(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on September 3, 2024)

 

Here’s the background:

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/transportation/2024/08/25/nj-transit-fare-holiday-free/74943626007/

Although I can see and hear every Pascack Valley Line train going by (3 blocks from my kitchen window), I have never had occasion to ride in one. In fact, I can’t recall riding any train ever.

This may be my only chance to ride the rails………..and it’s free!

So I downloaded a schedule and mapped out my plan. I’d like to do one complete end-to-end trip, so the only way to do that was to go the closest endpoint (Secaucus Junction – 10 miles south), then head north 27 miles to Spring Valley, NY and finally go back home (17 miles south to the Anderson St Station)…………..shooting all the way (Shooting what? Station signs?).

 Here are the marked-up schedules:

 

I had an open day on Friday, August 30, so I took a 6-minute walk to this place:

As you can see, thousands of New Jerseyans are lined up to take advantage of this deal.

 

While I waited for the train, I counted cigarette butts near my waiting area seat:

 

The train showed up and the first thing I decided to shoot were…………station signs! (Hey, kids – collect ‘em all!) But it’s not as easy as it sounds. The train is whizzing by the initial ones and doesn’t always stop where ones are in view. And I’m certainly not leaving the train to get a shot of a station sign.

But there’s another, WAY bigger problem: the train’s windows are absolutely HORRENDOUS!

Even though there were about 3 people in my car, it was almost impossible to sit next to a clear window! ALL of the windows on one side of the car had such a thick haze (or something) that you could not see ANYTHING through them. Naturally, I picked the car side that was half-hazed and half-FILTHY. Wait’ll you see some of the upcoming gems.

Plus, there were things to see and shoot on BOTH sides of the car, so I got plenty of exercise hopping back and forth from one bad window to the next, shooting between dirt spots (or at least trying to).

The first station – Essex St in Hackensack – didn’t come out too bad. Plus, it included almost the entirety of the Hackensack University Medical Center (“Hackensack Hospital” to us locals) in the top middle:

 

Teterboro was real exciting:

(You DID hear the sarcasm in my voice on that one, right?)

 

Wood-Ridge shows the first dirty window:

 

Jumping to the left side of the car, I noticed MetLife Stadium, what I think is a Hilton Hotel, and the American Dream Mall (which has become a REALLY big deal in New Jersey) as we whiz by:

Did I mention that it was a pretty cloudy day? That only helped when the sun didn’t illuminate the dirt on the windows (see next pic).

 

Yuck!

(That’s a ferris wheel in the middle.)

 

Manhattan started coming into view:

 

So did the swampy meadowlands on the other side of the train:

 

I purposely picked the last car of the train to shoot from, so I could take pix out the rear window and not be restricted to just side shots, but I forgot something.

When these trains head north, the engine is naturally the lead car. But when they head south, they don’t have anywhere to turn around, so they have to stay in the exact same position: the engine pushes the entire train south and is now the last car.

Consequently, there’s an engineer (I’m guessing) in a tiny compartment that’s inaccessible to anyone else – in that last car that’s now first.

So if I stand away from his windowed door and shoot straight ahead through that and the regular rear window, that’d be OK, right?

“NO! NO! You’re not allowed to do that!”, he said gruffly.

Oh, yeah? This is that forbidden, straight-ahead view that I shot from 3 rows back as we approached the Secaucus Junction Station:

 

Various shots inside the station:

Oooo! A double-decker!

 

From a distance, I had no idea who these gentlemen were. So when I got up close, I still had no clue until I saw the little plaque at the bottom (which I enlarged to make it readable):

 

Of the two, I recognized Roe’s name, but that’s about it. If anyone’s interested, here’s what the NY Times had to say when he died:

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/nyregion/robert-a-roe-new-jersey-congressman-dies-at-90.html

 

Back to more functions at the Junction:

Hey – I like walking around and taking pictures of interesting places and things I’ve never seen before. They make the whole trip worthwhile (but wait’ll we get to Spring Valley!).

 

Last shot at the Junction……my (same) train – with good ol’ car 6074 now at the rear, will head north (and into New York State) with the engine in the front this time (notice the destination “PRG VAL” under the far-right rear window. Maybe if I stood on the tracks, we’d be able to see that covered-up “S”………or maybe it IS going to Pring Valley.):

 

First order of business: try to get some better MetLife Stadium shots on a still-cloudy day, starting with the American Dream Mall – a place I’ve STILL never been to (and don’t feel all that upset about it):

 

MetLife and the Hilton (I think you can see a vertical reflection from the train window opposite mine above the far left side of the hotel) :

 

MetLife and some highway signs that I still can’t read (I told that engineer to stop for steadier pictures!):

 

Teterboro – STILL real exciting, even with Rt. 46 included:

 

Back in Hack…………Essex Street (yawn!)…and Court House Auto Body doesn’t help:

 

Yellow school buses having an end-of-summer party just days before school starts up again:

 

Anderson Street…..I live about 3 blocks down that street (another yawn):

 

…and – as the sign says – I DO live between Spring Valley and Hoboken:

 

There’s a famous bakery in Hackensack called the B&W Bakery. This is for all you locals who’ve never seen it from a moving train before:

Whoop-de-do!

 

Same thing for all these cars stopped on Main St for MY train:

 

Next up? The New Bridge Landing Station:

On a semi-related note: I was with NJ Governor Jon Corzine in 2009 at the Bergen County Historical Society when he signed some legislation. Then we all walked two blocks over to the North Hackensack RR Station, where he unveiled the station’s new name.  He’s on the right in my picture:

By the way, the whole story can be found in my 2009 “Best of” post (https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=1048), which starts off with the Anderson St Station burning down (Aha! Another RR connection!)……AND the collapse of Anderson St!

 

Where were we? Oh yeah…………continuing our trek north through River Edge and Oradell:

 

Here’s Oradell Ave’s backed-up traffic, which I included because my old high school is about a mile up the road from there:

 

I was surprised that I could see the Oradell Reservoir (and shoot it in time):

 

Next, we continue to parallel Kinderkamack Rd (nice name, huh?) as we hit Emerson, the intersection of Westwood Ave and Broadway in Westwood (didn’t see a Westwood sign),  Hillsdale and Park Ridge:

Somewhere along the line, I missed Woodcliff Lake – horrors! I never saw a sign.

 

Last northern stop in NJ on the PV line is Montvale:

But the shot of the sign is fuzzy. I looked around for another Montvale sign, but all I could find – on very short notice – that mentioned the town was this:

Hey, punk people! We know someone with that name on the right, don’t we? Some queen-saving guy?

 

And in case you thought I was making up the name of that street I mentioned above:

(this was also seen in Montvale)

 

Time to cross into Rockland County and see NY’s first town north of the border:

 

Next up:

 

Leaving Nanuet brought about the first (and only) giggle on the train – well, at least in my car – and it’s not in a picture. As soon as the train started moving, a sleeping guy in the seat in front of me suddenly woke up, looked around and started running through the train yelling, “THAT’S MY STOP!”

The train didn’t stop. I don’t know what happened to the guy……..he probably didn’t find a sympathetic conductor to stop the train until we reached the next (and final) stop, Spring Valley:

 

But before I get off the train, I need to show you two things in this picture of the seats across from me:

First, LOOK AT THAT WINDOW! That’s how all the windows on that side looked, although this one DID show a little bit of very cloudy/fuzzy trees in the bottom left.

The other thing is the seats’ position (facing left). For the entire trip, those seats and EVERY seat on this train – including the one I’m still sitting on – faced to the right. As we neared the end of the journey, I heard a loud clattering of some sound behind me (and getting closer).

The conductor (maybe he held some other title) was walking up the aisle with his arms extended and pushing all the 3-seatback rows on both sides of the train from right-facing to left facing.

He was preparing the interior for the opposite-direction trip back towards Secaucus. It seemed pretty ingenious and made absolute sense, but it’s just one of those things you would never have thought about in a million years if you weren’t a train rider whose destination wasn’t the end of the line.

Of course, the one passenger still in the car and still in his seat (me) spoiled his rhythm by still being in my right-facing seat putting my cameras away (the train hadn’t even come to a stop yet).

He’ll get over it.

 

So, I finally set foot in Rockland County for the first time in eons. Gotta shoot all these unfamiliar surroundings………..

 

Part of the Spring Valley Station:

 

Did a train hop the fence?

 

This is NOT an unusual sight in Rockland County:

 

Sitting on a bench, I initially thought I saw things relating to three different religions – the school bus and two structures:

Strange dome on that left one………

 

Becoming less sure about that structure:

I’ve posted pictures of a church in Hackensack that has a large cross on its roof that has two other crosses attached to it.

It started to look like that…………until I zoomed in:

Ooops!

 

With my head hung low, I noticed something I saw in the Anderson St Station – more ciggie butts:

I guess if you can’t smoke on the train, you make up for it in the waiting area.

 

Our Spring Valley stop was just before a busy street (I’m not sure, but I think it’s called Main St or N. Main St).

In any event, I saw our train (and the 6074 car) sitting a couple hundred feet north of that street. I’m guessing the crew eats lunch there before starting on the reverse ride back to Secaucus:

 

I still had plenty of time before it was scheduled to head back, so I decided to take a photo walk down this interesting (Main?) street.

 

I don’t know if this “Village of Spring Valley” building is a municipal building or not, but look at those blinds. Are two people peeking at me?

 

I’m not sure what this is…………..a public telephone turned into a garbage can?

 

Here’s a colorful window full of……………..hell if I know. What are they?

 

Well, as far as identifying anything so far, I’m 0 for 3………….but that’s what I like about photo walks in new places – keeps me interested.

 

See you in Newburgh?

 

As I crossed a side street, I saw this great mural on the side of a building – GOTTA take a shot of this!

Some brothers were standing close to it. I told them I was gonna take a picture of the mural, but said they didn’t have to move……..they could be in the picture if they wanted. You never saw a bunch of guys scoot away so fast!

 

Next-door neighbors: The Cultural Arts Center and the NAACP………..One appears to be in the “Town of Ramapo” and the other is the “Spring Valley Branch”?

Is Ramapo in Spring Valley? I asked Google:

“Spring Valley is a village in the town of Ramapo and Clarkstown in Rockland County, New York, United States. It is located north of Chestnut Ridge, east of Airmont and Monsey, south of Hillcrest, and west of Nanuet.”

Well, that sure clears things up! So Spring Valley is in TWO towns? Or is one town called “Ramapo and Clarkstown”?

I’ll bet those blinds-peekers in that “municipal building” would know. I’ll find out the next time I take a train to Spring Valley (or maybe take The Last Train to Clarkstown/Clarksville).

 

It’s getting close to departure time, so I’m heading back to the Spring Valley station.

 

I didn’t have to wait long.

Our good ol’ car #6074 train was returning from its two-blocks-away lunch stop and is now engine-pushed (instead of engine-pulled). It seemed to be going a bit too fast:

 

I took this weird PANO shot as I hustled down to the station to get a seat in a front car (hopefully #6074):

 

Our last NY stop would be in Pearl River, where I saw this going on:

I was lucky to find a clear/clean-enough window section to be able to take these pix.

 

NOW – if you go back to the first image (schedules), you’ll notice that after Pearl River, we go express (no stops) through the next 8 New Jersey towns, including Woodcliff Lake, where I still want to get a shot of a station sign.

Shooting a still at that train speed at such close proximity would be impossible. The only thing I can do is to shoot video and maybe get a usable still from it.

The other problem is that  – at THAT speed – I can’t even read the signs whizzing by (“What town is this?”).

 

Here’s 4 seconds from where I thought Woodcliff Lake would be. Try to read the station signs (good luck!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch/xOGq_9HZavo

 

Now here’s the best still I could create from that mess:

I don’t see anything resembling an angled letter like “W” (for “Woodcliff Lake”). I DO think I see an “S” and possibly a “DALE” at the end.

If so, it’s from Hillsdale, which was one stop after Woodcliff Lake.

Oh well – I tried.

 

After skipping 8 towns, the first stop was New Bridge Landing…………big deal:

All that meant was that my final stop was next.

 

FINALLY, we pull into the Anderson St station…………..and almost go right past it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch/u0Xnwi3dEdo

I made my way back a few cars to where the station actually IS and waited for people to get on the train before I could disembark.

The conductor – now on the platform getting passengers on the train, notices me and realizes that I was a couple of cars in front and immediately apologizes.

It was hard to decipher what he said in his monotone voice – he was speed-apologizing – but I think he said something about the train going too far to stop, but, hey – at least it began and ended with an “I’m sorry”.

I said “OK” and left it at that. Oh yeah………and I added a 6-second video onto the above video showing – or trying to show – the entire last train of my NJ Transit freebie (you may have noticed a slight glitch in the last 6 seconds of that video).

And for good measure, the last still of the whole 4-hour trip was a cellphone shot of the engine pushing the train away from Anderson St:

 

And here’s a slightly-aged map of the Pascack Valley line. It still lists the “North Hackensack” station instead of the now FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD “New Bridge Landing” designation:

 

All in all, I’d say this was a fairly-decent freebie.

 

BUT WHO WANTS JUST A “DECENT” FREEBIE?

 

That weekend, I got the urge for more and decided to go just a little bit further at the last minute and am very glad I did!

 

The photography in Freebie #2 was unexpected and blows away Part 1’s! (he says modestly).

 

Stay tuned for Part 2!