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  • Southern Division Ops

  • Discussion of the CNJ (aka the Jersey Central) and predecessors Elizabethtown and Somerville, and Somerville and Easton, for the period 1831 to its inclusion in ConRail in 1976. The historical society site is here: http://www.jcrhs.org/
Discussion of the CNJ (aka the Jersey Central) and predecessors Elizabethtown and Somerville, and Somerville and Easton, for the period 1831 to its inclusion in ConRail in 1976. The historical society site is here: http://www.jcrhs.org/

Moderator: CAR_FLOATER

 #320290  by CJPat
 
In light of the ROW clearing that is being conducted near Whiting, it brought thoughts of the old Southern Division and how it operated in its better years. And a question of general capacity came to mind.

If I understand the track layout, the majority (90%?) of it is single tracked from Red Bank down to Deepwater (?). There are a few areas where there was some double trackage (Lakehurst, Lakewood, Winslow, ??) but those points don't look to be set up as passing sidings. More like small yards (Lakehurst and Lakewood had both served as "major" service yards with engine facilities, etc. back in their day before the line pushed further South and Diesels came on-line).

Considering the number of little freight stops/sidings/stations/farms/ & industries along the way that would have to be serviced, as well as the passenger trains that CNJ operated, how frequently could they run "through" trains over that lengthy stretch of single track?

A long slow moving freight is going to take up quite a "slot". It would appear that if you ran a train every several hours, that would have been tight down that way.

 #320337  by Steam man
 
Good question CJ. The section between Lakehurst and Winslow Jct. would have been particularly interesting operations wise as it's around 39 miles of single track. I don't know how may frieghts the CNJ had on the Southern Division at the peak of service, but I did find a little info that said the CNJ had at one time 6 express and 8 local passenger trains between Jersey City and Atlantic City. Now if any passenger service to points south of Winslow Jct. could be added in along with the sand hogs and other frieghts using the Lakehurst to Winslow Jct. section, I would imagine the train dispatcher would haveto be inventive to say the least. It seems the operations of the CNJ into South Jersey on the Southern Division gets lost many times to the busier northern lines. All my memories of the Southern Division were from the late 1950's to the end in 1976, but I do remember the green and yellow ALCO's and F-M's and the plywood cabooses. Any got any more on this??

 #320409  by CJPat
 
Don't forget that on top of those 14 Passenger trains to AC....and whatever sand trains that were running out Woodmansie, Heritage Minerals (I don't know the original name) and out of Jackson there was also the normal freight activities between Red Bank and Lakehurst....and whatever trains (passenger & freight) headed to/from the Barnegat Branch,....You still had several small factories and then all the cranberry and farm produce coming out of Chatsworth.

I assume chemicals and what not were coming up from all the way down south.

I am guessing that most of the far south work (other than distant passenger service up to Jersey City & Newark) was mostly centralized around Vineland?

Its hard to believe that all that traffic along the single track Southern Division had to be handled with minimal communications with the train crews (I would guess via mostly telegraph and phones to the switch towers and stations to be hooped up to the engineers). Amazing there were no head ons.

 #322384  by Steam man
 
CJPat wrote: I am guessing that most of the far south work (other than distant passenger service up to Jersey City & Newark) was mostly centralized around Vineland?
Vineland wound have generated a bit of traffic, but in the time frame were talking about Bridgeton would have had a fairly significant amount of frieght outbound from the glass houses and the many other industries that used to be in the area. Bridgeton had many dye and cloth plants as well as a couple significant founderies. Farther south in Bivalve,Shell Pile, Mauricetown(pronouned Mar-is-town) and Port Norris there was major source of car loads with the Delaware Bay oyster industry that resulted in full trains of oysters bound for the New York City and beyond markets.
CJPat wrote:Its hard to believe that all that traffic along the single track Southern Division had to be handled with minimal communications with the train crews (I would guess via mostly telegraph and phones to the switch towers and stations to be hooped up to the engineers). Amazing there were no head ons.
Not as bad as you think it could be actually. Manual block rules are fairly simple and stritckly enforced . If a train left one of the block stations such as Winslow Jct. or Lakehurst,train orders would be issued for a train to have the authority to occupy that particular piece of railroad and no other trains could occupy that same section unless ordered so, and probably only then a follwing train unless a meet was setup by the train dispatcher. Train orders would have been issued to both the engineman and conductors of both trains and the block operators would have to follow whetever rules that were in effect to cover the single track section of railroad.

 #322487  by CJPat
 
Thank you very much for the replies. Good info. Rail ops seems like one heck of a ballet to coordinate and still get indiviual cars to their individual destinations in a timely manner.

 #322497  by Jtgshu
 
I thought the whole Southern divison was wayside AND cab signaled?

I thought I read somewhere that the Seashore Branch was mainly only cab signaled, with a few signals around interlockings, etc.....sort of a forerunner of todays "562" territory, with cab signals only, and no wayside automatics, only home signals.

I was born too late for any real freight action here in Monmouth County unfortunately - i would have LOVED to see helpers shoving a huge freight up the Middletown hill :-)

 #326579  by Steam man
 
CJPat,
You might want to take a gander at this track chart of the CNJ. Most of it appears to be updated in 1963, so regular frieght ops were still under way and it shows all the usual stuff like sidings,grades,bridges,etc. A couple oddities at the lower end of the Southern Division chart though. It shows the junctions for the Bayside Branch and the Cumberland & Maurice River Branch, but includes no track chart for them. The Bayside Branch may have been out of service by 1963, but I remember the tracks being there in the late 60's in some places. The Bayside Branch was built with the thought of having a connection via car float to the B&O across the upper portion of Delaware Bay, but it never panned out. (Bayside is near Greenwich if you're looking for it, and it's prononced Green-witch in these parts). The C&MR Branch ran from Bridgeton to Bivalve,but was cut back at some point to Dragston. This branch is where most of the sand loads came from and in earlier days where the oyster trains started. The W&W operates a portion of this branch today.

Go to:http://raildata.railfan.net/cnj/homecnj.html for charts.

 #326584  by Steam man
 
Jtgshu wrote:I thought the whole Southern divison was wayside AND cab signaled?
Jtgshu,
Seem to be a mix up in terminolgy or something. We are talking about the old Southern Division that ran from Red bank to Bridgeton. The proper CNJ name for it was the New Jersey Southern Division and is no longer in service. Hope this helps you sort the lines out.

 #326924  by CJPat
 
Steam man,

Thank you for the link.

If I am understanding that 1963 track diagram, I recognize the track elevations at top and the schematic in the middle. I see the identifiers for all the bridges and culverts, as well as cross roads. I am not sure what the bottom line is indicating. To my surprise, I only make out 3 sidings between Lakehurst and Winslow. Evidently the produce sidings were not as plentiful as I was thinking, or long gone by that time as truck farms became huge in the 1960's. And the sand pits of Heritage Minerals (I don't recall their original owner) and Clayton were not connected at that time, perhaps not even in existence until later.

There appears 3 or 4 times as many sidings south of Winslow as there are north, so by 1963, I guess the section of track between Winslow & Red Bank was more of a transportation corridor rather than a service line. Heck, you can probably find as many old sidings along the former PRR's NEC in a one mile stretch as you can along the entire CNJ Southern.

That would make it a bit less complicated if you are only scheduling through trains on the Southern to Winslow.

Again, thank you.

 #326966  by Steam man
 
CJ,
The line on the bottom indicates curves in total length, direction and degrees of curvature. And you're welcome. :wink:
 #497998  by GSC
 
CNJ ran their Southern Division thru-freights in the early morning. SJ-1 would run south from Jersey City and stop in Lakehurst. JS-2 came north from Bridgeton at the same time, and tried to meet in a timely fashion at Lakehurst. The engine crews would change to each other's train, and the conductors and brakemen would stay with their respective trains.

Big cuts of cars would be dropped at certain locations for the locals to handle during the day. Red Bank and Lakewood were big drops, up to 60 cars sometimes at Red Bank alone.

These big trains kept out of the way of the locals and the passenger trains that ran during daylight hours.

 #498053  by CJPat
 
Thanks GSC, and welcome aboard! I appreciate the additional info.

Like I was pondering; running a stretch of 30 miles of single track with passenger, local, and thru freight action has got to get complicated.

 #498398  by GSC
 
Thanks for the welcome, CJPat.

There was an article years ago in Anthracite's newsletter by Robert Hoeft, who described working out of Red Bank on the Southern in the early 50s. He was a brakeman on both steam and diesel, freight and passenger, and the efficiency of the operations was amazing. Everything was on a rigid timetable, and everything was spaced enough to not be in each other's way. The planning was excellent. (As long as schedules were kept to!)

Bob's still around, lives locally to Red Bank, and I saw him early in December. I love to listen to his CNJ stories.