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  • Morristown & Erie track Gang working near Kuiken Brother

  • Discussion about the M&E, RVRR and SIRR lines of New Jersey, and also the Maine Eastern operation in Maine. Official web site can be found here: www.merail.com.
Discussion about the M&E, RVRR and SIRR lines of New Jersey, and also the Maine Eastern operation in Maine. Official web site can be found here: www.merail.com.

Moderators: GOLDEN-ARM, cjl330, mikec

 #253844  by njtransitrookie
 
Today while heading east on rt. 10 I noticed the M&E track gang was working on the switch to K. bros lumber on the Chester branch. It looks like the yard will open soon. I will stop by on Wednesday to check out the work.
 #275572  by njt4172
 
njtransitrookie wrote:Today while heading east on rt. 10 I noticed the M&E track gang was working on the switch to K. bros lumber on the Chester branch. It looks like the yard will open soon. I will stop by on Wednesday to check out the work.
Just wanted to inform you that I drove down past the lumber facility and it appears some lumber was finally trucked in! I guess it is just a matter of days until he gets rail service!

Any idea if M&E will ship the lumber in or out??

 #275606  by joe k
 
A YARD AT THE NEW "K BROTHERS LUMBER"

HOW MANY TRACKS ARE LOCATED THERE OR JUST LEFT OVER FROM WICKS?

IS THIS A SMALL REHAB.........TIES AND SPIKES?

SURPRISED THAT ROUTE 10 CROSSING PROTECTION WAS NEVER COMPLETED THERE TOO.....
DO THE SIGNALS WORK ON THE OLD HIGHBRIDGE CROSSING??

 #275753  by RS115
 
It is not a new yard. They rehabbed the switch and some of the siding (based on looking from a distance).

Neither Rt 10 crossing is protected - they're both flag jobs. The Rt 46 crossing on the DLW side (by County Concrete) has manually activated flashers, the other more heavily used High Bridge crossing is a flag and blow.

The only well protected crossing is behind the Ledgewood Mall which got brand new lights and gates about 2 years ago put in and paid for (I think) by the County. Why they did a busy side street before the highways I don't understand.

 #275908  by Tri-State Tom
 
RS -

" Why they did a busy side street before the highways I don't understand. "

My guess a county vs. state thing.

NJDOT needs to approve the 46 crossings work.

 #276183  by njtransitrookie
 
The lumber yard has started to get materials from what mode of transportation I don't know. I did see a couple of empty centerbeam flats at lake Junction which could come from them,Wickes or the other lumber yard on the Dover Rockaway branch.

 #276189  by RS115
 
I've seen the center-beam flats spotted near the Berkshire Valley Road crossing at various times over the last couple of years so I suspect they're for Wickes or another lumber yard not Kuikens.

From the distribution of lumber within the yard I think what is there now has come in by truck.

 #278444  by dlw1151
 
Any idea on the progress in this area?

Thank you.!

 #283073  by RS115
 
Got the answer to one of the sub-questions in this thread tonight. On the way home I came over the Berkshire Valley Road crossing and there, finishing unloading the center-beam flat parked on the main were some Wickes Lumber trucks. So, now we know who does their trans-load at that location.

I'm still perplexed as to why they do it there on the main rather than in the team track which is also right there - it's literally maybe 500 feet to the switch and they wouldn't be blocking the main.

 #283142  by mountie17
 
Easier to unload and transfer to a waiting flatbed truck with all that open space there? Just a thought.

 #539835  by RS115
 
There's been little activity period and no rail activity at the site until recently. Over the winter it appeared that the little bit of lumber stored at the site had been removed and more recently the old lumber sheds were leveled.

Today driving home there were signs of construction (turned soil, plastic curtains set up to retain soil etc) towards the railroad side of the site and a construction trailer has appeared within the gate. I don't know if this is a sign that Kuiken is finally really going to do something substantial here or if they've do the land off to someone else. Their design store is still functional out front but that was always a seperate piece of property.

Anyone know what's up? If there is to be rail service to the site there's at least one tree growing between 46 and the switch that I'd bring a saw to remove.

Re:

 #562111  by blockline4180
 
RS115 wrote:There's been little activity period and no rail activity at the site until recently. Over the winter it appeared that the little bit of lumber stored at the site had been removed and more recently the old lumber sheds were leveled.

Today driving home there were signs of construction (turned soil, plastic curtains set up to retain soil etc) towards the railroad side of the site and a construction trailer has appeared within the gate. I don't know if this is a sign that Kuiken is finally really going to do something substantial here or if they've do the land off to someone else. Their design store is still functional out front but that was always a seperate piece of property.

Anyone know what's up? If there is to be rail service to the site there's at least one tree growing between 46 and the switch that I'd bring a saw to remove.

It looks like a lot more work has been done last few weeks and some sort of soil remediation is ongoing. Lots of surveying stakes inside the property and someone even went out of their way to cut down some 5-10 foot saplings between the gauge... Maybe they do plan on using some sort of rail service after all..? I guess now TIME is the only factor.
 #562608  by oknazevad
 
It wouldn't surprise me at all if KB were to use rail service, as it is common practice for them at many of their other stores. They even bought a store in Roseland recently, specifically because it was on the M-E and could receive shipments by rail. They consider it a major cost savings to bring stuff in by rail to the store on rail lines, and then use trucks to move stuff to the few stores that aren't.
 #562615  by blockline4180
 
oknazevad wrote:It wouldn't surprise me at all if KB were to use rail service, as it is common practice for them at many of their other stores. They even bought a store in Roseland recently, specifically because it was on the M-E and could receive shipments by rail. They consider it a major cost savings to bring stuff in by rail to the store on rail lines, and then use trucks to move stuff to the few stores that aren't.

Lets hope your right!!

Wouldn't it be neat if the company shipped lumber BY RAIL from one facility to the other?? I'm assuming that it's something that hasn 't been tried in a very long time, but with continuing high gas prices and trucks charging a lot more for transport, I'm sure its not impossible.. Do you agree??

Perhaps M&E would need to hire an extra crew for increased traffic on the Chester Branch.
 #562789  by RS115
 
There's definately a lot of activity at the Kuiken site in Roxbury, though there are no signs saying what's going on so can't even verify that it is them doing/having the work done.

As to Roseland great if true, I don't think the lumber yard there (which has been there forever) has used their siding in ages. My only question/reservation is that, in this day of regional distribution centers, the two locations are not that far apart either as the crow flies or as the interstates run (80/280 get you pretty close to each). Is it worth it for a relatively small/local outfit like Kuiken to have two rail-served distribution points so close together? Especially when one factors in the cost of the from the ground up whatever they're doing in Roxbury it seems like a big if. Add to that the fact that construction supply is not exactly a booming business this week and more doubt creeps in.

A