South Jersey

Still no service as of 7:44 PM Fri.
Also, a CA15 and CA07 are parked on the Delair Branch between North Philly Station and Frankfort Junction.

chuchubob wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 6:45 pm Still no service as of 7:44 PM Fri.
Also, a CA15 and CA07 are parked on the Delair Branch between North Philly Station and Frankfort Junction.

I still can’t believe that truck was actually being escorted on an approved route and it still happened. Somebody screwed up prior to the trip.

Bridge is back open again…..

Well, hopefully this incident makes CR think about contingency plans. There is currently NO direct connection between North and South Jersey without taking the Delair Bridge into Pennsylvania, which is insane to me.

Don’t hold your breath

FYI the MI runs have been using CSX 6971 and the 5640.

Ooooooh new engine! Well new to me. Pity I can't go see it as I'm busy all week.

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It was renumbered from 4446 years ago when CSX was making more of the GP40-2’s into mother units for the road slugs.

JohnFromJersey wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 2:20 pm

JoeBas wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 10:31 am I mean, sooner or later the Delair is going to have a malfunction that can't be fixed for months (it IS over 125 years old and shows it) and then what?

It's likely it's going to be sooner rather than later at that age

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Wed Apr 03, 2024 12:56 pm I'm not sure about that, but should something happen the only feasible solution would be to reopen this track in Trenton. Winslow to Woodmansie needs millions in repairs just to get trains to run on it, let alone handle anything like 38G or 39G. You'd have to fix what's north of Lakehurst too since almost everything past that is still in shambles and barely takes the strain of 2 GP9s and some lumber loads.

Getting this little track going would be the best workaround. Trains would only have to detour to Morrisville, go down the NEC for about two miles, then use this track to take the RiverLINE all the way to Pennsauken and go straight into Camden. Otherwise, they could drop the Camden freight in Morrisville and have Conrail come get it.

Only other options I can think of would be to somehow reopen the old Camden and Amboy through Hightstown all the way to Robbinsville, (good luck with that) or somehow rig up a car ferry operation. But much like the Southern Secondary option those could also be costly.

Realistically speaking, the best route is going to be fixing the two or so miles of OOS that goes through Trenton. That being said, you still have to deal with the issue of the River LINE having time separation in effect, and whatever other restrictions would come with that.

Rebuilding the old Camden & Amboy from Hightstown to Robbinsville would likely end up being more expensive than rebuilding Winslow to Woodmansie with how much real estate you'd need to buy back to get that ROW access again, and you'd still end up on the River LINE.

It is shocking that there is no direct North Jersey to South Jersey route without having to go into PA first

There is no need for a north jersey to south jersey route. Our traffic goes east\west not north\south. That piece of oos track in Trenton isn't gonna do any good either for the cost associated with its rehab. But let's forget about that for a minute and say it was not oos, who is gonna run these trains over this piece of track? You may have 2, maybe 3 crews that MAY be qualified to operate on that territory. You're also gonna be limited on train size\weight.

Soooooo... Should the delair bridge ever fail then what? Is conrail just gonna tell all their south jerseys customers too bad so sad?

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It had instances in the past where it was stuck for a little while but it was fixed quick enough. I don’t think Conrail is too concerned about the bridge as it has lasted this long and it’s never really had a major issue to worry about. You have to remember that bridge was built a long time ago when stuff was built to last forever so to speak. As big as it is it’s probably not too complicated where any repairs that need to be made won’t take forever either, maybe someone who works for them here can confirm or explain it better.

AceMac - correct, in that case those sometimes monster trains arriving/leaving Pavonia would have to be broken up into smaller pieces to make that run thru Trenton if that ever was the case. And being able to use the 6 axle road power for that would be another story.

They keep the bridge going fine AFAIK but I don't see why they wouldn't have that track ready to go incase something REALLY bad happens. Like something that will take the normal route out of service for months/years.

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It would probably take too long and not be worth the effort to run those road trains that way.

Too long in what sense? To fix the tracks or have trains detour that way? Its not ideal, I know, but it would at least give them something to fall back on.

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