New Jersey Seashore Lines: was CNJ being cleard Woodmansie>N

The other interesting place is going to be the tracks just South of Lakehurst. The swamp kind of overtook them the last I had seen. It has been about 15 years since I was last back there but I recall water up to the row and a few spots were pretty soft. I can not see a 286,000 pound car going over that area and not sinking into the mud. I guess time will tell.

Things that make you go hmmmm. But we remain optomistic.

LOLOLOL Seniors and self checkout lanes. "Its magic!"

those signals at Lacey road kinda look like pennsy distant signals ...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Pennsylvani ... 0933465440

Looking at the NJCL at Morgan, a complete washout, Drawbridge damage there too, to say nothing of removing the boats still on the rails over the Manasquan River. The service will be out long enough for folks to find alternatives and so you can repair the damage but you lose the fares. A billion dollar eletricification boat anchor for now.

Do the DOT and NJ Transit transportation planners eventually see the utility of reviving again the long dormant MOM now?

Does the revival of frieght traffic on a 13 mile stretch of the former CNJ main restart a whole new conversation? Once again rail transport moves stuff 400 miles on a gallon of diesel and the privaye sector shows the way.

Do they know that the Grand Canyon Railroad runs on vegetable oil and after seeing how JCP&L handles power failure we would first demand that they bury their high tension wires on a ROW placement they bought for a song when no one was looking?

You ought to see the service lamp on the new utility shed at the Lacey Road crossing in the snow at dusk, and the way you come upon it from manchester avenue on the part where the trees end and the ROW is on the downgrade to the crossing. The old street clock at the senior softball field and its Christmas and Lionel trains all over again.

The genius bureaucrats however will scoff at that idea. More nonsense from those silly railfans.

With new crossing signs posted, are these crossings no longer exempt and buses have to stop again? I don't see "exempt" signs anywhere.

Maybe it's a setup for scathing news coverage of school bus drivers who don't stop for RR Xings.

Good point. I think the lack of the exempt signs is proof positive that we are going to see traffic here. Of course the proviso to add that for this project timenis measured in dog years. However I am glad to report that the Seashore
Line crew was testing the crossing gate signals yesterday at Wranglebrook. I wanted to snap a few shots of that but once again Lowes put a hammerlock on me and i didn't get by on Manchester Blvd. until after dusk. They had just finished up. Too much traffic there to strike up a conversation. I always figure those guys like me adhere to the loose lips sink ships brand of management, meaning you don't need to have any more attention to an issue as sensitive as running trains through a senior community than you have to.

Least of all to have some crank quoting you as his source.

Hey whered everybody go here?

Can I quote you on that?

- Cranky

I visited Whiting last Sunday and walked along the tracks at the park alongside Manchester Blvd. While I do not believe there will be any work done for a while, with the weather getting colder, I will be certain when work gets underway when they remove the fallen trees from super storm Sandy off of the tracks. BTW...no signs on 539 for a crossing rebuild yet. I just thought I add that in there

Hey thanks for the update. I agree seems like we are entering another period of dormancy. Just makes the signal test I saw at Wranglebrook a few weeks ago so weird. Brand new equipment but when it is finally in use, what a year old? Here let me build an exit ramp, highway is yet to be built.

Up to my brother's in Little Silver last week and I saw the stack of new ties at the Sycamore Ave crossing, so developments like that always show that this isn't just narrowed to an improvement of an industrial siding in railroad terms, since I assume the ties are for whatever CSA&O needs for any increase in traffic or its just regular maintenance of they type and kind the former CNJ main has seen over the past 30 years. Hmmm how many of those ties between Red Bank and Lakehurst are dry rotted?

Maybe for another thread on the Robbinsville IT is showing signs of more use through Bordentown. That's one of the coolest and most historical cuts through a town in the state, PATH notwithstanding. Of course the former Milwaukee Road through Milwaukee in my latest Rails to Trails takes the cake. More off topic. Where did the Nellie Bly peel off to go west from Trenton. Is it the track with the partial overhead that goes up the hill at FAIR? Or was there something else that the RL construction obliterated.

I just spoke with my father who told me that a guy he knows who works for Conrail said they inspected the entire Southern line the other day - from Red Bank to Lakehurst - because it was his understanding that they were going to start shipping storm debris via train on the southern line. Here is the interesting part - the storm debris is going to be loaded on trains north of Lakewood - I am not sure where and my dad did not ask (colossal fail Dad...) - but Conrail inspected the line all the way down to Lakehurst. Apparently there were A LOT of violations (loose bolts, spikes, etc.) that are all going to be addressed and fixed. Why inspect the whole line if you are only planning more concentrated use on the northern end? Maybe because its makes more sense to do it all now if there is the anticipation that the southern end of it (Lakewood - Lakehurst) will be put back into service eventually once a certain short line railroad begins operations? Just more clues and not many answers. My dad's friend did say when asked that he has no firm idea what is going on down in Whiting with the whole possible reactivation of the line. He said he is just told about what is going on from Red Bank to Lakehurst only (that is part of his territory) and nothing else.

scottso699 wrote:I just spoke with my father who told me that a guy he knows who works for Conrail said they inspected the entire Southern line the other day - from Red Bank to Lakehurst - because it was his understanding that they were going to start shipping storm debris via train on the southern line. Here is the interesting part - the storm debris is going to be loaded on trains north of Lakewood - I am not sure where and my dad did not ask (colossal fail Dad...) - but Conrail inspected the line all the way down to Lakehurst. Apparently there were A LOT of violations (loose bolts, spikes, etc.) that are all going to be addressed and fixed. Why inspect the whole line if you are only planning more concentrated use on the northern end? Maybe because its makes more sense to do it all now if there is the anticipation that the southern end of it (Lakewood - Lakehurst) will be put back into service eventually once a certain short line railroad begins operations? Just more clues and not many answers. My dad's friend did say when asked that he has no firm idea what is going on down in Whiting with the whole possible reactivation of the line. He said he is just told about what is going on from Red Bank to Lakehurst only (that is part of his territory) and nothing else.

Maybe because if track crews are sent, it doesn't cost a lot more to do the remaining miles while they are on site so efficient to do so? Or if there are known defects, the line south of the point of repairs would have to be embargoed and thus limit any potential business?

Ken W2KB wrote:
Maybe because if track crews are sent, it doesn't cost a lot more to do the remaining miles while they are on site so efficient to do so? Or if there are known defects, the line south of the point of repairs would have to be embargoed and thus limit any potential business?

I think you hit the nail on the head. Someone must know that those tracks will be used eventually and figured "we may as well do it now while the work crew is out there"

scottso699 wrote:I just spoke with my father who told me that a guy he knows who works for Conrail said they inspected the entire Southern line the other day - from Red Bank to Lakehurst - because it was his understanding that they were going to start shipping storm debris via train on the southern line. Here is the interesting part - the storm debris is going to be loaded on trains north of Lakewood - I am not sure where and my dad did not ask (colossal fail Dad...) - but Conrail inspected the line all the way down to Lakehurst. Apparently there were A LOT of violations (loose bolts, spikes, etc.) that are all going to be addressed and fixed. Why inspect the whole line if you are only planning more concentrated use on the northern end? Maybe because its makes more sense to do it all now if there is the anticipation that the southern end of it (Lakewood - Lakehurst) will be put back into service eventually once a certain short line railroad begins operations? Just more clues and not many answers. My dad's friend did say when asked that he has no firm idea what is going on down in Whiting with the whole possible reactivation of the line. He said he is just told about what is going on from Red Bank to Lakehurst only (that is part of his territory) and nothing else.

As much as I want to believe they went all the way down to Lakehurst, there is no evidence of any activity below Cross St. The weeds are 2-3 feet high and do not look to have been disturbed from Whitesville Road(next crossing below Cross St.) to Lakehurst. I never worked for a RR but, how can you inspect the line when it is covered?

Yesterday, I visited the park again on the corner of Manchester Blvd. and Rt. 530. Despite the cold weather, I wondered since a lot of money has been placed into the new signals and track work, perhaps fallen trees from Sandy would be cleared out. I'll visit again next April. One last thing, nothing new for Rt. 539.