NJT Prepares to Scrap 40+ Comet III Cars

Per a Facebook post I saw in the NJT North Jersey Coastline Railfans,

Public information found on NJTs website.
NJ TRANSIT is soliciting an offer to purchase removal and disposal of 44 retired passenger rail cars, sold in "as is, where is" condition. These rail cars are not in operating condition and must be removed from the Neptune Rail Yard location by truck or dismantled on site.

I'm going to assume the emphasis on their condition confirms my suspicion of them being in very poor condition due to Hurricane Sandy in 2012. These cars, I've heard, have been in Bay Head since they were retired around 2010, so that fits the timeline.

I pass by the Neptune Yard pretty frequently, as I did today. There were only 5 or so Comet III's in the yard. I'm not sure if NJT wants to move them gradually, so they don't become some sort of spectacle and/or homeless shelter in Neptune, or if they are going to say f*** it and put all of them in the yard at once. In either case, it will be interesting.

I wonder if someone will try to buy some of these cars to preserve them?

I bet you can still see out of the windows on those old cars! Maybe with the proceeds from the scrap material NJ Transit can purchase some new windows for the multilevel cars, since you can't really see out of them anymore.

Mazza Recycling is right across Memorial Drive from the Neptune yard. With the effects of salt water, and then sitting for so long afterward, I don't think they'd be worth much besides scrap. Bay Head was not the best place to store equipment during Sandy, it was completely under water.

At some point this weekend they are going to pull another 5-6 cars out of Bay Head with NJT 4103 and 4202. They are parked in Bay Head in a push pull configuration with the cars between them.

GSC wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 12:32 pm Mazza Recycling is right across Memorial Drive from the Neptune yard. With the effects of salt water, and then sitting for so long afterward, I don't think they'd be worth much besides scrap. Bay Head was not the best place to store equipment during Sandy, it was completely under water.

I'm surprised the cars are safe to move then. Sandy was nearly ten years ago, with the added salt water that they probably encountered via the air, I'm surprised the cars weren't completely and dangerously corroded in some critical spots

@JohnFromJersey They aren’t that bad but submersion in salt water doesn’t do the electrical equipment any favors.

The aforementioned equipment move occurred late last night.

JohnFromJersey wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 3:29 pm

GSC wrote: ↑Thu Jun 09, 2022 12:32 pm Mazza Recycling is right across Memorial Drive from the Neptune yard. With the effects of salt water, and then sitting for so long afterward, I don't think they'd be worth much besides scrap. Bay Head was not the best place to store equipment during Sandy, it was completely under water.

I'm surprised the cars are safe to move then. Sandy was nearly ten years ago, with the added salt water that they probably encountered via the air, I'm surprised the cars weren't completely and dangerously corroded in some critical spots

There is no salt water in air. NaCl separates from water when it evaporates.

This is a shameful and disgraceful move on NJT's part. Cleaning the cars could have easily saved them in working condition.

NJT probably wouldn’t use these cars again even if they were in immaculate condition.

It’s their fault the cars were damaged to begin with, leaving them in an area so close to sea level during a major storm. After Sandy there was enough water that canoes were needed to get around. There’s a picture of that happening at the railroad crossing adjacent to the yard somewhere.

To be expected based on this article from a few months ago https://www.nj.com/news/2022/01/nj-tran ... -them.html

amtrakowitz wrote: ↑Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:28 pm There is no salt water in air. NaCl separates from water when it evaporates.

This is a shameful and disgraceful move on NJT's part. Cleaning the cars could have easily saved them in working condition.

I disagree. Cleaning them after decades of pretty severe damage, especially electrical damage, would be pretty expensive to do for these ancient cars. However, it would've been better to try and sell them to another railroad for cheap, that would be willing to repair them + use them instead of completely scrapping them.

JohnFromJersey wrote: ↑Mon Jun 13, 2022 12:30 am

amtrakowitz wrote: ↑Sat Jun 11, 2022 9:28 pm There is no salt water in air. NaCl separates from water when it evaporates.

This is a shameful and disgraceful move on NJT's part. Cleaning the cars could have easily saved them in working condition.

I disagree. Cleaning them after decades of pretty severe damage, especially electrical damage, would be pretty expensive to do for these ancient cars. However, it would've been better to try and sell them to another railroad for cheap, that would be willing to repair them + use them instead of completely scrapping them.

These cars are far from "ancient". If acted on in a timely manner, they could have served another two to three decades either on NJT or any other passenger railroad, saving the public more money than even the mive tou buy more MLVs. There are many other railcars far more "ancient" yet still in revenue service.

Here's a video of the cars being shredded. It's also on app.com if you subscribe. https://sports.yahoo.com/nj-transit-tra ... 44139.html

Thanks for the video. At least NJT got some money out of them.

Personally, I was never a fan of the Comet III's. The brakes were always temperamental when they were hodge-podge'd together with other Comets, causing sudden earthquakes. The interior resembled too much like the Arrows, but without any character or unique-ness (i.e. lo-door Comet I's at least reminded you of the "heritage" from the past). And they were succeeded relatively quickly by the Comet IV's, which were upgrades to the Comet III's in almost every way at the time. The Comet IV's are well built, better than Alstom's Comet V's.

Comet III #5522 remains bouncing around at the MMC, just getting shifted with whatever other cars needing to be moved for work, repair, or whatever.

F40 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:39 pm Thanks for the video. At least NJT got some money out of them.

Personally, I was never a fan of the Comet III's. The brakes were always temperamental when they were hodge-podge'd together with other Comets, causing sudden earthquakes. The interior resembled too much like the Arrows, but without any character or unique-ness (i.e. lo-door Comet I's at least reminded you of the "heritage" from the past). And they were succeeded relatively quickly by the Comet IV's, which were upgrades to the Comet III's in almost every way at the time. The Comet IV's are well built, better than Alstom's Comet V's.

The brake issue is not the fault of the cars per se. And frankly, it is always up to the project managers to anticipate and rectify any problems with rolling stock incompatibilities, which they neglected to do.

As for the seating, the Comet IIIs debuted with the seats in question, whereas the Arrow IIIs received similar seating afterwards with their rebuild. At the time, the Comet III seats were far superior to the orange and tan original (and much harder) Arrows' original seats.