Hurricane Sandy

The customer at the east end of the track had covered hoppers parked under the Parkway often. A map check indicates: Federal Plastics. There's also a connection to SIRT west of the GSP.

One thing about storing equipment on this track could be the obstruction of the eastbound platform at Garwood.

the siding of Federated Plastics (I think that's the name of the place that got the hoppers) hasn't had a hopper in at least 2-3 years. The siding was a run around, with a switch on the east end near the Lehigh line OH bridge. That switch was removed recently. Now, the only access the siding is from the west end, the switch is under the GSP bridge. The track is heavily overgrown. i BELIEVE those hoppers that used to be stored there in Cranford were overflow from the cars that were stored on the SIRT by the MandE, not for the plastics place, but im not certain.

It is classified as an Industrial track. There is another, stub ended track that is behind the Garwood Ind, just east of the switch for the SIRT, by the self storage place. It looks like they MIGHT be putting in another track somewhere around there eventually, but nothing looks certain yet. There is nothing classified down there as a "yard" as far as I know, but it doesn't really matter, you could store equipment on the Garwood Ind track itself. Its not like its going to be long term (im assuming) but rather just for the period that the storm is going on, and I would assume the cars would be moved back to the MMC after things calmed down.

And if the cars were stored all the way to Garwood station, they would simply uncouple them, and pull them west of the station to clear up the station platform. It would not be an issue at all.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:
One thing about storing equipment on this track could be the obstruction of the eastbound platform at Garwood.

If they were being stored there it would be because of a serious storm, and if that were the case, service would be suspended, so the platform being blocked would be moot.

Don31 wrote:

R36 Combine Coach wrote:
One thing about storing equipment on this track could be the obstruction of the eastbound platform at Garwood.

If they were being stored there it would be because of a serious storm, and if that were the case, service would be suspended, so the platform being blocked would be moot.

Rather have the platform blocked than several locomotives and cars being taken out of commission again.

It, you are correct, the covered hoppers were stored there for the m&e. I was there a few years ago when they pulled the cars out for servicing.

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=962532.

Jtgshu wrote:the siding of Federated Plastics (I think that's the name of the place that got the hoppers) hasn't had a hopper in at least 2-3 years. The siding was a run around, with a switch on the east end near the Lehigh line OH bridge. That switch was removed recently. Now, the only access the siding is from the west end, the switch is under the GSP bridge. The track is heavily overgrown. i BELIEVE those hoppers that used to be stored there in Cranford were overflow from the cars that were stored on the SIRT by the MandE, not for the plastics place, but im not certain.

It is classified as an Industrial track. There is another, stub ended track that is behind the Garwood Ind, just east of the switch for the SIRT, by the self storage place. It looks like they MIGHT be putting in another track somewhere around there eventually, but nothing looks certain yet. There is nothing classified down there as a "yard" as far as I know, but it doesn't really matter, you could store equipment on the Garwood Ind track itself. Its not like its going to be long term (im assuming) but rather just for the period that the storm is going on, and I would assume the cars would be moved back to the MMC after things calmed down.

And if the cars were stored all the way to Garwood station, they would simply uncouple them, and pull them west of the station to clear up the station platform. It would not be an issue at all.

The last paragraph is exactly what was done with the freight cars at Manville-Finderne before that station was closed. Easy to do, as you say.

I didn't know there was such a thing as a one track yard.

I may be a bit off here, but I think a "yard" is technically a legal designation and not a physical feature. In other words, if NJT wanted to put yard limits along a single track in the middle of nowhere, they could do so and it would legally be a yard, subject to yard rules, despite the fact there is no physical multi-track sorting area we know as a yard.

I say this because the South Shore tried to declare their single-track street running line as within yard limits to avoid installing PTC on a public street. There was certainly no yard down the middle of 11th street.

Jtgshu wrote:But I think we should really try to at least try to get back to NJT and Sandy and try to keep this on topic - maybe a separate thread could be started or something for the political discussion - Yes, I know im guilty of contributing to the off topic discussion as well, but as you can imagine, its a bit of a hot button for me.....(going on 7.5 months out of my home with no end in sight....but hey, who's counting...)

Thank you, JT. Someone gets that this is a railroad forum, even while going through what you are going through. I appreciate it, while the trolls are spouting politics. Not that I don't love a good political argument, but at least you provided constructive links.

airman00 wrote:interesting... I didn't know there was such a thing as a one track yard. They mentioned something about a local freight though. I assume no more customers then?

Single track yards are very common. There's even one at Trenton and one at Princeton junction.

The NORAC definition of a yard (since NJT is a part of NORAC):

YARD: A system of tracks used for the making up of trains and storing of cars. Movements in a yard must be made at Restricted Speed.

So a single track would certainly meet the definition. Yard limits, however, strangely have nothing to do with yards, other than they are often located near a yard. Yard limits allow for a method of operation on a main track per Rule 93. Having said that, yard limits are way off topic for this thread.

According to http://superstormsandyrecovery.com/proj ... stock.html there are currently 9 ALP-45DP's 4 electric locomotives and 4 diesel locomotive awaiting repair after hurricane Sandy.

Can anyone confirm the individual ID's of these locomotives, or poitn me to where this information could be found?

The diesel number has gone down big time since last time. Cwr, do not be fooled by that ALP45 number. Look at the fleet number, thats only 23.. Out of 35 total, there are 12 more 45s for a total of 21 damaged by Sandy.

That number is not completely accurate. At least two of the 9 have been repaired and returned to service. The 9 damaged NJT units are:
4500
4501
4504 (repaired)
4508
4513
4514
4517
4519
4523 (repaired)

The other 12 flooded units (4521-4522 and 4524-4533) had been delivered, but not yet accepted by NJT at the time of the storm. Because they had not yet been accepted, they did not (and still do not) "officially" belong to NJT yet, and thus are excluded from the damage report.

Right, thank you Joe. I just only wanted to make it clear that there were 21 45s damaged regardless of ownership. Interesting that 4523 seems to have cut the line there.

I was also told 4507 is OOS for some other reasons..... I haven't seen that engine in awhile either, anyone else have???