Elizabethport Secondary

Another large and expensive roadblock to freight running between Eport and Aldene via the ex-CNJ ROW...is the clearance restriction that the NE Corridor bridge poses....Currently not high enough for autoracks or stacks, Undercutting isn't an easy option here as Broad Street passes under the CNJ ROW as the ROW passes underneath the corridor. I imagine a new bridge would cost 10's of millions of dollars........

Ouch, good point... Being a native of Elizabeth, I'd say eliminate Broad St. and lower the CNJ mainline. :-O !!!

Okay, seriously, I guess they'd have to lower BOTH Broad St. under the arch AND the mainline...that'd be really rough. Hmmm...... Then again, thats what we pay engineers (not the loco type) for...

BigDell (rapidly seeing his vision of CNJ mainline revival fading in the sunset...

According to one of the books on the CNJ, the Main Line 2 Track was lowered under the NEC crossing to permit High-Clearence Freights to run.
The book shows a Freight with High-Cube cars switching to this track

The question being was it lowered enough to meet todays needs ??.

Ken

Well...if NS or CSX really thought it would be a good route to use, I'm sure they'd figure something out. It has to be close, at least, on the middle tracks... M&E might not have the dollars and HP to pull it off, but the big roads can do it.

Again, I know, it's wishfull thinking..... The idea of a REAL FREIGHT TRAIN under the old Pennsy main as I sit at the restaurant which is now CNJ's Broad St. station and take a nice photo or two....

BigDell

BigDell wrote:Has there been ANY movment at all on the literail project from Elizabeth?

Well, the NCS extension between Penn Station and Broad Street Station in Newark is in progress, which is MOS-1 of that. Officially, that project has been split up into the Newark Rail Link and the Union County Rail Link, with a greater likelihood of the former getting done.

I don't beleve that the Elizabeth area proposal of the light rail has received any funding as yet, nor is it anticipated in the near future. Too bad.

I found the book and notes about the CNJ "high-clearance" track under the NEC.

The book is "Jersey Central Lines in Color" by William J. Brennan.

On page 47 it shows a Trainmaster eqipped freight from March '66, with the comment that 2 track was lowered under the Pennsy Mainline to accommodate high clearance cars and piggybacks, page 49 shows a leased N & W F-7 on the same track from March '70.

As this is mostly a picture book it does not go into more detail than this.

IF NS or COSOA were to use this ROW would 2 track be low enough for todays needs??

Ken

PS I no longer use a scanner so I can't show the photos from this book.

I have that book, I should dig it up and see...

I think two tracks would be plenty - especially when you consider that the very active LV mainline near me (at Potters) is bottlenecking through a single track at this point....

Wow - two working tracks on the CNJ main this century? I'd be in heaven.... (and I well might be before we see it happen... :-)

I've read some of the posts here and thought it would be a great idea to send freight trains over the former CNJ ROW. Even if it were set up for light rail in the future, freight could move thru here on it's rails just like on the Camden - Trenton Light Rail River Line. Here is one example of Light Rail and freight service co-existing. It's true that the former PRR/ current Amtrak/ NJTransit NorthEast Corridor Line does impede the CNJ's former ROW. But I think that with today's construction advances, some sort of solution could be made.[/img]

The biggest barrier to taller freight would be this: In order to lower the CNJ track, you'd have to lower the CNJ bridge over North Broad St. In order to lower the bridge, you'd have to dig the roadbed deeper, too.

Guess I gotta repeat what I said before:

• NJ Transit owns that line, and
• NS/CSX wants nothing to do with running freight on lines that NJT owns that are OOS

Besides, they have the Lehigh Line all to themselves, which they could expand at their own volition and not have to pay NJT rent. Anyhow, having LRT on that line would automatically exclude freight, if NJT were to put such on there.

What was the significance of Brills Jct. and where was that located ?
Did a lot of volume go throught there ? Also where and what is Barber Station ?

Your questions are about CNJ locations that are nowhere near the Old Main.

Brills Junction is in Newark; it was the old interchange between what is now the Mosquito Line and the New York and Newark RR.

Barber station, IIRC, was on the PRR (not the CNJ) and was located in Perth Amboy.

Thanks for clarifying, guess my bearings need re-calibration.

Brills was where the line from E'port met the Newark and NY line between Jersey City and Newark. It's in the eastern part of Ironbound section of Newark, as I recall. Busy with passenger and local freight serivice at one time. No through freight except if there was an emergency with the Newark Bay draw.

Barber is a geographic area more or less north of Perth Amboy on what is now the Chemical Coast line. The CNJ had a freight yard there and I think it also had a passenger station.