Caldwell station

Caldwell station is a defunct commuter railroad station in the eponymous borough of Caldwell, Essex County, New Jersey. Located on Bloomfield Avenue (County Route 506) to the northeast of Caldwell College (modern-day Caldwell University), the station serviced trains of the Erie Railroad and Erie Lackawanna Railroad's Caldwell Branch between Essex Fells station and Great Notch station in Little Falls. Caldwell station was one of two stations in the borough, the second being the stop at the Monomonock Inn, a local hotel that was open until 1940. The station consisted of two tracks and a single side platform next to the Erie's station depot.

Railroad service in Caldwell began with the construction of the Caldwell Railroad, a branch of the New York and Greenwood Lake Railroad from Great Notch to Caldwell. The railroad opened on an unofficial basis on June 20, 1891, opening to the public on July 4. A 16.5-by-20.5-by-14-foot (5.0 m × 6.2 m × 4.3 m) station depot stood at Caldwell, which marked as the end of the 4.7-mile (7.6 km) branch until 1892, when the line was extended to nearby Essex Fells. With the opening of the Morristown and Erie Railroad in 1904, a new station depot was built at Caldwell due to expectations of higher traffic volume. The nearby station in Verona burned to the ground in an arson on January 7, 1905 and with the old station depot at Caldwell expendable, a team of railroad workers on horseback moved the original depot to Verona to serve as the new depot.

With declining ridership and service, the borough demolished the 1904-built station depot for new business development in August 1965. Service on the Caldwell Branch continued until September 30, 1966, when several lines operated by the Erie Lackawanna Railroad were simultaneously cut.