New Siding at Lake Junction

[SemperFiSep11]

My wife and I were over at Lake Junction over the weekend and noticed that there was an extremely new siding built on a significant grade to the south side of the Chester Branch.

The siding is excellently constructed from what I can tell. It has heavier rail and seemingly new ties.

The businesses next to the siding are not of the sort that would ever require rail service so i was wondering if anyone knew what this was for.

Also at Lake Junction are several old Alcos from Erie Mining. They appear in rough shape. Anyone know what these are here for?

[njtransitrookie]

A number of us have brought this up on previous posts without a concrete answer. I was told by one of the business owners that soil was to be loaded and shipped out. I truly doubt this. I guess we will wait on this one. The switch was installed by RRCC of Patterson.

[SemperFiSep11]

Thanks for the news. I honestly can't envision what they are planning to do at the location. I must say the area of Lake Junction is a complete mess. Scrap metal, old rails, abandoned sidings. No wonder all those NIMBYs are afraid of a railroad in thier backyard. Looks terrible in my opinion.

Didn't mean to be redundant. I thought I was bringing up something new and exciting. Sorry about that.

[njtransitrookie]

No big deal, but you bring up an interesting point. The place is a mess. For the most part though 99% of the people in Morris County don't even know it exists. Norfolk Southern owns the yard and I bet they don't know it's there. When Ben Friedland of the M&E first took over, there was talk of the M&E purchasing the yard and building a shop and engine house.

[SemperFiSep11]

Yeah, I'd doubt most people outside the railfan community have any idea the place exists.

The problem I see is that most railroad property tends to look something like Lake Junction. All it takes is one insidious reporter or NIMBY with a camera to take a photo of a few of these places, get it in print, and the next thing you know no one wants their neighborhood to look like this.

A question about the area...

The old line running south through the Colonial Concrete Quarry (the one whose grade has been removed at the road crossing) appears to be intact aside from the rails and ties. Is the entire ROW still there or has it been cut up in the quarry?

[njtransitrookie]

That would be CNJ's HO junction. About a a 4 track yard, an office and at one time a large water tank for steam locomotives.

[SemperFiSep11]

Thanks for the info. Would have loved to have seen that back in the day.