JamHag,
Welcome to the world of railroad monitoring! I live in Wanaque and formerly worked as a train dispatcher for NJT. Here's a little info to help you might hear.
The railroad is the NYS&W (New York, Susquehanna, & Western). They are based in Cooperstown, NY. The dispatchers are based there and they have an excellent radio system. The east end of the railroad is in Little Ferry and the trains run between Little Ferry and Binghamton, NY. Right now is a great time to be listening to the Susquehanna. Not only are they running their own trains they are also running detour trains for CSX. There are an average of 3-4 trains a day running, most are fairly long and powered with a wide variety of locomotives.
If you plug 161.400 MHz into your scanner that is the NJT Hoboken Division. Hoboken Terminal is where all Hoboken Division trains start or end their runs. The Hoboken Division is split into two desks, the Morris & Essex and the Mainline/Bergen County. The Morris & Essex (M&E on the radio) desk covers the lines from Hoboken west through Morris & Essex counties out to Hackettstown. The Mainline/Bergen County (Mainline on the radio) covers the lines from Hoboken through Bergen and Passaic counties and on to Port Jervis, NY. West of Suffern, NY the line is called the Southern Tier Line and the trains switch to 160.800 MHz. The Mainline/Bergen County desk also controls the Pascack Valley Line (PVL) to Spring Valley, NY. I worked on the Mainline/Bergen County desk.
You will also hear Terminal Tower directing trains into and out of the station. The Hoboken Division frequency is 161.400 MHz and you will hear quite a bit. In addition to the train movements you will hear track maintenance, locomotive/coach maintainers, etc. Because of your location I'm not sure how far out on each line you'll be able to monitor, but you should be able to hear freight trains working on the Mainline, PVL, and M&E lines. Also, Croxton Yard, a major freight yard, is located on the Bergen County and all freights coming into or out of the yard are under NJT control.
The radio symbols of the passenger trains are their timetable #s so you might want to get a public schedule if you want to track the trains you hear.
The radio symbols of the Mainline/Bergen County freight trains that I can remember are as follows:
H55/H56: Based in Suffern, NY it works the Bergen County and the Mainline to Paterson and back to Suffern. Runs daily.
H80/H81: Based on the Pascack Valley Line, it works the PVL in the Teterboro area. Does its work in the morning, runs to Croxton Yard, and returns to the PVL later in the afternoon. Runs daily.
There is a local freight that runs out of Campbell Hall, NY on the Southern Tier, but I doubt you'd hear it in Hoboken. Its symbol is HO-8 if you do happen to hear it on 160.800 MHz.
I don't recall the freights on the M&E side, but there are several that run on a daily basis as well.
Hope this helps.....and who knows, it may change you from a casual railroad listener to a full-blown railbuff! frequency. Here's some of what you'll hear:
