NS & M&E Inspection Tour - 12 Aug

There will be an inspection tour of the M&E and NS on Tuesday, 12 August 08. Stating in Morristown at 0900 first going to Washington, then heading East down the Boonton line and onto the Totowa Spur.

Two of the observation coaches stored on the M&E will be part of the train. Train symbol will be H02.

M&E has bid to take over the NS H02 route.

Enjoy!

Doc

Does H02 go to Allentown, or does it stop in Washington?

raced1111 wrote:Does H02 go to Allentown, or does it stop in Washington?

There's a whole thread about the operations of H-02 here.

What is the purpose of this trip??

Are there an tickets i ould like a ride.

The purpose for the trip is to get NS out of Dover and the M&E to take over operations on the M&E from Green Int all the way west to Washington..And also another peice of NS rail line that i will not bring up at this point.

Phase Gap wrote:The purpose for the trip is to get NS out of Dover and the M&E to take over operations on the M&E from Green Int all the way west to Washington..And also another peice of NS rail line that i will not bring up at this point.

Now if only M&E could take over part of the passenger operations. "PC" wants the Midtowns they can have them and have M&E run the HOB service under contract.

Ok, I would assume that H0-2s days are numbered? I would also assume the Totowa Industrial would be the other NS piece of track they would be getting rid of. Is NS willing to give up its Dover local? I would assume with all of the closings of industries, they would want to get rid of it

doctordirt wrote:onto the Totowa Spur.

Where is the Totowa Spur??

Kim,

The Totowa Industrial is the remnant of the DL&W Boonton line from Mt. View (Wayne) NJ south into Totowa. It roughly parallels Route 23 from Mt. View and Route 46 down to Totowa. Not a very long branch and it requires a reverse move off the NJT main at Mt. View, up the former Erie Greenwood Lake Branch and back south onto the DL&W to enter the branch. I believe NS calls it all the Totowa Industrial for simplicity. If you go to the Mt. View station you can see where the branch splits off just north of the station and Route 202.

My question is would this be an outright sale to M&E or would they be leasing it from NS or just be the designated operator for freight, NS retains ownership?

Chris

This is very interesting!! I can't see M&E taking over the task of serving those H02 customers until a transaction is approved by the STB, which would probably take a year or more to finalize.

But at any rate, get those photos of NS/CR locos while you can as it won't be that long before bright red locomotives start showing up on the Montclair/Boonton line.

As of 8:30 this morning (Tuesday) a very clean NS Geep facing west followed by M&E 18 (?) facing east, then Kitchi Gammi were on the interchange track, the Ohio River was in the process of getting tacked on the hind end by the RRPX swithcer. Several "suits" could be seen milling around in the M&E's yard. Only one railfan was up on the hill taking photos. I was on my way to work so I couldn't stop.

doctordirt, thank you for the heads up!!!

Chased him back from Washington to Hackettstown and stopped several places along the way with good ol' M&E 18 in the lead!!!

The train didn't seem to go above 25 mph so the chase really wasn't hard....And the weather gods came through for us today!

Nice to see all of you out there, especially "Shark"!

Does anyone know if Morristown & Erie still goes down the NJT Morristown line to reach the Center Street Branch to pick up tank cars from CSX destined for the Whippany line??

I am somewhat surprised the M&E Railway would rather travel the slower & longer distance to interchange cars with NS in Washington rather then use the CSX interchange at Kearny for every customer... I'm guessing some of the remaining Boonton & M&E Branch line box cars must have clearance issues east of Denville on the Morristown line?? Perhaps NJT traffic and those clearance issues makes Washington an easier interchange point for the M&E Railway rather then switching cars with CSX in Kearny.

Regardless, it will be interesting to see if Morristown & Erie does eventually get the remainder of H02's traffic!

Thanks!