Waldwick station

Waldwick is a commuter rail station operated by New Jersey Transit in the borough of Waldwick, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States located at the intersection of West Prospect Street and Hewson Avenue. It is served by the Main Line and the Bergen County Line; some trains of both originate and terminate at the station. The station has three tracks, the outer two of which are served by low-level side platforms, which are connected by a pedestrian bridge at their southern ends. The multiple-track yard Waldwick Yard is located at the north end of the station. The historic Erie Railroad Signal Tower is between them.

This station did not open along with the rest of the Paterson and Ramapo Railroad on October 19, 1848. The Erie Railroad, which took over that railroad, established a stop at Waldwick c. 1886 and a wooden station depot was built on the east side of the tracks. The historic original station house has been listed in the state and federal registers of historic places since 1978 and is part of the Operating Passenger Railroad Stations Thematic Resource. The Waldwick Community Alliance has leased the building for 25 years until 2034. After years of being in disrepair, it was restored and now houses the Waldwick Museum of Local History.

The Paterson and Ramapo Railroad started service on October 19, 1848, though no station was built in the area of Hohokus Township that constitutes modern-day Waldwick. Stops were established at Allendale and the eponymous Hohokus for passenger and freight from Jersey City and vice versa.

The establishment of Orvil Township, New Jersey (named after local resident Orvil Victor) in the late 1880s helped pushed the interest of the Erie Railroad to build a station between Allendale and Hohokus. Farmers requested that the railroad provide trains for them to transport their products more quickly. Peter Bogert, a local farmer, donated some of his land along the tracks Orvil Township and residents offered to pay for a new station in 1886. Victor was chair of a committee to decide what the name of the new stop would be, which decided on the name "Waldwick" after originally choosing "Waldweck".

The architect Augustus Mordecai of the Erie Railroad was chosen to design the station. Mordecai designed a depot of mixed architectures, combining Stick style and Queen Anne styles. The depots were Stick with the Queen Anne exception being corbeled chimneys, square window borders and shingled gable ends. Mordecai would use this style at other stops, including Suffern, New York and Palisades Park. The depot at Waldwick was a one-and-a-half-story structure with five different rooms. This includes a 24-by-17.5-foot (7.3 m × 5.3 m) waiting room for passengers, the baggage room and 10.5-by-25.2-foot (3.2 m × 7.7 m) ticket office, a storage room and a coal facility that combined for 18 by 6.5 feet (5.5 m × 2.0 m) of the structure. The waiting room and ticket office contained cast-iron stoves for heating. The outside was batten wood with stucco.

With the establishment of the station, the railroad agreed that a rail yard would be completed by 1887. However, local investors from both New York City and Passaic County, New Jersey invested in a 200-acre (81 ha) piece of land next to the tracks at Waldwick in 1889. With the property abutting the tracks, 5 acres (2.0 ha) would be offered to the Erie Railroad to build a yard, replacing a previous proposal at Ridgewood. This would be the terminal for all local trains, in effect replacing the yard in Paterson, necessitating the construction of a new station in the city. With the new yard, more express trains would stop at Paterson with Ridgewood and Waldwick having upgraded facilities. With the yard and increased trains, speculators would be selling out cut out pieces of purchased lands for country homes.

On July 21, 1887, a deadly train accident occurred at the curve just south of Waldwick station. With local laborers putting ballast on the railroad, a delayed express train from Chicago entered the area an hour behind schedule. Around 7:15 a.m., the train reached the workers, who were unaware the train was running late. The train crashed into the laborers, killing at least 11 workers instantaneously. The train came to a stop and began to reverse. The crew and passengers looked at the wounded and deceased bodies all over the track. There were also several laborers running around in a disoriented manner. Several bodies were mangled, with dismembered parts all over the track right-of-way. 15 bodies were counted by passengers as laying on the track.

After 15 minutes, the train continued on its way east to Hohokus. After the accident, the deceased workers were taken to Hohokus while the injured were taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Paterson. Blame was immediately placed on the foreman for the ballast crew for not getting his crew out of danger of the oncoming express train. Later investigation stated that there 16 men in the crew that was on the tracks at the time of the accident. The engineer noted to the press at Jersey City that he blew his whistle to alarm the herded ballast workers and attempted to stop the train from hitting them. However, the engineer admitted that there was little he could do to stop the incident.