by Snowmojoe
I am curious if anyone has some back story on this covered hopper - CHEX 18, marooned on an old siding in an industrial park in Carlstadt, NJ. Norfolk Southern switches the local active customers by way of the NJT Pascack Valley line. The switch to get into this industrial park is right by Wood-RIdge NJT station.
If you look at the attached image "CHEX-18-1" (these are from Google Maps, but I have seen this car myself and have shots of it) - to the left is where the NJT main is, but up the street from the location of this car, the tracks are covered over and no longer usable, so this thing is stuck here. A few things about this car are amusing to me:
1) It's reporting mark is "CHEX". I mean, c'mon. (Chemplex/Equistar Chemicals, it seems.) I'm guessing they had a plant in the area at some point, perhaps.
2) If you look close at the CHEX-18-1 file, there are a few dozen records stuck in the side. Old school, 12" 33 1/3 RPM records. What sort of coating is on the outside of this car that is so thick that these records would be able to be embedded in it? And who are these people who have so little to do they are throwing old records at a stranded railcar? (Says the guy asking questions about a stranded railcar...)
3) How long has this car been here? It seems strange that it was never pulled out of here before the siding became inactive, but that may not have been a planned event, I guess.
If anyone has any info on the origins/demise of this car, I find myself curiously interested.
If you look at the attached image "CHEX-18-1" (these are from Google Maps, but I have seen this car myself and have shots of it) - to the left is where the NJT main is, but up the street from the location of this car, the tracks are covered over and no longer usable, so this thing is stuck here. A few things about this car are amusing to me:
1) It's reporting mark is "CHEX". I mean, c'mon. (Chemplex/Equistar Chemicals, it seems.) I'm guessing they had a plant in the area at some point, perhaps.
2) If you look close at the CHEX-18-1 file, there are a few dozen records stuck in the side. Old school, 12" 33 1/3 RPM records. What sort of coating is on the outside of this car that is so thick that these records would be able to be embedded in it? And who are these people who have so little to do they are throwing old records at a stranded railcar? (Says the guy asking questions about a stranded railcar...)
3) How long has this car been here? It seems strange that it was never pulled out of here before the siding became inactive, but that may not have been a planned event, I guess.
If anyone has any info on the origins/demise of this car, I find myself curiously interested.
"Don't open the gates!! Who the hell needs a wooden horse that size anyway?!?!"