New welded track in Hainesport

Folks, noticed this weekend that the track heading to Hainesport and Mount Holly is now all welded and new ties installed. I know this was going on for awhile, but thought it was just new ties. Is this an up-grade for some reason or just NS making the track better?

Thanks in advance.

Noticed this too. Most of those ties along 537 near the industrial park were practically non-existant, the line really needed a facelift. No work was done past the Mount Holly bypass into Mount Holly however, I wonder if they dont plan on using that stretch anymore at all. After the Madison Ave X-ing was ripped out, they started to work on reinstalling the switch farther back, and then stopped. Havent seen any work take place there since then, and that was over a year ago. -Chris

The welded rail train was well documented on Yahoo Group SJRA at the time.

They did replace some of the ties on the Mt Holly side of the By-pass. I think they come across when the do the drop off at the telephone plant.

BTW, Conrail (Shared Assets) runs the lines in S Jersey not NS. Many of the S Jersey lines have had major portions welded in the past decade. It's mainly being done to save a lot on maintaince costs. Heavy loads and locos can take quite a toll on the jointed part of any rail by flattening the rail at the joint from the constant pushing down on it by the wheeles -and the toll on the ties underneath it. Weld it-solve most of the problems.

Before I forget, they actually started welding the beginning of the line a few years ago. They just recently got around to doing more work. That's how CSAO has been doing all the welding projects.

Thanks for the info gents. I did notice a couple of Conrail trucks yesterday. It's nice to hear the diesels in the evening making their way down the line. Seems rail service in Hainesport has picked up.