Lambertville's abandoned cars

Anyone know anything about the cars left in Lambertville? There are five cars, three abandoned, along the the old Bel-Del line along the canal, the one that used to be operated by the BR&W to Lambertville. We've got the ex-pennsy caboose and ex-reading 50' box at the old station, now storage sheds for the restaurant occupying the building; we've got CNJ coach 1318 and the Conrail hopper at the wastewater treatment plant; but that leaves one. And that's the ancient blue baggage car sitting opposite the lumber yard some ways north of downtown. No lettering of any kind, no record of it found anywhere, I haven't a clue of anything about it. Does anyone else?

Correction: not quite no record, I've found a couple of pictures on google, but otherwise no dice.

The cars at the Lambertville Station are owned by the resturant and should be excluded from this list.

The CNJ 1318 was purchased by the BR&W as a parts source back in the 70's when they purchased CNJ 297(BR&W #320,#297), CNJ 1186(BR&W #322, John L Bishop), and CNJ xxxx ( BR&W #321). The car has actually since been sold by the BR&W to the Vermont Rail System as a parts source for there CNJ cars.

The CR hopper car, legend has it, was shoped by Trap Rock and was moved so the Conrail block truck could repair it. One thing led to another and pretty much Conrail forgot about, or lost the car.

The blue baggage car is ex-NYC, a sister unit of the one we just restored in Ringoes. Basically its unused and uneeded and was left in Lambertville.

Sorry, but I'm not sure I agree with the history of 1318, so far as the purchase date goes. I was a volunteer at BR&W in the late '60s and early '70s. At the time, the 'Great Steel Fleet', as John Bishop liked to call it, consisted of the three CNJs, the first Boonton car, and three Stillwells. I don't think that car came along until many years later. Also, what parts did it provide to the other CNJs? The 1300s were an entirely different car, with different trucks and wheelsets.

VRS acquired the 1318 in Lambertville and the 1324 in Holland for parts. They run a fleet of exCNJ round roof exCNJ 1300 series cars including 1301, 1305, 1306, 1308 (parts), 1312, 1313, 1314, 1317, 1319, 1323, 1324 (parts), plus one or two parts cars located in Maine or New Hampshire (don't remember which, I believe one was 1304?). The cars were mainly in tact except for rust, broken windows, some missing seats and such. Brake parts, heater vent covers, traps, etc. went north to Bellows Falls. Do not know when they showed up on BR&W.

Does the BR&W still own the track past the station to where it stub ends? Using map street view the track looks horible. It's paved over in patches on the street where it crosses by the station, rusted solid, and there are trees growing over it. The xing signals are rusty and look beat up.

Why was the track left in to that point? It just dead ends a few feet past the station. Are there ANY potential customers at that end??? Maybe transload in the area behind the station? Why doesn't the BR&W run down there anymore from P'burg??? Also when did the Lambertille Station last see RR service of any kind? I'm surprised it survived! Odd that such a grand station was built in such a tiny municipality.

The 1988 arails show a long string of pax cars parked just past the station at the dead end.

Why doesn't the BR&W run down there anymore from P'burg? Well, there are many, many miles of track missing between the north end of Lambertville and the south end of the Bel-Del operation, which I believe is near Carpentersville. For that matter, BR&W never operated anything on the old Bel-Del north of the quarry above Lambertville. That track was OOS and was long gone before the current Bel-Del operation began.

You may be thinking of Ringoes instead of P'burg. From what I've read there are some bridge and tie issues between Ringoes and L'ville. With no freight business down that way, there is no real economic reason to do any track or bridge work. As far as passenger service goes, why would BR&W want to have two services, essentially competing with each other for the family tourist trade? (The railfans don't pay the bills-) If you can bring in the same revenue with one set of equipment, why bother with two?

slightly off topic and slightly asinine, considering the track is gone and ROW encroached on, but what sort of ridership would a notional trenton-l'ville commuter service on the old bel-del conceivably have? think about it, connect with two septa lines for philly riders and the NEC for njt.

There's a thread on the Lambertville line, fully explaining why they don't run there anymore:

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... mbertville

To check the heritage of the Conrail Coal car all you have to do is look at the wheel trucks or the side card that's painted on the side of the car.

Len.