West Arlington station opened on January 1, 1873 with the opening of the Montclair Railway between Jersey City and Monks in West Milford in Passaic County. At the time of opening, the station retained the name of Kearny.[4] The station was located at the end of a cut, 0.5-mile (0.80 km) west of Arlington station.[5] West Arlington station, which doubled as the control tower for nearby WR Draw, served passenger trains until September 30, 1966, when the Erie-Lackawanna Railroad discontinued passenger service to the station after a final Caldwell Branch train crossed.[3] The station depot on the eastbound platform remained, standing abandoned until it burned down in 1983.
Station layout and services
The tower and station at West Arlington as seen from the opposite shore of the Passaic River in Newark
West Arlington station consisted of two low-level side platforms. the eastbound platform contained a station depot and interlocking tower, accessible from North Midland Avenue and Passaic Avenue. The westbound platform had no shelter at the end of service in 1966, accessible from Passaic Avenue and Laurel Avenue. The western end of the asphalt platforms contained the walkway for WR Draw. The 13-by-31-foot (4.0 m × 9.4 m) interlocking tower built into the eastbound depot contained the mechanics to open the swing bridge over the Passaic River and Route 21. The 1914-installed interlocking system contained 16 levers to operate the bridge and related switches.[3] WR Tower also operated remote control switches at the Forest Hill station in Newark, including the crossover to the Orange Branch, the connection to the eastern main line track from the Orange Branch and a crossover from the Orange Branch to a nearby siding.[6] These services took over the purposes of OJ Tower in Forest Hill, a former 13-by-21-foot (4.0 m × 6.4 m) interlocking tower with 34 levers.[7] The tower also operated the actions of the office in Great Notch for the Caldwell Branch.[6]
When the station opened with the Montclair Railway on January 1, 1873, then-Kearny station operated with 15 trains daily.[5] At the end of service in 1966, West Arlington station serviced only three trains on weekdays. The single eastbound train, which ran to Hoboken Terminal, arrived at 7:53 a.m. on a train from Essex Fells on the Caldwell Branch. West Arlington had two westbound trains from Hoboken, train 1415, which went to Essex Fells, stopping at 5:57 p.m. The other was a train to Wanaque–Midvale, train 1419, which arrived at 6:30 p.m.[8]
