MovieChat Forums > The Station Agent (2003) Discussion > The Newfoundland Station + Clinton Road

The Newfoundland Station + Clinton Road

posted 17 years ago by qblhdon
22 replies | jump to latest

The RR station used in this movie is located at Newfoundland, NJ.

This station happens to be in the vacinity of 'long spooky' Clinton Road, for a long time considered by some of the locals as "spooky", with weird happenings supposedly along its long "scarey" artery.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Road

It would have added another texture to this movie if the writer(s) penned up something about some spookiness from a "Clinton Road" tie-in. Not some teenagey slasher thing but just something like what M. Night Shyamalan might have conjured up to give this already nice tale a little bit of weirdness & fright.

Clinton Road is, what one would, say, "just up the street a way; walking distance," from Newfoundland, NJ train station.

[–] mccarthystuart 17 years ago

For a moment, I thought it was Newfoundland, in Canada.

So this is how liberty dies-with thunderous applause?

[–] Journeyman-TACC 17 years ago

I grew up on Cross Rd. which is right smack between Clinton Rd. and the Newfoundland station.

I've walked those tracks more times than I can count and I can remember when they used to run a steam train ride out of that station where you got a fake robbery and everything for just $2.50.

I was glad to see so many familiar places on the screen.

As for Clinton Rd. I've ridden it from one end to the other and I've seen a few things, heard a few things... and even done a few things that I'll remember for a very long time.

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him

[–] beicher 17 years ago

I lived in Farm Crest Acres, and went to elementary school at Paradise Knoll just up the road from Newfoundland. Played my very first organized baseball game on Newfoundland Field when I was 9 (1968). Newfoundland Field is located just on the other side of the tracks from the railroad station featured in the movie. I have Super 8 film of the railroad station actually in use: 1966 when the beams for our church (Holy Faith Lutheran,located across the street from Paradise Knoll --- my dad was the founding pastor) arrived at the railroad station for retrieval by crane truck and flatbed. The town carnival used to be held in the field in front of the railroad station. Ah, those were the days!

And, yeah, Clinton Road has always been scary. Check out the story about the mafia hitman, Richard Kuklinski ("The Iceman"), who dumped bodies there and co-owned a horse farm off Clinton Road on Van Orden Road or thereabouts.

[–] Journeyman-TACC 17 years ago

Yeah, I remember when they found the body up by the reservoir.

Also, about a week before he was killed, that one guy Kuklinski left in the motel on the New Jersey Turnpike stuffed under the bed was at my house, he and his twin brother had been friends of my parents.

It may have been a flyspeck on the map but it was never boring there, that's for sure.

Hey, is Pastor Craig still at the Lutheran? I haven't been up that way in a few years and sorta lost touch. He used to stop by my aunt's house a lot since she was bed-ridden and they talked baseball constantly.

It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him

[–] beicher 17 years ago

Hey, Journeyman-TACC:

Last I new, Pastor Craig was still at Holy Faith Lutheran. When they celebrated their 35th anniversary in February '97, I went back for it with my now-deceased mother, and my sister. Don't know if they had a 45th anniversy shindig. If they did, we didn't hear about it.

Pastor Craig is a great pastor, I think.

[–] cala3 17 years ago

I love how the Internet allows people to reconnect after so many years.

most cool!

~~
"You're the doctor; I'm the mother. I outrank you" Mother to House, MD

[–] AllEighties 8 years ago

I have to watch this, can't believe I only found out about it now. Looking over the shooting locations list is so cool. I've been to every single location and driven by many beyond dozens of times. Did they use the little old church building library in Rockaway as the library?

Contrary to what everyone thinks about NJ, yeah this area actually has a number of different dirt roads. It stinks that they developed over one of the really cool ones on the Rockaway/Denville border back in the 90s though. Apparently it had Bill Bradley living off of one side of it way back in the woods and then some mafia guy way back off in the woods on the other side of it. It's all a mess of pavement and McMansions (although at least less cookie-cookie and more like real homes than most) now though :(. Well not all as they did turn a solid chunk of it into a woodland park, but driving along the road now, you could never even remotely tell it's the same road :(.

[–] pattyjones736 17 years ago

Thanks, Simon. Why would anybody want to add anything to this jewel? Particularly a horror angle???!!!

Flip side of fifty and STILLADIVA!

[–] Vidson 17 years ago

This is one of those places that I think holds a great deal of romance for people. I'm from the UK and hae never been to the US (hopefully to change in the next few years if my old man moves over) but this is one of those places I'd like to visit. I'm sure the big cities hold many attractionsm, but it's smaller more intimate places like this which hold a lot more appeal - small town, more friendly, more interesting. Is this the same for you guys who live there?

You go inside the cage?
Cage goes in the water, you go in the water. Shark's in the water

[–] johnny-dramaa 17 years ago

Me and friends drove up and down clinton road a few times when we were in high school. It was always a cheap thrill, but not much else. Jersey's a great place to live, but unless you're visiting the shore, you'd probably have more fun sticking to NYC as a tourist.

[–] MetalGeek 17 years ago

I live in West Milford and I drive by the Newfoundland train station every day on my way to work. There are still three old railroad cars sitting there abandoned on a strip of track behind the building. My four year old is crazy about trains so every once in a while I take him over there so he can look at them. Neat stuff.

Your Favorite Band Sucks.

[–] aquanet55 17 years ago

MetalGeek is the station still in use? Or is it now some sort of Starbucks as eluded to in the DVD commentary... thanks!

[–] MetalGeek 17 years ago

Last I heard, which was several years ago, the Newfoundland train station building was actually being used as a private home, believe it or not. I've never seen any cars parked near it whenever I've been over there, and there are curtains covering all the windows, so I don't know if anyone is currently living in it. However, there is a mail box out front.

Your Favorite Band Sucks.

[–] Tweck 16 years ago

Wow, I can't believe the West Milford / Newfoundland area gets so much attention. It amazes me. I lived in the area for 16 years, it's like home to me. My friend remembers a dwarf that used to drive a taxi around there in the '70's - perchance one of the inspirations for this film. Well I'm about to watch the station agent for the first time, so wish me luck.

[–] beicher 16 years ago

The dwarf was Jennings of Jennings Taxi. Their house was on Jennings Road off of Route 23 (exit just north of Doremus Road---Farm Crest Acres subdivision entrance---where Reservoir Road goes along Oak Ridge Reservoir). Rather than take Reservoir Road, make a left just after exiting off of Route 23, and Jennings Road goes around, what else?, Jennings Pond.

That dwarf ran the taxi for years and years. I lived in Farm Crest Acres from 1960 through 1972, and we saw him all the time.

[–] Tweck 16 years ago

Wow, nice! I'll have to tell my friend. It's great to hear the lore from WM/Newfoundland, as it's the only place I've ever called home.

Watched the movie, btw. Great, human story. It really works for the locale too. Thumbs up.

[–] beicher 16 years ago

My pleasure. I'm glad to know I helped.

I live here in Rapid City, South Dakota. My best friend is a guy named Greg Carbone. I met him in 1995 here in Rapid City the first full day he got here to attend grad school at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, from the U. of North Carolina-Asheville. He was at the outdoor ice rink. I asked him where he was from. He said "North Carolina, well, really NJ." I said, "Where in NJ?" He said "West Milford." I almost fell over, but I kept a straight face. I said, "What elementary school?" He looked at me like I was a loonie. He said "Paradise Knoll." I said, "Who was your kindergarten teacher?" Now he REALLY thought I was loonie. He replied, "Mrs. Wolf." I said, "I'm from West Milford; I went to Paradise Knoll; and I also had Mrs. Wolf."

He about fainted. He lived off of Union Valley Road, on Oxbow Lane. I lived in Farm Crest. He's 12 years younger than me. I introduced him to my secretary. Three years later they got married.

Small world, huh?

[–] AllEighties 8 years ago

Do keep in mind that it's more of a township than a town. So the part up there by the tracks doesn't have any little cozy small town mainstreet per se. It's an area with woods and random roads with suburban houses all along them winding about. And you definitely need a car.

It's different than in the UK though in that the woods are not all super manged but let wild and it's not all super rural country side and occasional country houses and little 20-30 acre woodlots. It's 130,300,4000 acres chunks of forest with long roads randomly winding around with house next to house or dense suburban subdivisions dropped in or areas of a whole bunch of roads twisting randomly all over mostly with house next to house. If you head up into the farmlands of Sussex it's probably a bit more like the UK in some parts.

They sadly also added a lot more homes to the roads and tossed in a lot more random subdivisions in that region since the 80s.

It's still a far cry from what people think of NJ though. There are Bald Eagles, Osprey, Wild Turkey, Bobcats, oh and Black Bears having pool parties (you know the usual stuff 😀 https://youtu.be/77dtqOOaGLo), etc.

edit: whoops sorry about that first link, haha, a party yes, but very different, guess my cut and past link buffer messed up there for a second, anyway fixed now

[–] AllEighties 8 years ago

Someone put some shots into a video from very near areas where it wa filmed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnrguKj1Y-s

[–] bonsai-superstar 11 years ago

Hey, does anyone remember when old man Porter moved in? Up near the subdivision? They found a human head - wrapped up neat in a blanket, mind you - up at the Porter place some years ago. Was down there for a picnic years later and there was a clump of matted hair in the grass near my sangwich! Right near lost ALL my lunch!

After there was the big scandal about Pastor Craig (can't even mention it here) though, no-one in their right mind would ever want to venture near the reservoir again. Anyway, it's good to reconnect with the old gang on these computers.

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] AllEighties 8 years ago

Hmm I never found Clinton Road spooky at all.

But what about the abandoned, rotting away Gingerbread Castle near Hamburg! With that creepy Humpty Dumpty staring out at you. And that rotting out mill building next door. And freaky house right across the street. And then the half-built, ghost town sub division behind it all? Man would that be the ultimate shooting location for some horror flick. CREEPY as hell.