By Railfan & Railroad Staff

PASSAIC, N.J. — More than a dozen pieces of historic railroad equipment were moved out of a rail yard in Passaic, N.J. over the weekend in what will likely be the last movement on the ex-Erie Railroad’s Dundee Spur. 

In September, Operation Toy Train announced it had acquired 13 historic rail cars that were once used or stored on the New York & Greenwood Lake. The cars had to be moved because the Dundee Spur is being abandoned and ripped up. One of the highlights of the spur was a short stretch of street running down Monroe Street in Garfield.

Operation Toy Train has operated in southern New York and northern New Jersey during the first two weekends of December since 2009 collecting donated toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Foundation that are given to underprivileged children (Due to COVID-19, the train will not run in 2020). Over the years, the group has acquired a number of cars for its train, including a former Atlantic Coast Line baggage car, three boxcars and two cabooses. Among the cars donated to the group are three former Erie Railroad cabooses and a former Baltimore & Ohio caboose. Over the weekend, Operation Toy Train worked with Morristown & Erie Railway and New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway to move the equipment 125 miles from Passaic to Lackawaxen, Pa., where the cars will be stored on the Delaware, Lackawaxen & Stourbridge Railroad. The cars will eventually form the core collection of a new museum in Port Jervis, N.Y. 

Now that the equipment has been moved off the Dundee Spur, scrappers are moving in to rip up the track. It’s unclear how long their work will take. The Dundee Spur was used by Conrail until 1996 when it was taken over by the NY&GL to move trash. It’s sat dormant for a number of years.