CR on the Southern Secondary

PR-20 is going to pick up SA31 from the church connecting track.

Or maybe OI-16

No they’re not….

Nevermind, OI-16 towed the SA31 back!

@trainfann101 They said PR-20 would do it on the scanner. Either way, OI-16 towing SA-31 was a very nice catch!

Beautiful day. Perfect photography weather. Waited at Maxwell rd with 2 1st time railfans for over an hour for no train. No smart phone available. Gave up.
This is a good reason to switch to C&D. Conrail Quality is long gone.

@R&DB Not that C&D will be any better.

They should not have brought the 4406 out knowing it was broken. Why didn’t they just take the 6242?

We might see SA31 come down today around it’s usual time. It may depend on engineer availability though.

OI-16 didn’t look like it had very many (if any) cars for the Southern Secondary, so if they do come down it should still be the six cars from yesterday.

It’s probably not likely, but hopefully 6242 is the power for the train.

Please keep us posted. Most of us don't have scanners. A nice day for chasing.

@GSC I will do my absolute best to keep everyone informed. However, should I be unable to report on the train for any reason, an alternative exists.

This website is an online broadcast of railroad radio frequencies. It’s the best alternative to a scanner at the moment, and it works with most smartphones.

https://m.broadcastify.com/listen/feed/22265

Listen for a Conrail symbol calling Coast Line Dispatch at Church Connecting Track. (CP WILLIAM on the Amboy Secondary) The call will most likely occur between 2 and 4 pm, with the train entering the Coast Line around 3:45 and it typically arrives in Red Bank to enter the Southern Secondary between 4:15 and 4:45 PM

I’ll be tuned in throughout the day and will report back if I hear anything. Should they fail to come down today, expect a weekend train that could show up at any time. Typically several hours earlier than SA31 does.

In the highly unlikely event that they can find an SA-38 crew to bring the train back tonight, it should return Saturday or Sunday afternoon depending on crew availability.

Hope this is helpful. Sorry if it’s a little confusing. Browns operations have been very odd as of late!

Edit: Forgot the website link. Sorry! It’s fixed now.

It would be nice to see 6242. 4406 is just making a joke of itself at this point...

@Jersey Rail Filmmakers It’s such a shame too. That engine was so horrible before it’s rebuild by progress rail. It would come through Bound Brook and when it did the smoke was so thick you couldn’t see anything, and it smelled worse than decaying roadkill.

I believe Conrail pulled a 100 car intermodal train with it in Port Newark and broke it. That’s how many of these engines get destroyed, they simply aren’t meant to pull 100 loaded cars by themselves. The motor makes weird banging noises now, and the PTC is so bad that it just completely fails if used. Sadly Browns and Port Reading are often left with the worst power North Jersey Conrail has on hand, while most of the good stuff sits in Oak Island doing nothing! Maybe OI-10 at most!

It's one thing when a car can't be delivered, like with Extech recently. The consignee would be responsible and probably fined or upcharged. But what if Woodhaven was needing the cars on their specified delivery date? Is Conrail fined, or is the service discounted? A trucking company missing its delivery time (traffic, weather, breakdowns, etc) can be charged or refused. Does it work that way on the railroad?

SA-31 left Browns around 3PM, 4432 +8.

@GSC Woodhaven typically orders an extra car or two per train to keep them covered should the train fail to show up for any reason. (Smart move!) Mich of their lumber is also distributed throughout all of Central NJ and possibly further beyond, but the majority goes to the construction of 3 story high density housing in Lakewood.

I can’t say if the service is discounted. Woodhaven may demand some sort of compensation but I’m not 100 percent sure.

I can say that Woodhaven has been complaining about issues they’ve had with Conrail for quite some time now. It started when Woodhaven was getting busier around 2010-2011. They began to need more than 10 cars a trip, (they only had one track at the time and could only fit 10 cars) so Conrail would have to deliver cars to Woodhaven twice a week.

Conrail very quickly told Woodhaven off, saying they were absolutely not willing to run on the Southern more than once a week except for an extra, as needed train. Woodhaven was forced to pay $500,000 for a second track inside their storage yard so Conrail could deliver 15 cars in one go instead of 7-8 cars once every 2-3 days.

Other complaints have included the inability for 286,000 pound freight cars, but NJTs old and somewhat decrepit (and whatever Sandy damaged on top of that) infrastructure means a max weight of 263,000 pounds per car. Not sure if they want Plate F.

Woodhavens cars come from as far away as Columbia Falls, Montana and a few places in Canada, mainly the western/northwestern portions I think. They transfer between several railroads along the way and there’s transfer fees plus the respective carload rates and tariffs of each rail company the cars travel on. Their trains are NOT cheap at all.

To tell you truth, there’s really not much holding Conrail back from at the very least providing a consistent service down here. Sure, there’s problems with crew availability, but other than that they aren’t providing a consistent service simply because they don’t care anymore. They’ve wanted this line gone since 2003 and it’s painfully obvious that they have no intention of changing their minds. In two years time, the line will be under new ownership and it’s only going to get worse from there.