Editing Northern Branch (section)

=== Northern Railroad of New Jersey ===
[[Image:New York City Railroads ca 1900.png|thumb|250px|alt=Map showing Hudson River terminals ca. 1900|Passenger service shifted Exchange Place to Pavonia in 1860s and from Pavonia to Lackawanna (Hoboken) in 1950s]]
The Northern Railroad of New Jersey was chartered in 1854. When it opened on May 28, 1859, it was the second railroad in modern Bergen County (following only the [[Paterson and Hudson River Railroad]]) with stage connections to Hackensack and other points. The northern terminal was [[Piermont, New York]], on the [[New York and Erie Rail Road]], which had opened in 1841. After running on the Erie for one mile, trains reached the Northern's own line at [[Sparkill, New York]], and ran for 21 miles to another junction with the Erie at [[Croxton Yard|Croxton]] in [[Jersey City, New Jersey]]. From there trains ran on the Erie and the [[New Jersey Railroad]] for two and a half miles to the terminal later called [[Exchange Place (PRR station)|Exchange Place]]. Passengers could continue by ferry to Chambers St in [[Manhattan]]. Because of its running over the Erie, the Northern was built to the same 6-foot [[Rail gauge in North America|broad gauge]]. By September 1859, there were three passenger trains in each direction, with one express running from Piermont to Jersey City in 70 minutes. Sometime in the 1860s the Northern began running service westward from Sparkill on the Erie's [[Piermont Branch]] as far as [[Monsey, New York]].<ref>{{Citation| title=The Northern Railroad of New-Jersey | newspaper=The New York Times | date=December 30, 1859 | page=3 | access-date=June 7, 2010 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9906E5DB1630EE34BC4850DFB4678382649FDE}}</ref><ref name="Next">Northern Railroad of New Jersey (The Next Station Will Be..., vol 4). Railroadians of America, 1976</ref>

The southern terminal was moved to the Erie's [[Pavonia Terminal|Jersey City Terminal]] late in 1868, about six months before the Northern Railroad's formal lease to the Erie. At that time the company had six locomotives, 21 passenger and baggage cars, and 30 freight cars. Not long after, a nominally separate company, the Nyack and Northern Railroad, built from [[Nyack, New York|Nyack]] south to meet the Northern at Sparkill, and from its opening in May 1870 Nyack became the northern terminal for most Northern Railroad trains.<ref>{{Citation| title=RAILWAY EXTENSION.; Opening of the Northern Railroad from Piermont to Nyack--The Excursion Yesterday--Scenes and Incidents -- Speech of James Fisk, Jr. | newspaper=The New York Times | date=May 22, 1870 | page=6 | access-date=June 7, 2010 | url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904E4D61E3CE13BBC4A51DFB366838B669FDE}}</ref> The Northern track was changed to standard gauge along with the rest of the Erie system in 1878.<ref name="Next" />

For five miles in Hudson County, Croxton to Granton, the [[New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway]] ran parallel to the Northern Railroad. Joint stations were constructed between the railroads with platforms on each side. By the time the Susquehanna was leased by the Erie in 1898, the companies operated the parallel section as one multi-track railroad, with the Northern Railroad's tracks used mostly for northbound trains. Although the Erie lease ended in 1940, the track-sharing continued to the late 1950s.<ref name="Next" /><ref>Robert E. Mohowski (2003). The New York Susquehanna & Western Railroad. The Johns Hopkins University Press. {{ISBN|0-8018-7222-7}}</ref>

The Northern Railroad was mainly a commuter and local line, with significant freight business only near its southern end. Business dropped off in the 1930s, and in 1942 the company's property was sold off to its long-term lessor, the Erie. From that time it was the Northern Branch.<ref name="Next" /><ref>{{Citation| title=ERIE GETS JERSEY ROAD; Court Approves Reorganization Plan for Northern Railroad | newspaper=The New York Times | date=June 17, 1942 | page=35 | access-date=June 7, 2010 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1942/06/17/archives/erie-gets-jersey-road-court-approves-reorganization-plan-for.html}}</ref>