First major ROW work on LV Perth Amboy Division since...

I think the PSE&G facility was a nautral gas pipline terminus before they put in the gas-powered generators. You can still see the outline of several of the old-style expansion tanks on the PSE&G property through the trees.
There were a couple of sidings there, so coal-fueled power generation in the past seems a possibility. Was gone before the '60's for sure.

Silver Lake itself, as was most of the area, was a sand pit. I suspect a lot of sand, gravel and terra cotta traveled on that line. What I can't figure out was why the trestle and what was served west of Silver Lake that merited that construction. Maybe the PSE&G property was larger at one point.

A lot of through streets in the Silver Lake neighborhood were closed off because traffic would spill off of Rt. 1 - especially heavy trucks bound for Raritan Arsenal/Raritan Center via Woodbridge Ave.

The trestle was part of a switchback to get into the PSE&G plant. There used to be a 40 foot hopper and a locomotive crane here for a long time. They were scrapped out in the early 90's. The track did not extend much past the trestle.

If you go down Jackson Avenue, off Amboy Road, you will come upon the old Perth Amboy main. To the left was a large ceramics plant (shown as "Ceramics" in the timetable) that had an elevated trestle between the buildings. To the right is a current warehouse, where I used to work, that still has the siding and hayes bumper intact. The service road to the right leads to a Public Service building, the former Interboro Trucking Company. The hump near the middle of the roof is where the indoor siding used to be. There is also a "tunnel" under the Jersey Turnpike where a siding used to run to Alcoa Aluminum. There was a rack there to unload tank cars.

As the first post in this thread said, it looks like the connection from
the perth amoby branch to the Chem Coast/NJLB diamond is railtrailed:

http://www.ci.perthamboy.nj.us/NR050204.pdf
http://www.ci.perthamboy.nj.us/August_2004.02.pdf (see page 6)

Also from City of Perth Amboy web site, it looks like the LV bridge
over New Brunswick Ave was replaced as part of some redevelopment
project for a new municipal center
http://ci.perthamboy.nj.us/NR022604_1.pdf (see last line)

Now some questions:

1. How does traffic get onto what left of the perth amboy branch, especially west of the chemical coast.
From maps on the web and www.aerialsexpress.com (aerial photos), it
looks like there is a U-shaped connection from the north on the chem.
coast (heading south) to eastbound on what is left to the east of the Perth Amboy branch.
Then you would have to reverse to go west.

2. The first poster noted that brush is being cleared along the line by state
street (which is east of the chemical coast). -- on maps this part continues north along Parker St and then ends just north of 440 without
connecting back to chemical coast. Is there any chance of this being
extened to connect to chemical coast? (about 1/4 mile, it appears).

3. What traffic is there west of the New Brunwick ave bridge on the Perth Amoby branch? It sounds
like raritan center is served off the north east corridor. Could there
be any traffic left if the bridge has been out for a while?
Could it by with the demise of the car plant by Nixon (Ford or GM?) that they
will try to serve Raritan and Heller Industrial Parks not from the North East Corridor but from the Chemical Coast and the Perth Amboy branch?

The Perth Amboy Branch connection wth the Chemical coast and Coast Line is still used quite frequently, as its rails are always polished. I have only once seen a train up there though. In fact, probably about 5 years ago (when I was still taking the train, and not working on it ), the connection at Wood interlocking and up the hill was upgraded with new rails and ballast, as before it was, there was sections where the ballast was really washed away under the ties and it was in real rough shape.

Here's the deal:

Perth Amboy wanted to build the new Police & muni building on a parcel that would have included stepping on one of the tracks. CSX said, "No Way!" Perth Amboy said "Eminent Domain!!" We'll condemn the unused trackage and take the ROW.

They then negotiated moving/angling the tracks a few feet with a land trade and that multi-track bridge replacement (with a higher load rating) is other evidence of how serious CSX is about keeping that line intact. And Perth Amboy also got to widen New Brunswick Ave. a few feet, removing a longstanding bottleneck.

The old connector (single track through a residential neighborhood) from the LV waterfront yard is indeed railtrailed, but the newer connection from the east side of the NY&LB and Chem Coast diamond that was made in the '70's is the one JT is referring to.

I am always amazed by how close the track ran to the houses. I can just imagine a Camelback or an LV 0-6-0 pulling hoppers right by peoples' front doors and kitchen windows.

Ah, this topic is alive again! My favorite, about an area that I have visited often...

As to the rail-trail parallelling State St from Pulaski down to Hall, I wonder why they could not continue to the former Freight Station location, which my Hagstrom indicates was at State St. and Broad St. (half block north of New Brunswick) - I though the ROW was clear at this area up to and past Hall St. Now that would be a pretty good and useful walkway, from 440 down to close by the NJT station

And now, a bigger question, at least to me - so they have (re)built the crossing of New Brunswick Ave at Amboy for CSX - OK, so far, so good - except, where does it go after that? half a mile West (right past the parkway) is 'Raritan Jct', where the Perth Amboy branch split, one line heading south across Smith St. to Keasby (and I don't think that line hasn't seen any traffic in a long time, as the rail east of Praxair[?] looks like crappola), and the other line heads west - that I believe is also now a rail trail, or soon will be. No other lines I can see join this segment West of New Brunswich Ave. (we discussed the now-defunct Raritan North Shore branch, along the Raritan River, in earlier posts - that's were I was tempted at least five years ago to abscomb with a RxR sign in front of a row of newish homes built on the ROW, but I resisted ), and I don't seem to remember a lot (well, any) of rail-using industry there, so is this just one long switchback?

It doesn't seem to make much sense, I agree, except that I'd guess CSX would rather service those industries along Industrial Ave. in Keasby and Raritan Center from the Chem Coast rather than from the NEC. With Ford gone and Edison yard losing some of its importance, we might be seeing the beginning of a shift in traffic patterns. That's probably what all the new rail I saw sitting alongside the 440 connector was for.

There will probably be a new UEZ (Urban Enterprise Zone) in Keasby that will attract more light industry and the development plans call for all of it to be served by rail. It is rumored that CSX might actually be an investor in some of this rail-friendly development. What a concept!

As for the old LV freight station, it was right behind the Grammar School's rear playground behind Barracks Street, only 3 or 4 blocks from the PRR freight station at the stub end of the PRR Perth Amboy Division. I remember walking under the old truss bridge on Washington Ave. (gone and the cut now filled in) along the unused trackbed that used to lead to the station platform. For years, I used to chalk my initials on the slate train board on the wall under the building's eaves and play atop the Railroad Express Agency cart (with the flat steel wheels).

Amazing that Perth Amboy once had three stations for three roads (PRR, LV, CNJ) active at one time.

EDIT: Come to think of it, four roads served Perth Amboy if you include the B&O ferry at the foot of Smith St. that would take you over to Tottenville and the SIRR.

GandyDancer wrote:There will probably be a new UEZ (Urban Enterprise Zone) in Keasby that will attract more light industry and the development plans call for all of it to be served by rail. It is rumored that CSX might actually be an investor in some of this rail-friendly development. What a concept!.

Did you read or hear this anywhere, or is it just wishful thinking? (Please don't take that in a snarky way, just wondering - I often connect the dots myself - witness my mention of restoring service to Azko Nobel earlier in this thread (and lets not even start with our friends at SubChat and their multitudes of 'fantasy maps')

And with that suggested traffic shift...that means CSAO would have to travel north through Raritan Center from Perth Amboy to serve NY Times and I-O on the Lincoln Highway, instead of the other way around.
Interesting...

Azko Nobel had an interesting array of trackage. There was actually a passing siding inside their plant and 2 spurs that came off of that.
The line that leads up to the Azko Nobel plant ( in heller ) crossed a stream with a trestle support.

Sir Ray wrote: Did you read or hear this anywhere, or is it just wishful thinking? (Please don't take that in a snarky way, just wondering - I often connect the dots myself - witness my mention of restoring service to Azko Nobel earlier in this thread (and lets not even start with our friends at SubChat and their multitudes of 'fantasy maps')

And with that suggested traffic shift...that means CSAO would have to travel north through Raritan Center from Perth Amboy to serve NY Times and I-O on the Lincoln Highway, instead of the other way around.
Interesting...

Didn't take it that way at all. Yes, I do have some personal knowledge that this may happen. UEZs (to encourage commercial activity by reducing sales tax) and Redevelopment Authorities (for seizing non-productive properties and helping get them redeveloped) are two tools being used effectively in NJ. Perth Amboy, in particular, has done a good job in using these and EPA brownfield grants to bring back abandoned industrial areas to tax-producing status. Carteret is getting going with theirs as is New Brunswick and I hope to see post-McGreevey Woodbridge shake off its political paralysis and get moving on their initiatives as well.

My wife is in commercial real estate and there's been a couple of proposals for the North Shore in the works this year. In fact there's one interesting proposal that spans both banks of the river. Sayreville could use to get the NL Industries site cleaned up and redeveloped too.

As for re-arranging CSAO traffic, well, yes that's speculative -- based on all that new track lying around - and where it's lying. I can't figure out where else it would be going to.

The only fantasy idea I have is for light rail along both branches, connecting Perth Amboy, Keasby and Raritan Center with Metuchen and the NEC. If jobs are going to be created, let's see them served by public transportation.

When you mention the section of new track that is next to the 440 connector, are you referring to the single track panel that is off of industrial avenue?

Are you people suggesting that Edison will become redundent? I have a hard time beliveing that, since Raritan Center is served by Edison, along with Exxon, NY Times, General Tire, National Can, and various buissnesses on both the Millstone and Delco ITs. Belive it or not, but apparently, Ford did not make up the majority of Edisons traffic.

railroadcarmover wrote:When you mention the section of new track that is next to the 440 connector, are you referring to the single track panel that is off of industrial avenue?

No. I was referring to a pretty long two- or three-deep stack of panels at the end of Fayette St. along 624 - east of Industrial Ave.

Is the original track still in place between Perth Amboy and Raritan Junction? Is the original track also in place from Raritan Junction to Raritan Center? Also, I have not been to Perth Amboy for quite a few years, but there used to be an interesting chemical plant that was serviced by the LV that had trackage in the streets........... anyone know the status?