The story
Today’s Morristown & Erie Railway can be traced back to the Whippany River Railroad that was formed on August 1, 1895 and quickly constructed between Morristown and Whippany. Interchange was established with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) at Morristown. When the railroad defaulted on their bonds, paper mill owner Robert W. McEwan purchased the line from its creditors in 1896. Thanks to the numerous mills and other customers located along the line, the railroad enjoyed success and was looking to expand.
Seeking a connection with the Erie Railroad, McEwan chartered the Whippany & Passaic River Railroad in 1902 to build a line from Whippany to Essex Fells. Having access to two major railroads meant that McEwan's customers could enjoy competitive shipping rates from both connections. On August 28, 1903, the Whippany River Railroad and the Whippany & Passaic River Railroad were merged into the new Morristown & Erie Railroad.
M&E operated a modest passenger service, but automobile competition ended that in 1928. Freight business grew as the mills along the line kept switching crews busy.
Decline
The economic downturn associated with the Great Depression affected M&E. Frugal management kept the railroad viable through the worst of the 1930s. M&E would be the only U.S. railroad to rid itself of all debt during the era leading up to World War II. The railroad passed out of the McEwan family by 1943 and continued under new management. In 1952, the line received its first diesel, an S-4 from Alco.
When Andrew J. Cobb III assumed the presidency in 1961, many of the mills that had been steady customers began to shut down and consolidate. In 1960, DL&W and Erie Railroad merged to form Erie Lackawanna Railway, eliminating competition for shipping rates to M&E.
By the 1970s, the Northeastern railroad industry was in decline, and M&E looked to alternative revenue streams. The Morristown shop was leased to a locomotive rebuilder for a period of time, but it was not enough. The last paper mill had closed and carloads were down to a dozen per week. The railroad tried to invest its freight earnings into non-transportation areas, but these experiments failed. By 1978 the railroad filed bankruptcy.
Rebirth
A consortium of businessmen under the leadership of Benjamin J. Friedland purchased M&E in 1982, and immediately set to work on rebuilding the business as the Morristown & Erie Railway. Investments were made in track and repairing locomotives. Aggressive marketing helped bring traffic back to M&E. Friedland became a spokesperson for short line railroading, and was able to use these connections to help grow his business. He also had a strong sense of history, and is also credited with the opening of the Whippany Railway Museum in 1985.
Around this same time, Friedland helped orchestrate the purchase of the Chester Branch, and began operating the line under contract for the new owners on December 21, 1983. He also worked with Morris County officials to help purchase and operate remnants of the former Central Railroad of New Jersey Dover & Rockaway and High Bridge branches in 1986. The M&E also briefly operated the New Hope & Ivyland Railroad between 1989 and 1990.
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While the M&E enjoyed modest growth throughout the 1980s, the railroad continued to seek out new opportunities for expansion. In 1995, Friedland negotiated a contract with Tosco (formerly ConocoPhillips, now Phillips 66) to be the contract operator for switching operations at Bayway Refinery in Linden, New Jersey. Bayway is one of the largest refineries on the East Coast.
The untimely 1998 death of Friedland shocked the company and short line industry that had come to respect him as a leader. In his 16 years at the helm of the M&E, he ascended from an obscure railroader to an industry icon. The New Jersey Short Line Railroad Association has an award named in his honor "for meritorious service to the short line industry."
The expansion of M&E continued after Friedland's death. In 2001, the M&E was selected to repair and operate the Linden-Cranford, New Jersey segment of the Staten Island Railway (SIRY) and Cranford-Summit, New Jersey segment of the former Rahway Valley Railroad (RVRR) as the newly created Union County Central Railroad. M&E entered into a 10-year agreement with Union County starting on May 15, 2002, for the rehabilitation and operation of these dormant freight lines. Conrail objected to the filing as M&E would need trackage rights over NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line to travel between the ex-SIRY and ex-RVRR. Conrail had previously negotiated exclusive trackage rights with NJT back in 1984, but expressed willingness to work out a special arrangement with M&E should service resume. As of May 2012, M&E removed their equipment from the RVRR and SIRY, pursuant to the 10-year agreement with Union County.
The M&E would embark on its second foray into Pennsylvania, operating the SEPTA-owned Octoraro Railroad from July 1, 2003, to November 18, 2004. The line is currently operated by the East Penn Railroad.
On November 1, 2003, M&E took over operation of the Rockland Branch, a former Maine Central Railroad line now owned by the state of Maine. M&E created a subsidiary, the Maine Eastern Railroad, for its Maine operations. Seasonal excursion passenger trains were operated between Brunswick and Rockland, Maine. As of January 1, 2016, the operation of the line has been taken over by the Central Maine and Quebec Railway, which was later acquired by Canadian Pacific Railway in June 2020.
In 2009, the M&E took over contract operations of the Stourbridge Railroad (former Lackawaxen & Stourbridge), based in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Passenger excursions continued to be sponsored by Wayne County. Operations were quietly suspended in 2012. Service return in 2015 is under the auspices of Myles Group.
Beginning on July 1, 2017, the Dover & Rockaway River Railroad (D&R) took over service and maintenance of the Chester, Dover & Rockaway and High Bridge Branches from the M&E, whose agreement with Morris County had expired on June 30, 2017.
Current operations
To get between its lines, the M&E has trackage rights on New Jersey Transit's (NJT) Morristown Line and Montclair-Boonton Line west of West End (the junction at the west end of the Bergen Tunnel with NJT's Main Line); it uses the Main Line and the Bergen County Line to interchange with the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway at Passaic Junction (rail yard). M&E locomotives are NJT cab-signal equipped and not considered to be foreign railroad power on NJT lines. Freight is interchanged with Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) at Lake Junction and with Conrail Shared Assets (CSAO) and CSX at Center Street, Harrison (east of Newark Broad Street on the NJT M&E main line).
In addition to freight service, M&E operates charter passenger service and rents railcars and conducts contract rebuilds of passenger cars. It also allows film production companies to rent equipment for filming. Recent films including Far from Heaven, Mona Lisa Smile and The Station Agent, as well as the reality television series The Next Food Network Star and some TV commercials have been filmed using M&E equipment. Scenes for Shontelle's music video for the song "Say Hello to Goodbye" were filmed on at M&E's Whippany passenger car storage facility in summer 2011.
In conjunction with Conrail Shared Assets, the M&E operates as the switching and terminal railroad at ConocoPhillips' Linden Terminal/Bayway Refinery)
From Wikipedia’s article on Morristown and Erie Railway, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3