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  • Questions about CNJ's branch from Somerville to Flemington

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

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 #1246433  by carajul
 
The CNJ branch that left the Somerville pax station thru Neshanic Sta (Branchburg, NJ) and onto Flemmington...

1. The last pax train was 1953. When did the last freight traverse the line?

2. Was the line abandoned by the CNJ or Conrail?

3. Is it true the line was abandoned due to unsafe bridge in Neshanic Station and traffic diverted over the LVRR to just before Flemminton?

4. The line went thru the Duke estate. Did the Duke family own the row and the CNJ had an easement of use or something or did CNJ own the land under the tracks?

5. When was the track removed?

6. Who owns the row now?

7. Just past the Somerville pax station the line crossed Rt 206... were their flashers or gates or anything at the xing?
 #1246452  by Ken W2KB
 
carajul wrote:The CNJ branch that left the Somerville pax station thru Neshanic Sta (Branchburg, NJ) and onto Flemmington...
3. Is it true the line was abandoned due to unsafe bridge in Neshanic Station and traffic diverted over the LVRR to just before Flemminton?
6. Who owns the row now?

If I recall correctly:
The Black River and Western purchased from the CNJ the four miles from the end of the "CNJ South Branch" in Flemington, where the PRR connected to Three Bridges in 1974. Freight came in from the Lambertville end of the BR&W off the BelDel until 1978 when the BelDel was abandoned by ConRail. In anticipation of the abandonment the short connector track between the BR&W and Lehigh Line in Three Bridges was constructed for freight interchange. The "tail track" original CNJ line extends about 1,000 east of the interchange and is used as part of the BR&W yard there. Don't know who owns the ROW east of the tail track, but the rails are long since gone.
 #1246496  by carajul
 
Look at the google street view of the grade xing in Flemington. They caught the NS making an interchange delivery and as you progress down the road toward the xing the train passed! Cool.

Looks like mother nature has reclaimed the row east of Flemington. Hardly can see it. Look at where it crossed County Rt 625 it's a jungle!

Continue toward Somerville and look at Auten Rd xing. Row is used to access powerlines above and is still dicernable.

Wow it got wiped out. No sign of ties or tracks or plates at all!

In the Dukes estate which is now a nature preserve the row has been made into a trail called "Railroad Lane"!!!
Last edited by carajul on Wed Jan 29, 2014 8:50 pm, edited 4 times in total.
 #1247528  by CNJ Fan 4evr
 
I have an old Easton Express article form April 1, 1977 which tells of a special excursion from Flemington to Lambertville on BRW and up the Bel Del to Phillipsburg. Says train backed over the LHR bridge to Easton for its journey home. Must have used the former LV to Three Bridges and then the South Branch back to Flemington.
 #1247638  by ccutler
 
I grew up in Somerville, alas became a teenager shortly after the demise of the CNJ. The "yard" in Somerville was oddly configured, basically to serve a bygone generation. To the west of Somerville station, three tracks together, and another track oddly separated from the other three, each about 1000' long, could each hold about 20 50' cars, and from 76 to about 82 this part of the yard, just west of the wye, was used to switch cars for the line west of Somerville. The advantage of those tracks was that they were on the bottom of a slight grade, allowing for some gravity switching.

In the middle of the wye on the south end, three tracks projected inward to serve the piggyback yard. I believe this yard could only serve up to 40' long trailers and thus was history when the 45' trailer came into widespread use. There was a brief article in the Courier News at the time [around 1981?] covering the piggyback yard closure and the very short notice that long-term employees received. A few local customers, including the local supermarket, were upset at losing the facility. I remember seeing those short piggyback trains leaving the yard on a few occasions, and I remember the Somerville facility jam-packed with seldom-moved 40' trailers.

There were a multitude of other tracks, largely covered in weeds or buried in mud. Some of these tracks were used to store the piggyback flat cars. I saw a few very thin rails back there stamped with years in the 1800s--probably 50lb per yard.

Buried tracks were everywhere. After the piggyback operation was closed, the [other] great recession was in full swing and Conrail had many surplus cars to store. Somerville became a freight car warehouse for about a year, with about 200 cars [!] stored in all those mud- and weed- covered tracks. Conrail even discovered tracks so buried I didn't even know they were there! Then...in the span of a few weeks...all those cars were gone. And not long after that, the whole yard was abandoned and ripped up.

There were no remaining customers other than the piggyback facility in Somerville at that time. A few tracks on the north side of the main line remained, and sometimes a freight car might be left there. I never knew why. the whole operation looked incredibly inefficient--no one's fault, its just that the place was configured for a bygone era. I miss it nonetheless.

Only once, and from a distance, did I ever see a train on the branch line. It was blocking the US 206 crossing with some centerflow hoppers. I once walked the abandoned line from Neshanic Station south to Three Bridges...and some other legs of the line as well. It was a very pretty line. No longer very practical from a business perspective however.
 #1247745  by pumpers
 
CNJ Fan 4evr wrote:I have an old Easton Express article form April 1, 1977 which tells of a special excursion from Flemington to Lambertville on BRW and up the Bel Del to Phillipsburg. Says train backed over the LHR bridge to Easton for its journey home. Must have used the former LV to Three Bridges and then the South Branch back to Flemington.
Interesting. Not sure if the connector in Three Bridges was in yet in April 1977. The LV and CNJ both had sidings but I don't think they connected. In this thread Ken W says the connector was put in to use when the Bel Del ended in 1978, so it may or may not have been there in April 1977. It wasn't there in 1972 if you look at http://www.historicaerials.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Also, in the older thread on this branch (linked by Chrisf in an earlier post), carajul thinks that the BR&W actually operated over the branch briefly. It so, the return trip from Easton might have been on the CNJ to Somerville, and then the South Branch back to Flemington. On the other hand, in that other thread dlagrua says the branch was abandoned in 1957 (long before Conrail), so it seems unlikely BRW ran over its entire length in 1977.

I bet someone on this forum remembers the 1977 trip...

JS
 #1247801  by Ken W2KB
 
Somewhere in the 1950's, I believe in 1953, is when the CNJ discontinued passenger trains to Flemington so may account for the 1957 date if there was an error in a report somewhere. Also, I vaguely recall reading that CNJ may have operated buses for a while after trains were discontinued. Perhaps that ended in 1957, if indeed there were CNJ buses?
 #1247818  by pumpers
 
CNJ Fan 4evr wrote:I have an old Easton Express article form April 1, 1977 which tells of a special excursion from Flemington to Lambertville on BRW and up the Bel Del to Phillipsburg. Says train backed over the LHR bridge to Easton for its journey home. Must have used the former LV to Three Bridges and then the South Branch back to Flemington.
OK - here is perhaps a more realistic scenario than returning from Easton on the LV or on the CNJ.

Back in the day, if one came east over the LV bridge into Phillipsburg, you could diverge to the right into the PRR Phillipsburg shop and yard complex. It ran parallel to the river, and at the south end you could get on the BelDel heading south. So by backing over the LHR bridge from the north side of PHillipsburg onto the CNJ in Easton, continuing west on the connector to the LV main, reversing, and then taking the LV bridge and heading through the Phillipsburg yard, they "wyed" the train and could run engine first back down the Bel Del to Lambertville. I guess they still had to run backwards to Flemington after reversing in Lambertville though (and perhaps ran backwards on this stretch at the beginning of the trip. )

I'm assuming of course that this PRR Phillipburg yard connection was still there in 1977. My guess is that it was - I believe Conrail operated the BelDel mainly to get ore trains to Bethlehem, and this connector is how PRR (and then Conrail) would have gotten the trains from the Bel Del onto the LV to go to Bethlehem.

JS
 #1247827  by wolfboy8171981
 
Remember that the CNJ embargoed the line between Flemington and Somerville. They received their freight for Flemington from the PRR/PC and even the BR&W after 1970. I believe that the BR&W purchased the line from the CNJ to the Hunterdon/Somerset Co Line witch is actually past Three Bridges, until the connection point with the LV was determined.

I have never head of this Flemington/Lambertville/P'burg/Three Bridges/Flemington trip. Do any pictures exist.

I have heard of a trip involving #60 South of Lambertville that ended quickly when it was realized that the track was already being dismantled.
 #1248201  by carajul
 
Wow thanks for all the info. Just reviewed the historicarials maps of the yard in Somerville it was like a spiderweb of tracks shooting out from the south branch all over the place. Up until the late 60s it looked like they just parked what they needed there but by 1970 it was a hokey TOFC type facility. By 1979 looks like the yard trackage was reduced quite a bit. Looks like the yard itself made a wye coming up from the south branch to the mainline but also 5 tracks shot straight and ended at the pax station. Now the NJT parking lot is built ontop of where the yard was. Also in the 1979 image you can see the track past Rt 206 thru the Duke Estate is torn up; so by 1979 the line was gone.

Also tid bit the dirt road the trucks picking up the TOFC trailers used is now paved as is exactly the same road commuters now use to access the parking lot!

Interesting question... where did the commuters park by then into the 70s and 80s before the NJT parking lot? Did they just line the streets of Somerville?

Also does anyone know the date the line was embarged north of Three Bridges to Somerville? And the date the last freight made its way along the line?
 #1248482  by N91566
 
I was on the train in question.

Randomly, especially as I am working from a poor memory, but I think it is important this history is accurate:

1974 - FRA embargoed the South Branch between Somerville and some physical point east (River Road I think) of the Tennaco plant in Flemington account very poor track conditions and daily derailments of tank cars containing Vinyl Chloride between Somerville and Flemington.
Further, FRA implemented an Emergency Service Order directing Flemington bound CNJ traffic re - routed over the Bel - Del from Trenton to Lambertville and handled by the BRW to Flemington.
BRW provided a locomotive and Hack to the taxied - in CNJ crew who then operated over the South Branch from Flemington to the two customers just east of town, returning the outbound cars and BRW equipment to the BRW/CNJ interchange at Turntable Junction (sic).
This daily meet went on for a year or so, with the BRW equipment operating gratis to the CNJ. BRW negotiated an agreement with CNJ to "lease" a CNJ locomotive in an equity arrangement. That is how 1554 got on the BRW.

In 1976, a decision to move the primary interchange between BRW and CR to Three Bridges was made and implemented. But no decision to close the Lambertville interchange had yet been made. That was the reason for the 1977 circle trip, which originated as a south bound move out of Ringoes, and ended as a southbound into Ringoes. CR and BRW officials rode the catered trip to help them decide the next move, which along with other factors such as the bridge fire on the L&NE led to the demise of the Lamberetville interchange, and the end of the Bel -Del as we knew it.
So, the new interchange was open for business prior to the circle trip.

Side notes, BRW crews operated over BRW territory. Former PC crew from L-ville to P-burg. Former LV crew including Conductor Norman S. Cole in passenger uniform over the Leigh Line. BRW 57 shut down while drifting through the tunnel, but restarted without issue while coasting.
1554, a hopper and a hack was included in the acquisition of portions of the Bel-Del and South Branch from CR. This included the L-ville station, until the lawyers at CR realized the station was not a part of the deal. So BRW thought they owned the station for a couple of weeks.
It is well that turned out as it did.
I hope I got this right! :-)
'566
Last edited by N91566 on Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
 #1248570  by peconicstation
 
Ken W2KB wrote:Somewhere in the 1950's, I believe in 1953, is when the CNJ discontinued passenger trains to Flemington so may account for the 1957 date if there was an error in a report somewhere. Also, I vaguely recall reading that CNJ may have operated buses for a while after trains were discontinued. Perhaps that ended in 1957, if indeed there were CNJ buses?
The CNJ provided bus service between Flemington and their Somerville station for quite awhile, the final pre-Aldene plan schedule (October '66) still showed the service.

Ken
 #1248654  by carajul
 
Last pax train was 1953. There is a pic in one of the CNJ books of the last train stopping at Neshanic Sta and it said the last train was 1953. I can't imagine how the branch survived that long. Commuters could just drive the 10 minutes to Somerville. CNJ must have been bleeding red ink on pax service on branchlines.

I'd still like to know the ownership of the row thru the Duke Estate in Hillsborough. If the Duke's owned it or the CNJ owned it. I read that as soon as the line was embargoed Dorris Duke made sure every trace of the line thru the estate was torn up. I think now the Duke Estate isn't owned by the family anymore. I think they've all died. It's now like a botanical garden/environmental learning place. I've always wanted to explore it. Lots of long forgotten roads, abandoned buildings, stone walls built by JB Duke at the turn of the century.

HOUSE BUILT ON ROW... I just was following the line from Somerville to Flemington. Looks like the row is kept in tact thru HillsB as an access road for the power lines. I just noticed a relatively new house built on the row. It's on Clawson Ave between 1st and 4th streets. The row went directly over their front porch! Riding the CNJ you could stick your hand out and knock on their front door! Follow the row west from that house you can clearly see it paralleling the LV main.
 #1248744  by JimBoylan
 
McHugh Bros. - New Hope & Ivyland RR bought the crossing bell from the Rte. 206 crossing about 1979 through Wyer, Dick & Co., the consulting engineers for Mr. Timpany, the Bankruptcy Trustee for the CNJ. I don't remember any crossing lights or gates. Cost - $75.00.
There was an urban legend that near the end of CNJ through operation of the branch, the crew would walk across the weak bridge before and after the train and send the train across by itself. The reset of the details match what is posted earlier in this topic.