TRAINSPOTTING ON THE MORRISTOWN & ERIE, 2011

#18 was working the Main Line at B&G today as a "Thursday extra" (normally no service on Thursday). Here it is at Ridgedale Av.
Crossing Ridgedale
At Ridgedale runaround

R36 Combine Coach wrote:#18 was working the Main Line at B&G today as a "Thursday extra" (normally no service on Thursday). Here it is at Ridgedale Av.
Crossing Ridgedale
At Ridgedale runaround

Did you catch him in Roseland??

This train you captured almost seems like a ballast extra!

It even looks to small for a ballast car??? do we know what that was ?????

blockline4180 wrote:Did you catch him in Roseland??

This train you captured almost seems like a ballast extra!

18 was on its way back at around 4 PM, dropping off a load at B&G earlier and running light back with the ballast hopper* it picked up from down the line.

*Correction: ME 3611 is an ore jenny, probably being brought back from some MoW duty.

Heard them blowing for Morris Ave. around 10 am today. This is the first time that I've (personally) heard/seen them running to Rockaway on a Wednesday morning (as opposed to the normal Tuesday afternoons and Friday mornings).

With them running to Roseland last Thursday, along with Rockaway today, could this be the sign of a new operating schedule?

Heads up: On Sun 9/18 the Celebrate Rockaway Borough event will be held on Main Street in Rockaway and will feature a "Train Tour", as was last year.

Here's the Rockaway Borough caboose charter:

At Mill Lane Tavern
19
Ready to board
First trip
On 'The Station Agent' bridge
Alco smoke
Over for the day

Heard them crossing Morris Ave. just moments before 2pm today. Heard them heading back about ten before three.

D'oh! I heard this on the news a couple days ago...

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/1 ... in_mo.html

Anyone want to place odds she was yapping on the phone at the time?

As of Tuesday (probably since sometime last week, likely Friday), there are two plastic pellet hoppers on the Rockaway team track. The Adirondack baggage car (ME 1851) and Toys For Tots boxcar (ME 1775) have been pushed back towards the end of the team track (west). Speaking of the boxcar, they'll have to extract that from the siding pretty soon...

ns3010 wrote:As of Tuesday (probably since sometime last week, likely Friday), there are two plastic pellet hoppers on the Rockaway team track. The Adirondack baggage car (ME 1851) and Toys For Tots boxcar (ME 1775) have been pushed back towards the end of the team track (west). Speaking of the boxcar, they'll have to extract that from the siding pretty soon...

Are these covered hoppers stored for the few customers near the end of the branch, or is this new business where the cars are being transloaded on the team track?

bk77 wrote:

ns3010 wrote:As of Tuesday (probably since sometime last week, likely Friday), there are two plastic pellet hoppers on the Rockaway team track. The Adirondack baggage car (ME 1851) and Toys For Tots boxcar (ME 1775) have been pushed back towards the end of the team track (west). Speaking of the boxcar, they'll have to extract that from the siding pretty soon...

Are these covered hoppers stored for the few customers near the end of the branch, or is this new business where the cars are being transloaded on the team track?

I'm not sure. I didn't happen to notice if they were coupled to the boxcar or not, but, for whatever reason, I feel like they were. As far as I know, the next time I'll be passing by is Tuesday, so I'll have to check then.

I was on the Megabus last Sunday.

As we drove past the Goethals bridge, I think I saw #20 next to the NJ Turnpike.

Would they be working the Staten island RR interchange?

thebigham wrote:I was on the Megabus last Sunday.

As we drove past the Goethals bridge, I think I saw #20 next to the NJ Turnpike.

Would they be working the Staten island RR interchange?

If it was in Conrail's Bayway yard parallel to the Turnpike, then the M&E was doing its daily CR interchange with cars heading into and from the refinery. M&E really doesn't do any interchange with the Staten Island RR that I know of. They do operate the NJ portion of the SIRR for storing covered hoppers in Cranford for the huge plastic pellet facility in the Bayway refinery, although no interchange is done in Cranford nor is there any other kind of revenue freight. The NY portion of the SIRR is operated by Conrail Shared Assets. The one or few times the M&E 20 went over to the NY side was when it was loaned to the NY Container Terminal when their own locomotive went down mechanically.