1942 vs. Today
click on image for larger version….
An interesting composition sent to me by Anton Torstensson of Sweden, combining the 1942 map with a satellite image of the same area.
I am surprised how well it lines up with all the major landmarks. Visible in the centre is the Bronx Terminal and to the upper center is the Harlem Transfer. A similar combination can be found here.
Thanks for the contribution Anton.
Tim
Guest author Paolo Sforza
Shortly after starting on the Bronx Terminal build, I was contacted by Paolo Sforza, a modeler in the UK who is also working on building the CNJ Terminal. We have been exchanging details about the terminal (mostly him sending me stuff) and has been kind enough to write a well informed background biography about the terminal. I thought you might find it interesting, I know I sure did!
Thanks Paolo….
-Tim
CNJ Bronx Terminal
A Historical Biography
by Paolo Sforza
By 1900 the population of New York City approached 3 million, a third of whom lived in the Bronx. Some of the very factors that had allowed the City to grow so rapidly, navigable waterways, also acted as barriers to the newer types of transportation, the railroads, from reaching the center of the new metropolis. Bridges and tunnels are expensive to build and maintain, and the Hudson, East and Harlem Rivers are not small by any standards. Back then, motor transport was in its infancy. Once the railroads from the west reached the New Jersey shore the rails simply ran out at the waters edge. The solution was to float the freight cars to various small receiving yards along the Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx waterfronts and a myriad of these small yards sprang up in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. One such yard, a comparative late comer was the Central Rail Road of New Jersey (aka The Jersey Central or the CNJ) Bronx Terminal, situated on the north shore of the Harlem River where Third Avenue crosses from Manhattan to the Bronx. From here the yard could serve both the Bronx itself and northern Manhattan. The Bronx Terminal wasn’t alone along this stretch of waterfront; immediately to the east was the huge main yard of the New York, New Haven & Hartford RR and to the west the much smaller yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (as the Harlem Transfer), the Erie, and the Lehigh Valley railroads occupied the busy waterfront. The CNJ’s huge main yard that fed its Bronx Terminal, amongst others, was at Communipaw on the Jersey City side of the Hudson River.
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What I am building.
Click on picture for larger version…
This is a very rare shot showing the entire terminal. This image appeared in Michael Krieger’s book “Where Rails Meet the Sea”, which I highly recommend to anyone with an interest in railroad/water transportation.
Taken in 1944, this image shows the round freight house, yard, and car float attached to the apron. In the background can be seen the Willis Avenue and the Tribourough Bridges.
The curved three way turnouts at the lower left of the image is “Part 6” of the build. Just peeking around the corner of the freight house is the idler car and the corner of CNJ 1000. Best viewed from the large version of the image.
To see a very large version of this image click here…
-Tim
