Informal Trip to Dover: Trip Report

Story and photos by John Burlage

West Jersey Chapter held an informal fantrip to Dover, N. J., on Saturday, February 22, 2025. Dover is the western end of the NJ Transit’s Morristown Line electrification. Our itinerary was to take NJT’s River Line from the Pennsauken Transit Center to Trenton, take an NJT Northeast Corridor Line train from there to Secaucus Junction, and an NJT Morristown Line train from there to Dover. We would return using the same routing in reverse. Our itinerary allowed ample time at Trenton, Secaucus, and Dover for photos, plus opportunities to view the progress on the new Portal North bridge and traverse both Kearny Connection tracks between the Northeast Corridor and the Morristown Line.

Getting Ready

For me preparation began the previous day purchasing the needed paper tickets. I would need a round trip ticket from Trenton to Dover via Secaucus Junction and two River Line tickets. Unfortunately, one cannot purchase both at the same ticket vending machine (TVM), as the River Line is not integrated with the rest of NJT’s Rail network.

My first stop was the Cherry Hill station on NJT’s Atlantic City Line. The TVM by default lists destinations on the Atlantic City Line, but you can purchase a ticket between any two contiguous stations on NJT’s rail network, including Metro North West-of-Hudson stations, by selecting “Change Origin” on the touchscreen and following the instructions. (You cannot purchase a ticket from any station on the Atlantic City Line to a station elsewhere on NJT’s rail network since there is no direct NJT Rail connection.) For the purpose of our informal trip, Trenton was selected as the origin and Dover as the destination. The TVM asks where you will be changing trains. You have two choices: Newark or Secaucus. If you change at Newark Penn Station, you can either walk, or ride Newark Light Rail, to Newark Broad Street Station. Secaucus is selected as the interchange point, a senior (age 62+) round trip ticket is selected, cash is tendered, and my tickets are printed.

That done, I drove over to the Pennsauken Transit Center station on Derousse Avenue to purchase two senior River Line tickets. When purchasing the tickets the TVM asks if you want to validate them, to which I answer NO. (If you answer YES the tickets are valid for the next eighty minutes, and then expire.) I will validate each ticket when I’m ready to use it. The Pennsauken Transit Center is an interchange station between the River Line and the Atlantic City Line, but through ticketing is not possible between the Light Rail and Rail systems, and each line has its own TVM. I might have purchased the Trenton-Dover tickets here, but past experiences with the unresponsive touchscreen on that TVM dictate otherwise.

In examining the four tickets I’ve purchased, they all have two things in common. First, each is printed with a QR (Quick Response) code. Second, each ticket will expire in thirty days and are non-refundable, a policy recently adopted by NJ Transit.

Pennsauken Saturday Morning

Upon arrival at the Pennsauken Transit Center I find our party assembled on the River Line platform: West Jersey Chapter members Dave Homer, Ben Makem, Jim Murphy, and Jim’s son Hooper. We’re awaiting the arrival of northbound River Line train No. 218, which is scheduled to stop at 7:29 AM. Note that River Line train numbers do not appear in the public timetable, but they do appear on temporary timetables issued when normal service levels cannot be maintained, and these are available on NJ Transit’s website.

There’s something different, though, about how River Line tickets are validated. I expected to see a validator where the ticket is inserted and stamped in purple ink when the ticket expires. Instead there is a contactless validator where the QR code is scanned to record the ticket’s ID and issue a message on its screen when the ticket will expire. This information is then relayed to ticket inspectors, who will scan your ticket’s QR code to ensure you are in possession of a valid ticket. There is, of course, no indication on the ticket that it’s been validated.

Train No. 218 arrives a few minutes late, which is not a problem since there is plenty of slack time built into our schedule. On board there’s plenty of available seating. The ride north is uneventful. Meets with southbound River Line trains are on time. There are two ex-Pennsylvania Railroad stations still extant: Riverside, which is now occupied by the Riverside Historical Society, and the Florence freight house. There are two Norfolk Southern diesels parked at the Conrail Shared Assets Operations office in East Burlington.

At Bordentown we diverge from the former Camden & Amboy mainline onto the Bordentown Branch. Across Hamilton Avenue, Trenton, we enter the South Trenton Branch, while the abandoned roadbed of the Bordentown Branch heads down to the Trenton station on the Northeast Corridor. The River Line’s Trenton Layover Facility (TLF), north of Hamilton Avenue, occupies a portion of the Bordentown Branch’s right of way. There is one River Line light rail vehicle (LRV) inside the TLF.

The River Line crosses the Northeast Corridor on an overhead bridge, then turns sharply right and downgrade and crosses the Assunpink Creek before ending its run at the Trenton River Line station. The South Trenton Branch north of LIGHT block-limit station is out of service and heavily overgrown. This line once connected the Bordentown Branch with the Belvidere Delaware Branch (Bel-Del). Upon arrival in Trenton we walk across South Clinton Avenue to the Trenton Transit Center.

At Trenton

The Trenton Transit Center is a beehive of activity. It’s an important station stop on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor for most Northeast Regional trains and all medium and long distance trains. No Acela trains stop here, though. Trenton is also the terminus for NJ Transit trains to New York and SEPTA trains to Philadelphia. There’s a SEPTA push-pull set powered by an ACS-64 parked on Track 7 waiting for the Monday morning rush hour: weekend service is provided by Silverliners.

We actually have a choice of two NJT trains heading for New York, No. 7820, which departs at 9:02, and No. 7822, which leaves sixteen minutes later. The former is a local which stops at every station except North Elizabeth, and the latter runs express from Metropark to Newark Liberty International Airport Station. Our itinerary calls for the latter, which stops at Secaucus Junction at 10:31.

While we wait for our train, there’s plenty of action. No. 7820 departs on time, headed by ALP46A 4655. Westbound Saturday-only Acela No. 2203 flies through the station on Track 3. Amtrak eastbound Northeast Regional train No. 162 makes a station stop, with ACS-64 659 up front, and in the distance westbound Northeast Regional train No. 101, powered by ACS-64 639, slows for a station stop.

NJ Transit train No. 7822 arrives from Morrisville with ALP46A 4655 pulling a string of multilevel coaches, and we walk aboard and take our seats upstairs. Unfortunately, all the windows are nearly translucent rather than transparent, a problem that plagues these cars. That’s unfortunate, since there’s plenty to see traveling up the Corridor. NJT has recently commenced a program to replace these windows, but the multilevel fleet is large and repairs will take time.

Arrival in Secaucus

We detrain at Secaucus Junction on Track 2 and make our way upstairs to the upper level concourse. This station was built to link NJ Transit’s Newark Division with its Hoboken Division. The opening of this station in 2003 allowed passengers on the Main Line, Bergen County Line, and Pascack Valley Line a much quicker trip to midtown Manhattan than going to Hoboken and taking PATH uptown. The tracks on the Northeast Corridor on the middle level are numbered 2, A, B, and 3 (from south to north), and those on the lower level are numbered E, F, G, and H (from west to east).

There’s a good view of Manhattan Island from the high-level platform on Track 3, and the casual observer will notice that the skyscrapers are concentrated in two places: midtown and downtown in the financial district. There’s a reason for this: bedrock is located closer to the surface in these places than elsewhere on the island, providing a solid foundation for tall buildings.

Access to the upper level concourse is protected by fare gates from the Northeast Corridor tracks, so we scan our tickets, and the gate opens. There are concessions here to get something to eat or drink, and we’re also waiting to meet up with WJC member Bob Douglas. We didn’t see Bob but it’s getting near train time for Midtown Direct Morristown Line train No. 6921, headed for Dover, and arriving on Track B, so we head over to the fare gates. In scanning our tickets we get a rude surprise: a big red X with the message the ticket’s already been used, and the fare gate refuses to open. There’s an attendant at the east end of the upper concourse, so we explain the situation to her, and she opens a gate to let us pass through. We thank her and head downstairs to the platform for Tracks A and B.

ALP46A 4664 arrives with a string of multilevel coaches with clouded windows, and many passengers exit for their connecting train on the lower level. Within the next fifteen minutes, trains bound for Port Jervis via the Bergen County Line, for Suffern via the Mainline, and for Spring Valley on the Pascack Valley Line will arrive, illustrating the utility of the Secaucus Junction station.

West to Dover

After pulling out of Secaucus Junction we cross the Portal bridge a second time, and notice that the east and west spans over the Hackensack River are in place, and the middle span is on a barge moored by the bridge in the river. It won’t be long before this span is lifted into place. We then diverge from the Northeast Corridor onto westward connecting Track 5 to the Morristown Line at Kearny Junction. This is the location of a phase gap. The electrical system on the Northeast Corridor is incompatible with that on the Morristown Line, so there is a dead section of catenary between the two systems where changeover is made in the locomotive from 12,000 volts, 25 hertz AC to 25,000 volts, 60 hertz AC. We know we’re in the phase gap because the air conditioning cuts out while our train drifts downgrade towards the Morristown Line.

The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad electrified the Morristown Line from Hoboken to Dover, the Montclair Branch, and the Gladstone Branch with 3,000 volt DC catenary in 1931. NJ Transit re-electrified these lines with 25,000 volt, 60 hertz AC catenary in 1984, but the original catenary structures were retained. Midtown Direct service was inaugurated on June 10, 1996, providing a one-seat ride to Penn Station New York from the Lackawanna suburbs.

Our first stop is Newark Broad Street Station, which has been beautifully restored. Adjacent to the station is the Newark Light Rail line from Newark Penn Station, which opened on July 17, 2006. The Morristown Line skirts the mountains as it climbs upgrade to Summit, the junction with the Gladstone Branch, and the former connection to the Rahway Valley Railroad, now abandoned. Just west of Morristown station is BAKER interlocking, the connection to the Morristown & Erie Railroad, and the M&E’s shop can be seen beyond the connection.

Denville is the junction between the Morristown Line and the Boonton Line, and the brick DL&W tower still stands along the latter line. The station, however, was built by NJT, and replaced the older Lackawanna structure. On weekdays all passenger trains passing through here make a station stop. The Boonton Line sees passenger trains on weekdays only. Our train skirts Lake Estling in Denville on its way to an on-time arrival in Dover at 12:54 PM.

At Dover

Dover is the west end of the Lackawanna’s electrification, but on weekdays some diesel-powered trains continue west to Hackettstown. Under NJ Transit the Dover station received a high-level center platform, which allows faster loading and unloading, while reducing station dwell time. Our train reverses direction and heads into the Dover yard. Nowadays just push-pull train sets can normally be found there, but fifty years ago the yard hosted ex-Lackawanna multiple units and nearly new push-pull train sets powered by a U34CH. There is only one U34CH left, and that’s in the URHS collection at Boonton.

The east end of the platform has a decent view of the yard, and at 1:02 PM ALP46A 4633 pulls out of the yard with a string of multilevel coaches for Midtown Direct train No. 6924, which is scheduled to leave at 1:05 PM. On weekends there is hourly service in both directions between Dover and New York.

However, our party is sticking around for the next eastbound train. There’s plenty to see in Dover. Aside from the passenger station and yard, the freight house still exists, and is used by NJ Transit as their Dover headquarters. Parked behind the freight house are three 40-foot XM boxcars, now used for storage.

The Lackawanna may have been the dominant railroad in Dover, but it wasn’t the only one. The Central Railroad of New Jersey also served Dover from the High Bridge Branch, and the segment through Dover was built by the Dover & Rockaway Railroad, which was completed in 1881. CNJ used this railroad to access another subsidiary, the Hibernia Mine Railroad. The CNJ trackage is still very much intact through Dover, and its passenger station still exists at 44 North Sussex Street. Passenger service ended in 1932.

Back at the station, ALP46A 4649 with train No. 6923 arrives from New York, discharges its passengers, and reverses direction into the yard. A few minutes later ALP46 4610 pulls out of the yard with a string of multilevel coaches with train No. 6926, which will depart for New York at 2:03 PM. This is our train, and we’ll ride it to Secaucus Junction.

Our first two rides in multilevel coaches today had clouded windows, but as the train passed we noticed one coach with clear windows towards the rear of the train. Upon boarding we headed for that coach and found seats on the lower level with crystal-clear windows. It’s like the coach had a cataract operation.

Back to Secaucus

Now that we can see out the windows many things are now visible. The right of way of the Morris County Traction Company, which was abandoned in 1928, is now a paved recreational path on the north side of the railroad. Of special interest is the concrete abutment of the traction company’s Powder Mill Gulch bridge, located between Mount Tabor and Morris Plains stations. Nearly all of the Lackawanna’s passenger stations along the line are still intact. At Summit the tracks were depressed between 1902 and 1905 to lower the grade, and an interlocking tower was built into the north wall – and it’s still there. It controlled the junction with the Gladstone Branch and the Rahway Valley Railroad.

Our train makes all the station stops except Highland Avenue in Orange. A section of eastward Track 2 is out of service for maintenance east of Summit, so our train must use westward Track 1 for several miles, and this causes a delay. At Kearny Junction our train uses eastward connecting Track 6 to reach the Northeast Corridor. We now have our first clear view of the Portal North bridge project as we clatter across the 1910 Portal bridge. Arrival at Secaucus Junction is about eleven minutes behind schedule.

Following our train on Track 3 is a parade of trains heading for New York, all operating slowly through the station. First up is NJT train No. 7842, a semi-express from Trenton with ALP46A 4651 pushing a string of multilevel coaches. Next is Amtrak Northeast Regional train No. 140 headed by ACS-64 621, which originated in Washington, D. C., and will terminate at Springfield, Mass. This train runs weekends only. Finally, Acela No. 2254 passes, with power cars 2010 and 2015 on the front and rear, respectively. This Washington to Boston train runs weekend only, and will arrive in New York on time (or perhaps a few minutes early).

Off to Trenton

Our train to Trenton is semi-express No. 7855, which is due to arrive at 4:02 PM. We’re in luck: our train consists of older Comet coaches, and the windows are clear. This affords us another view of the Portal North bridge. This train makes station stops at Newark Penn and Newark Airport, then runs express to Metropark, making all station stops thereafter. Our train takes Track 4 all the way between Newark and Trenton.

From Newark to New Brunswick the catenary system hasn’t changed all that much, except for the replacement of components, since it was installed in 1931. However, west of New Brunswick Amtrak is installing constant tension catenary, which permits higher operating speeds. With this system, the catenary is installed in short sections, and the ends of the catenary are weighted, keeping the wires taut regardless of the ambient temperature. Components of the constant tension catenary system are staged at the former Millham tower between Hamilton and Trenton.

Our arrival in Trenton at 5:22 PM is on time, and we make our way upstairs and head for the River Line station. The River Line station is unusual in that the tracks are aligned on a diagonal towards South Clinton Street, which would facilitate extending the River Line tracks northward to East State Street and thence west to the state capitol (and possibly further to West Trenton). LRV 3520 is sitting in the station with the destination “NOT IN SERVICE” after completing its northbound run as train No. 290. It then departs for the TLF for an operator change, and a few minutes later it arrives back at the station as southbound train No. 303.

Return to Pennsauken

Our train departs on time 5:44 PM but the light is fading, and soon we are making the southward journey in darkness. Nearing our destination our party heads for the doors, but the train is stopped at MINSON interlocking to permit northbound train No. 306 to pass, which was running late. The meet with this train would normally be at the Route 73 station. Upon our arrival at the Pennsauken Transit Center we are treated to a meet on the Atlantic City Line between train Nos. 4682 and 4685, destined for 30th Street Station, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City, respectively.

It was an enjoyable day all around, and I’m looking forward to our next informal trip.