BR&W in Flemington

How far does the BR&W operate south of Flemington? Does the line still go all the way down to the Bel-Del in Lambertville?

On google maps it shows the line crossed the Deleware and continued to PA. Is this still the case?

BR&W operates as far as Ringoes.

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery2/v/o ... _26_01.jpg

http://www.transitspot.com/gallery2/v/o ... _26_05.jpg

Bob

carajul wrote:How far does the BR&W operate south of Flemington? Does the line still go all the way down to the Bel-Del in Lambertville?

On google maps it shows the line crossed the Deleware and continued to PA. Is this still the case?

The tracks from Ringoes to Lambertville are still in place but are unused currently.
There never has been a railroad crossing over the Delaware at Lambertville/New Hope.

chrisf wrote:

carajul wrote:How far does the BR&W operate south of Flemington? Does the line still go all the way down to the Bel-Del in Lambertville?

On google maps it shows the line crossed the Deleware and continued to PA. Is this still the case?

The tracks from Ringoes to Lambertville are still in place but are unused currently.
There never has been a railroad crossing over the Delaware at Lambertville/New Hope.

Unused by BR&W but the last couple of years have been cleared to Lambertville with permission of the RR by a speeder group.

carajul wrote:How far does the BR&W operate south of Flemington? Does the line still go all the way down to the Bel-Del in Lambertville?

On google maps it shows the line crossed the Deleware and continued to PA. Is this still the case?

I just looked at Google Lambertville and it does not show the tracks crossing from what I can tell. There never was a RR bridge there.

BRW last ran trains to Lambertville in 1998 (round-trip "Saturday Night Specials" in the summer), however 1997 was the last year of regular Ringoes-Lamberville service.

Ken W2KB wrote:I just looked at Google Lambertville and it does not show the tracks crossing from what I can tell. There never was a RR bridge there.

That's correct. As I mentioned above, there never was a railroad bridge there. The BR&W in NJ is ex-PRR and the New Hope & Ivyland in New Hope is ex-RDG. They did not interchange. There's also a fairly significant elevation difference between the RDG tracks and the PRR tracks across the river- the RDG tracks are higher. New Hope was settled by colonials at least as early as 1712, predating the railroad by around 180 years- The Philadelphia & Reading didn't get to New Hope until 1891. I'm sure that even at that time, residents would not have enjoyed being displaced by the railroad to build a bridge.
There have been at least a couple of vehicular bridges there, the first built somewhere around 1814. Periodic flood damage led to the replacement of various spans over the years. The current bridge between New Hope & Lambertville did carry trolley tracks, IIRC, some time in the early 1900s and that line ran to Trenton, I think.

While we're on the subject, any news about restoring service to Lambertville? I talked to someone at their headquarters a couple of years back, and he said they were planning on it, but it required a good amount of money.

I am involved with the speeder group helping maintain the OOS portion of the line.

The BR&W has one individual who is committed to keeping the line clear of brush and in useable (at least by speeder and hyrail truck) condition. We have been helping him and the BR&W out with manpower and brush cutting equipment.

From what I can see, there is one bridge that would need some attention and spot tie replacements on the rest of the line, but it is in pretty good shape. Down in Lambertville some more tie replacements would need to occur next to the canal as well as additional brush removal to meet railroad clearances. There were and are some pretty substantial trees growing adjacent to the track in Lambertville. And unfortunately you can't just cut them and run as the right of way is narrow in town. Every tree cut must be brought out of town and discarded elsewhere. Don't want to clear cut either as this may ruin some of the picturesque views along the canal. Have to keep the neighbors happy.

There may be a motorcar ride / tour coming up in late April. Not sure of the details yet, but it may be open to anyone owning a speeder. The run would be from Lambertville to Three Bridges and return. I will post the details when they are set.

Chris

Why would the line need to be reactivated at all? The Bel-Del track is gone so the line has no where to connect to. It just dead ends. Also assuming there are no customers.

carajul wrote:Why would the line need to be reactivated at all? The Bel-Del track is gone so the line has no where to connect to. It just dead ends. Also assuming there are no customers.

Lambertville and New Hope (a walk across the bridge) are significant tourist destinations so a passenger service could enhance the local economy including the RR.

Any idea whether the BR&W 2-8-0 #60 is, or will be running this season? Seemed to me they never really took good care of that engine.