Sparta Junction Activity

I was driving on Limecrest Road from Rt. 15 yesterday and observed a track gang working on the Susquehanna at what used to be Sparta Junction. It appeared that they were cutting out a section of straight track and installing a switch and also, it looked like they were installing new track on the old LHR ROW. My guess is that the new track is going to serve the gas company, but it was interesting to see part of Sparta Junction coming back to life. Does anyone have better information on what they are doing up there?

Here's a diagram of what Sparta Junction used to look like before they pulled the LHRRR up. http://www.gingerb.com/l&hr_sparta_jct_map.htm

Chuck G

The new siding they put in is where Sparta 1 siding used to be. Dont know yet why they did it. The original Sparta Junction can not be seen from Limecrest Rd. You would have to drive on to private property to get there.Finally, the diagram on the link shows Sparta 2 siding and the Interchange track reversed. Hope this all makes sense. If and when I find out about the new siding, I'll post.

lhrfan, I did drive onto the private property that you refer to. Of course as soon as I saw the NO TRESPASSING signs I drove only a little bit further and turned around.

Does that "Sparta 1" siding come close to the Lime Crest quarry? Could it be that the quarry might be activated again?

Quarry is supposedly out of business and some type of residential development is being proposed for the site. The siding is well north of the old stub to the quarry too.

My personal thought is the siding may be used to drill the existing industries and store extra cars for them. There is the propane company, the sugar company and the CO2 company all needing cars to be switched regularly. Wouldn't doubt the forecast increase in heating costs may be having the propane facility getting ready to store cars in anticipation of an increase in price.

The siding ends just north of the road crossing, not sure of the road name. Measuring off Terraserver the siding may be about 2,400 ft long. Thats a pretty good sized siding, but still not long enough to store the current through trains without breaking them up.

Correction everybody. The track work was taking place at Houses Corner Road just in from Rt. 15 versus Limecrest Road (Limecrest runs into Houses Corner). It looks like once completed there will be a delta shaped track around the gas company eminating from Sparta Junction interconnecting both branches of the NYS&W.

I heard word from a reliable source that the propane company is making a "huge" expansion. I would think the track work is probably to accommodate that.

cjvrr wrote:I heard word from a reliable source that the propane company is making a "huge" expansion. I would think the track work is probably to accommodate that.

Wow, I wonder how big "HUGE" is? If the plans call for multiple tracks then maybe we could possibly see unit propane trains in the winter when the facility expands!!!

Steve

Propane is a major source of home heating in northwest NJ, where natural gas lines are less common. A lot of that cargo goes by tank car.

The Suburban Propane switch on the M&E in Hanover has the capacity to take a lot of propane cars as well. I wonder if they'll see a similar jump in volume?

David wrote:Does that "Sparta 1" siding come close to the Lime Crest quarry? Could it be that the quarry might be activated again?

Unfortunately, not. The rumor is that Limecrest, now Crest Aggregrates will become some condos and a golf course.

Ken

Sidings were put in to accomodate the traffic. Two new sidings have been put down. Seems like the NYS&W has been blocking traffic there near Limecrest and blocking traffic. So, they installed the new siding.

Ken

Anybody remember when the Morris County Central, first moved their equiptment onto the NYSW tracks. They got permission from the L&HR to cut the main line, and temporarily connect it to the abandoned NYSw tracks. They used their small 060 to pull something like 15 cars, but it just wasn't powerfulenough. The L&HR donated their U34CH locos to help the equiptment over the mountain. This all occured in 1976. The Morris County Central went out of Business in 1980 due to a lot of vandalizm. Their original location was at the now Whippany Rail Museum. Just a little histroy about Sparta JCT.

NJTee wrote:Anybody remember when the Morris County Central, first moved their equiptment onto the NYSW tracks. They got permission from the L&HR to cut the main line, and temporarily connect it to the abandoned NYSw tracks. They used their small 060 to pull something like 15 cars, but it just wasn't powerfulenough. The L&HR donated their U34CH locos to help the equiptment over the mountain. This all occured in 1976. The Morris County Central went out of Business in 1980 due to a lot of vandalizm. Their original location was at the now Whippany Rail Museum. Just a little histroy about Sparta JCT.

L&HR never had U-34CH's... They were EL/NJDOT for commuter service... Maybe your thinking of the C420's they had??

Steve

The MCCRR attempted to connect on the NYS&W the day they moved from Whippany in winter of 1973 but a major snow storm kept the train in Warwick NY until the LH decided a time when to cut thier mainline and allow the MCCRR onto the old trackage at Sparta Junction.

The final move from Sparta to Newfoundland was spring of 74 and the 4039 did the final move to the MCCRR new home.

If you can get the video of the "Rise & Fall of the Morris County Central"
it has nice footage and information of this move.

Joe
former MCC employee

Thats the video where I got my info. What were the two helper engines assigned to push the MCCRR consist up the mountain????