CR on the Southern Secondary

4405 will be leading going back because of 6228s goofy battery charger not working right.

It took a long time to do Woodhaven. Not sure if they’ll make it back…

CR making its last return run; about to pass through Farmingdale just after 2AM

And with that, 46 years of service from Conrail comes to an end.

https://youtu.be/sZnMhgfMryo

They leave behind many years of good memories and rather strange occurrences for those who were trackside. I’ve made quite a few friends from my time spent here as well.

Even though Conrail Shared Assets did god-awful of running this line, the entire journey has been unforgettable!

Good luck to the C&D. They have alot of work to do if they want to truely make a difference around here.

In the interim, here’s some changes we can expect to see.

1. Addition of C&D contact info to existing crossing equipment.

2. Transfer of engines to the exchange point with Conrail. Most likely the caboose and 1888 are for Freehold, with 2005 going to the Southern. (EW)

3. Potential test runs of C&D power on both lines after July 4th.

4. Offices on trailers being placed wherever they may go.

5. Change of the lines radio frequency to 160.39500. For those with scanners, I wouldn’t expect to hear the distinct buzzing of an HOT/EOTD from here on out. Thankfully I’ve noticed the C&D crews call out DCS stations on frequency whilst traveling past them.

Provided Conrail does not return in the future, all train sightings by me from here on out will be the Delaware and Raritan River Railroad topic.

delaware-and-raritan-river-railroad-gen ... 74281.html

SA38 clear of the Southern at 0510.

I think they are going to be running steam with the new line since diesel is so expensive. Did anyone else hear anything? LOL

Admittedly that would be better power than what we’re slated to get down here LMAO

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JSkMhUZhCtLcQAZC7

A small compilation of smartphone pictures from the last week or so.

The train on the Raritan River Bridge is PR-6 headed for Port Reading directly from Red Bank.

Did C&D they do any Engineer/Crew famliarization training to prequal the crew on Conrail trains prior to take-over? Or would the C&D contract any of the Conrail people to do the qual training? Somehow/somewhere there has to be a time when you have Conrail/C&D people in the same cab, correct?

It was mentioned that Conrail and C&D managers went down both lines in a hi-rail truck earlier this week, with actual crew qualification runs using C&D power occurring after July 4th. Possibly late next week.

I was out of state attending a conference and then on vacation, so I wasn't around to photo Conrail's last run on the old Southern this past Thursday. But, with photographing the line for 25 years, there's been a lot of neat things seen over the years.

Here are a few to start. These are print photos scanned onto a not the best scanner I had.

August 1999 with CSX 2806 and Conrail 7738 in Lakehurst with some views of the former CNJ tracks on both side of Route 70.
http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=5795042
http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=5795049
http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=5795047

May 2000 with NS 2946 (needing a repaint after tagging) tied down in Lakehurst. You can see the lead for the Toms River Industrial coming off the main and the train tied down on the other main.
http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=5795043

April 2001 with CSX 4422 from the Route 70 overpass and you can see the 2 tracks along the right side of the ROW have been removed.
http://octrainguy.rrpicturearchives.net ... id=5795050

A shame to see what Lakehurst has become with tracks being removed and trains no longer there. Can’t believe it was more overgrown than it is now!

Happy Independence Day!

This is a message for those who have referred to this topic when tracking the location of trains on this line.

For future updates on train locations, please refer to the two topics linked below. There seems to be a good chance 2005 and a train for Woodhaven will be ferried to Red Bank tomorrow.

For updates regarding Conrail movements between Red Bank and South Amboy out of Browns, use this topic:

trains-and-operations-in-browns-yard-t5 ... l#p1598503

For train sightings and any general discussion of the Southern Secondary and Freehold Industrial under the new operator, use this topic:

delaware-and-raritan-river-railroad-gen ... 74281.html

Hope this is helpful.

SA31 Just called out

If possible please report anything further on the Browns Yard topic.