dlagrua wrote:I too heard the story of the deteriorating Neshanic bridge being the cause of the abandonment of the line in 1957 but as of 2009 it is still standing.The line was not entirely abandoned in 1957, if at all.
In The Black River & Western Story (published 1974 by Virginia Smith) there is a picture of a CNJ GP7 coming into Turntable Junction with some freight.
It is entirely possible that CNJ kept engines near or in Flemington near the end. I seem to remember hearing that the CNJ held onto the line around Flemington as Tenneco was a rather lucrative customer. Towards the end, I think CNJ would drill Tenneco and bring the cars to Flemington for BR&W to take to their Lambertville interchange with the PC, thereby avoiding the bridge in question.
BR&W got four miles from Flemington to Three Bridges (RR North, geographically east) in 1974 and as part of the deal, picked up CNJ 1554 on lease. I would presume that the 1600 horses that 1554 offered came in handy for drilling Tenneco as BR&Ws motive power at the time consisted of an SW1 (400) and maybe a GE 65 tonner (forget the road #), plus three steam locomotives (60, 148, and 14). The RS1s didn't come along until after they had taken over service on the line and the CF7s were 10 years in the future at that point. 1554 was officially purchased from Conrail in 1980.