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Montville Township Historical Society
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Railroad Related
West Bound Train
"This photo is by Donald W. Furler, dated 1940, Catalogue # Furler -03-012-03 in the Center for Railroad Photography & Art, Madison, Wisconsin. It shows a westbound Lackawanna commuter train passing under the old concrete bridge which carried Rt. 202 over the railroad on the east side of Towaco at the junction of Barney Lane."
Clean up of Train crash: Clean up of Train crash under the Potato bridge, Circa early 20th century
"The photograph shows the derailment of a tank car just west of the bridge, not under the bridge, because the wreck is the same one in “Train derailment c. 1940s,” which shows the tank car west of the bridge with the Whitehall Methodist Church in the background. The date “Circa early 20th century” is too early because it does not correspond to the 1940s date of the other photo, which is undoubtedly more accurate given the vintage of the cars lined up along Whitehall Road. Incidentally, until November 16, 1964 when a truck loaded with potatoes got stuck on the bridge and dumped its load, this bridge would not have been known as the Potato bridge. Furthermore, I don’t recall anyone ever referring to it by that name afterward before it was demolished."
Francis T. Butts
Francis T. Butts
Train derailment c. 1940s
This view is taken from the north side of the Rt. 202 bridge over the railroad. Most of the cars lined up along Whitehall Road appear to be of 1930s vintage, so I suspect the more precise date is c. late 1930s rather than the more general c. 1940s. Notice also that there are only three railroad tracks shown through Towaco at this date. This fact is useful in dating some of the other photographs.
Laying new tracks, Circa early 1900s
The photo is taken from the Rt. 202 bridge over the railroad looking east. This bridge was not built until the first two decades of the 20th century, when the Lackawanna Railroad was making major improvements in its infrastructure, ones that included a new station and the grade separation in Towaco that rerouted the main road, which later became Rt. 202, away from Whitehall Road and over the new concrete bridge. According to the Colrick book on Monville, p. 81, the station was designed and presumably built in 1912, so the bridge and grade separation through Towaco may have preceded it by only a few years.
Golden Era of Trains: Circa Mid to Late 1920s when Montville had 4 sets of tracks
"This view is taken from the concrete bridge over the railroad in Towaco, looking east. The date is too late. According to the Wikipedia article on the Lackawanna’s Boonton Branch, and the Colrick book, p. 81, four tracks were not laid through Towaco until the 1920s. Judging from the lack of plant growth beside the tracks, plus the old car at the right in the photo, the date is probably the mid to late 1920s. Furthermore, the fourth track must not have lasted very long because it is not evident in “Train derailment c. 1940.” Speaking from personal experience, as a boy who attended second grade at the old Towaco firehouse in 1952-53, and who often used the railroad’s pedestrian underpass at lunch time to go to Basch’s Luncheonette in Towaco center to buy candy, I can attest to the fact that the railroad did not have four tracks at the time."
Francis T. Butts
Francis T. Butts
Potato Bridge
This name is misleading because, as suggested above, it was never known by that name before the truck accident. The picture is evidently from a postcard because it has a caption above that says “Railroad Bridge, Towaco, N.J.”
Trains - Circa early 1900s
This photo was taken west of Towaco center where the Morris Canal closely parallels the railroad. The Morris Canal is visible as the light-colored diagonal strip across the bottom of the photo. The view looks northwest. The passenger train is eastbound. The locomotive is a camelback or Mother Hubbard type, which was common on the Lackawanna from 1900 until the mid 1930s. Camelbacks had the engineer’s cab mounted over the boiler and on both sides, mid-way to the front. The fireman has a separate, exiguous cab at the rear of the boiler. Since the Lackawanna’s first camelback was built in 1899 and most after 1900, the photo is from approximately the early 1900s. The photo captioned “Montville Train Station with Westbound Train: Located by Capstick Property” provides a clear view of a camelback locomotive.
Montville Train Station circa mid to late 1920s
The station is the one built in Towaco in 1912, and the four tracks shown were gone by 1940, as shown by “Train derailment c. 1940s.”
Train Going West: Circa mid 20th century
This photo shows double-headed camelback locomotives hauling freight westbound and west of Towaco center. The reason I can identify the location is that in the background, just to the right of the lead locomotive, a gazebo with a distinctive shape can be seen. This is the same gazebo that is present in the lower picture on p. 49 of the Colrick book, which identifies the gazebo as being on the Brendler property in Towaco. That means that the Morris Canal ran between the train and the gazebo, close to the railroad. The only place in Towaco that conforms to this arrangement is west of the Towaco center. The date is also too late. The last steam locomotive ran on the Lackawanna on July 23, 1953, but two decades before that the railroad was hauling freight on the Boonton line using new 4-8-4 Pocono-type steam locomotives that first entered service in 1927. The ICC banned the construction of new camelbacks in 1937 because of potential danger to the engineer, whose safety would be at risk should there be a connecting rod or valve gear failure. The Lackawanna began scrapping camelbacks in the late 1920s and most were gone by the start of World War II, so the date of the photo is probably in the 1920s or perhaps even earlier. Running from the bottom center of the photo up toward the rear locomotive appears to be the path of a former road that once crossed the railroad, but that had been fenced off by the time the picture was taken. It may have carried the main road over the railroad at that location before grade separation. The signal that appears to cut the lead locomotive in half may be the semaphore that appears in “Trains – Circa late 1800s” and “Freight Train heading East.” If so, it means that these two pictures were taken from a location close to the Brendler property.
Towaco Train Station: Circa 1940s, 1950s
Judging from the style of the cars parked across from the station, I would place the date in the later 1940s, since there is no sign of any car from the 1950s. The station master in the 1950s was Charlie Mazzucco, a short, little man whose physique was similar to that of the actor Danny DeVito. Before the Board of Education began running a school bus to the upper end of Jacksonville Road in the later 1950s, it contracted with Charlie to ferry students from that neighborhood to and from school, using his olive green, early 1950’s Hudson sedan. I was one of them, and there were eight or nine of us altogether. Given that number, he had to make two trips each morning and afternoon.
Montville Train Station
Circa late 1800s
Train Passing Towaco Station: Circa early to mid 1930s
The Towaco Garage can be seen just above the rear of the camelback locomotive. Since it was built in the early 1920s, the photo must be no later than the mid 1930s.
Freight Train heading West, Circa early 1900s
This view is taken from approximately the same location as “Trains—Circa late 1800s,” as shown by the Morris Canal in the foreground and the semaphore signal beside the track. The location is west of Towaco center; the view looks northwest; and the date has to be after 1900.
Towaco Train Station
Circa early 20th century
Towaco Train Station
Circa 1880s
D,L & W Railroad
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad 4-6-0 steam locomotive no. 1011 leads westbound in Montville, circa 1940
This is another Donald W. Furler photograph. Somewhere in the vicinity of Valhalla Road, where the railroad makes a broad sweeping curve as shown in the photo. If the gantry supporting the semaphores is still in existence, the precise location can be determined.
This is another Donald W. Furler photograph. Somewhere in the vicinity of Valhalla Road, where the railroad makes a broad sweeping curve as shown in the photo. If the gantry supporting the semaphores is still in existence, the precise location can be determined.
Montville Train Station with Westbound Train
Located by the Capstick property
Taylortown Road Train Overpass
montville-nj-view-looking-north-up-taylorton-road-passenger-station. Still exists today, but no where near as good a condition and very grown over.
North of the overpass a short way up the hill on the west side of Taylortown Road there used to be a perpetually flowing spring that came out of a pipe that ran a few feet from the road and parallel to it. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mr Butts Sr., who was Montville’s health officer, took samples of the spring’s water for testing. The pipe was probably removed sometime after the 1960s.
North of the overpass a short way up the hill on the west side of Taylortown Road there used to be a perpetually flowing spring that came out of a pipe that ran a few feet from the road and parallel to it. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Mr Butts Sr., who was Montville’s health officer, took samples of the spring’s water for testing. The pipe was probably removed sometime after the 1960s.
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