Morristown & Erie Railway HO Scale Models

The Morristown and Erie Railway traces its origins to the Whippany River Railroad, a short line chartered on August 1, 1895, to link Morristown and Whippany, New Jersey, with interchange established at Morristown with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. When the new road defaulted on its bonds, paper mill owner Robert W. McEwan acquired it from creditors in 1896 and steered it toward modest profitability by serving the mills and light industries along its right-of-way. Seeking a second major connection to improve competitive shipping options for his customers, McEwan organized the Whippany and Passaic River Railroad in 1902 to extend the system westward to Essex Fells and gain access to the Erie Railroad. The two constituent companies were formally consolidated on August 28, 1903, into the Morristown and Erie Railroad, the direct corporate predecessor of the present railway. Passenger service was operated for several decades but succumbed to highway competition in 1928, and the property thereafter concentrated entirely on freight. The railroad navigated the Great Depression through careful financial management and reportedly became the only American railroad to eliminate all of its debt during the years leading up to World War II. Diesel motive power arrived in 1952 with an Alco S-4. The merger of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western with the Erie Railroad to form Erie Lackawanna Railway in 1960 removed the competitive interline dynamic that had historically benefited shippers on the M&E, and the closure of mills along the line through the 1960s steadily eroded traffic. By 1978 the railroad had entered bankruptcy, with carloads reduced to only a handful each week. Recovery came in 1982 when a group of investors led by Benjamin J. Friedland purchased the property and reorganized it as the Morristown and Erie Railway. Friedland invested in track rehabilitation and locomotive repair while pursuing an aggressive freight development strategy that gradually rebuilt the carrier's customer base. Under his leadership the M&E expanded its reach considerably, taking on contract operations of the Morris County-owned Chester Branch beginning in December 1983 and subsequently helping to arrange county acquisition and operation of former Central Railroad of New Jersey trackage on the Dover and Rockaway and High Bridge branches in 1986. Friedland also negotiated a significant switching contract at the Bayway Refinery in Linden, New Jersey, one of the largest petroleum refining facilities on the East Coast, beginning in 1995. His death in 1998 was widely mourned in the short line industry, and the New Jersey Short Line Railroad Association named an award in his honor. The railway has continued to expand its operational footprint since Friedland's death. In the early 2000s it created the Union County Central Railroad to rehabilitate and operate dormant freight lines in Union County, New Jersey, derived from segments of the former Rahway Valley Railroad and Staten Island Railway. Beginning in November 2003 the M&E operated the Maine Eastern Railroad, a seasonal excursion and freight line running over the former Maine Central Rockland Branch between Brunswick and Rockland, Maine, until that operation passed to Central Maine and Quebec Railway at the start of 2016. Today the M&E operates freight service in Morris County and surrounding areas, holds trackage rights over New Jersey Transit's Morristown Line and Montclair-Boonton Line to reach interchange points with Norfolk Southern and Conrail Shared Assets, and continues switching duties at the Bayway Refinery complex, establishing itself as one of the more active and entrepreneurially minded short lines in the northeastern United States.