I spoke with one of the guys about this. The lumber yard in Red Bank or Middletown that i mentioned was in Little Silver. They got their last car in 2001 or 2002. Before split date, when they serviced the Little Silver lumber yard, if the crew did not have any other work, they would go to Bay Head to loop the train, time permitting. This would also be done in cases when they only had one engine. The last time this happened was during a snowfall in early 1999.
Freight can come back if theres a demand for it. NJT may dispatch the line, but they can't prohibit freight service. If it got to that point the business can challenge NJT. This happened at one point where a passenger railroad tore out switches and imposed a ban of freight. They lost and had to replace everything they tire out. It may have been the Long Island, Metro North or Amtrak. I don't remember which railroad.