The SIRR and RVRR V

Last week saw two M&E crews working during broad daylight hours on this bridge but at the time they were on lunch break. There was a high railer up there with a cherry picker style boom out rigger attached to it. Perhaps they are now finishing the road bed up there on top of the bridge?

I flew out of Newark to Houston this morning and got a good view of the RR. There was what looked like a lot of steel girders just west of the draw, where the wooden trestle was (?), waiting to be installed?

Overall, the project looked well along.

I think Ken is referring to the area just west of AK Draw in Port Elizabeth..........

Most of the supports are up for the new stretch of track that will connect AK to the Chemical Coast, well at least as far as 1st street......New Steel girders are laying nearby......will take pics this Friday, and try to post them

Hard to tell exactly where the track will cross the Bayway Ave Extension in the vicinity if the old bus company......


As for the SIRT bridge over the corridor, it looks as if new timbers were put in.........just awaiting the metal work now.........

markyk,

Thanks, that fits with what I could see from the 737. It will be great to see trains over the draw again.

Because of the winds, my return plane was in the approach to Newark Runway 27, so it flew over the Arthur Kill and Newark Bay. Great views.

I was on the right side and could not see NJ, but it looked like there will be considerable work on the Staten Island side to replace track etc. to allow for a switching lead to the east.

Noticed today that ALL the vegitation (i.e. trees) on the North side of the west side of the SIRT overpass over teh NEC were cut down. I didn't get a chance to check the east side of the overpass.

It looked good, like pics ive seen from teh 60's wiht no vegitation on the embankment!!

I drove by Cranford yard today and saw a crew working there installing a few new ties on the SIRR.
That is the first time in quie a while that i saw any action going on @ all.

I saw them too, today and yesterday. In fact yesterday morning the crew apperaed to be working on the switch that leads into Ashley Business Park.

Does anyone know how far this spur reaches? I thought it ended at the office building's property line, but the crew was congregating on the spur itself, and not the double track of the ROW.

ChooChooHead2 wrote:I saw them too, today and yesterday. In fact yesterday morning the crew apperaed to be working on the switch that leads into Ashley Business Park.

Does anyone know how far this spur reaches? I thought it ended at the office building's property line, but the crew was congregating on the spur itself, and not the double track of the ROW.

Where is the Ashley Business Park. Some googling around seemed to indicate it was between South Ave. and North Ave in Cranford (i.e. straddling the old CNJ mainline), but that doesn't seem right. Does it contain that business which distributes bananas (or some tropical fruit)?

I was wondering the same thing too.
I never heard of Ashley business park...

Ashley Business Park is on the south side of South Ave heading toward Roselle. The old siding is close to South Ave and there is a gate that needs to be opened to access the siding.

The banana distribution is up on the north side of South Ave. near Federal Plastics. It's on the Cranford side before you pass the car wash.

Hope that helps.

Crnrailal

It does help.
Thanks

Checked tonight, and there are trees on teh north EAST side of the NEC bridge were removed. I think they just did this over the past few days. I couldn't tell how far they were taken down towards the east though, it was dark

Well, after driving by on South Ave in Cranford yesterday, I realized my question about the spur is now a moot point.

On Friday the crew removed the switch and rails up to the gate, and the ties are piled up on and around it.

I drove around Cranford, up through Kenilworth and through Union with the dogs this morning. I did observe that some sections of rail have been placed on the RVRR since last October and that bedding stone have been put down in some areas as well (Union Ave.), however, progress is painfully slow. This is a little like watching a snail race.

The LIRR looks like it's just about ready to open except for the crossing signals and the section by South Ave where they removed the old switch. I hope that we get to know when the first train is going to roll on the LIRR so we can all go over and get some photos.