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  • South Jersey Exploration Part II: Westville Cutoff, etc...

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

Moderator: David

 #82201  by JJMDiMunno
 
Hey guys,
Well, it's yet another Dave Halbert / Mike DiMunno production here...on Thursday, December 30th, we covered some Westville Cutoff material, the Buzby Cement spur (Westville / Brooklawn), and some live action as well with CA-51, CA-11 and CA-05. Here's today's details:

We started out the day at 0900 once again, and the first item of the day was some interesting Westville Cutoff exploration. At one time, a narrow gauge railroad was constructed in Audubon, to move fill being used for construction of the cutoff. This narrow gauge railroad was abandoned back when the cutoff construction ceased, and it was brought to my attention by David some time ago that there is a section of rail down there that is undisturbed, still lying there from sometime around 1905. This rail is in perfect 3 foot gauge, and today, we discovered the reason for this. There are actually TIES still in place down there, some preserved very well apparently by the constantly flowing water...and well, the following photo just says it all:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30 ... Narrow.jpg

Following our work down by the narrow gauge stuff, and a quick stop at the Wawa of Audubon, we headed over to Westville to check out something we had intended on looking at long ago but never got to...that being the spur to Buzby Cement. There is strong evidence of this spur still existing today, including ties, plates, and spikes...and the foundations for the buildings making up Buzby's are quite prominent throughout the area. The view below shows one of the ties in front of what was apparently a loading dock for the cement company:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30 ... oading.jpg

Heading down a little further, we see a location that was probably some kind of pedestrian crossing at one time for the cement plant...we can see here the original alignment of the rails, when they were in place here in the concrete:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30 ... ossing.jpg

While we were there, we discovered this pier of sorts at the end of the road by Buzby's location...it's either some sort of pier, or the remnants of some old bridge...does anyone know the deal with this? Neither David nor I have a clue:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30/Bridge.jpg

After we were finished down by Buzby's, we headed over first to look at the new signal which will act as the distant signal for both CP BROWN and CP WOODBURY, and then up to the area around Bulson Street in Camden, where we took an unexpected and tour of the area (taking advantage of our being together...neither of us would venture where we did today alone)...while we were in the area, we just happened to hear CA-51 get it's form D over the radio for the Beesley's, so we knew they were close. We zipped over to CP BROWN, where I shot the following exposure at the interlocking (this is my first time shooting from that location...I would not go there alone, nor would I advise anyone else to do so):

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30/CA51_Brown.jpg

After this, we headed south and did some looking around the Gloucester area, south of the station, at the remaining freight receiving tracks that are there and still in place (though long disconnected from the VINS)...following our exploration there, we headed south to check out some more Westville cutoff stuff around the location of the old tower at Westville. While we were there, CA-11 crept up on us and made an appearance with the CSX 8829 and CSX 8562 moving around 100 cars north. In the view below, I am standing at the approximate location of the tower at Westville. The foundations for the old power transmission poles constructed on the Westville Cutoff ROW can be seen to the left of the SD50 trailing unit:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30 ... tville.jpg

While we were there, we took a closer look at the old concrete bridge support designed to carry the double-track Westville Cutoff over the creek. This is one portion of the cutoff that actually had rail installed upon it at one time...cars were stored on here for local industries, Campbell's Soup in particular:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30 ... Bridge.jpg

And as the last minutes of our available time for the day ticked away, we heard CA-05 get permission to head south out of Bulson Street after the CA-11 cleared the south wye switch up there. Minutes later, after we managed to make it to 4N position light signal in time, the CA-05 led by CSX 1128 and CSX 1127 rolled southbound with some cars for South Westville:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30 ... cester.jpg

And that's all for today folks...had I not had to go to work tonight, we might have had some more scenes from their switching activities, but alas, that is all. We have a potential light rail trip coming up on Sunday, we'll have to see what happens with another tentative event we have scheduled...if anyone would be interested in joining us on that, contact me...

Take care.

Mike DiMunno
www.SJRail.com: All about South Jersey Railroads!
 #82291  by SPUI
 
JJMDiMunno wrote:While we were there, we discovered this pier of sorts at the end of the road by Buzby's location...it's either some sort of pier, or the remnants of some old bridge...does anyone know the deal with this? Neither David nor I have a clue:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30/Bridge.jpg
Can you point out on a map where that was? It may have been a Public Service trolley line.
 #82311  by JJMDiMunno
 
SPUI wrote:Can you point out on a map where that was? It may have been a Public Service trolley line.
Yes, check out the map below:

http://www.SJRail.com/DailyPhotos/Dec30/Westville.jpg

And yes, we found out it was a trolley line, apparently one that used to run to the amusement park that sat on the site which is now Sunoco's Eagle Point refinery...

Mike DiMunno
www.SJRail.com: All about South Jersey Railroads!

 #84578  by Jerseyman
 
The Camden, Gloucester and Woodbury Railway constructed that trestle. Incorporated by a syndicate led by Gloucester City resident and impresario William Thompson, who sought an easy way to move the Philadelphia masses to his entertainment establishments in Gloucester City, including the Gloucester Racetrack. The line began at the Kaighn's Point Ferry and, ran to Washington Park on the Delaware, opened in 1895 and located where the Eagle Point refinery stands now, and on to Woodbury, National Park, Blackwood, Almonesson, etc. The C.G. & W. opened part of its line in July 1893 and it became part of the Public Service trolley empire within ten to twelve years. The trestle over Big Timber Creek required 2,480 feet of trestling with a 138-foot drawbridge span in the middle of it. The line ceased through operations in August 1927 when a boat on Big Timber Creek struck the drawbridge and damaged it beyond simple repair. One car isolated on trackage below the trestle continue to operate for a short time.