Does anyone have any information, i.e. history, car numbers, disposition, photos, of the four CNJ coaches that were used on the Whippany River (Morristown and Erie) passenger operation, 1974 to 1976.

(Please note that I did not, WILL NOT, use the more public name, used in advertising and that those poor coaches were forced to carry. I'll leave that for someone else-).

On another venue, a question came up about one of the cars, and even though I was a conductor and occasionally fired there, I'm drawing a blank. I know one was privately owned, and that the other three came from Nappy. I was on the crew that beat them into shape over the winter of '73-'74.

One interesting story; I do remember one guy (civilian) that took a picture of EVERY journal box lid, making the comment that these would be scarce soon. He was right, of course, as history shows, but it seemed strange at the time.

While I don't think they're going to become scarce any time soon, or for a very long time for that matter, I often wonder if anyone is documenting the various container liveries out there. "Cans" will be around a long time, unless somebody perfects teleportation, but companies and logos will come and go.

One of the other conductors from that operation just sent me a PM with the numbers; 963, 1109, 1133 and 1140. I did remember 'something'-09, but didn't want to commit to it. Seems there is a 1009 listed on Black River's roster, but not the same car.

1109 was the leased car, and had a nice restored interior and I believe wooden window sash. The other three had Adlakes, and for those we kept up the CNJ tradition of institutional gray. No time to strip and varnish, sadly.

So, where are they now? Hopefully still with us? I know the Stillwell lunch car, left behind by Earle Gil, and which we were afraid to even move, is long gone.

EDM,

I would have assumed all 4 of these cars had bit the dust, but since you have the road numbers now we can confirm, CNJ 1109, 1133, and 1140 have ended up at the Conway Scenic railroad. That leaves 963 missing.

The bellow photos show how these cars look now, to my knowledge Conway Scenic hasn't changed any coach road numbers.

http://rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=172061

http://rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=425768

http://rrpicturearchives.net/rsPicture.aspx?id=425770

There is a coach in the movie "The Station Agent", which was filmed on-site. It looks to be ex-CNJ to me - is that the missing coach?

Wasn't the 1133 also on the New Hope & Ivyland as the "Volunteers car" in the early to mid 70's?....I believe that is the one that had a restored wood interior.

Derail, thanks for posting those links. They do look good, even today; nice cars!

I remember just one CNJ, among all the RDGs, back in the late '70s, but I doubt is was 1133. Restored with wooden interior? NOT! That car only got used for the Christmas trains, and didn't even have seats. They used folding chairs instead. The FRA would have a cow today. But I don't think it was the same coach. In service, complete, at M&E, and a shell a few years later at NHIR? The timeline doesn't make sense.

I remember being the 'fireman' or brakeman on one of the Copper Range Baldwins, with 0-6-0 9 at the other end of one of those trains. We joked on the radio about having hot water for the engineer's tea, as we were doing most of the work with the BLW. Some times we had a good time there...sometimes.

After trying to find more information about the Whippany River operation I found a previous rypn topic (from 2008) that states that the M&E bought the 1133 from the NH&I and was part of the group of coaches NH&I bought from the Valley Forge Scenic. Another user says 1 CNJ coach and the Erie stillwell snack car were scraped, so the scraped car would have been 963. Maybe some of the folks from that 10 year old thread are still on the forum and can elaborate if we need more confirmation.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=24763&start=0

My understanding was that one CNJ coach arrived with the 148, we now have a reason to think that 1133 came from NH&I. I can't help but wonder did the other two CNJ coaches come from? A deadline in New Jersey?

This thread has got me thinking more about having a better idea of where other CNJ cars ended up. Looking back through the history of different operations scraped cars that they thought were in rough shape but as heavyweight coaches become more scarce people attitudes might change.

Kurt Bell maintained a list of extant CNJ heavyweight coaches. I think there were about 50 accounted for, ranging from magnificent to hopeless.

I believe Steve Hepler, president of the Whippany Railway Museum, has the complete roster of cars used by the Morris County Central and the Morristown & Erie's tourist train.

Alan Maples