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  • Raritan River Milltown Spur - should have been protected

  • 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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 #1324543  by carajul
 
Question regarding the RRRR spur into the tire factory in Milltown...

When they rebuilt the main st bridge they relaid the xing and put the rails back in. Then a few years later they tore the rails out and paved over the old xing. The rail spur itself is listed in the NJ historic registry and as I understand it, cannot be demolished per state law. Unlike the meaningless NPS federal designation that does not protect listed structures, NJ state law does give protection. This would make sense as to why they relaid the xing when the rebuilt main street. So my question is, how and why did they later tear out the xing??? Did they just ignore the law and no one said anything or did they use legal channels? And why tear out a perfectly good new xing??? Here is the actual listing:

---------------------------------------------------------------
Raritan River Railroad Spur (ID#4052)
Raritan River Railroad to Meyer/Michelin property, crossing Main Street
and Lawrence Brook.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Here is the actual state law:

NJSA 13:1B-15.131. Encroachment upon or damage to historic place; authorization; public hearing
The State, a county, municipality or an agency or instrumentality of any thereof shall not undertake any project which will encroach upon, damage or destroy any area, site, structure or object included in the Register of Historic Places without application to, and the prior written authorization or consent of, the Commissioner of Environmental Protection. The commissioner shall solicit the advice and recommendations of the Historic Sites Council in connection with any such application and may direct the conduct of a public hearing or hearings thereon prior to granting or denying authorization or consent. The failure of the commissioner to authorize, consent or deny any such application within 120 days of application therefor shall constitute his consent thereto.
 #1326375  by jDubz411
 
There is a meeting of the Raritan River Rail Road Historical Society tomorrow night and I will bring your question to see if anyone will know. A few are members on here and may have more accurate information.

I assumed that they were just paved over and not torn out, but I am too new of a Milltown resident to have seen that project.

Milltown is currently in a major infrastructure project that involves moving the electrical substation. They are doing a lot of digging and I saw the other day that they uncovered the rail that lies between the post office and town hall parking lot. It didn't look like they were going to cut it, but I wanted to go take pictures when I get a chance just in case they do tear it out.
 #1326649  by carajul
 
When the tire factory was added to the NJ historic register, they also included the rail spur. That's why the spur is still in place. NJSA 13:1B-15.131 prohibits a gov't entity (but not private property owner) from demolishing/removing property in the registry unless said gov't entity applies and gets approval from the NJ-HPO.

When the main st bridge was rebuilt from scratch in the late 90s, this is why they relaid the xing. And it was one of the best xings I've seen as it was brand new! Then a few years later they tore it out and filled it in with blacktop. Can't figure it out for the life of me why that was done when the xing was in tip top shape. No it was not paved over, the xing was chunked out and the hole filled with blacktop.

There were yellow RxR signs on Main St until the bridge was rebuilt, but I've never seen crossbucks there going back to the early 1980s.
 #1327322  by jDubz411
 
Hey Carajul,
I shared your question with the other members of the RRRR Historical Society. Members that had attended did not have a good answer other than to confirm what you have just stated. The only addition information I was able to learn that when the spur was disconnected from the main, the rail bridge crossing Weston Mill Pond(?) was condemned shortly thereafter.

The one member who may have been around when that happened was not at the meeting, but I'll keep question in mind for next time.

Continue to post any info if you learn anymore. It's interesting to know that the tire plant was on the historic registry because they have been trying to redevelop that land for the past few decades and I will be surprised to see when they finally start knocking it all down.
 #1333531  by carajul
 
The tire factory went out of business during the early 1930s due to the great depression, but the buildings were used for other things until the 1980s. They have sat derelict since the late 80s with no maintenance done and the buildings are now in horrible shape, many are collapsing.

The RRRR spur still goes back there, albeit buried in mud, runs the length of the complex then there is a switchback to a siding along one of the buildings. There is still a track bumper in place. You can clearly see the track bumper if you are standing on the sidewalk on main street.

I was told the property is owned by a man who lives in Europe and is never in Milltown. The property (just the land) must be worth an absolute fortune. You can't even buy a house in Milltown for less than $400,000. That factory is several acres on the main street and river.
 #1335010  by jDubz411
 
Still don't have any good answers for you.

Was able to talk to my neighbor who is part of the Milltown Historical Society. He wasn't aware that the factory was still on the registry. He said he has tried many times in the past, but it gets bumped.

However, I did find this PDF this evening which does point out your ID#4052.

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/hpo/1identif ... dlesex.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The curious thing about it is that The Forney House which is up the road a little is on this list, but that house was torn down years ago now. Why it is still on this list is a good question, one I will have to ask my neighbor about again.

I still have one more person to ask. Other than that, I would start asking people who work for Middlesex County. From what I have learned, they are ones responsible for maintaining Main Street. There were some infrastructure improvements done last year on the north side of town and when I inquired at town hall if they were going to continue to the south side, they told me it wasn't Milltown doing the work and basically saying "don't hold your breathe"....
 #1335452  by carajul
 
Both the tire factory and the railroad spur are on the registry. Below are their listings. The spur should not have been removed, unless the HPO gave approval or did not respond to the request in 4 months. Many times what happens is that no one bothers to check if a structure is on the registry and it gets demolished anyway. Hell most people don't know that the registry even exists. Getting things on the registry is a nightmare of paperwork and research and sometimes takes many years. If anyone wants to sue the Milltown municipal gov't they would have to rebuilt the spur across Main St (assuming they violated the law) :-)
Reading thru the registry for Middlesex county it looks like in the mid-2000s someone got a bunch of railroad rows added to the registry.
Keep in mind getting something added to the registry does NOT protect something from being demolished by its owner.. the owner can do whatever they want. It only protects demolishing/encroachment by the state, county, or muni gov't.

Meyer Rubber Company / Michelin Tire Company (ID#1848)
40 Washington Avenue
SHPO Opinion: 11/8/1985
SR: 1/14/1986
NR: 2/13/1986 (NR Reference #: 86000216)

Raritan River Railroad Spur (ID#4052)
Raritan River Railroad to Meyer/Michelin property, crossing Main Street
and Lawrence Brook.
SHPO Opinion: 6/28/1991