Port Jervis Line Upgrade?

I thought the Port Jervis Line was supposed to receive all new welded rail and a signal upgrade this summer. How come this hasnt happened?

since you cross posted this , Ill cross answer this.
Kind of hard to do entire line in one summer, besides changing the rail all hardware needs to be changed as the stick rail is not same weight as CWR to be put there.
MNCR has been putting 186 Lbs rail everywere lately so all tie plates etc need to be changed because of bigger footprint.

Dutch, do you mean 136 lb rail? Or is there a new 186 lb rail?

Here's the original thread:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5042

The Graham Line and Erie Main north of the NJ/NY border would be all Metro-North property now, correct? How far west, up to CP Sparrow?

Metro North's ownership will extend from the NJ/NY border at Suffern to CP Sparrow at Port Jervis. However, right now MN is leasing the line from NS. The actual ownership will get transferred sometime in the future, I don't remember when. MN is now responsible for maintaining the line, although it may have contracted out the work to NJT.

There was a report on the Tiersightings Yahoo Group that an NS work train was waiting to be sent down the tier destined for Suffern.

I know for the past two years most trackwork on the line took place in the late summer early fall. Welded rail can not be installed when the weather is too hot or too cold. It needs to be in a certain temp range to minimize sun kinks (in the heat) or shrinkage cracks (in the cold). I wouldn't doubt this has a great deal to do with it.

Chris

That work train you saw is now im suufern. The work train is for rebuilding suffern yard and the suffern ind. It will be here until the weekend doing the work.They are laying 6,000 ties from the main to tallman, about 3 miles.

It's nice to see them working on the Piermont Branch. When I saw the work train, at first I was afraid it was there to remove the track altogether. Now, if only they would rehab it to Spring Valley....

Last year MNRR took over the southern tier.

From my time spent on the ML/ST/PVL desk in 2002....the Southern Tier line is indeed up for rehab. At the time I was there the tracks/signals were owned and maintained by NS, the stations were built and maintained by MN, and the line was dispatched by NJT. Not long after I left NJT (end of 2002) NS leased the line to MN with the eventual goal (I believe) of either MN or MN/NJT ownership.

Welded rail was already in place across Moodna and Woodbury Viaducts and through the Otisville Tunnel. There were many curves along the Tier that are also CWR, but all the tangent sections are all still stick rail.

The signal system was in dire need of upgrading back in 2002. I don't know how it is now, especially since the NJT dispatchers moved from Hoboken to Kearny. We could spend anywhere from a few seconds to up to 20 minutes on occasion trying to set a route and signals because of the age of the signal system and the routing that the signal commands would take from Hoboken to the Tier. While working there in 2002 a maintainer told me on a hi-rail trip that there is a new signal cable buried along the ROW, it's just not hooked up.

The Tier definitely needs the upgrades......now if they could only upgrade the Tier from Port west to Binghamton. Of course that won't happen unless train frequency, freight or passenger/commuter, increase. Unfortunately that probably won't happen anytime soon, but we can always hope and dream.

Joe P :D
Long Live The EL!
www.geocities.com/jmpwpd29

now if they could only upgrade the Tier from Port west to Binghamton

Hey, anything's possible if you throw money at it. Look at I-84 from Port Jervis to Scranton, which goes through several wildernesses.

As for me, I wouldn't mind seeing the old Erie Main come back through Harriman, Chester, Goshen and Middletown, but the only thing that could stimulate such a rebuild would be a Tappan Zee rail link that also connected to the old Piermont Branch and thus allowed direct Metro-North dual-mode service into GCT...(pardon the pipe-dreaming, all)

Hey, I.C.

Not a bad idea.......especially considering that most of that abandoned ROW is still fairly open. Pipe dream or not, its always something to hope for.

Joe P :D
Long Live The EL!
www.geocities.com/jmpwpd29

Irish Chieftain wrote:

now if they could only upgrade the Tier from Port west to Binghamton

Hey, anything's possible if you throw money at it. Look at I-84 from Port Jervis to Scranton, which goes through several wildernesses.

As for me, I wouldn't mind seeing the old Erie Main come back through Harriman, Chester, Goshen and Middletown, but the only thing that could stimulate such a rebuild would be a Tappan Zee rail link that also connected to the old Piermont Branch and thus allowed direct Metro-North dual-mode service into GCT...(pardon the pipe-dreaming, all)

Keep it a bike trail. I'd rather ride the train over Moodna Viaduct. It's too windy for biking.

Bike trails, huh? Related to that, I say re-rail the Putnam Division over on the other side of the Hudson. Love to see Gennies and Shoreliners on there again instead of ten-speeds...

So the Put has gone from 10-wheelers to 10-speeders.

As long as we're relaying the track, lets run the Put over the Sedwick Ave. drawbridge and restore the 9th Ave. El, not to mention rebuilding the Polo Grounds and the Manhattanville station on the West Side line.