Raritan Line Freight

Oh hello everyone, I live near Hilside NJ and I noticed that on the Raritan line, there are an unusual amount of freight trains, with movements nearly daily, and trains from Norfolk Southern which appears to be based in the southern part of the United States. I was wondering why these strange trains were running there, and what cargo was moved on this line, is it part of the Chemical Coast line which casual google searching seemed to suggest, or is there a Raritan connection to some other freight line that I am not aware of.

Another question, by the Newark airport, there appears to e a huge rail yard, which yard is it, and do they just transport things fro the nearby shipyard, or do they send cargo to other places, and is it connected to the Northeast Corridor by any way, or are they separate yet parallel connections. Thank you all in advance for the help!

First, welcome!

I believe the line you describe is actually the "Lehigh Line" which NS and CSX share with NJ Transit's Raritan Valley Line for about 5 miles. It is a main freight train route, carrying about 2/3rds of all rail freight going to the NY City area. The Raritan Valley Line splits off near Cranford, after which it has very little freight activity.

Ryand-Smith wrote:Another question, by the Newark airport, there appears to e a huge rail yard, which yard is it, and do they just transport things fro the nearby shipyard, or do they send cargo to other places, and is it connected to the Northeast Corridor by any way, or are they separate yet parallel connections. Thank you all in advance for the help!

There are several yards near Newark "Liberty International" Airport - it's actually kind of surrounded by Industrial areas and Railyards, some sort of a legacy of the railroading in the area. Could you give a better description of the particular yard(s) in interest - North of the Airport, West of the Airport (near Budwiser and the NEC Airport station - this was Waverly yard), by the Port (several yards there, one by the turnpike, several used for Automobile shipments, various intermodal yards) by Jersey Gardens outlet mall (ExpressRail), the old CNJ yard north of Trumball St. (forgot the name) - zoom around the area w/ Bing and point out the yard(s) of interest - somebody will know the name...

Budweiser is regularly active and covered hoppers are usually there.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Budweiser is regularly active and covered hoppers are usually there.

True, but Waverly yard is really just a shell of itself nowadays. If Ryand is talking about the yard north of Newark Airport, then that's Oak Island yard, and its busy. On the East Side (between the Turnpike and Corbin) is a yard (don't recall it's name) that serves the Port - hmm, it used to be busy, but looking at Bing aerials it seems empty - I remember getting lots of good photos there around the turn of the century (yes, even after 9/11) - however that was before I got a digitial camera so the photos are stashed away somewhere. There are some other yards too, but those are the ones closest to Newark Airport

The yards are by south and Adams street, near Route 1 and 9. Anyway all, thank you for your information, but a question, do the Norfolk Southern trains come all the way from Virgina to here, then transfer to Conrail, or is it just Conrail borrowing the rail assets of Norfolk Southern for the last mile into NY/NJ?

Ryand-Smith wrote:The yards are by south and Adams street, near Route 1 and 9.

That would be Oak Island, which I mentioned above.

do the Norfolk Southern trains come all the way from Virgina to here, then transfer to Conrail, or is it just Conrail borrowing the rail assets of Norfolk Southern for the last mile into NY/NJ?

The NS trains come from all over the system. Conrail is legally known as Conrail Shared Assets and is owned jointly by NS and CSX. NS and CSX are using Conrail assets.