Railroad Forums
Moderator: David
CharlieL wrote: ↑Tue Nov 17, 2020 3:42 pm No surprise he couldn't get the truck down the track. There's enough lumber growing between the rails in the Lakehurst - Lakewood stretch to build a small development - - ; )How big are the trees growing there and how long would it take to get them out of there? The inspection truck coming through must mean we'll see some trains come through sooner or later
Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 2:17 pm @CR7876 The reason why there's no rail markings on 571 was because the truck never put its rail wheels down. He lined up the truck with the tracks and was gonna attempt to go south towards Lakehurst, but decided not to attempt it after looking at the track conditions.The Southern is indeed in danger, but only until the pending sale is completed.
As for the Southern being in danger of being abandoned, it's already in danger. Has been for at least a decade. North Jersey management wants nothing to do with the Southern.
North Jersey management began scaring off customers in 2003. Many customers were told that they weren't worth Conrails time and promptly stopped getting rail service. Customers that were lost because of this ideology include Poly One in Howell, Columbia Propane in Toms River, and Dinaso in Lakewood. We are now down to 2 active customers, (3 if Extech is still a customer) which are Woodhaven and Bel-Ray.
But what's really gonna kill this line is NJ Transits restrictions on freight cars, which is another major contributing factor to this lines decline. Along with a weight and height restriction, certain cars are banned altogether. This is why we no longer see gondolas, certain tank cars, certain hopper cars, flatcars, and reefer cars. These restrictions mean that many potential customers can't get rail service. Brick Recycling stopped getting cars because of this, as NJT said their cars were too heavy. Incidentally, this has also prevented any sale of this line to interested parties.
Something needs to be done about this soon. If the Transit restrictions don't kill this line, Conrail will. They don't want to run down here anymore, and are not afraid to abandon it. There are people in North Jersey management who want to make some major improvements down here, but aren't able to because of one member in upper management. This guy is a real cheapskate. He's reluctant to spend money on almost any sort of improvement, and only likes serving very large customers while leaving smaller customers like EH Allen in South Amboy behind. (They got bulkhead flat cars for a while until Conrail told them he wasn't worth their time) North Jerseys future is bleak as long as this guy is calling the shots.
Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 3:11 pm The Southern Secondary is the only physical connection between Earle NWS and the national rail network. I would think that strategic value alone might be enough to keep it safe from abandonment.That is very true, but if push comes to shove I don't think the Navy would be willing to take the reigns from Collingswood to BANK.
RailsEast wrote: ↑Thu Nov 19, 2020 4:15 pm Fwiw, the Poly One plant was one of my customers back in the day. The reason they stopped receiving plastic pellet covered hoppers was that the head office decided to close the plant and shift operations to Texas. If they were still in operation here they would still receive cars.Besides Conrail driving off customers, this is another reason we lost some business. I didn't necessarily come up before, but some consignees decide that rail service isn't worth it, or they shut down, etc. I believe Dinaso shut down instead of opting to end rail service as well.
Chris