Delaware and Raritan River Railroad-General Discussion

baju wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 7:26 pm I noticed that all the tractor trailers and other sundries have been cleared away up to the building on southward ave. I wonder if this is all railroad property between the poles and building. Have they been storing their stuff for years on railroad property. If this is railroad property it makes for quite a big yard in the future. If business ever picks up.

Not sure about 27 Southard (the trucking warehouse), but C&D advertises on their website they have 32 Southard Ave. available as an "industrial site" (I guess that's the old lumber yard).

Yup that’s the old Gold Lumber property. Last train to GL was in 2009 I believe. Last train to go a considerable distance past GL was in 2008.

RFRailFan wrote: ↑Mon Aug 28, 2023 9:57 am

baju wrote: ↑Sun Aug 27, 2023 7:26 pm I noticed that all the tractor trailers and other sundries have been cleared away up to the building on southward ave. I wonder if this is all railroad property between the poles and building. Have they been storing their stuff for years on railroad property. If this is railroad property it makes for quite a big yard in the future. If business ever picks up.

Not sure about 27 Southard (the trucking warehouse), but C&D advertises on their website they have 32 Southard Ave. available as an "industrial site" (I guess that's the old lumber yard).

Nice to see a railroad hungry for new business. Kudos to them!

baju wrote:I noticed that all the tractor trailers and other sundries have been cleared away up to the building on southward ave. I wonder if this is all railroad property between the poles and building. Have they been storing their stuff for years on railroad property. If this is railroad property it makes for quite a big yard in the future. If business ever picks up.

These are the property lines at Southard Ave crosssing (Source: njparcels.com).
So yes, the trailers were parked on railroad ROW property for years. If I had to take a wild guess, the adjacent business probably assumed the rail would be unused after Gold Lumber closed and have been parking here for at least the last 10 years. Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

I’ve been living in the locale since the dinasours. I think they have been parking their garbage there even during PRR days. If my memory still severs me

Yes, the NJ Parcels map certainly does show the correct property lines, but why is Southard Avenue mislabeled on the map as Hurley Pond Road?

4 cars for Woodhaven. They should be leaving Lakewood soon.

Northbound at DCS LAKEWOOD 10:27 AM

I noticed next to the Rt 34 (Collingswood) overpass at Brick Recycling, sits a tank car. Is this the only customer along the SOUS with tank service? Does this get delivered before Woodhaven or do they drop/pick-up on the return trip up to RB?

Yep. Only customer on the Southern that deals with tank loads and they do it on the return trip.

About 10 extra feet of track has been added to the south wye leg and they are aligning the track as we speak. Finally looks like they got most of the kinks out of the track at Southard Ave.

Farmingdale at 11:05 AM

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 8:48 am Yep. Only customer on the Southern that deals with tank loads and they do it on the return trip.

About 10 extra feet of track has been added to the south wye leg and they are aligning the track as we speak. Finally looks like they got most of the kinks out of the track at Southard Ave.

So, are they going to be doing the wye before the scheduled completion date of September 18 then? That's not much more than 2 weeks away at this point, and they still have a ways to go with leveling out the ROW to get that wye connection with the SOUS.

RFRailFan wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 8:45 am I noticed next to the Rt 34 (Collingswood) overpass at Brick Recycling, sits a tank car. Is this the only customer along the SOUS with tank service? Does this get delivered before Woodhaven or do they drop/pick-up on the return trip up to RB?

On the "down" trip, the siding at Brick Recycling is a facing point switch, that would be very inconvenient to service in that direction, where Extech is a trailing point switch and servicing it on the way down is easy. So the tank is taken for the ride down to Lakewood and the pickup and delivery at Brick is on the way back.

JohnFromJersey wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2023 9:25 am So, are they going to be doing the wye before the scheduled completion date of September 18 then? That's not much more than 2 weeks away at this point, and they still have a ways to go with leveling out the ROW to get that wye connection with the SOUS.

The south leg of the wye's got nothing to do with completing Freehold-Farmingdale. It'll make the move from Freehold-Lakewood easier. Freehold-Farmingdale's coming along beautifully. There's still work to be done between Freehold-Farmingdale but it'll get done. Weather's slowed things down a bit but if all goes well...

For those of you who are worried about the waviness of the line, don't worry. It'll be straightened out all in due time. The track is still oos and under construction. No need to worry about nose diving trains plummeting to their demise. Professionals are doing a fabulous job. Just wait to see what's coming...

I'm impressed with their work and progress. They started Feb. 16..
They have ties down a little more than half-way, Yellowbrook - Fairfield, with rail a good part of that distance.
The track Okerson - Fairfield looks straight and level side to side like a mason's string line, ditto Yellowbrook - Adelphia.
Quite a bit to be done, so date may slip, but this looks a lot better than most short lines I've seen. I would expect the south leg of the wye will take some time. It's not covered as far as I can see by the grants.
Brush removal Lakewood - Lakehurst is covered by the grants, not so roadbed / tie replacement, and without traffic to drive it I'm sure will take a back seat. They have time before the grant money expires.