Raritan River RR / Milltown news

Some Gillespie branch action; after all these years, I finally caught SA-2 on the siding at Riverside Supply (if that's the correct name), picking up a brick car last week.....

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3799280" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

NS 5271 would then go on to power SA-31 later that day. And, yes, hundreds of new ties for the area, with this tie crane removing old wood.....

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3799289" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Chris

Great pics!
The schedule on SA-2 can be all over the place. Nice to see her running on the usual Th. Did you hear them on the radio or was just passing by? SA-2 now runs 1-3 times a week on any given weekday. Sometimes they hit multiple industries on a single run or sometimes they run to one industry just to pick up or drop off a single car. I saw that neat little tie crane operating this morning in the yard just west of Browns Rd. Cool stuff.

RailsEast wrote:Some Gillespie branch action; after all these years, I finally caught SA-2 on the siding at Riverside Supply (if that's the correct name), picking up a brick car last week.....
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3799280" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
NS 5271 would then go on to power SA-31 later that day. And, yes, hundreds of new ties for the area, with this tie crane removing old wood.....
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3799289" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Chris

Hart Rd. in East Brunswick closed this morning due to work being done at the RxR.

As a follow up to bigblue5277 questions from earlier....

I have been trying to find out a schedule when the tie replacing. Building facilities have yet to get back to me. Security is aware that work will be done on the property but unfortunately the best they can do is alert me the day of workers will be on the property.

Also, still trying to find out who is in charge of scheduling for the hopper car. It was switched out within the past 2 to 3 weeks ago.

As I find out information, I will pass it along.

Keep up the good detective work. You the Man!

This morning tie replacement work began on the Gillespie Branch. A whole slew of MofW track equipment were operating on both sides of Bordentown Ave. Every red light railroad workers would flag the crossing for one MofW unit to cross going north out of the yard..

Here is a tie exchanger crossing Bordentown Ave. on the Gillespie Branch.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 52&nseq=28" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The tie replacement project is now done on the Amboy Secondary and Browns Yard. It will now be moving up the Gillespie Branch, then east on the Sayreville Runner and finishing last on the west end of the Sayreville Runner. It should take several more weeks.

The train to Silverline was lookin' mighty fine.
Rare catch I tell ya. Passing the former RRRR Milltown Station ;^)
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3824282" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Yup, new ties installed, just waitin' for ballast......

The whole parade of MofW equipment is on the march across Ryder's Lane right now and is heading for Silverline. It should be passing the old Raritan River Freight Station this afternoon and reaching Silverline by 5 pm.
So maybe someone can get a real picture of the Freight Station for pete sake!
The project could be done by the end of today, but I think it could continue to tomorrow and even into Thursday. However I heard the equipment has to be in Linden NJ for next week, so keep your ears open for the NS MofW work train to be coming back down to Browns later this week to pick up the equipment. Being that the MofW crew hasn't been working on Fridays I'm thinking this train could come down on Wednesday for the crews to load on Thursday.

The Sayreville Runner Tie Replacement Project ended on Wednesday.
It was nice to see some RRRR railfans out observing the action.
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3833151" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
And here's a few more shots...
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3833160" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3833154" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3833158" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 76&nseq=26" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3833163" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

All the MofW equipment moved north on Wednesday over the North jersey Coast Line and up the Chemical Coast where they are now working in Linden.

SA-2 went to Silverline today, arrived at about 1:15 pm: NS 5313, one hopper and a splat car. They exchanged one empty hopper with a full hopper. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera.
But fret not as someone else was on the scene with a camera.
I hope those pics will be posted here.

And they arrived back at Browns just as SA-31 was leaving at 1445 hours; a mini-bottleneck at the time, SA-2 arriving, SA-31 just about to depart and track work within the yard slowed everyone down a step. No big deal, though, good communication between the crews got everything back to normal very quickly....

A nice sight that must have been. Thanks for reporting.
That's interesting about the track work, I thought they finished all that work weeks ago.
There are now a lot of piles of old ties lying around the yard. So far I haven't noticed them taking any of them away yet.

RailsEast wrote:And they arrived back at Browns just as SA-31 was leaving at 1445 hours; a mini-bottleneck at the time, SA-2 arriving, SA-31 just about to depart and track work within the yard slowed everyone down a step. No big deal, though, good communication between the crews got everything back to normal very quickly....

bigblue5277 wrote:SA-2 went to Silverline today, arrived at about 1:15 pm: NS 5313, one hopper and a splat car. They exchanged one empty hopper with a full hopper. Unfortunately, I did not have my camera.
But fret not as someone else was on the scene with a camera.
I hope those pics will be posted here.

First, I have to say big thanks to Jason (guessing that was you on the top of the hill) for giving me a heads up on the switching work. That's what I get for having my headphones on too loud all the time. I grabbed my safety gear and department's camera and quickly made it to the dock where I was able to catch the entire transfer. I'll try and post photos when I can, but here's one I composed tonight:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3856630

Indoor shots were difficult with barely any ambient lighting and tight spaces, but I will see what I can salvage.

I thought may have missed the transfer since I heard air horns yesterday (5/28) during lunch, but maybe they were working Mauser?

After the transfer, I luckily bumped into one of the guys involved with the rail deliveries. Basically how it works is, when the hopper is empty, he puts in an order that is emailed out to superiors. It then takes on average 3 or 4 days for a new hopper car to arrive and sometimes sooner. He was nice enough to let me know from now on when the new car would arrive on that day. I will still try and see if I can get on the list when the initial order goes out, that way I can plan on having a better camera on hand and at least give others an opportunity as well.

Also, as sort of an off topic discussion...I had previously asked when the ties were being replaced if they would end up changing the ones in the Silver Line plant. None of those ties on siding were ever replaced...just the main line.

jDubz411 wrote: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3856630

Very nice shot of the loco coming out of the garage.
I was relaxing in my car under the shade of a tree enjoying my fast food lunch and listening to talk radio. Then I heard the loud blow of a train horn. With the NEC over a mile away I was almost certain it had to have come from Silverline. So I shot over there to check it out. Yep that was me on top of the hill. I'm glad you had a camera to capture it. I say nice team work.