Metuchen Yard Operations and Vicinity

So here is some GREAT news for freight rail in New Brunswick, though hopefully it actually comes to pass (as we all know, that proposed garbage transfer site was never built). According to this article, Wenner Bread Products plans on moving from Long Island to 571 Jersey Ave. and using a spur off of the Millstone Branch.

That's good news for ME-2

ME-2 just reported in the clear onto their portion of the Millstone Branch.

While driving north on I-287 yesterday morning, around 7:40, I saw a Raritan Central GP unit with two switchers pulling cars onto the highway overpass. I would guess they were shifting cars around in the yard.

ME-2 west over the Raritan River at 4:02 pm. CSX engine (missed the number) leading, 1 c&d hopper, 4 covered hoppers, and the caboose.

Meant to post this earlier but forgot:

ME-2 west over the Raritan River at 4:37 pm with CSX engine lhf (missed the number) followed by 2 covered hoppers, 2 c&d hoppers, 3 boxcars, and the caboose.

Not sure, but it sounds like they might have just headed back east through Highland Park (7:20 pm)

Sounds like ME-2 might be heading to DEANS, as they were just given permission from CETC-8 to "head west from 3 track at COUNTY onto number 1 track into foreman _____ out of service track". Engine is CSX 2814.

ME-2 currently opening up at General Tire with 5 cars, will be heading west and drilling the Millstone Branch.

Don't have an exact time, but sometime around 4pm or so ME-2 headed west over the Raritan River. CSX 2814 lhf lead 2 covered hoppers, 1 C&D hopper, and 1 boxcar. Of note was the absence of CR 22137 (the caboose) - hope nothing happened and its still a resident of Metuchen Yard.

Per a report from a friend, ME-2 had the caboose last Friday while passing through New Brunswick in the late afternoon headed for the Millstone. I also saw it in Metuchen Yard about a week or two ago.

Maybe they're finally painting it

It's been a while since I actually reported a sighting. Today while waiting in North Elizabeth for the first revenue run of Amtrak's ACS-64, I was surprised to see OI-8 appear from the south at about 12:55pm. I didn't get a car count, but you can see here that the train was quite long and led by an unusual consist of an SD40-2 (long hood forward) and two SW1001s, all CSX:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/erielimited/12376350024/

Rob

I've posted some video of Friday's OI-8 at North Elizabeth:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLqqVqW_jgQ

I can also report that another OI-8 ran on Saturday. I did not see it, but heard it on the radio. I did notice a large cut of cars sitting in the yard under the I-287 overpass earlier in the day. Around 4:00PM I heard the crew asking for permission to make a reverse move at Edison. Maybe there was a backlog of traffic due to the snow storms. A lot of the cars in the video look like they hadn't moved in a while with quite a bit of snow on them.

Rob

Great stuff as always Rob!

Question - as I was driving past Metropark last night at 7:20pm there was a Westbound short freight with a CSX and NS pair leading. Was that working out of the Metuchen Yard? Which train was it and where was it coming from, any ideas? If that's a regular, I'll have to try to spend more time finding these when the days get longer. I miss freights on the corridor.

BigDell wrote:Question - as I was driving past Metropark last night at 7:20pm there was a Westbound short freight with a CSX and NS pair leading. Was that working out of the Metuchen Yard? Which train was it and where was it coming from, any ideas? If that's a regular, I'll have to try to spend more time finding these when the days get longer. I miss freights on the corridor.

That was probably OI-32, the transfer from Oak Island to Metuchen. That sounds a bit early for the train, as they normally run very late at night, but obviously they also run even earlier sometimes (as evidenced by Rob's photos and video a few posts up).