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  • BR&W Lambertville-Ringoes

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

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 #748470  by Mr. Ed
 
From what I've read here, the cars below the station are stranded since the track was severed, right?

Later!
Mr. Ed
 #748479  by CarterB
 
Baggage car is here: N 40.37460 W 74.94934 use birdseye on Bing maps and zoom in
 #748571  by wolfboy8171981
 
Mr. Ed wrote:From what I've read here, the cars below the station are stranded since the track was severed, right?

Later!
Mr. Ed
The tracks are not severed. The railroad is all there just overgrown and in need of repair and bridge work. The cars south of the station have been there long before the track was taken out of service. The CNJ 1318 was always designated as a parts car, and most of the usable parts have already been stored in Ringoes. The CR hopper was used in company service from the quarry in Lambertville for track projects. The car was orginally a cripple that Conrail forgot about.
 #748753  by Mr. Ed
 
Thanks Wolf.

Later!
Mr. Ed
 #752447  by NYS&W142Fan
 
To any of the members of the BR&W. I have a sicklebar mower that came off a garden tractor that could be mounted to a Speeder. (it needs some work) If any of you are interested, I would donate it. Just PM me if you are interested.
 #774345  by Donko142
 
I was in New Hope today with my girlfirend and a group of friends. I had not been in Lambertville and really looked around in a few years. It's not a pretty site on the railroad. All I saw was heavy duty 130lbs rail getting lost in a forest. If one looks back in this post I have asked twice if the BRWT has any plans to cut and spray the line. There always very helpful, yet no one answers that question. The BRWT has done a great job on the railroad and they keep going forward. But you can only spead yourself so thin with projects at any one time and this is not a priority. In my 10 years at New Hope I always remembered we had all the shops and people in New Hope, L-ville really didn't have much going on. I CANT BELEIVE HOW THAT HAS CHANGED in only 5 years. Lambertville's retail district must have grown by at least 300 % ! In the past the main st. (Bridge St) was where 85% of the retail stores were. Now retail store and people were all the way down to Finkels, I couldn't beleive the change. If the BR guys can get the line opened again I'm sure the ridership would be stronger then ever ! On the bad side, if the line is not cleared in early 2010 I would say it's gone for good with out a professonial clearing crew. Everywhere I checked the ROW had tree's 1 to 3 inches growing in the gauge as soon as you got a few feet from the crossing. My cell phone camera took some fair shots, and remember it's winter and it's a jungle.

In this pic I am standing approx 200 yards south of the station looking torwards Trenton. I'm standing in the run around
(double tracks) on the bridge that's over the canal so the brush wasn't to bad. MP 16 is on my Right Side. A local resident has put crap all over the ROW and the South switch for the run around has been pulled out ??? It was over grown badly with pricker brush.
Image

From Bridge St. looking North one can see the crossing light stands still in place before the track disapear into the brush. The bank on the canal has also given way in a few spots and the RR is slipping into the canal.
Image

In this last view you are at Finkels Hardware looking South, Bridge St is approx 2/10th of a mile to the South. Forget brush, there's good size tree's grown in the gauge North and South of this crossing.
Image

I truly hope the BRW guys can find a way to rehab the beautiful section of Railroad, it would be a home run for sure. If anyone on that side of the fence ever want's to do something down there as far as a clean up, cutting or spraying. I'm sure alot of us on the Bel -Del would jump over the fence and help out with saws and the chipper.

Good luck guys !!!! Someone's got to take the bull by the horns and clear the ROW before it's to late and another section of beautiful, historic, New Jersey railroad history is gone for good.
 #774394  by wolfboy8171981
 
There are no short term plans to go to Lamebertville. One of our long term goals is to clear about a mile of track from Lambertville Station to the Holcome-Mills farmstead and run shuttle trips using the Turtle.

Honestly the only hope is if somebody local in Lambertville or even Flemington would step up and help us subsidize that end of the line we could do something. Historically the south end of the railroad never made enough money to keep it in a good state of repair.

Even though there have been passenger trains running since 1965, The BRRHT is still a baby (2005) we have made great strides in keeping trains running. We are looking forward to having #60 running this year. We are excited to be running Murder Mystery trains this summer for the first time. We have started a project to turn CNJ #420 baggage car into a permanent museum at Ringoes. CNJ #1009 is another project thats getting close to get started.

You need to crawl before you can walk, and I'd say we are starting to crawl faster. We need more coaches before we can run more than one regular train. We need more volunteers to crew those trains, and so on. We are on the right track, and we can use your help.

V.Vaccarella
BRRHT BoD - Treasurer
 #774429  by Donko142
 
Thanks for the info, I think you guys are on the right track for sure !
 #774644  by thebigham
 
Thanks for the updated pics.

I'd be willing to cut brush in Lambertville saome Saturday. Let me know when and I'll be there.
 #774796  by baju
 
does anyone know what happened to the doodlebug 666 that still sits in the yard at ringoes? Will it ever be used again? What a shame to see that sit there rotting. I used to ride that doodle bug when in was in revenue service between manasquan and trenton.
 #774918  by Ken W2KB
 
baju wrote:does anyone know what happened to the doodlebug 666 that still sits in the yard at ringoes? Will it ever be used again? What a shame to see that sit there rotting. I used to ride that doodle bug when in was in revenue service between manasquan and trenton.
It is privately owned and does get worked on from time to time by the owner. From what I have been told, it does need radiators ($$) and some other things, but is not too far-gone to restore to operation were someone inclined to do so.
 #774930  by GSC
 
So much work to do, so little time, money, and volunteers to do it. Been that way for a long time.
 #774967  by Mr. Ed
 
The shortage of money, time and volunteers is a system wide problem. We at the PTHT accomplish most of the physical labor with four or five guys. True, we only have about 500' of track but we do have 10 pieces of rolling stock, grounds and a station that need repair und restoration. I figure that if just 10% of hte local folks that read these postings got out to lend a hand, we all would have enough people to accomplish a lot of things. True, spiking rail is tough work but if done in moderation, this too can be accomplished.

By my calculations, you are 75-90 minutes from me. But if you want to put together a work crew to clear the line from Lambertville, let me know. I can take a day off from the station to lend a hand. And I have a really flexible job so if you need help during the week, give me a hollar.

Later!
Mr. Ed
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