Service was cut back from Sterling Forest to Wanaque–Midvale in 1935, when the railroad north of Erskine was abandoned for the construction of roadways through the area, including Passaic County Route 704 (East Shore Road).

[10] William Mullen, a local contractor, did the carpentry, roofing, iron, masonry and painting of the new passenger station at the cost of $2,025 (1901 USD).

[12] In the immediate aftermath of the crash, the railroad claimed that the tower operator in Midvale had no idea the express train was coming and failed to warn them in advance.

Maguire, the Division Superintendent, wasted no time blaming that William Richard, who was the station agent at Midvale, failed to change the signal and that the flagman, Ernest Heller, had not gone far enough in view of the second train to flag the engineer.

[14] On July 18, the jury of the Passaic County coroner, found that the actions of Richards and Heller were the ones leading to the accident and the death of now-16 lives and injuries to 50.

[16] On July 22, on a special section, the bail of Richards and Heller were raised from $1,000 (1904 USD) to $2,000 to guarantee they would answer the charges against them.

Heller and Richards both testified in their own defense and explained the case that the semaphore signal at Midvale worked rare and improperly.

It was immediately opposed by people who said if a roadway was not at least constructed on the right-of-way they could never get away from their homes in the area going southward and would require a long detour around Greenwood Lake.

On March 7, the railroad held an inspection tour with the Passaic County Planning Commission and Board of Freeholders, along with West Milford Township brass.

The Erie noted that if they get permission to abandoned the section of railway, the Ringwood Company would acquire the right-of-way automatically.

The residents at Sterling Forest admitted the service up there was being run at a significant loss, even with the lack of nearby highways.

Freidrich and his commission wanted that the railroad be replaced by a state highway on the New Jersey side from Hewitt to Sterling Forest.

With it, the stations at Sterling Forest, Awosting and Hewitt would also be abandoned, with approval of the New Jersey State Public Utilities Commission.

[23] However, on June 1, members of the Morningside Country Club and several residents of Sterling Forest made an appeal to the Interstate Commerce Commission on their tentative approval of service abandonment.

[25] Behrman added that the road could also be built with unemployed workers who could use federal funding to create and grade the new roadway.

However, when they brought the safe to a gravel pit and broke it open with a hammer, they found lots of tickets and no money.

The police chief and a fellow officer brought the youths in for questioning on December 15, where they admitted their theft after six hours.

Site of a fatal explosion on May 5, 1947 when wet sand was thrown on aluminum, the blast this time came from magnesium manufacturing they were doing as part of Korean War contracts.

[35] On July 1, 1963, it was officially announced that the Greenwood Lake and Boonton Branch would be merged at Mountain View, resulting an uptick in service.

They made the official request on July 23, stating that the depot did not have enough passengers to justify the continued employment of the agent.

Hughes also noted that Bowman moved to the area to be ready in case of emergencies and that elimination of the position would increase the burden on the train crews.

[38] On July 22, the borough of Wanaque decided that Herbert Irwin, its local attorney, would be sent to Newark to protest the actions of the Erie Railroad, stating they made the decision after hearing Hughes' comments.

The station depot had a good parking lot for the police and its location just off County Route 511 would make accessibility easy.

Wolff authorized the new borough attorney, Nathan Bernstein, to inquire with the railroad about purchasing the 50 by 30 feet (15.2 m × 9.1 m) depot.

The railroad responded in August that they would be interested in the offer to sell the 20 acres (8.1 ha) stretch of land for construction.

[44] That night, the Borough Council showed interest in the railroad right-of-way about building an alternate to County Route 511 for a road as service was expected to end after October 3, 1966.

Martin Munson, a Wanaque resident and Erie Lackawanna engineer, brought the final train into the station at 8:30 p.m.[46] The discontinuation of service also resulted in a problem with the borough's purchase of the depot.

When the railroad discontinued service, it also turned off the floodlights at the turntable, resulting in several streets becoming pitch black at night.

Martin Verp, the attorney for the Board, was authorized to call the railroad at the Cleveland, Ohio offices, to see if get an answer.

[49] In March 1968, the railroad told Verp that they were ready to sell the property for the new elementary school, pending approval of their Board of Directors.