Question regarding Raritan Center: Super Stud siding

[NJRAILNUT]

On my commute home through Edison everyday I pass by the Raritan Center/Heller Industrial park area on route 514 West. I cross over two sets of tracks, with the first set leading to a building supply companies siding. The company that owns the building is called "Super Stud." Here is a google streetmaps view of the crossing/siding in question, taken in October of 2013:
https://www.google.com/maps/@40.516784, ... YuevBQ!2e0

The view above was taken in Oct. 2013. In this view the siding rails are not visible but they are on the other side of the chain link gate and should run directly alongside the building.

I have two questions I was hoping somebody here who is knowledgeable about the Raritan Central RR could answer:

1. Does anyone know when this company re-activated/re-installed the rail spur next to the building? As you can tell from the view above it does not appear this building was receiving any products by rail for a long time (you can look all the way back to a streetview from 2009 and the spur/unloading area is still non-existent or buried in grass). The track runs right alongside the exterior of the building. It appears that the rails are either completely grown over or removed entirely in the October 2013 view above. However, in the past six months that I have lived in the area the siding has been repaired/cleaned up and I generally see about 2-4 cars on it at least once a week. Just curious if anyone has any more information about this operation (ie when it is served and by what job).


2. As far as I can tell, about once a week Super Stud receives several cars that look exactly the first two cars seen in this photo: http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.p ... 6&nseq=149

I've never seen these cars being unloaded until yesterday. There was a crane positioned next to one of the cars and it had lifted the top cylindrical part of the car completely away from the body. The crane was holding it up by the bars you can see attached to the top of the cars in the photo above. Can anyone explain to me what these cars are meant to hold/ why this company uses a crane to remove the top portion of the car when unloading whatever product it contains?

I tried the traditional google/search function here but I have been unable to come up with any answers. If this particular subject has already been discussed here please refer me to the post and I can delete this topic.

Thanks!

[scottso699]

I can't answer the first part of your question but the second one I can. Those are steel coiled wire cars. They hold large coils of wound steel and the covers keep the coiled wire safe from weather/elements as it is usually bare and would rust/spoil pretty quickly if left out in the elements. If you ever traveled the North Jersey Coast Line and looked to the west right after you crossed the Raritan River bridge, the large industrial complex always has these coiled wire cars sitting on their sidings. I am pretty sure they manufacture the coiled wire strands there. I am not sure what Super Stud does but I can imagine that maybe they manufacture aluminum studs for building construction? The coiled wire could be coiled strands of aluminum that are used to manufacture the aluminum studs. Just a guess and hope this helps answers some of your questions.

[ccutler]

Actually if you look at the Google earth photo you can see the rails are shiny going into the building and the yard has a cut of coil cars just to the west of the building. Maybe you saw they are expanding/improving their rail facilities?

[NJRAILNUT]

Thanks for the reply. When looking at the Google Earth view from above I do in fact see that cut of cars behind the building. I wonder what the purpose of the storage track next to the building is then? I guess that's where they choose to unload the cars as needed, which is why I saw the crane lifting the top off of one of them. However it appears the grade crossing that goes across 514 is not used anymore as an access point, judging by the rusted rails and plant growth seen in the street view that I posted.

[Sir Ray]

Thanks for the reply. When looking at the Google Earth view from above I do in fact see that cut of cars behind the building. I wonder what the purpose of the storage track next to the building is then? I guess that's where they choose to unload the cars as needed, which is why I saw the crane lifting the top off of one of them. However it appears the grade crossing that goes across 514 is not used anymore as an access point, judging by the rusted rails and plant growth seen in the street view that I posted.

I used to be in the area a lot around the turn of the century, but not for a decade at least (well, I was at the Edison Exhibition Centre for the WGH exhibit in 2011).

A question - was the current Super Stud building part of the Owens-Illinois complex?

And a partial answer to the second question raised by NJRAILNUT:
The crossing by Super Stud used to go to the NY Times printing plant across Woodbridge Avenue, however it seems that plant closed in 2007 or so and was partially replaced by a data center of sorts (no rail freight need).
Hmm, from that article about the plant closing:

Edison lost more than 1,000 manufacturing jobs from 2001-06, and almost 350 in the information sector, which includes graphics and communications positions in printing presses.

Wonderful - and that was before the recession really hit.

[glennk419]

Thanks for the reply. When looking at the Google Earth view from above I do in fact see that cut of cars behind the building. I wonder what the purpose of the storage track next to the building is then? I guess that's where they choose to unload the cars as needed, which is why I saw the crane lifting the top off of one of them. However it appears the grade crossing that goes across 514 is not used anymore as an access point, judging by the rusted rails and plant growth seen in the street view that I posted.

Remember that the Google Street View is from October 2013 so it could look much different today.

[cjvrr]

Small correction on what those type of cars haul. They typically have just coils of flat thin steel or aluminum. Its much like a roll of paper towels. Not coils of wire.

Super Stud (love the company name) makes metal studs used for building construction. As you may know those are typically in a "C" shape. The coils of steel or aluminum are unwound, cut and cold rolled (bent) to form the needed building stud.

There was a similar factory for these in Boonton, NJ but they received the coils of steel or aluminum in boxcars. They also shipped out finished product in boxcars.

Neat little industry and thanks for bringing it to my attention.

[NJRAILNUT]

Thanks for the reply. When looking at the Google Earth view from above I do in fact see that cut of cars behind the building. I wonder what the purpose of the storage track next to the building is then? I guess that's where they choose to unload the cars as needed, which is why I saw the crane lifting the top off of one of them. However it appears the grade crossing that goes across 514 is not used anymore as an access point, judging by the rusted rails and plant growth seen in the street view that I posted.

Remember that the Google Street View is from October 2013 so it could look much different today.

Like I said earlier, I drive over the crossing every day and it is certainly not used. There is mud over the rails and during this past winter a significant amount of snow/ice from the plows remained piled up across the entrance that was never moved.

As Sir Ray pointed out, I think that the only use for that crossing was to get to the newspaper plant, which has since changed hands and no longer uses rail.

I guess Super Stud (and I agree, cjvrr, its a great name) receives their cars on the track behind the building and then has 1-2 brought around the side to the spur for unloading. Fascinating little operation!

I wonder if they have a crew from Raritan Central come over and move the 1-2 cars to the side of the building or if they do it themselves.

[tj48]

I am not sure what Super Stud does but I can imagine that maybe they manufacture aluminum studs for building construction? The coiled wire could be coiled strands of aluminum that are used to manufacture the aluminum studs. Just a guess and hope this helps answers some of your questions.

That is correct. The company I work for sells that product.
http://buysuperstud.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[myfavscr]

Sir Ray wrote : Wonderful - and that was before the recession really hit.

Yes unfortunately the NY Times plant became a victim of the internet. Most of their readers switched to reading the paper online which forced them to downsize.
I began my career in construction on that site. The paper storage area of the building was huge. The rail spur inside was long enough to hold 4-5 boxcars. There was
a huge conveyor system in the floor that looped around the storage area. If I'm not mistaken the plant was automated with tracks running through the floors for the
robots to follow. I did catch the conrail local switching the plant a couple of times once it was operational. A shame the plant only lasted 16 yrs..

[Sir Ray]

Yes unfortunately the NY Times plant became a victim of the internet. Most of their readers switched to reading the paper online which forced them to downsize.
I began my career in construction on that site. The paper storage area of the building was huge. The rail spur inside was long enough to hold 4-5 boxcars. There was
a huge conveyor system in the floor that looped around the storage area. If I'm not mistaken the plant was automated with tracks running through the floors for the
robots to follow. I did catch the conrail local switching the plant a couple of times once it was operational. A shame the plant only lasted 16 yrs..

It's kinda wild in a sense, the plant as you mentioned was not some 1890s cramped 5-story industrial loft, but a reasonably modern (then) state of the art production facility. Their College Point (Queens) NY production plant has no rail access, as the LIRR Whitestone branch was abandoned in 1932 or so. I have read that plant was built in 1997, about 5-6 years after the Jersey plant was built.
Slightly offside, the NY Daily News has a large printing plant in Jersey City, NJ, just south of Liberty State Park. Rail served, or, at least it was, I am not so sure now (Bing View showing a few box cars on the siding)
Hmmm, this is a bit interesting (and the NY Times Edison plant is on the list)