Railroad Forums 

  • New M&E Customer Whippany Line

  • Discussion about the M&E, RVRR and SIRR lines of New Jersey, and also the Maine Eastern operation in Maine. Official web site can be found here: www.merail.com.
Discussion about the M&E, RVRR and SIRR lines of New Jersey, and also the Maine Eastern operation in Maine. Official web site can be found here: www.merail.com.

Moderators: GOLDEN-ARM, cjl330, mikec

 #671803  by joe k
 
Today's Daily Record reported that a food distributor ( E&S Foods) will be building a new facility on Jefferson Road across from the Morristown & Erie's Eden Lane team track facility at the former Cork Factory property.

The article says they will be using rail service to keep truck traffic down.

Nice to see a rail customer moving back into this area!
 #671883  by blockline4180
 
Here is the article.
http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/2009 ... in+Hanover

Where exactly would this facility be? I'm having trouble pinpointing the exact location.
 #671910  by roachcoach1186
 
If your going south on S. Jefferson Road, the old building is on your right, just before the crossing.

The article mentions about the building that is right on the curb, can't miss it.

Also, if your coming east on Eden Lane, looking to the north you'd see the Turtle & Hughes Building, then the tracks, THEN the proposed site.
 #671944  by blockline4180
 
Thank you, I think I have an idea now..Seems this proposed building will be just west of the old Whippany paper factory.
 #672127  by joe k
 
This new facility will be using the NJDOT Service Road off Eden Lane as their main vehicle entrance......

The service road is about the location of the former M&E Malapardis Branch that one time extended near this DOT road and crossed South Jefferson Rd about 500' south of Route 10
There is a small office building on the right (heading south on Jefferson) that has a strange angle to it's rear corner.....this is due to the old ROW that still exists and is listed on Hanover Twp Tax maps........
I am not sure why the ROW crossing was relocted further east on Route 10 to serve the Whippany Paper Stony Brook mill in later years?
Today this over-grown stretch or rail now stops at Route 10 and is called the Stony Brook branch.

On a good note, there is "positive feedback" from Hanover Twp officials (so far) and along with the input from the Morristown & Erie I would expect this project to move along without any major issues.

Here is a interesting web site to look back in time..........check out the old M&E ROW in the early 50's and 60's http://www.historicaerials.com
 #678432  by roachcoach1186
 
The Stony Brook Mill shut down in the 70's. Unlike the eden mill, it was quickly removed. A warehouse still stands at the eden mill site, but the rest is now an open field with some rusing construction equipment that was used to tear it down.

The town paved over the tracks that crossed route 10 in the last 90's. The tracks on the northern side of route 10 actually lasted another decade until a couple softball fields and a housing development that poped up on the former stoney brook mill site.

I wonder what shape the tracks on the southen side are like. I know at the base of the branch they store a few old amtrak cars but they don't go very far.

The old Channel building I don't think got deliveries by rail. Niether does the new Cadburry-Shweeps building. So the rails were never used.
 #678617  by blockline4180
 
roachcoach1186 wrote:
I wonder what shape the tracks on the southen side are like. I know at the base of the branch they store a few old amtrak cars but they don't go very far.

The old Channel building I don't think got deliveries by rail. Niether does the new Cadburry-Shweeps building. So the rails were never used.
No, Cadburry never got rail service...AFAIK, the switch to the spur is still there and the tracks still extend close to the south end of Route 10, but I don't think they are in good shape.
 #678662  by PVRX1
 
Channel lumber got rail service. In fact the siding rails did not like 16 and 17 traversing them.
 #680447  by GOLDEN-ARM
 
I never had a problem switching in Channel Lumber. Other than the people on Rt. 10, that refused to stop, the only time we ever went on the ground, when I was switching Channel, was in the curve, coming right off the Mainline. It was a very, very tight squeeze, with a couple of cars, and the C-430's, due to the track ending, just over the crossing on Rt. 10. Channel was one of the busiest places on the line, after the mills closed. Besides PJ's and Pollaner, no other places were busier.....
 #718634  by airman00
 
I ran on the whipanny rail musuem caboose train, and the part of the line we did see, had alot of sidings and possible branch lines that went everywhere. Even some old abandoned sidings as well. It would seem at one point railroad was king in this area. Some lines though were hard to tell if active or not. Some had freight cars on them, one had alot of freight cars that I could see, and one had just 4 tanker cars. Also one had three passenger coaches, the first covered with a blue tarp. A few line appeared to go way off somewhere for quite some distance.
 #718968  by RS115
 
The east end (the part the caboose train covered was once quite busy. One of the longer lines you saw (off the the right as you headed east) went into Vornado (Two Guys) and was a busy warehouse/industrial park at one time. Long since all converted to trucks and offices. Only active shippers are the old Polaner out in Roseland (you didn't go that far), the lubricant company in East Hanover, they list Suburban Propane but they've not received anything in a couple of years I believe (last time I was out that way it was home to the other FL-9's). The former Polaner is by far their biggest consignee these days but they only require a switch once a week under normal conditions.

A sad shadow of it's former self. Among the ironies - the track is in better shape than at anytime in my life time (pushing hard on 50 here), they have more and larger motive power than when they had business (two 1,000 HP ALCO's did all the work from the early 1950's into the 1980's).

To your other comment in the other thread - with luck we'll see 4039 steam again. 385 looks great and that's going to be it unless someone brings a whole lot of money to the table. She's done her time for three railroads (Southern, VBR and MCC where she was the main-stay for years) and deserves to sit and be admired in her retirement.
 #785661  by joe k
 
Any news with this ongoing customer / new business in Whippany (Hanover Twp) and possible servcie to the M&E ??
 #791620  by R36 Combine Coach
 
RS115 wrote:The east end (the part the caboose train covered was once quite busy. One of the longer lines you saw (off the the right as you headed east) went into Vornado (Two Guys) and was a busy warehouse/industrial park at one time. Long since all converted to trucks and offices. Only active shippers are the old Polaner out in Roseland (you didn't go that far), the lubricant company in East Hanover, they list Suburban Propane but they've not received anything in a couple of years I believe (last time I was out that way it was home to the other FL-9's). The former Polaner is by far their biggest consignee these days but they only require a switch once a week under normal conditions..
The Vornado industrial branch was last used in 1991. Polaner is now B&G.
 #791797  by RS115
 
Thanks R36 - you are correct it is B&G, it's just never stuck with me. B&G has usually meant the Buildings & Grounds dept to me ;-)

1991 sounds right as well but use at the end was pretty sporadic.
 #791855  by R36 Combine Coach
 
One if not both if the signals of the Ridgedale crossing on the Vornado industrial had been removed. Channel Lumber also saw the end in 1991 as well.