Have you ever seen the movie The Station Agent? If not, you should! It’s an independent film that won the 2003 Sundance Film Festival and stars Peter Dinklage (of Game of Thrones) and was filmed not far from my house at the Newfoundland train depot. Matter of fact, Peter is a fellow New Jerseyite from Morristown.

The depot was built in 1872 and helped to bring tourists to the resorts in the area. Today the line is still used infrequently for freight but the passenger trains are long gone.

A few years ago after seeing the movie I stopped to take photos of the depot and the abandoned railway cars, but at that time someone was actually living there and they sort of chased me away. I vowed to go back, and this week I finally went.

Today there are Private Property / No Trespassing signs up here and there but I swear I didn’t see them right away! There is a sign in the window of the depot that states it’s available for parties, filming shoots, etc. so I could always say I was scouting it out. Anyway, no one bothered me on this nippy day.

I think it’s been a long time since the old signal was used.

This little out building stands behind the depot. To me it looked like an outhouse but when I peeked inside there were just a bunch of rusty old railroad spikes.

The two cabooses sit on the side looking very forlorn next to the old cement water fueling tower. At least they have not been covered with graffiti. Their weathered exteriors do make for a few interesting photo ops.

From reading online I found that this caboose is an Erie caboose from 1946.

I loved its weathered color. (and well … maybe just a little bit of graffiti!)

This one is a Pennsylvania caboose from 1914 and the poor thing is really showing its age. The paint is peeling away, allowing the wood to be exposed to the New Jersey elements.

A little further down the tracks sits an old passenger car from 1926.

I took a wide angle approach to the side and in this case I like the slight skew. How about you?

All aboard!!

I was not really in a creative mood and the light was not the best for some angles so I might repeat this photo shoot next year in the spring. Or maybe it would be cool in the winter too! (So to speak.) I am relatively happy with most of the photos.

Please do watch the movie! You can see a trailer here.