Article regarding the Chester Branch

Group,

I wanted to post this link to a new article in the Star Ledger about the project.

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/0 ... s_pro.html


Roxbury is giving the County a hard time about fixing the tracks. If you read the article you will see they built their walking trail and driveway on property adjacent to the tracks without permission from the owner. Now they don't want the rails to be restored.

Roxbury has had a longstanding "issue" with any improvements to the railroad and unfortunately it continues. Really sad too, because if they looked at it a little differently they may be see there is an possibility of building a trail along more sections of the rail lines in Town especially if they are already government owned.

NIMBY's at work, what else is new!!

So what does this mean in terms of Kuikens??

This is a very minor matter that will be resolved and forgotten about rather quickly.

This is the kind of 'news' you expect to see in the Mayberry Dispatch....during a slow week

Gee, and all this time I thought it was Morris county who owned this line, and had the M&E as designated operator.

CF

I read over the article again and it seems like Roxbury only has a problem with them working on the last 3,000 feet or so of the railroad.. IMHO, I don't think the county would have any stumbling blocks with regard to the future rehab of the first 3 miles or so...No?

CAR_FLOATER wrote:Gee, and all this time I thought it was Morris county who owned this line, and had the M&E as designated operator.

CF

No - the Chester Branch was purchased by Holland and Westinghouse back before the County bought the CNJ line. When Westinghouse stopped using the line they sold their half to Holland. Essentially no maintenance has happened on this line in 20+ years as the owners have not spent any money on it - hence the "interesting" crossing conditions of Rt. 46 and Rt. 10.

Doesn't Toys R Us still use rail at their Bartley Dist. Center?

CarterB wrote:Doesn't Toys R Us still use rail at their Bartley Dist. Center?

Wrong line, they are at the end of the High Bridge Branch.

This is the line that crosses Rt. 10 with those ANCIENT wooden crossbucks. It used to go all the way down to Chester, NJ (thus the name "chester branch") but now terminates a miles or so past Rt 10. I don't think anything has gone past Rt. 10 in decades. Track is burried in grass and mud.

DecadeS is a stretch. It's has been some time however. Wickes Lumber was located on the site that is becoming Kuiken's and got a very occassional car though I'm unsure when they got their last. Much of the line past the Kuikens switch is very shakey but would only be needed if something were to go into the Westinghouse location and start using rail. For service to Kuikens they need maybe 6-8 car lengths to permit drilling the siding.

The whole branch is in serious need of work. Hopefully the towns whining will fall where it belongs and the work will proceed. The road/path in the park is very close to the tracks (thanks to their encroachment) but even if nothing is changed switching is would be during the day during the week - not peek park usage time.

carajul wrote:This is the line that crosses Rt. 10 with those ANCIENT wooden crossbucks. It used to go all the way down to Chester, NJ (thus the name "chester branch") but now terminates a miles or so past Rt 10. I don't think anything has gone past Rt. 10 in decades. Track is burried in grass and mud.

The Chester Branch was orignally Lackawanna. The southern section beyong the Westinghouse plant in Randolph through Ironia and Chester was abandoned in 1933.

The US Route 46 crossing is also in poor shape (although new crossbucks and signals were recently installed).

Just wanted to give a little update....

We are still working through the federal approval process for stimulus projects. We got around the big NJDEP hurdle today and won't be required to obtain any environmental permits....

Only a few more minor revisions to make to the plans due to this decisions, but the project should get authorized for the funding prior to the November 30th cut off date.

If everything goes according to schedule, the rehab should begin next spring.

Chris

cjvrr wrote:Just wanted to give a little update....

We are still working through the federal approval process for stimulus projects. We got around the big NJDEP hurdle today and won't be required to obtain any environmental permits....

Only a few more minor revisions to make to the plans due to this decisions, but the project should get authorized for the funding prior to the November 30th cut off date.

If everything goes according to schedule, the rehab should begin next spring.

Chris

Thanks for the update Chris...
Do you know if Kuikens will start receiving cars before then or will they just wait until the line is rehabbed??

So much for shovel ready.


Chris, A few things.

A, I read on here once that Ben Friedland purchased a short section of track around LK Jct so that even if the MnE lost the contract, who ever got it had to pay him. I don't believe this but do you know?

B, I saw a bunch of hard hats walking the line East from Berkshire Valley Rd this past week. Was one of them you?

C, How much in both time and money did the shakedown by Roxbury Township add to this project? I know you won't answer this one but....


Thanks.

blockline4180 wrote: Thanks for the update Chris...
Do you know if Kuikens will start receiving cars before then or will they just wait until the line is rehabbed??

Block,

I have heard sometime in the spring, but the economy is the driving force behind shipments to that facility. The line rehab will NOT be finished by that time. We are figuring about a 6 month time frame for construction.

Chris