NJT to Flemington?

amtrakowitz wrote:I recall Grant Avenue being open on the RVL in the early 1980s. This was when trains were still going to Phillipsburg, too.

They call the station location "Elmora"? I thought that was the name of the interlocking. I have a PRR passenger timetable from 1966 that called it "South Elizabeth" (at the South Street bridge)—the New York-bound station platform survived until some time into the very late 80s.

The station name is Elmora, it happens to be an interlocking. There are checkboxes in the timetable that either "INT" (interlocking) is checked, "PS" (passenger station) is checked or nothing is checked, meaning its not an interlocking or an active passenger station. Elmora has the "INT" checked.

The actual South Elizabeth station has been removed from the timetable, and while I don't have a really old one handy that woudl show it, chances are its Milepost would be identical or very similar to Elmora. However, the station was WITHIN the interlocking, so of course, it would be removed when it wasn't used any longer, as it would be silly and confusing to have 2 stations, with 1 being a "ghost" station if you will, at basically the same location. If it was a little further apart, they probably would have kept it in, like for example North Rahway and now Merck interlocking. Only .1 mile apart, but both are in the timetable.

pierrerabbit wrote:Using the old Flemington branch is out of the question. Maybe someone could check the tax maps, but I'm pretty sure that all of the CNJ row has been sold off to the adjoining landowners.

And look at the figures for each "solution". Of course they will go with the cheapest one, which is buses.

agreed buses will win. But nice to see at least they give lip service to dumping the busses at train stations.

I think SOME of the CNJ right of way has been sold off. But I dont think all. (I dont KNOW for sure) If you use google maps and zoom in tight enough they show property lines for some towns. Flemington, Raritan Township and Readington show the property lines. Three Bridges and Neshanic are in Readington so if you zoom in you can see the property lines. I assume that google gets them from tax maps and they only add these areas recently (like past couple months) so presumable the data is relatively current. Looks like only a few places show contiguous property lines across the ROW in the Neshanic Station area. Hillsborough doesn't show the property lines so can't tell from that.

But as I posted above, from the aerial view it looks like there's room the whole way on the Lehigh line to add another track so that would probably be cheaper. (again only if a fluke were to occur and rail got picked. )

RWERN wrote:

Hawaiitiki wrote:Would Newark Penn be able to handle "compass South" diesel expansion without an upgrade to the Waterfront Connection? Because Newark Penn was not at all designed, as most poeple here know, to be the terminal type station the RVL uses it as, and I'm curious if there is even any capacity for a notable expansion of that type of serivce.

Honestly, you would probably need to upgrade that, plus Hunter, Aldene, and some amount of the ex-CNJ main as well depending upon how much service you were talking. Even assuming Newark could handle extra traffic in the current setup, the RVL has little in the way of express services and I can't see expansion of services to farther areas being especially successful if the passengers are subjected to a more or less local crawl the whole way. You probably couldn't squeeze more express runs without sacrificing reverse-direction runs unless you dropped in more track, which there is certainly room for.

All those seem at least possible in the scheme of things. I've read that Aldene could have 2 tracks up the ramp if needed for expansion. And there apparently was a plan at some point to make a ramp on the east (compass) side of Hunter to make an accommodation for more traffic (and that might releve some of the "Newark as a Terminal" issue since you could get trains over to the track 1 and A and then into a yard someplace (By Path or waterfront) without fouling all the tracks to cross over). The CNJ Main could get an express track tossed in here or there too (maybe moving some high level platforms...)

BUT- what would they do on the Lehigh Line from Aldene to Hunter? It seems that would be a pretty huge undertaking to get more throughput in the Roselle Park to Union area? Is the ROW even wide enough to add a third track?

It would be costly, but in those areas where the ROW is on a high fill through Roselle Park mainly, they COULD put walls up and fill in the slopes - there would be more than enough room then for another track. However, I wouldn't expect that to go over well with the locals....

Other than that place, and the small stretch just east of the Morris Ave bridge it would relatively easy to add another track on the LL inbetween Aldene and NK.

amtrakowitz wrote:I recall Grant Avenue being open on the RVL in the early 1980s. This was when trains were still going to Phillipsburg, too.

They call the station location "Elmora"? I thought that was the name of the interlocking. I have a PRR passenger timetable from 1966 that called it "South Elizabeth" (at the South Street bridge)—the New York-bound station platform survived until some time into the very late 80s.

If you mean the South St. bridge in Newark (at the end of the PATH sidings), that station was called "South St., Newark, N. J." in the passenger timetables until it was discontinued. The one at Elmora interlocking was called South Elizabeth in the public timetables.

ExCon90 wrote:

amtrakowitz wrote:I recall Grant Avenue being open on the RVL in the early 1980s. This was when trains were still going to Phillipsburg, too.

They call the station location "Elmora"? I thought that was the name of the interlocking. I have a PRR passenger timetable from 1966 that called it "South Elizabeth" (at the South Street bridge)—the New York-bound station platform survived until some time into the very late 80s.

If you mean the South St. bridge in Newark (at the end of the PATH sidings), that station was called "South St., Newark, N. J." in the passenger timetables until it was discontinued. The one at Elmora interlocking was called South Elizabeth in the public timetables.

I was referring to South Street in Elizabeth NJ. I'm aware of the station in South Street in Newark; that is in the same PRR 1966 timetable I previously mentioned, as South Street Station.