CMSL service Rio Grande to Cape May

Money may be the most telling issue. A quick NJ judiciary judgment search for CMSL as debtor yielded about 10 open judgments issued over the past several years aggregating a very substantial sum. There are also two or three open for a substantial amount personally that appear to related to CMSL. These are a considerable impediment to breathing any life back into the line.

If i read this right, no rail or spikes on the active right of way were stolen just the stuff that was around the track? Somebody has some explaining to do if train lawyer is right

Sigh.....

Ken W2KB wrote:Money may be the most telling issue. A quick NJ judiciary judgment search for CMSL as debtor yielded about 10 open judgments issued over the past several years aggregating a very substantial sum. There are also two or three open for a substantial amount personally that appear to related to CMSL. These are a considerable impediment to breathing any life back into the line.

Ken - what were the judgements for?

bluedash2 wrote:

Ken W2KB wrote:Money may be the most telling issue. A quick NJ judiciary judgment search for CMSL as debtor yielded about 10 open judgments issued over the past several years aggregating a very substantial sum. There are also two or three open for a substantial amount personally that appear to related to CMSL. These are a considerable impediment to breathing any life back into the line.

Ken - what were the judgements for?

Note that all are public information available free on line. Not much detail, but some were various tax delinquencies and others for railroad-related contractors and suppliers as I recall. So it appears that over the past few years a good attempt to keep the railroad operable have been made, but expenses are chipping away at the viability.

Why I also believe that the lack of some kind of freight service other than occasionally storing cars for Conrail is a big issue $$$ wise...

bluedash2 wrote:Why I also believe that the lack of some kind of freight service other than occasionally storing cars for Conrail is a big issue $$$ wise...

No doubt. For the BR&W on which I volunteer as brakeman and conductor, the freight service is what defrays the majority of the maintenance of the tracks, crossing signals, etc. But for that, the economics of the passenger operation would be much more problematic.

How does the list o jugdements affect the Santa train. Will it run this year? I get somebody to taek me every year.

bystander wrote:How does the list o jugdements affect the Santa train. Will it run this year? I get somebody to taek me every year.

The judgments are for money owed and operations such as the Santa trains that generate revenue potentially benefit creditors so there ought not to be an impediment. Also, some at least, of the train equipment is leased so that is not affected.

The CMSL has been trying to run as an underfunded, under capitalized, skeleton crew operation from its inception. No one has explained how this will change and it probably won't.
The Cape May line the ideal location for a small scale Southern Jersey transportation museum. NJT owns the tracks and the right of way and many of the structures on the line are in fact historical in nature. Train museums exist in just about every state and there is no reason why a museum with a train ride cannot be located in Tuckahoe and feature trips to Cape May and Richland. That museum could be privately owned. It might attract many talented volunteers and they could start out from the gitgo with a tour of the Tuckahoe yard, tower, station and equipment. I suggest that this entire operation go non-profit and be named the Southern NJ Museum of Railroad Transportation. Its Tonys operation and his decision but the CMSL is going nowhere now so why not give it a shot?

I got a copie of Train magazine yesterday and it ahd a list of Christmas trains and Cape My wasnt' on it. Are they doing it this year? I try to get a ride dowm there to ride it ever year.

No trains have run on this line in about a year now.

Just went on the CMSL website and if you click on the freight and passenger links they bring you to a dead page. Only thing working is the freight storage link.

northjerseybuff wrote:Just went on the CMSL website and if you click on the freight and passenger links they bring you to a dead page. Only thing working is the freight storage link.

Appears to have been a server error. Full pages are back this morning.

bystander wrote:I got a copie of Train magazine yesterday and it ahd a list of Christmas trains and Cape My wasnt' on it. Are they doing it this year? I try to get a ride dowm there to ride it ever year.

Yes they are. I just saw on Facebook that they will be posting the official Santa Train Schedule in a few days.