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Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

Moderator: David

 #1064682  by bluedash2
 
...and for the record Thursday was the Tuckahoe trip to drop cars to CMSL for storage and Friday CA51 continued to the plant after Winslow with the empties in tow to clear the year's build up of rust....
 #1064684  by bluedash2
 
glennk419 wrote:Not unexpectedly given the weather, the plant has been online for the past week. I've passed it several times in the last 10 days and while it's hard to tell what fuel they are burning, I'm assuming oil given the blue/gray hue of the smoke coming from the stack. A couple more heat waves and maybe we will still see a train or two.
Yep, the plant has been on line 24/7 for 2 weeks now. (I know, I should have typed all of this into 1 post, lol)
 #1064687  by bluedash2
 
bluedash2 wrote:FWIW, the plant has enough coal on hand (quite a bit) to last them until they go to Natural gas. Pretty safe to say we've seen the last of the power plant trains unfortunately. Unless they have some leftover at the time of the changeover which would require a train to take it out. I'm sure they will use all they have left. At that point my friends, the former Ocean City branch will disappear (sadly) into the history books, leaving the former Cape May branch as the only surviving shore line (aside from Atlantic city).
...and yes, I ate those words, lol. Was just going by info I read. They were actually low on supply.
 #1064775  by nomis
 
Glenn, the fact that you haven't run a train over a piece of rail for x days or a year necessitates the 'rusty rail condition' not the first run you go down there and magically discover there is abnormally functioning crossings.
 #1064821  by Ken W2KB
 
bluedash2 wrote:
bluedash2 wrote:FWIW, the plant has enough coal on hand (quite a bit) to last them until they go to Natural gas. Pretty safe to say we've seen the last of the power plant trains unfortunately. Unless they have some leftover at the time of the changeover which would require a train to take it out. I'm sure they will use all they have left. At that point my friends, the former Ocean City branch will disappear (sadly) into the history books, leaving the former Cape May branch as the only surviving shore line (aside from Atlantic city).
...and yes, I ate those words, lol. Was just going by info I read. They were actually low on supply.
They may also be running up against their emissions permit. Part of the settlement with NJDEP to avoid the mandated shutdown, I believe, limits the number of hours per time period that the station can run. That is true of many older technology generators in NJ.
 #1064841  by glennk419
 
nomis wrote:Glenn, the fact that you haven't run a train over a piece of rail for x days or a year necessitates the 'rusty rail condition' not the first run you go down there and magically discover there is abnormally functioning crossings.
Duh, I should have known that. ;)
 #1065214  by south jersey trains
 
The track thats stops at the power plant could be extended accross the small bay where the Beasley point bridge is being removed ,go a short distance( half mile) to rt 559,make a right and go 1 mile to the base of the new 9th st bridge,put a small station there and have small shuttle buses take you into the heart of Ocean City,thus returning train service to OC! Thus saving the track and ROW and using it for dual use.Just a thought.
 #1065411  by NostalgiaRails
 
south jersey trains wrote:The track thats stops at the power plant could be extended accross the small bay where the Beasley point bridge is being removed ,go a short distance( half mile) to rt 559,make a right and go 1 mile to the base of the new 9th st bridge,put a small station there and have small shuttle buses take you into the heart of Ocean City,thus returning train service to OC! Thus saving the track and ROW and using it for dual use.Just a thought.
I like the idea because it's simple enough but there are many difficult hurdles to overcome. Who would pay to extend the ROW to the foot of the OC bridge? If the state or any state agency wanted to spend that kind of money they would have repaired the Beasley's Point bridge. Who would run the shuttles? NJ Transit already has extensive bus lines running to OC. Certainly if there's a will then this can all be done but currently New Jersey has no will to get something like this going in South Jersey.
 #1065414  by Ken W2KB
 
south jersey trains wrote:The track thats stops at the power plant could be extended accross the small bay where the Beasley point bridge is being removed ,go a short distance( half mile) to rt 559,make a right and go 1 mile to the base of the new 9th st bridge,put a small station there and have small shuttle buses take you into the heart of Ocean City,thus returning train service to OC! Thus saving the track and ROW and using it for dual use.Just a thought.
It is my understanding that the track between Tuckahoe and the generating station is in poor condition. It would require substantial sums of money to bring it up to passenger standards, and the extension would probably double the cost. I also wonder if the railroad right of way is a candidate for use for the natural gas pipeline to be built to serve the station.
 #1065464  by JJMDiMunno
 
Ken,
While this is not confirmed, plant sources have indicated that the Beesleys Point Industrial Track may in fact be removed for placement of the pipeline.

Mike DiMunno
SJRA / SJRAIL.COM
 #1065517  by blockline4180
 
JJMDiMunno wrote:Ken,
While this is not confirmed, plant sources have indicated that the Beesleys Point Industrial Track may in fact be removed for placement of the pipeline.

Mike DiMunno
SJRA / SJRAIL.COM

Of course, and that makes some sense, but can we at least enjoy the remaining 2 or 3 trains before we put a final nail in the coffin??? We have at least a year, maybe more, before the plant completely switches to NG....

I mean jeez everything is so negative down in south jersey land lately!
 #1065562  by glennk419
 
Ken W2KB wrote:
south jersey trains wrote:The track thats stops at the power plant could be extended accross the small bay where the Beasley point bridge is being removed ,go a short distance( half mile) to rt 559,make a right and go 1 mile to the base of the new 9th st bridge,put a small station there and have small shuttle buses take you into the heart of Ocean City,thus returning train service to OC! Thus saving the track and ROW and using it for dual use.Just a thought.
It is my understanding that the track between Tuckahoe and the generating station is in poor condition. It would require substantial sums of money to bring it up to passenger standards, and the extension would probably double the cost. I also wonder if the railroad right of way is a candidate for use for the natural gas pipeline to be built to serve the station.
Ken, all practicality aside, you seem to take great joy in the demise of this line, almost to the point of an ulterior motive. Would you be equally enthuised if there was talk of a pipeline between Flemington and Lambertville?
 #1065640  by Ken W2KB
 
glennk419 wrote:
Ken W2KB wrote:
south jersey trains wrote:The track thats stops at the power plant could be extended accross the small bay where the Beasley point bridge is being removed ,go a short distance( half mile) to rt 559,make a right and go 1 mile to the base of the new 9th st bridge,put a small station there and have small shuttle buses take you into the heart of Ocean City,thus returning train service to OC! Thus saving the track and ROW and using it for dual use.Just a thought.
It is my understanding that the track between Tuckahoe and the generating station is in poor condition. It would require substantial sums of money to bring it up to passenger standards, and the extension would probably double the cost. I also wonder if the railroad right of way is a candidate for use for the natural gas pipeline to be built to serve the station.
Ken, all practicality aside, you seem to take great joy in the demise of this line, almost to the point of an ulterior motive. Would you be equally enthuised if there was talk of a pipeline between Flemington and Lambertville?
No. Simply reporting facts. No sugar coating. Indeed, there is some preliminary activity reported in the press this year advocating converting Ringoes to Lambertville to a rail-trail. To my knowledge, nothing formal in that regard has occurred.
 #1065726  by Jtgshu
 
Sometimes reality sucks.

Ken has always been a straight shooter on here, I have never ever tasted any sense of bias in any of his posts.

If a Natural Gas pipeline was to be built, why acquire a whole new ROW when there is an existing one (Railroad) that goes to the same place and won't be used any more. Ideally, they could build the pipeline adjacent to the tracks and leave them in, but who knows.

BTW, there are a lot of pipelines and fiber optic lines and lots of other things underground that run along existing and current/active ROWs, and is a way to generate revenue for the railroad.