Delaware and Raritan River Railroad-General Discussion

North at DCS LAKEWOOD 11 am

Well, the track work must be getting close to Yellowbrook Rd. The workers are parking their POVs next to the Stavola entrance there. Maybe because Fairfield is so messed up with ongoing sewer line construction (if that's what they are doing).

Think they’ll get there before the end of the week?


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North at Victory road doing 20 MPH

North through Farmingdale 11:35 am

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:02 am Think they’ll get there before the end of the week?


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If not, then next Monday or Tuesday. Don't want to see them doing past Stavola next Tuesday. The skeet shot will not reach that far, but the noise will.

There’s a Union Paving excavator sitting across from Stavola in Howell. Won’t be lo g before they get there.

NJ State Police in farmingdale are asking around about the train lights not working. Odd…


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I apologize if this has been discussed already. Looking at Google Maps https://goo.gl/maps/nnJB2wXSwfVey8iw5 , it looks like the driveway to Stavola at Yellowbrook Rd is encroaching on the RR RoW, meaning a boxcar would be hanging out over the driveway . Is there an agreement or is this sloppiness on the part of Stavola? Are they going to move the tracks or the driveway? Guess we will find out soon enough.
EDIT: I don't know if the property lines on Google maps are accurate, but in any case they show the whole Stavola driveway on RR property, like they were trying to keep off the parcel immediately to the north.
https://goo.gl/maps/khbJmBft2S2RKodF7 Maybe Stavola has an easement?

The stavola driveway does not encroach on the ROW.

As to state police asking questions, they have the policing responsibility there including intermittent patrols and traffic safety. Farmingdale felt Howell PD prices to assume responsibility were too high. They probably were.

I'm not sure what happened there. I assume Stavola either just did what they did with their driveway there, or had some sort of agreement as the line was OOS for a long time.

From what it looks like to me, yes, part of Stavola's driveway is encroaching on the ROW, but more importantly, it is not encroaching on the tracks. Stavola also doesn't seem to have vehicles park/que up on their driveway in a way that it would affect the railroad, so I don't think it will be an issue where either party will have to significantly move either the tracks or the driveway.

CharlieL wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 4:32 pm The stavola driveway does not encroach on the ROW.

As to state police asking questions, they have the policing responsibility there including intermittent patrols and traffic safety. Farmingdale felt Howell PD prices to assume responsibility were too high. They probably were.

The NJSP has the main police job in Farmingdale. And you are right, Howell PD wanted to charge something like at least $100,000 a year (I believe it was more) to have one or two officers hang around the area - and I believe the proposed contract said that Howell PD wouldn't have to keep at least one officer in Farmingdale at all times! The town thought that was preposterous and said no.
That being said, Howell PD does have authority over Farmingdale, where they will respond to incidents if the NJSP cannot. There have been a few domestic incidents in my recent memory where it was HTPD who responded, not NJSP

Well assuming that what's been posted is correct EG: they are clearing 24 feet of ROW 12 feet each way then it appears Stavola sign is only about 4 ft from the tracks. Then that makes the driveway in the ROW. There's no missing this if you just drive out and look. This has been all hashed out on the other 841 pages going back 2 years, with pictures. But then since someone ripped up the track for 150ft going towards Stavola maybe the track turns left and back right for the crossing. Maybe someone talking in the third person can share what they've heard from someone else who knows somebody?

pumpers wrote: ↑Tue Jan 31, 2023 4:26 pm I apologize if this has been discussed already. Looking at Google Maps https://goo.gl/maps/nnJB2wXSwfVey8iw5 , it looks like the driveway to Stavola at Yellowbrook Rd is encroaching on the RR RoW, meaning a boxcar would be hanging out over the driveway . Is there an agreement or is this sloppiness on the part of Stavola? Are they going to move the tracks or the driveway? Guess we will find out soon enough.
EDIT: I don't know if the property lines on Google maps are accurate, but in any case they show the whole Stavola driveway on RR property, like they were trying to keep off the parcel immediately to the north.
https://goo.gl/maps/khbJmBft2S2RKodF7 Maybe Stavola has an easement?

This clearly shows the driveway and sign in the ROW. One would need to be blind not to see this! If what's being posted is true 24ft of ROW is being cleared then 12 feet each way meets this is encroachment!

Tanker, there were rumors of land disputes a while back, but those seem to mainly between C&D, L&L Paving, and some farmland. Stavolas access road wasn’t mentioned.

I do not know if Stavola is aware that C&D intends to reopen the line, but if there is an issue than this is something they’ll probably hash it out over.

C&D does have standards for track that run parallel to roadways. I don’t remember the specifics, but it mentions a form of barrier between the outside of the ties and the road edge. There’s no room for such a barrier though.

As for the sign, perhaps Stavola and C&D could come to an agreement provided the sign isn’t fouling the tracks?

from an overhead, sign appears to be about 8 feet from track centerline, grass margin about 10 feet.

Roads normally have a ten foot margin from the paving; that said, I'm willing to bet Stavola paved that cut some time after the line went out of service for ease of getting trucks in and out. You can pretty clearly see where the tracks were paved over.