosstown bus on Roseville Ave., and then another, I think it was the "44 Tremont" to Valley. That bus would stop on Scotland Road as well and then you had to walk down to the school.
Joe, if you scroll down to the bottom of the Bodholt's Diner page and select page nine from the archives, you'll find two sections on Newark busses with over a hundred responses.
Pat,
I still see exactly what you described from your days commuting to OLV. Even in 2004 the girls from the western burbs like Bernardsville and Gladstone take the same line the opposite way to get to the parochial schools in Summit. The seats still swing so these little darlings in the plaid skirts face triple seats toward each other and take up too much room. The standing commuters curse under their breath until Summit when all the girls get off. There are boys heading to Seton Hall Prep, St. Peter's prep and other schools but the girls seem to outnumber them by droves.
JC, remember when the freight trains used to "side track" a couple of blocks past the Ampere split near the Park Ave bridge? What a playground. We lived across from Remco and in back of Remco there were plenty of breaks in the fence to the Railroad. You could climb the freight cars and mess around with some of the equipment. Once in a while the big sliding doors on the boxcars would be open near the newspaper warehouse. Some of the freights would move pretty slow but we never actually jumped a moving train--I think I saw a Cagney movie where he gets caught by the RR dick and goes to reform school. (Cathy will know the movie).
