RCRY Intermodal Service ?

Very cool. Its always nice to hear about an increse in service so close to home. Any idea on when this will start up? Good to hear theres gonna be more traffic going through Metuchen, and in the Center. Whenever I'm there for a train show, its always nice to catch a train, or to explore on a slow day is also fun. Great operation the RCRY has going on.

wolfboy8171981 wrote: 2. This option would most likely be if traffic was huge would be South on the Chemical Coast to Wood for the Perth Amboy Industrial track and into Perth Amboy that way. But I'm not sure what track work if any has been done.

This could get interesting. I don't think there are any severe vertical clearance limitations on the Chem Coast. Plus there are additional ROW options in Perth Amboy that can be explored. If you Google Earth or Google Map the Raritan River behind Raritan Center and compare it with the historical maps (http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NJ bottom right corner) there's the LV connection that ran right along the river and connected with the NY&LB. I don't know how much, if any, of that is left.

I know that the new trackwork along the 440 spur has reached as far as the trailing switch for the spur that crosses the road and runs into Carborundum. So there'd be maybe 2-3 miles of serious rehab work moving west from there to make a decent connection into Raritan Center through that sandy/swampy area off King George Post Rd. Seems like it would be worth it to avoid the NEC altogether.

railroadcarmover wrote:This dock is located in Edison NJ. Its just past the Carberundum plant in Keasby.

The other day while driving down the Parkway, I saw a freighter docked by the old Carborundum plant.

General wrote:

railroadcarmover wrote:This dock is located in Edison NJ. Its just past the Carberundum plant in Keasby.

The other day while driving down the Parkway, I saw a freighter docked by the old Carborundum plant.

Come to think of it, I saw this ship as well. A little far awat from Raritan center no? So I assume the trains will run from here, along the line next to Industrial Highway and into the Center? That would be a cool little operation.

I don't know what the depth is for ocean-going shipping in the Keasby section of the Raritan River, but I'd bet it's pretty shallow. The Navy is forever dredging its channel to the ammo pier at Leonardo, and that's much closer to the open water.

I've seen coastal steamers and smaller tankers at the Hess(?) fuel dock adjacent to the new NJ 35 bridge, but I doubt they need much depth

Army Corps of Engineers, the state and the county are undertaking a series of major dredging projects on Raritan River and the bay. Dredging operations in New Brunswick have started and stopped (due to non-compliance by the contractor) and started again.

Here's the specific project: http://www.nan.usace.army.mil/project/n ... RarROM.pdf

Remember, at one time, troop and supply ships tied up at Camp Kilmer, and the CG used to require high clearances on the Parkway and Rt 9 bridges to allow Navy ships up river. Obviously, with a dredged channel, the river would be available for smaller ships (although there is no longer as high clearance due to the new Rt 35 and Rt 9 bridges).

GO to http://www.raritancentralrr.com/Rail_Maps.htm

The line to the right by Conrail "Upper yard" is the
Bonhampton Branch to Metuchen yard on the NEC, I think,
and the abandoned Conrail line at the bottom is the
line along Industrail Ave referred to above that goes off the map
to the bottom to join the LV PA branch (to reach the Chem Coast).

WHere is this ship port they are talking about?
Down near the "Pershing Transload Tracks" on the left side
of the map along the river? I have a feeling the Carborundum plant
as site of the ship mentioned above is
further down towards the bottom of the map
than the boundary of the Raritan Industrail park

JS

The site of the dock will be along the road that turns away from the Pershing Transload Tracks. There is some trackage left from an old ROW in this area and that is what will serve as the lead. The Pershing Transload Tracks are seperate from this. This segment is also an old ROW from eons ago.

If you go to Google maps http://maps.google.com/ and use the address: 10 sunfield ave. edison, nj and then click to "Hybrid" view, it's pretty easy to see where the tracks led down to the river through Raritan Arsenal. You can see the outlines of the old ammunition bunkers and the ROW looping down to parallel the river where the docks were.

The dredging to make the turnaround basin will be just opposite the break in Crab Island.

If you scroll up along the river, you can see the Carborundum property at the end of Crows Mill Rd. and the old spur crossing Crows Mill and Smith St. on its way to meet the LV Main paralleling New Brunswick Ave.

Back when i worked for Durham Transport in 94/96 all the trackage by the open area near the waterfront ( several thousand arces ) had a large amount of trackage that passed near the ammo buildings. This trackage was disconnected from the active trackage that we operated ( and RCRY operates ) over. This trackage was 70 lb rail. The neat thing for me was seeing a double track "main" that ran towards the waterfront complete with a crossover and feeder switches that connected to the straight sections that ran past the ammo buildings. This area was all open and overgrown desolate fields. This trackage had since been torn out a few years after, for scrap.

Now we will see some trackage replacing old ROW's not too far from this area with RCRY's project.

I had mentioned in a previous thread, that Conrail once considered rebuilding the old LV/PRR connection in Metuchen. Freight trains were on the PRR main at that time. The thought was to run the freight off the LV at South Plainfield, continue on the Perth Amboy Branch and go up the old ramp to connect with the PRR at Lincoln Tower. Might not be a bad idea now... run to Metuchen, back up and go to the Ford Yard to get into Raritan Center. No bridges to rebuild, just the overhead connector, which still has the ramp and bridge supports at Metuchen. The old track is still in on the East side of the bridge and I think Amtrak still refers it to as the LV track......as I had also mentioned, the last train to use the ramp was a circus train in the late 1940's. Some of the track between South Plainfield and Metuchen is still intact, although buried.

I know that the new trackwork along the 440 spur has reached as far as the trailing switch for the spur that crosses the road and runs into Carborundum. So there'd be maybe 2-3 miles of serious rehab work moving west from there to make a decent connection into Raritan Center through that sandy/swampy area off King George Post Rd. Seems like it would be worth it to avoid the NEC altogether

E-44, some questions to clarify the above:

1. By "trailing switch for the spur...", do you mean the switch along
the old LV PA line along NB ave, just west of the Parkway, that connects to the spur which then
crosses 440 and Smith St, etc,

or do you mean that part above is all restored and the switch is right by
Crows Mill Rd/Smith st, just next to Carborundum, and the spur means just the 500 feet or so which runs into Carborundum.

2. On the east end, how far has the trackwork gone? Has it gone
back over the new bridge over New Brunswick Ave to connect to the
Perth Amboy industrial?

If the line has been fixed up already from right by Carborundum alll
the way back to
the Perth AMboy industrial, I don't think it is that much further west to get to Raritan Center. I think there are active tracks already servicing the chemical plant
just north of Industrial Ave. just west of the where all the overpasses
and loops start for the 440 and Smith Ave/Industrial Ave connections.
From maps.google.com this seems less than a mile from the Carborundum connection to the active tracks.

If it is only fixed up as far as a switch by New Brunswick Ave, that's
another story.

3. Why else would they be doing this work along the 440 spur?

Thanks, JS

We were on that siding in November salvaging parts from an N5C that was being cut up along with three hoppers and the last cast steel flat car known to exist. The second day, one of our volunteers who knows a lot about old roads told us that the siding we were on used to be the LVRR line to Perth Amboy and it was a double track. Now the salvage foreman was having a problem because he had to move the consist down the tracks to get to his scrap hoppers and he didn't think there was any more track past all of the foliage and he would have to cut down some trees to see. Unfortunately that move took place the next day and we were done so I never did find out if the track went any farther down. So are the tracks really still there to Perth Amboy?

Later!
Mr. Ed

pumpers wrote:E-44, some questions to clarify the above:

1. By "trailing switch for the spur...", do you mean the switch along
the old LV PA line along NB ave, just west of the Parkway, that connects to the spur which then crosses 440 and Smith St, etc,

or do you mean that part above is all restored and the switch is right by
Crows Mill Rd/Smith st, just next to Carborundum, and the spur means just the 500 feet or so which runs into Carborundum.

I mean the latter, although I think it's a bit longer than 500 ft.

pumpers wrote:2. On the east end, how far has the trackwork gone? Has it gone back over the new bridge over New Brunswick Ave to connect to the Perth Amboy industrial?

Yes, it's been done all the way back to the NJCL. There are two spots I haven't walked yet, but I'm pretty sure the track is contiguous now.

pumpers wrote:If the line has been fixed up already from right by Carborundum alll the way back to the Perth AMboy industrial, I don't think it is that much further west to get to Raritan Center. I think there are active tracks already servicing the chemical plant just north of Industrial Ave. just west of the where all the overpasses and loops start for the 440 and Smith Ave/Industrial Ave connections. From maps.google.com this seems less than a mile from the Carborundum connection to the active tracks.

If it is only fixed up as far as a switch by New Brunswick Ave, that's
another story.

I'd estimate that there's about 2 miles total trackwork required, maybe a bit less.

pumpers wrote:3. Why else would they be doing this work along the 440 spur?

Indeed. Good question!