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  • Monmouth Junction question

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

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 #1578882  by planespotting
 
Thanks for sharing video. Freight looks right at home on the NEC, especially when it's running at that speed. Don't know why they don't run more in the dead of the night when nothing is on the tracks related to NJT or Amtrak. Maybe we'll see some more rerouting in the months ahead given all the backlog from the ports.
 #1578885  by CR7876
 
Bracdude181 wrote:@planespotting the Amboy Secondary is back in service now with a 10 MPH speed restrictions. Freight into Browns via the normal appears to be continuing as the Sayerville-South Amboy stretch is higher above ground than point south of Browns. Unless another hurricane comes and completely destroys the Raritan River Bridge I don’t think any big manifest trains will be going through Monmouth Junction any time soon.

However, this doesn’t mean no manifest freight between Metuchen and Morrisville regardless.

Should the Trenton Subdivision go down for any reason, CSX will divert most trains to Morrisville, and they will head up the NEC to Newark so trains can reach Oak Island yard. These moves are done during the night and are usually handled by Conrail. Sometimes it’s OI-32 and sometimes it’s MO-25.

The most recent occurrence of this was several years ago when the Tropicana train (Q170 or something like that) was rerouted over the NEC. Nowadays those cars come in on Q300 and leave on Q301

Frieght over the NEC is limited to Plate F clearance so no double stack intermodal.
At some point in the future, during one of the stages of construction, the current Essay Running track will need to re engineered to line up with the new bridge. There is talk of having to detour via Amtrak. I don't know when that will be yet.
 #1578890  by Bracdude181
 
@CR7876 They will detour down Amtrak for anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks when the time comes. Essay Running will be partially removed so NJT can build the new tracks for the bridge. It will be reconnected and reopened when the new bridge is put in service.

This is still a ways off though The bridge is nowhere near done yet. Could be a year or so before we see this.
 #1580905  by R&DB
 
Will the re-alignment of thhe Coast Line effect Church Running Track as well. If so, will probably interupt the Southern Secondary runs.
 #1580908  by R&DB
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:01 am @R&DB Yes. Church running will also be disconnected for about 4 to 8 weeks.
That's gonna make Woodhaven real [/i ]happy! Perhaps they will wait until C&D gets the FIT connection done?
 #1580911  by Bracdude181
 
@R&DB I’m starting to wonder if we are gonna see that at all. People were saying we were supposed to see work done in the summer. We are coming into fall and still nothing!

NJT isn’t gonna wait on C&D to open the line for that bridge to open either.

If Conrail is smart they will inform all customers on the Southern well in advanced of this so they can stock up on supplies during the 4-8 week period. Everyone besides Woodhaven only gets their supplies as needed anyways, and Marjam still gets the majority or their stuff in by truck.
 #1580961  by R&DB
 
#1578857 by Bracdude181
Tue Aug 24, 2021 1:11 pm
Watched the arrival of that train at Tropicana's Jersey City plant back around 1990. They split the train in two and took the whole thing inside the freezer. I was on a tour of the refrigeration plant.
 #1584862  by JohnFromJersey
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Thu Aug 12, 2021 10:31 am Sadly the Coast Line will soon rebuild the Raritan River Bridge which is allegedly going to allow Plate F and 286k cars into Browns. This will almost completely do away with the need to run any transfer to Monmouth Junction, unless the transfer is permanently rerouted. Perhaps the transfer could come out of morrisville instead as OI-16 takes an extremely long time to do. OI-16 gets held up for literally everything!
There are still a few spots on the Southern that will prevent high and wide cars between Farmingdale and Freehold, unless C&D gets support from the county to raise a couple of road bridges.
 #1584892  by R&DB
 
#1584862 by JohnFromJersey
Mon Nov 15, 2021 12:34 am
The line from Freehold to Farmingdale is not the Southern Secondary, It is the Freehold Industrial Track or FIT. The Southern runs from Red Bank to Lakehurst. The FIT runs from Jamesburg to Farmingdale. To the best of my knowledge there are only 2 road brides:
1> The Rte 33 bypass is recently made and I'm petty sure it has plenty of clearance.
2> The Rte 33 business may need to be addressed, but I have been under that bride and it looks to have enogh clearance for plate F, although I may be wrong.
 #1584893  by Bracdude181
 
The only area on the Southern that isn’t high enough for Plate F is the Tinton Ave bridge. There’s barely enough clearance with the normal Plate C cars there as it is, so getting Plate F through there could be a challenge. They can undercut the ballast and bring the rails lower, but will it be enough?
 #1584894  by R&DB
 
Bracdude181 wrote: Mon Nov 15, 2021 11:16 am The only area on the Southern that isn’t high enough for Plate F is the Tinton Ave bridge. There’s barely enough clearance with the normal Plate C cars there as it is, so getting Plate F through there could be a challenge. They can undercut the ballast and bring the rails lower, but will it be enough?
There appears to be enough width, the problem is heght. The solution is undercutting,but they would have to do a half mile or more to keep a decent grade. $$$ And what customer on the Southern needs PLate F?
 #1584896  by Bracdude181
 
@R&DB at the moment, the only customer who really could do anything with it is Woodhaven. Even if more customers show up in the future I’m not sure how many would use it. Funnily enough most modern railcars are built as Plate C cars anyways. With the exception of boxcars and of course intermodal cars.
 #1584898  by R&DB
 
@Bracdude181 Woodhaven is mostly centerbeams. If they got Plate F they might save 1 Plate C a week. No RR company is going to spend $M to save the customer money.