Railfanning the NJ Transit Montclair-Boonton Line at Montclair State University Station!

Recorded on 4/2/24. It was my birthday, and I happened to have the day off from work due to spring break. My family wasn't around to celebrate, as it was a normal Tuesday, so I decided to venture out to Jersey for a solo trip. The first half was elevators, but this video features the entire second half of the trip. I know the Montclair-Boonton line isn't the best for the amount of action it is known for since it is a weekday-only line. However, I still got quite a lot of trains here within three and a half hours and the diverse amount of equipment New Jersey Transit has always makes it worth coming out to Jersey to railfan. I was initially going to go to Mountain Avenue to catch some express trains. Believe it or not, I was originally going to come here in June, but plans changed so when I wanted to do something for my birthday, I decided to do this trip on my birthday instead. However, since it was raining, I needed a station with a covered platform which was not available at Mountain Avenue. So I ended up going to Montclair State University Station where I knew I would have a covered platform to railfan at. We see all sorts of equipment here. We even get to watch a few Bombardier ALP-45's changeover from overhead electricity to diesel power. Electrification for the Montclair-Boonton Line ends at this station so diesel power is required to continue west towards Hackettstown. What is interesting about this line is that west of this station is peak direction service only. In other words, there were no eastbound trains from Hackettstown, Mount Olive, Lake Hopatcong, Dover, etc, because eastbound is not the peak direction during the PM hours. Only trains that run between MSU and New York/Hoboken are seen going east during this time. All of the trains that return to Hoboken from Hackettstown, Mount Olive, Lake Hopatcong and Dover return using the Morris & Essex Line. Overall, a very unique system! I even recorded a little bonus that I got earlier during spring break which you will see towards the end of the video. Enjoy the awesome action!