Rock-A-Bye Baby, The History of the Rockaway Valley Railroad By Thomas Taber III

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Rock-A-Bye Baby, The History of the Rockaway Valley Railroad By Thomas Taber III
The Rock-A-Bye Baby History of the Rockaway Valley Railroad By Thomas Taber III Morristown, Mendham, Gladstone, Pottersville, Oldwick, White House.
Soft Cover
Copyright 1972
55 Pages
CONTENTS
Prologue Page Five
I
Construction
Page Eight
II
The Nineties
Page Twenty-Two
III
The New Jersey and Pennsylvania Railroad
Page Thirty-One
IV
Revival Efforts
Page Forty-Five
V
Motive Power and Equipment
Page Fifty-One
New Jersey has been well represented among the thousands of short line railroads which have been built thruout the United States. Many now form parts of larger systems while others remain independent or have served their purpose and subsequently been torn up. The Rockaway Valley is one of those which has been abandoned. Its active life was turbulent and short: only twenty five years at which time it was hospitalized for discrepitness. For four years it hung vainly to life as various doctors did their futile best to restore it to service. Finally it expired, a victim of World War I.
More than half a century has passed since the rails were removed, but its memory refuses to fade. Every few years some newspaper reports upon it to relive the "good old days" or publicize some scheme to use a portion of the old line - "Let's Explore - Route of Extinct but Historical `Rockaby Baby'," "Rockabye Baby Colorful Railroad," "Lifelong Admirer of Railroads Resurrecting Abandoned Line." All of these writeups, appearing in newspapers, magazines, or as booklet histories, are inaccurate or fail to do the subject justice.
The Rockaway Valley was not "just another short line." After twenty five years of research on well over one hundred short line railroads in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Montana, the "Rockaby" remains the most interesting history I have uncovered. Its travail against adversity is a classic: the unavailing efforts against the realities of business. It is a colorful story of the hopes and work of people to establish and then keep going a railroad that possibly should never have been built ; a railroad that needed five corporations to construct its meager twenty five miles and saw four different ownerships within its short thirty year lifespan.
My research was done shortly after World War II. Boyhood enthusiasm left no stone unturned as I amused my peers at the Trenton Chancery Court House looking up bankruptcies, or loaded my bike on Jersey Central or Lackawanna trains to start home after a successful trip hunting photographs and information.
I will always remember my meeting with the surveyor of the "Rockaby," Frederick S. Smith. During my research I had come across his name. I learned that he was still living -and at age ninety two was still pursuing his civil engineering profession. I went to his Morristown office and asked if he remembered anything about the railroad. He said he did, and that he had some maps. He went to a shelf in his office, and within moments returned with his survey maps made forty five years earlier. They hadn't been looked at in several decades, but he knew exactly where they were.
Limited funds and a curiosity as to how much the project was costing led me to record my expenses, which totalled . I also recorded my correspondence which included a letter to "The Answer Man". "The Answer Man" was a radio program providing answers to questions written in by listeners. Being rather naive as to how he secured his answers, I wrote asking for information on the locomotives used by the railroad. He wrote to the Association of American Railroads. Not having the answer, they wrote to my father because he lived near the location of the railroad. Their letter made no mention of The Answer Man. Dad, not having anything, gave me the letter, and I answered it to the best of my ability. Several weeks later I received a reply from The Answer Man giving the information which I had supplied the A. A. R. Sadder, but wiser to the mystical powers of The Answer Man, I turned my locomotive research in more productive directions.
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