Riverdale Bulk Transfer

Is the Riverdale Bulk Transfer still in use? I have seen it referred as "former" a few times.

Doug

I think they stopped using it a two or three years ago...im not sure when they stopped using it though. It was also closed up very suddenly and i never found out why. Perhaps someone on the board knows more?

Empty yard with a weedy, rusty railbed up to the diamond?

Basically, the yard was closed when the local politicians in Riverdale figured out that since it was totally located on railroad property, and there were no new permanent buildings, there was no way they could legally get any more tax dollars from the railroad. They started a campaign to close it siting noise and polution issues based on so-called complaints from residents who lived near the facility. These same town officials have seen fit to allow Rt 23 from border to border become one long group of retail stores and condo units, which will bring multi thousands of cars into the area....with no effect on enviormental issues?? My personal take on the whole affair is that the NYS&W refused to give in to the town and didn't want to waste who knows how much money on legal battles that could have gone on for years.

My old 'neck of the woods' for short period of time. Anyway is the town seeking to raze the old station? Does NYS&W still ship to the polymers company between the diamond and the bulk facility?

The NYS&W still serves the plastic company, as well as Morris Pipe which is just south (RR east) of the Rt. 23 overpass in Pompton Plains. Track is OOS past that point.

trainwayne1,

Riverdale, as far as I know had given up that fight long ago. They did go to court and they lost when the facility was first put in.

What I had heard was the company that did the bulk unloading decided to scale back there operation, either due to market shrink or other economic reasons. The unloading was then consolidated with their other facility in Oakland.

Perhaps it was a combination of all the things mentioned above. I knew a driver who hauled out of the trans-load facility and he told me that the Riverdale cops were always harrasing the trucks that went in and out of there.

trainwayne1,

That could be very true. I know of similar enforcement that took place in another location in town. That business finally left town too.

The bulk facility in Riverdale caused a lot of bad blood because the NYS&W basically did here the same thing it's been doing with the solid waste disposal--contorting the federal laws that protect interstate rail transportation from local, town-by-town control, to allow related businesses to circumvent local regulation.

Ordinarily, if say a facility was proposed that would be doing the same thing but instead was going to use trucks instead of trains, it would go before the local planning board or zoning board, where neighbors' concerns would be carefully heard and the plans would be adjusted to accommodate them. Or the whole thing could be rejected if it's deemed not to be appropriate for the site.

When something goes on railroad property, it's pretty much immune to any kind of local oversight. But those laws were intended to keep local towns from setting their own standards for rail operation, i.e., speed limits, hours of service, etc. Not to declare anything goes on railroad property.

That was a big, loud operation they shoved down the throat of Riverdale, and the people who were opposed to it can't simply be dismissed as NIMBYs.

The railroad put it there because they could. And the cops making sure the parade of trucks through their town conform to the law? They stopped them because the could.

Idiot Railfan wrote:The bulk facility in Riverdale caused a lot of bad blood because the NYS&W basically did here the same thing it's been doing with the solid waste disposal--contorting the federal laws that protect interstate rail transportation from local, town-by-town control, to allow related businesses to circumvent local regulation.

Ordinarily, if say a facility was proposed that would be doing the same thing but instead was going to use trucks instead of trains, it would go before the local planning board or zoning board, where neighbors' concerns would be carefully heard and the plans would be adjusted to accommodate them. Or the whole thing could be rejected if it's deemed not to be appropriate for the site.

When something goes on railroad property, it's pretty much immune to any kind of local oversight. But those laws were intended to keep local towns from setting their own standards for rail operation, i.e., speed limits, hours of service, etc. Not to declare anything goes on railroad property.

That was a big, loud operation they shoved down the throat of Riverdale, and the people who were opposed to it can't simply be dismissed as NIMBYs.

The railroad put it there because they could. And the cops making sure the parade of trucks through their town conform to the law? They stopped them because the could.

It would seem that IR doesnt like bulk transfer sites. Well they are a fact of life. You had better get used to them as there will be more and more of them as most industries are no longer located right by the tracks. The garbage and C&D transfer sites are also going to be a fact of life as well since we no longer have landfill space in New Jersey and New York. The garbage has to go somewhere and the railroads are the most efficient way of moving it to where it can be disposed of properly. Like it or not the reason the railroads are exempt from local laws is because railroads are interstate commerce and towns do not have the right to interfere with interstate commerce. The reason the NYSW located this bulk tranfer station in Riverdale is because it has great access to I-287 and it has sufficient property to locate the operation there. As for it being a big, loud operation, nothing can be further from the truth. The facility handled approx 20-30 cars on one track. I live just blocks from the Oakland bulk transfer and unless I happen to be awake or have the scanner on, I do not hear them switching the facility. The fact is the residents of Riverdale did not like that the railroad was reactivated in the first place and have tried to be a thorn in the side of the NYSW ever since. IMHO, the railroad was there long before the residents. The residents knew the railroad was therewhen they purchased their properties and have no right to complain about the railroad's activities.

The local yokels did NOT like the fact the that the train would sometimes block the Hamburg x-ing in the middle of the night.