The Atlantic City Line Thread

A few photos taken while out on the Delaware River...

NJ Transit Atlantic City Line #4673 headed for Jersey, on the Philadelphia side approach of the railroad bridge:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5322236

Now at just about mid-span on the vertical-lift portion of the Delair Bridge, the former swing section can be seen to the right of the train. The swing section of the bridge was replaced by the vertical-lift in 1959. The Betsy Ross Bridge can be seen in the distance:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5322237

NJ Transit Atlantic City Line #4670 headed for Philadelphia, centered over the vertical-lift span:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5322238


Ben

A good sign to see, NJ Transit is currently performing maintenance of way work along the Atlantic City Line. This morning, a loaded stone train was dumping ballast along the RoW, just north of the Garden State Parkway overpass in Galloway Twp. When I arrived, the train was moving at a craw, and I could see the locomotives were still a ways off. I could hear the diesel engines spool up every now and again, coupled with the sound of stone falling to the ground. As the train got closer, so did the clouds of dust:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323014

Two GP40's made up the power on the ballast train. #4219, originally built for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad in 1967 was leading, followed by #4112, which was a former Central Railroad of New Jersey GP40, built in 1968:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323015

NJT #4112 (GP40PH-2):

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323017

The crew was focused and hard at work controlling the flow of stone pouring out of the hoppers:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323018

A close-up of the stone exiting the chute:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323020

The slow moving ballast train continues down the line:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323021

Once the train had passed, a Ballast Regulator followed and evenly distributed the dumped stone in between the ties:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323022

Standing in a dust cloud:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5323024

Ben

Ben, nice work! I agree a good sign.

Ditto, great shots!

MoW work continues on the Atlantic City Line.

A loaded stone train arrived yesterday (10/14) afternoon in South Jersey, and was stored overnight on the passing siding at the Cherry Hill station. Before the crew arrived this morning, I was able to snap a few head end shots of the train in the early morning sunlight. Power for the ballast train was provided by the last two EMD built, F40PH-2CAT's (4120 & 4119) on NJ Transit's roster. These particular locomotives are my personal favorite! (Note that the sanders were left open overnight on #4120)

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=5420013

Ben

The ballast train is back at Cherry Hill, this time with a pair of former CNJ Geeps.

http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... id=5429498
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... id=5429499
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... id=5429500

Bob

Great shots, Bob. Love seeing these classic units still in service after fifty years.

The crews are now happy to have them instead of the F-40's

Backshophoss wrote: ↑Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:19 pm The crews are now happy to have them instead of the F-40's

How so? Other than the open walkway, what advantages do the Geeps have over the F40s?

I would say better visibility and easier to climb onto and off of for starters.

The Geeps are far quieter than the screaming F40s.

Do the F40's still run in Notch 8 in work train service? I thought that was for HEP purposes only, and didn't NJT replace all of the HEP gear with CAT gensets anyway ( now removed I believe ) for HEP power?

glennk419 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 1:12 pm Do the F40's still run in Notch 8 in work train service? I thought that was for HEP purposes only, and didn't NJT replace all of the HEP gear with CAT gensets anyway ( now removed I believe ) for HEP power?

The F40PH-2CAT's still have HEP in one form or another. They were actually used in revenue service last month.

Ben

glennk419 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 05, 2020 1:12 pm Do the F40's still run in Notch 8 in work train service? I thought that was for HEP purposes only, and didn't NJT replace all of the HEP gear with CAT gensets anyway ( now removed I believe ) for HEP power?

That is correct. They are not screamers and have not been since the late 1990s.

Screamers run as normal locos when not used for HEP, that was the factory setup. All NJT Units are genset HEP.