Morristown & Erie Railway Inc.

The Morristown & Erie of today operates over the same right of way that the first trains used over one hundred years ago.  Service has always been the cornerstone of the operation of the railroad, and the customers have ranged from passengers traveling to meet the larger railroads of the time, a paper mill, a refinery, a toy distribution center, and the plastic molders of today.

The steady flow of the Whippany River through Hanover attracted industry at the beginning of the 19th Century.  By 1830 nearly two dozen mills of all types dotted the banks of the Whippany River.  Grist, paper, cotton and rolling mills relied on it for power to drive their machinery.  The construction of the Morris Canal in the 1830s and the Morris & Essex Railroad in the 1840s missed the area, so Hanover businesses had to use horses and heavy freight wagons for transportation. 

Before and after the Civil War, there were many plans to bring a railroad into the area. Several railroads even received charters. After the affluent Lackawanna Railroad took over the Morris & Essex, it also considered building a branch from Morristown to tap the region then known as Whippanong Township.

In 1890, Scotsman Robert McEwan and his seven sons purchased a large cotton mill and several paper mills in Hanover. The elder McEwan started as a laborer in Connecticut, and worked his way up to mill owner. In the coming years in Hanover, he would buy, sell and consolidate paper mills.  The successors would become the McEwan Brothers Paper Box Board Company and the Whippany Paper Board Company.  While McEwan toyed with larger freight wagons, a railroad builder named Melick promoted the idea of a railroad between Morristown and Whippany.

Melick incorporated the Whippany River Railroad in 1895. He built the four-mile line and ran its first train in August of that year. The railroad was shabbily constructed, and it was financed with short-term bonds that came due in just a few months. The young McEwan brothers paid the creditors and got control of the railroad in 1896, and Jesse L. McEwan was named the Whippany River’s first president. In the next few years, the line was relocated and rebuilt. The Whippany River Railroad soon established passenger service, and the small locomotive and single coach offered charming conveyance compared to the state-of-the-art Lackawanna at Morristown. Two trains per day traversed the line, and numerous extras were run when needed.

One of the seven McEwan brothers, Richard Walsh, was particularly interested in the day to day operations of the Whippany River RR.  As a successful businessman he built the railroad into a thriving concern. The mills along the railroad blossomed, while additional business located on the line. The railroad was profitable before the turn-of-the-century, and Richard McEwan began looking for ways to expand. In 1902 he incorporated the Whippany & Passaic River Railroad to build new trackage from Whippany east to Essex Fells to connect with the Erie Railroad. This gave the mills access to two major railroads, thus giving them the cost savings of competition. To ease the financing of the new construction, Richard combined both railroads in 1903 to form the Morristown & Erie Railroad, and was elected the M&E RR’s first president.

The first train over the new line operated in 1904 with an Erie Railroad locomotive. Business continued to grow, and the Erie was offering freight and passenger service between Morristown and Jersey City using its own locomotives and crews.  The M&E's own passenger service grew to warrant seven daily round trips by 1923. The tiny locomotive and single wooden coach was supplemented with a pair of rail buses, one of which still survives, at The Whippany Railway Museum.  Since the stations were so far apart, the M&E was legendary for its flag stops at any grade crossing to pick up or discharge passengers. In 1923 ridership peaked at 147,950 fares. With the invention of the automobile and public transit, however, ridership fell rapidly, and by 1928 the M&E discontinued passenger service.

 In the coming decades, the railroad remained a well-run, profitable freight railroad. During the busy years one freight crew could handle the Morristown-to-Essex Fells work, while another served the large mills at Whippany, some of which required switching all day long.

In 1943, Arthur, the last of the original McEwan brothers passed away, and his nephew, Richard W. McEwan Sr. took over as president.  Following WWII, business trends began to change. Trucking had made more inroads, and some companies were simply closing or moving elsewhere. In the 1950s, the larger paper mills were converting from coal to oil, further eroding the tonnage carried.  The inevitable conversion from steam to diesel locomotives helped keep the M&E healthy.        

In 1961, Andrew L. Cobb III became president of the M&E.  He improved earnings from properties and non-rail holdings. Two crews were still needed to handle the freight work, but Cobb wrestled with the losses caused by the downsizing of the paper mills. 

The 1970s heralded slow times in the railroad industry as a whole, and also on the M&E.  The mills were shutting down, and car loadings were dropping off.  In the effort to bring in money, the Morristown shop was leased to a locomotive rebuilder, and for a few years numerous locomotives from several railroads would visit Morristown. By the end of the 1970s, the railroad was down to hauling fewer than a dozen cars in a single week, and the rebuilding business was in trouble as well. The Morristown & Erie Railroad filed for bankruptcy protection in 1978, and it continued to operate as needed. 

In 1982 a consortium made up of Benjamin J. Friedland, Wesley Weis, Ed Wilczynski and David Mandelbaum purchased the bankrupt railroad. Ben Friedland was the president, and the new company became the Morristown & Erie Railway, Inc.  Slowly, Ben built the business, repaired the existing locomotives and purchased two 3000hp Alcos for additional power, and began improving the track. Traffic began to return. Through good customer service and networking in the rail community, Ben was able to orchestrate deals that would significantly increase traffic. He worked with the customers on the three-mile Chester Branch to purchase the line.  The M&E now operates the branch for the owners. In addition, he helped Morris County purchase two former-Jersey Central Railroad branch lines, and the M&E now operates these lines under contract to the county.

  The M&E's most aggressive expansion occurred in 1995 when it became the contract switcher at the Bayway refinery in Linden. Bayway is the largest privately owned refinery in the U.S., and M&E's full-time crew switches 8,000 cars annually based on the critical requirements of this major petroleum products producer.

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Last modified: December 25, 2001