Port Jervis, NY: Erie Railyard and Roundhouses

(Satellite)

A photo of the coaling tower

Tim Starr posted
One of my favorite photographs comes from Port Jervis, NY. The Erie Railroad built the half-circle roundhouse in the mid- to late 1840s. New locomotives quickly outgrew the structure, so they had to build extensions off the back wall. But then more engines were purchased, so around 1875 the full-circle roundhouse was added. The historic half-circle one was torn down not long after this picture was taken, looking towards the Delaware River. The new roundhouse survived until the 1980s when it was destroyed by arson. New York State Archives collection.
The turntable is remarkably still there, but it is certainly hard to tell that Port Jervis was once one of the Erie's primary locomotive terminal sites.
André Hintermann: "Mid to late 1840s" this was very early in the US Railroad history.
Tim Starr: That is true. The earliest record I can find of a roundhouse in this country is 1840. The Erie was one of the first "long" railroads, spanning most of New York State, so it needed more than a few locomotives (even though it wasn't completed to Dunkirk until 1851). Two early roundhouses were built at Piermont by the Erie on the Hudson River, perhaps in 1840. My best guess is that the B&O had the very first roundhouse at the St. Clare shops in Baltimore.
Stephen McKenna: The current "roundhouse" at St. Clare was a carshop. Engine's is torn down. [That would explain why I could not reconcile the photo with a satellite image.]

Paul Compoly posted
Port Jervis, 1886. From Gerald M. Best’s “Minisink Valley Express.”

They did salvage the turntable.

Alexander Tang, Apr 2018

I noticed in the background of the above photo that they seem to have several passenger cars parked there as well.

Satellite

Port Jervis must be the end of a commuter line and that is a small coach yard.

Mnrr.6131, Nov 2021

Most of the railyard is now trees. The full-circle roundhouse doesn't show up in any of the topo maps I looked at. That is strange.

1942 Port Jervis North Quadrangle @ 1:24,000

Normally, I would skip a photo of a commuter train, especially on the East Coast. But then I realized that these would be the coaches parked in Port Jervis.

Roger Riblett shared a River Rail Photo post

Ripping Through Rutherford. NJ TRANSIT Train 51 is really moving on Friday, January 7, 2022 as it passes through the Rutherford Station on the way to to MTA Metro-North Railroad's Port Jervis Station with GP40PH-2 4109 (CNJ Heritage) leading without stopping. In the background, the Freedom Tower rises from the skyline of New York, New York. The first significant snowfall of the year in the area occurred earlier in the day, and subfreezing temperatures have kept it in place except where the parking lot was plowed for commuters.

Full resolution: https://www.riverrailphoto.com/njtransit/e391fbffa [supports purchase of prints]