Raritan River RR general questions

Someone is still served near Ryders Lane. There is a rail car (can't remember if it's a covered hopper or a tank car) with some unrusted wheels at one of the buildings there. You can see it from Kimberly road (or whatever road Kimberly turns into) as you're headed towards Ryders.

There is????

Thats great!

I'll need to get a picture of that next weekend!

If its where I think it is, I haven't seen a car there since 1991.

-Tom

Yep, the past three years I've been working down there I've seen em. Taking Kimberly Road from Harts Lane, follow the road straight until you HAVE to turn right. There will be tracks crossing the road. If you look to the right, there are cars. I have never seen anything moving them, nor have I ever come across a train, but I can see the wheels of the cars aren't rusted, indicating to me that they are on the move. Next time I'm down there I'll snag a few pics as well.

I drove by on the way to lunch today. I took pics (I'll post those probably tommorrow when I get them off the phone - kinda crappy, but there. The street is actually Cotters Lane that the building is located on. I think the company name was Malusa or something like that. I noticed that there was a little surface rust now on the wheels of the tanker/covered hopper car (it wasn't there this summer). That siding taps into another track which seems head on a collision course towards the tracks that cross harts lane

Mauser is the name of the customer, formally known as Van Container, that building has been an active customer since 2000

the old line to the tire mill is tore up. most of it is GONE and has been out of service for as long as i can remember.. the second line runs to the rt one bridge and there is one customer up that way that i know of... that would be silver line windows. so yeah its still in service.. maybe some of our CR employees can answer it better...

Activity today!!

My coworker and I were running to Applebees for lunch today from our warehouse. We get to cotters lane and Mauser was getting a delivery today. It was being served by a conrail locomotive and they were switching cars out. I snapped a pic of the locomotive across cotters lane (I have to transfer it at my NY office monday). It had a box car and a few covered hoppers (It kept the box car). We waited for it as it slowly lined the cars up with the building. My coworker looked at me funny when I grabbed the cell phone to take a pic. Heh, well one thing I noticed is that the railroad crossing flashers did not work at all. The train was sitting there across the road with no flashers.. heh.

We had lunch, and on our way back, that same train was crossing widers. Again the cell phone came out to snap a pic. I'll post those as soon as I can get them downloaded. In my three + years of working for our company I have never seen rail activity in the area until today. Definitely some excitement for the day!!

james1787 wrote:Activity today!!

My coworker and I were running to Applebees for lunch today from our warehouse. We get to cotters lane and Mauser was getting a delivery today. It was being served by a conrail locomotive and they were switching cars out. I snapped a pic of the locomotive across cotters lane (I have to transfer it at my NY office monday). It had a box car and a few covered hoppers (It kept the box car). We waited for it as it slowly lined the cars up with the building. My coworker looked at me funny when I grabbed the cell phone to take a pic. Heh, well one thing I noticed is that the railroad crossing flashers did not work at all. The train was sitting there across the road with no flashers.. heh.

We had lunch, and on our way back, that same train was crossing widers. Again the cell phone came out to snap a pic. I'll post those as soon as I can get them downloaded. In my three + years of working for our company I have never seen rail activity in the area until today. Definitely some excitement for the day!!

Is the Mauser spur the one with the antiquated grade crossing equipment (tiny little lights, looks like it has been exposed to the elements since the RRRR days)?

Yes, the Mauser spur has a really old crossing signal that looks ancient from the RRRR days. It doesn't work, perhaps that says it all. Not that they needed it. When you round the corner, we saw nothin' but train parked on the street. They just approached the crossing real slow.. looked both ways and proceeded. Neat stuff!

On another note my coworker was telling me one of our buildings might have rail access (most likely off the same spur). If it wasn't raining I was going to run to the back of the building but it was raining gp38's and U34CH's at the time (thats alot of rain) so maybe tommorrow.

For your enjoyment: a picture of Mauser on any given day, a pic of a delivery!! The Conrail locomotive is sitting across the road. Last pic (a little blurry) is the same locomotive crossing Ryders lans heading back towards Mauser / Harts Lane

Any Given Day:



Stopped accross Cotters Lane



Crossing Ryders Lane headed towards Mauser / Harts Lane

^Like your shots James? Where exactly is that just out of curiosity?

Nick, Mauser is located in East Brunswick, NJ on Cotters Lane. The first shot is a picture of the rail cars stored at Mauser (no idea what Mauser does) on any given day. The second shot is of Cotters Lane. This must have been a delivery or pickup. We sat there for a good minute or so while the locomotive idled blocking the road. That was the first time I have ever seen rail traffic there in the three years I worked for this company (although I am down there very sporadically as I live in Summit and my office is in NY). The last shot was of Ryders lane in East Brunswick. Same train, headed back towards either Mauser or the Harts Lane crossing (near Rt. 18)

james1787 wrote:Nick, Mauser is located in East Brunswick, NJ on Cotters Lane. The first shot is a picture of the rail cars stored at Mauser (no idea what Mauser does) on any given day. The second shot is of Cotters Lane. This must have been a delivery or pickup. We sat there for a good minute or so while the locomotive idled blocking the road. That was the first time I have ever seen rail traffic there in the three years I worked for this company (although I am down there very sporadically as I live in Summit and my office is in NY). The last shot was of Ryders lane in East Brunswick. Same train, headed back towards either Mauser or the Harts Lane crossing (near Rt. 18)

Really. I was wondering if it is the Same Ryders Lane. I'm actually right off of Ryders Lane in Cook College area. If I had a car, I would head down there to watch for activity. I could always walk to it I imagine, it's only probably a few miles down it probably. But then again, between the cold and all of the crazy drivers, maybe not.

Yep, it should be the same Ryder's lane. When my wife (then girlfriend) was living on campus, I would frequently take Ryders Lane to get to Douglass campus (she lived in Henderson Hall). It's no more than a five minute drive from there.

I suppose you could do the walk in 20 - 30 minutes each way, but I have no idea what their schedule was. On average I get down there 2 - 3 times per month. That was the first time in three years I have ever seen anything. The line could be more active, but I suppose it would help to have a schedule of some sort. It was just dumb luck that we came upon the delivery / pickup. If you're heading towards East Brunswick from Rutgers on Ryders Lane, Cotters Lane will be on the left just after you pass over the NJ Turnpike (If you hit Acme / Home Depot you went too far). Follow Cotters Lane until you get to Mauser.. and voila! Rail cars..

james1787 wrote:Yep, it should be the same Ryder's lane. When my wife (then girlfriend) was living on campus, I would frequently take Ryders Lane to get to Douglass campus (she lived in Henderson Hall). It's no more than a five minute drive from there.

I suppose you could do the walk in 20 - 30 minutes each way, but I have no idea what their schedule was. On average I get down there 2 - 3 times per month. That was the first time in three years I have ever seen anything. The line could be more active, but I suppose it would help to have a schedule of some sort. It was just dumb luck that we came upon the delivery / pickup. If you're heading towards East Brunswick from Rutgers on Ryders Lane, Cotters Lane will be on the left just after you pass over the NJ Turnpike (If you hit Acme / Home Depot you went too far). Follow Cotters Lane until you get to Mauser.. and voila! Rail cars..

Yeah, I remember roughly where that is located. Was down that stretch of the road a year or so back. Sometimes I swear I hear Freight train horns that aren't coming from the NEC (but not too often) and perhaps I heard it from over there once or twice. Thanks James!