Salem County Line - Swedesboro to Salem - Operated by: West Jersey, SRNJ, US Rail, SMS

Well, they did serve the lumber guy near Swedesboro and they have at least one guy who transloads in Woodbury, but other than that and the SMS exchange I think that’s it.

In recent years SRNJ has been very reluctant to run past Woodbury even if they have a good reason to do so. Instead they seem to force all remaining customers besides SMS to transload in Woodbury.

Not entirely sure why they were leasing both portions of the line (Salem County owns Swedesboro to Salem and Conrail owns the other part) and not run on it. This was after millions of dollars in repairs to the tracks too…

The issues Salem County has had with SRNJ and another previous operator of their portion were mentioned in the STB Filings for SMS to take the line over.

Just google railfanned the line.
Mannington Mills is till pretty big, according to the goog. Also possible consignees in Salem, with sidings already in place.
SMS has a much better track record in trying to get new business than SRNJ, so hopeful. (SRNJ doesnt seem to want to operate that much anymore.....so maybe SMS is hoping to get operating authority all the way to woodbury, eventually.

SRNJ leases the track from Conrail. I’m not sure how they’d go about getting that aside from outbidding SRNJ for the lease the next time it comes up for renewal, whenever that’ll be.

Maybe the lease is coming up soon. Who knows. I'd expect that the lease could be broken for the right amount of $$, too.

And to the right party with the right affiliations.

pdtrains wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 10:40 pm Just google railfanned the line.
Mannington Mills is till pretty big, according to the goog. Also possible consignees in Salem, with sidings already in place.
SMS has a much better track record in trying to get new business than SRNJ, so hopeful. (SRNJ doesnt seem to want to operate that much anymore.....so maybe SMS is hoping to get operating authority all the way to woodbury, eventually.

SMS might get some consignees but the rail line was obtained for the purpose of car storage which has become a lucrative market. Farmers Central in Woodstown does one to two cars a year and that's it. For the consignees it's a hassle getting cars shipped to Paulsboro, then getting CSAO to take them up to Woodbury Yard, then SRNJ to run them to the passing siding at Swedesboro, to then be picked up by SMS. If you have anything you want deliverd in a timely manner you can forget rail. There's no local symbol train running from Camden to Woodbury anymore.

pdtrains wrote: ↑Sun May 21, 2023 10:40 pm Just google railfanned the line.
Mannington Mills is till pretty big, according to the goog. Also possible consignees in Salem, with sidings already in place.
SMS has a much better track record in trying to get new business than SRNJ, so hopeful. (SRNJ doesnt seem to want to operate that much anymore.....so maybe SMS is hoping to get operating authority all the way to woodbury, eventually.

You can check me on this, but I believe Mannington Mills just has offices in Salem now and ships all of their product out of Pureland.

Let’s pretend for a second that SMS runs the whole line and Conrail, through either CA11, MI61, or one of the two Camden jobs who’s work varies by day does the transfer from Camden directly.

If set up like this, would potential customers be more willing to use the rail line? No it won’t be faster than trucks but at the very least it would be more efficient and the car routing wouldn’t be @$$ backwards

Im not entirely sure how SMS is gonna be a competitive option for car storage. CMSL has 50 more storage spots than them according to Commtrex, and with the transfer to Woodbury being the way it is AND having to deal with SRNJ as well almost certainly means a slower turnaround for any car on that line.

As to Mannington Mills, if they send all their stuff to Pureland are they already dealing with SMS? If so maybe they could work something out to get cars directly. Again though, I’d wanna look into making that car routing more straightforward.

I believe Pureland is where the manufacturing is taking place now and Salem is mostly corporate offices, but I'm not absolutely certain on that. Maybe somebody knows for sure. I was told SMS has their own car storage contracts and they've run out of space on the Pennsville. That was hearsay but putting in 9 tracks at Salem yard for car storage and running railfan trips between Woodstown and Manning is their intention.

Interesting recent history. https://www.nj.com/salem/2017/11/3_mill ... ouris.html

Nice excursion coming up. http://www.woodstowncentral.com/woodsto ... rsions.cfm

How close are they to getting their other coach cars in service? Every excursion has been with the caboose only it seems…

What coaches do they have?

https://imgur.com/a/2xjXxm6 Had a problem today at Mannington Acton Station Road as a truck driver hauling a low boy, I guess, decided he could beat the train and sped up at the crossing but didn't make it. The train overturned the low boy and one set of trucks on the engine derailed. One of the engine men was slightly injured but every body else was fine. Those Baldwins were built like tanks. The truck driver was darn lucky he got the cab past the engine. The piece of metal hanging out of the engine is a piece of the low boy.

decision making is not everyone's talent. . Coming to a stop and having to go thru all those gears is such a pita....better to risk 10's of thousands of $$ of equipment, and your job and ppls lives.