Memory Lane

Phyllis and Irwin Sobel, Livingston residents since 1951, recently submitted these photos of their sons enjoying a day at the Becker Farm on North Livingston Avenue in Roseland, circa 1955.

"The best treat we could promise to the kids all week was a trip to Becker Farm on Saturdays," recalls Phyllis Sobel, "so they could look at the cows and ride on the train."

The train was a miniature railroad, built to scale, which featured a live steam locomotive, small-scale Diesel locomotives, and small-scale passenger cars. The brainchild of Eugene Becker, who built it in 1938, the train provided decades of fun to area youngsters. Becker opened it to paying passengers in 1948, and for 20 years, the train – always packed with kids – ran along 7,000 feet of track on the property each Saturday from May through October.

Full length train rides were offered until 1968. That year, the Becker family was notified by the New Jersey Department of Transportation that it would be exercising eminent domain to condemn a large swath of their property through which the railroad traveled for the right-of-way for the new Interstate Route 280. In response, a shortened rail route was created, but ridership began to decline over the next four years. The farm and its railroad closed for good in 1972, and the land was eventually sold. Today it is the site of the Becker Farm office complex.

Phyllis Sobel notes that, in its heyday, the train was well-known and extremely popular. "We had friends from New York who would visit us specifically so they could take the kids on the train," she says. "Our boys really enjoyed it. It was a 'lotta-lotta' fun for all of us."

While the kids rode the train, she says, parents watched them trundle by and shopped for fresh dairy products, including milk and cheese. "It always made for a nice day," she recalls. "We were so sad to see it go." But by then, her sons were adults, "so at least they got to enjoy the train." She laments, however, that her grandchildren never got to ride the train, nor will her great-granddaughter have that opportunity.

"It's just not the same," Sobel adds. "Back when we first moved here, Livingston had only a few hundred families. There were no malls, just mom-and-pop stores. Back then, it was like living in the country. Now it's like living in the city."

Her husband, Irwin, was a Cub Scout pack leader in town and helped coordinate the fund-raising efforts for the construction of the Livingston community pools. He was also instrumental in the building of the north Little League field and coached Little League for ten years. He and his wife still live in Livingston to this day, with no plans to leave. "A lot of our friends have left the area or gone to Florida," says Phyllis Sobel. "Not us. We have no intention of leaving Livingston. It's home."

Their sons went through the Livingston school system, and attended the University of Pennsylvania. Today, their elder son, David, now 61, lives in Westfield. He is a medical doctor who has maintained a practice in internal medicine for more than 35 years.

Their younger son, Mark, now 53, is the managing partner of the law firm of Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith, Ravin, Davis and Himmel, L.L.P. in Roseland – located in the Becker Farm office complex. In an ironic twist, Mark Sobel now works where he and his brother and friends once played as children.