The SIRR and RVRR V

It looks as though the pace of work is pickinng up on the ex-SIRT end. :D
Over the weekend, there were several track laying machines (Sperry hi-railers?) sitting at Cranford Jct on South Ave.

At 8:15 yesterday morning I had to stop at the crossing as they all moved down the line towards Linden, about five hi-railers in all. By the end of the evening they had returned. It's was exciting to me to see equipment using the crossing. I can't wait until the lights and bells are in working order.

Yesterday morning, Conrail had a van and a truck at the South Ave Crossing, as a flatbed unloaded a pretty large rental crane. This is the first time I've Conrail at this site. No M&E vehicles were there.

All week, the track-laying crews were busy from South Ave to Amsterdam Ave. With the weather forecast looking favorable for the next week, I think things will really move along.

Here are some photos at South Ave in Cranford. Many more to come!

http://community.webshots.com/album/135037925CFMxGL

Why would a Conrail vehicle be present and not an M&E vehicle?
Has there been some kind of change of plans?

That's what I was wondering. Up until now, M&E trucks or RR Const. crews have been present. But I am 100% sure they were Conrail vehicles I saw. There was a white truck and a white van, and both had the Conrail insignia on them. I know that Conrail (CSAO) has trackage rights on the RVL, and since the CNJ industrial spur is occasionally used, and is directly adjacent to the old SIRT tracks, that may be why they were there.

The Conrail crew was there when the crane was being delivered. (I'll get a picture of that tomorrow.) It is the kind with a platform at the top, which leads me to believe work may begin on the crossing signal gantries.


http://community.webshots.com/photo/135 ... 5000MKVUmc

Here is my guess.
The industrial track that the SIRR connects to is as we all know the Garwood and Elizabeth Industrial track.
Conrail I believe is the one that maintains and utilizes that old beat up track and when the M&E starts coming into Cranford from Staten Island, they are supposed to have some of the freights go down to Manville yard so they need to connect onto the Lehigh Line in Bound Brook to reach that yard so maybe Conrail is assessing the rehab needs of the industrial track because they are going to have to do it sooner or later.
If all of this comes to pass, it will really be cool to see some freight once again running on the RVL ( Former CNJ ).
From what I was told by a reliable source, it is going to be a full length intermodal freight once a day each direction but that info was given to me about 2 years ago so I don't know if that is still the plan.
Let's keep our fingers crossed!

See what the NIMBYs are up to.

Steve Lynch of the Rahway Valley Railroad website (http://www.trainsarefun.com/rvrr/rvrr.htm) forwarded this link to me.....

http://www.stopthetrain.org/photos.cfm

This site has a great map of the RVRR and SIRR, as well as pictures of various communities it runs through. Check out the article on Toxic Creosote railroad ties used by the M&E.

This is an old website of theirs that I viewed last summer but thanks for bringing it to the forum again because there may be alot of people that have not seen it yet.
These people are fighting a losing battle!!!
The website does have some good pic's though and I like the map too!

It's too bad those great photos are embedded in ".pdf" files. It would have been nice to be able to download individual photos to keep and share....

I took a look at the NIMBY Photos, thanks guys for the 'Before Reactivation' pics!!

Looking at the Springfield pics they took, it looks like there are several places where it has really been paved over by parking lots, office buildings have landscaped over it and such. I wonder how that is all going to be handled? To me it looks like some of the ROW is in pretty bad shape (I'm certainly by no means an expert!) while other parts look to be in good shape. It's the bad parts that look really bad. I still have my doubts as to whether an M&E freight train will ever take the line all the way to Summit, but it still would be great to see.

James,

You may have your doubts, but M&E DOES plan on reactivating all the RV tracks through to Summit! They actually filed with the STB already and plan on restoring full speed ahead this summer. They say it will be completed by 2005, but that is alittle far fetched.

Steve

Easy enough to send in a bulldozer and remove the landscaping, pavement or other obstructions. Property owners have an absolute right to evict trespassers, which these encroachers presumable are.

No actual buildings have been constructed on the ROW (at least in Springfield), so the parking lot/landscaping issue can be handled the same as where the grade crossings have been paved over (Meisel & Mountain Aves., etc.).

Just as long as they don't trash "my" station!

Here's a question, which maybe one of our M&E insiders can answer: exactly who currently owns the segments of ROW where these parking lots and landscaping have been built? Was this illegal encroachment, or was construction permitted by the owners (RVRR/NJDOT/Union County) at that time? This was pretty permanent construction, compared to, say, placing a container/trailer across the tracks (like near Iorio St. in Union).

From what I understand, it was owned by Union County and then the County sold it to the State of NJ. Or is it the other way around?