Toms River Industrial Track!

Good question.....I think they went into Ciba...I can't imagine them shoving across all those Sr. citizen intersections blindly.......

Used to have an engine on both ends. The last two or so years of doing Ace Gas only one engine was assigned to SA-35 so we were forced to Shove from Lakehurst to Toms River. Usually this was done at around 3-4am and the "oldies" werent awake just yet.

Ciba-Geigy closed in 1990 (and became EPA Superfund shortly thereafter).

When did the senior devlopments go up?

Started with Holiday City in the late 70s and expanded west almost into Manchester Twp. The tracks divide Toms River Twp (formerly Dover)and Berkeley Twp where the old folks live.One thought about the Ciba cleanup was that they might use a train to move the contaminated soil out but the cleanup company Sevenson Environmental treats the soil onsite and returns it to the ground. The biggest nail in the coffin.....

Bob Hoeft's article on the Southern Division stated that during the 50s, most loads going to Ciba (then called Toms River Chemical) were shoved from Lakehurst, as tankers and other cars already there being unloaded could be a pain to get around. Far easier to shove cars in and pull them out, and back then, no senior housing in the way.

I moved to Tr back in 7/68 to a development called Suburban Park. It is located between SilverRidge to the West and Holiday City to the East. Back in 68 the line would go all the way to Toms River. Hoiliday City wasn't built yet but Silver Ridge was already well on it's way in Berkeley Twp south of the track. Suburban park was backed up north of the tracks with woods on the south side. I used to hear the train on rare ocasions. One day I actually saw the rag tag tran. One engine and maybe 5-6 cars. Guess there was a caboose. There was hardly anything on west rte 37 in those days. Most of what is there today was built in the last 20 years...

well not only am i new to this board im also new to this train thing. i searched the web for toms river rails because whenever i cross the tracks on 37 i always wonder about them, are they used, where do they go, how old are the, what were are they used for

thecoffeecake wrote:well not only am i new to this board im also new to this train thing. i searched the web for toms river rails because whenever i cross the tracks on 37 i always wonder about them, are they used, where do they go, how old are the, what were are they used for

Welcome aboard, and you found the place were you will find everything you wanted to know (and then some!) about just about anything you can think of! This thread has some good information, but also the "conrail on the Southern Secondary" thread, all 220 plus pages of it, and there are a few other older threads.

Use the search box in the upper right corner and im sure you find whatever you are looking for, as it will bring up all relevant posts and threads and is quite good!

Welcome to the addiction

thecoffeecake wrote:well not only am i new to this board im also new to this train thing. i searched the web for toms river rails because whenever i cross the tracks on 37 i always wonder about them, are they used, where do they go, how old are the, what were are they used for

Jtgshu is providing great advice. Most of whatever you want to know is in these various threads.

Just to get you started, the tracks that cross Rt 37 used to be for servicing the former Ciba-Geigy plant(previously Toms River Chemical Co.) which closed in the early '90's and is now an environmentally contaminated site undergoing remediation so no rail traffic since plant closure.

The Ciba tracks branch off the Toms River Industrial Tracks (TRIT) which are basically out of service. They were last used around 2005 to service Builders General and a Propane Distribution facility no longer taking deliveries.

The TRIT used to be the Barnegat Branch of the Central Railroad of NJ (CNJ). The track began at the junction in downtown Lakewood, ran to Toms River (under the Garden State Parkway and past the TR Bus Station and across the Toms River where the new road bridge is that diverts traffic southbound on Rt 166). It then continued south to Beachwood following Rt 166 (formerly Rt 9) where it crossed the Pennsy Railroad (PRR) where the current Rt 9 joins with Rt 166 (the PRR "back road" came from Camden, and travelled thru Pemberton, Whiting, Beachwood, over the Barnegat to Seaside, turned north and ran up to Bay Head). The CNJ continued south parallel to Rt 9 thru Forked River, past the Oyster Creek Power Plant and terminated in Barnegat.

You can find more details and dates by searching any of the town names like Jtgshu said.

CJPat wrote:
The Ciba tracks branch off the Toms River Industrial Tracks (TRIT) which are basically out of service. They were last used around 2005 to service Builders General and a Propane Distribution facility no longer taking deliveries.

Way back when the rest of the Barnaget Branch was removed, the TRIT was "straight railed" into the Ciba lead.

Here is a couple of pics of the Ciba drill back in the heyday..
http://www.thebluecomet.com/cnj1521trc1.jpg
http://www.thebluecomet.com/cnj1521trc2.jpg

here is a link to some more pic on the site...

http://www.thebluecomet.com/cnjsoudiv.html

welcome !

A bit of trivia. Back in 1983, ConRail tried to sell the line East of Ciba to the founders of The Shore Fast Line. The 2nd stop on the tour that day was Pleasantville, where they did buy.

A minor correction to CJPat's post above:

The TRIT / Toms River Branch / Barnegat Branch began at the junction in Lakehurst (also known as Manchester).

GSC wrote:A minor correction to CJPat's post above:

The TRIT / Toms River Branch / Barnegat Branch began at the junction in Lakehurst (also known as Manchester).

Yes, I see that Lakehurst was not incorporated until 1921. By that point, Lakehurst was already a major CNJ railtown with a roundhouse, turntable, and several service buildings for work on cars.

The 4-lane Route 9 spur from the Parkway to the Rt 166 "circle" was once the Pennsy ROW, I believe the north side of the road. There is a pumping station structure along the way that looks VERY railroady, maybe someone knows what that building is/was.