Gladstone Branch

Train #730 at Far Hills en route to Summit.
Overview
Type	Commuter rail line
System	New Jersey Transit
Locale	North Jersey
Termini	Hoboken or New York Penn Station Gladstone
Stations	24
Operation
Owner	New Jersey Transit (except from Kearny Connection to New York Penn) Amtrak (Kearny to Penn)
Operator(s)	New Jersey Transit
Rolling stock	Midtown/New York Direct: ALP-46 locomotives, Bombardier MultiLevel Coach, Comet Coaches Hoboken Direct: Arrow III
Technical
Line length	42.3 mi (68.1 km)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Route map Legend Northeast Corridor/LIRR Sunnyside Yard East River Tunnels East River Penn Station New York Hudson River, NY NJ North River Tunnels Hoboken Terminal Hoboken Yard Secaucus Junction (Main Line) Meadows Maintenance Complex Hackensack River Kearny Connection Northeast Corridor Harrison Passaic River Newark Broad Street I-280 Roseville Avenue Montclair-Boonton Line diverges Grove Street Garden State Parkway East Orange Brick Church Orange I-280 Highland Avenue Mountain Station South Orange Maplewood Millburn Rahway River Short Hills proposed Morristown & Erie branch Route 24 Summit Diverging from Morristown Line New Providence Murray Hill Berkeley Heights Passaic River Gillette Stirling Millington Passaic River Lyons Basking Ridge I-287 Bernardsville Mine Brook US 202 Far Hills Peapack Gladstone

The Gladstone Branch (also known as the Gladstone Line) is a branch of New Jersey Transit's Morris and Essex Lines. The Gladstone Branch primarily serves commuter trains; freight service is no longer operated. Out of 24 inbound and 27 outbound daily weekday trains, 2 peak-hour inbound and 2 peak-hour outbound trains use the Kearny Connection (opened June 10, 1996) to New York Penn Station, bypassing Secaucus Junction except for one inbound train. The rest go to Hoboken Terminal. The part of the line west of Summit is single-tracked with passing sidings at Murray Hill, Stirling, and west of Far Hills and operates in peak-direction only on weekday peak hours, except for some service operating reverse-peak from Murray Hill in the PM peak. Bernardsville also has a passing siding, but is no longer used, as the Far Hills one is currently in use. On weekends the line operates Gladstone-Summit service hourly along the branch.

The branch received severe damage from Hurricane Sandy on October 29–30, 2012, especially to the catenary and signal system, causing a suspension of service for one month. High winds brought down five tall catenary poles (whose replacements had to be custom-made), approximately five miles of catenary, and 49 trees across the tracks. Gladstone service resumed on Monday, December 3 with electric Midtown Direct trains to Penn Station and diesel-powered trains to Hoboken; full electric operation was impractical until substation damage near Hoboken was repaired in early 2013.

History

Bernardsville Station

The only part of the New Jersey West Line Railroad that was completed was from Summit west to Bernardsville. The New Jersey West Line Railroad was dissolved in 1878 and the assets were sold off. The Summit to Bernardsville line was then purchased by the Passaic and Delaware Railroad. The Delaware Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) leased the line on November 1, 1882 as a branch of the Morris and Essex. The Passaic and Delaware Extension Railroad was chartered in 1890 and opened later that year, extending the line to its current terminus in Gladstone, New Jersey.

Rolling stock

Most service is provided by Arrow III electric cars built by General Electric and Avco in 1978. The two weekday round trips to New York use Bombardier MultiLevel Coach or Comet coaches powered by ALP-46, ALP-45DP Electric Mode locomotives, since Arrows cannot make the voltage change at the Kearny Connection. In the months following Hurricane Sandy, service to Hoboken used Comet trains powered by ALP-45DP locomotives.

Freight service

At the time of NJT acquisition, freight service was operated by the Consolidated Rail Corporation. Upon the breakup of that company, the Norfolk Southern Railway inherited the business. Customers on the line dwindled, and the last customer, the Reheis Chemical Company, was bought out by the General Chemical Company and planned to close down in 2008. The apparent last freight train made its run on November 7, 2008; however, seven months later the facility began receiving shipments again, on June 19, 2009. Although this industry is east of the Berkeley Heights station, the freight trains actually operate as far west as Stirling, where the engine uses the siding to run around the train to reverse direction.

Electrification

Like the Morristown Line, the Gladstone Branch is electrified using overhead catenary at 25 kV 60 Hz. Traction power comes from the NJT substation at Summit, NJ, which also powers much of the Morristown Line. The Summit substation is located north of New Providence on the Morristown Line, between the Summit and Chatham stations, and receives power from the nearby Summit Utility substation. In addition to the NJT Summit traction substation, three other switching facilities are located along the line.

Gladstone Branch Electrification Stations

Name	Coordinates	Comments
Summit Traction Substation
Stirling
Bernardsville
Gladstone

Stations

For the stations between Newark – Broad Street and Summit, see Morristown Line § Stations.

Zone	Station	Miles (km) from NYP	Date opened	Date closed	Connections / notes
Northeast Corridor and City Terminal Zone continue east
1	New York – Penn Station (limited service)	0.0 (0.0)	1910		Amtrak: Acela Express, Adirondack, Cardinal, Carolinian, Crescent, Empire Service, Ethan Allen Express, Keystone Service, Lake Shore Limited, Maple Leaf, Northeast Regional, Pennsylvanian, Palmetto, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Vermonter LIRR: Babylon, Belmont Park, City Terminal Zone, Far Rockaway, Hempstead, Long Beach, Montauk, Oyster Bay, Port Jefferson, Port Washington, Ronkonkoma, and West Hempstead Branches NJ Transit: Montclair-Boonton, Morristown, Northeast Corridor, Raritan Valley, and North Jersey Coast Lines NYC Subway: (at 34th Street – Penn Station (Seventh Avenue)) (at 34th Street – Penn Station (Eighth Avenue)) NYCT Bus: M4, M7, M20, M34 / M34A SBS, Q32 Academy Bus: X23, X24 Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach: New York Airport Service Greyhound Lines: BoltBus, NeOn Megabus: M21, M22, M23, M24, M27 Eastern Shuttle Vamoose Bus
	New York / Hudson county line
	Secaucus Junction (limited service)	3.5 (5.6)	2003		NJ Transit: Main, Meadowlands, Montclair-Boonton, Morristown, Northeast Corridor, Pascack Valley, Raritan Valley, and North Jersey Coast Lines Metro-North: Port Jervis Line NJT Bus: 2, 78, 129, 329, 353
	Hoboken Terminal	0.0 (0.0)	1903		NJ Transit: Bergen County, Main, Meadowlands, Montclair-Boonton, Morristown, Pascack Valley, Raritan Valley, and North Jersey Coast Lines Metro-North: Port Jervis Line Hudson-Bergen Light Rail: 8th Street-Hoboken, Hoboken-Tonnelle PATH: HOB-WTC, HOB-33, JSQ-33 (via HOB) NJT Bus: 22, 22X, 23, 54, 68, 85, 87, 89, 126 New York Waterway to Battery Park City
2
	Harrison	7.13 (11.5)	1937	1984
	Hudson / Essex county line
	Northeast Corridor (Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast Lines) diverge at Kearny Connection Gladstone Branch service to Hoboken converges
	Newark – Broad Street	10.4 (16.7)	1836		NJ Transit: Montclair-Boonton and Morristown Lines Newark Light Rail: Broad Street – Newark Penn NJT Bus: 11, 13, 27, 28, go28, 29, 39, 41, 43, 72, 76, 78, 108
Montclair-Boonton Line diverges
4
	Roseville Avenue	11.6 (18.7)	1905	1984
	Grove Street	12.2 (19.6)		1991
	East Orange	12.6 (20.3)			NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 21, 71, 73, 79, 94 Community Coach: 77
	Brick Church	13.2 (21.2)	1836		NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 21, 71, 73, 79, 94, 97 Community Coach: 77 ONE Bus: 24
	Orange	14.1 (22.7)	1918		NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 21, 41, 71, 73, 92 Community Coach: 77 ONE Bus: 24, 44 West Orange Community Shuttle
5	Highland Avenue	14.8 (23.8)			NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 92 ONE Bus: 44
	Mountain Station	15.7 (25.3)	1915		NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 92
	South Orange	16.5 (26.6)	1916		NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 92, 107 ONE Bus: 31 South Orange Community Shuttle West Orange Community Shuttle
6
	Wyoming
	Maplewood	17.8 (28.6)			NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch Maplewood Community Shuttle
7	Millburn	19.4 (32.2)	1837		NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 70
	Short Hills	20.4 (32.8)	1838		NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 92, 107 Springfield Community Shuttle
Essex / Union county line
9	Summit	22.7 (36.5)	1905		NJ Transit: Gladstone Branch NJT Bus: 70, 986 Lakeland Bus: 78
9	Summit	22.7 (36.5)	1905		NJ Transit: Morristown Line NJT Bus: 70, 986 Lakeland Bus: 78
	Morristown Line diverges
	New Providence	24.4 (39.3)	1899		NJT Bus: 986 Lakeland Bus: 78
10	Murray Hill	26.0 (41.8)	1890		NJT Bus: 986
11	Berkeley Heights	28.4 (45.7)			Lakeland Bus: 78
Union / Morris county line
12	Gillette	29.7 (47.8)
14	Stirling	31.1 (50.1)	1872
	Millington	32.7 (52.6)	c. 1870
	Morris / Somerset county line
	Lyons	34.3 (55.2)	1931		Lakeland Bus: 78
16	Basking Ridge	36.2 (58.3)	1912		Lakeland Bus: 78
	Bernardsville	37.2 (59.9)			Lakeland Bus: 78
17
	Mine Brook				A minor flag stop, and the only station along the Gladstone Branch not to be rebuilt/acquired by NJ Transit after dissolation of the DL&W. The former site can be seen from the Whitenack Road Crossing.
	Far Hills	41.6 (66.9)	1914		Lakeland Bus: 78
18	Peapack	43.9 (70.7)
	Gladstone	44.9 (72.3)	1891

External links

• Morris & Essex Line timetables