Is the Middlebrook Industrial Track quarry history?

So it WASNT NJT that did the upgrades. Still though, that’s a lot of money in upgrades just for NJT to switch ballast suppliers…

It's a lot of money to disrupt the original ROW for expanding a highway....

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"The $56.7-million, federally funded construction contract was awarded in January to Anselmi and DeCicco, Inc. of Maplewood. Of the contract total, only a little over $100,000 will come from county capital funds."

From 2012 nj.com:

https://www.nj.com/messenger-gazette/20 ... hange.html

Bracdude181 wrote:The last recorded train on this line.

https://youtu.be/5yZo2i0QxfE

Question. Since MA-20 is apparently an NS symbol does that mean that mean the quarry is an NS Customer and not a Conrail customer?

Yes. During the split of Big Conrail, everything west of Brook Int on the RVL went to NS, East went to Conrail.

Why is it not under Conrail? I can’t say a connection with CSX would save this line but for what It’s worth I wouldnt deal with NS if I had the choice.

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:25 pm Why is it not under Conrail? I can’t say a connection with CSX would save this line but for what It’s worth I wouldnt deal with NS if I had the choice.

For what its worth back at Split, there was a ton of local work west of Bound Brook on the RVL. That work was historically done 3rd trick. The division of work made sense to give it to the NS. The yard was given to CSX, so its a CSX property. A 0700 CSX local worked the yard from 1998 to about 2007(?). Conrail originally had the MA1 at 0900 and the MA2 at 1300. The NS signed up at 2000 or 2100. After the CSX abolished their local, Conrail moved their two jobs to 0730. They still all share engines.

It's a shame Somerville Lumber is out of biz, they were a solid shipper on the branch dating back to the 1940s. Heck when the area was all woods they were there! I recall back in the 1970s all the buildings in the industrial park along the branch had spurs into them. Some even had those darth vader flashers. In the 1990s CR or NS tore out all the spurs.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the Middlebrook IT isn’t on any of the NS maps I can access. Same goes for any of their freight activities on NJT with the exception of areas served by Conrail…

Bracdude you may be missing the 2016 system map on NS's website:
http://www.nscorp.com/content/dam/nscor ... -print.pdf
It even shows a tiny thumb line for the middlebrook branch

Yeah that’s the map I can’t view. It tries to load for 30 seconds then fails. If it’s on there then that’s fine.

Was told by a friend that a train went down this track two weeks ago. Anyone know if that’s true?

Bracdude181 wrote:Was told by a friend that a train went down this track two weeks ago. Anyone know if that’s true?

True

Oh cool! Hopefully this starts to become a more regular occurrence!

Conveyer train of some sort. Saw this picture on Facebook

Is that picture recent? If so that is very interesting indeed. Wonder what that’s doing in there…