Problems on the NJCL in Red Bank today?

Apparently a train, I believe it was 3240, pulled down some wire at Red Bank in the area of hte station, and the trian became disabled in Middletown, between the Navesink River Road and Oak Hill Road xings, on track 2 (the normal eastbound track). I don't know if the power on track 1 was out at this time though. This is a problem, becuase that would mean the railroad is essentially single tracked from Matawan to Long Branch, as Bank interlocking would be out of service, because the train is on one side of it, while the wire damage was on the other side.

The two closest interlockings are Lloyd, near the GSP bridge in Matawan/Hazlet and Branchport just west of Broadway in Long Branch, and that is a stretch of about 14 miles.

What they were doing earlier was running Bay Head shuttles up to Matawan, and having the passengers switch to NY bound trains there at Matawan. But then crews and equipment was getting stuck in places, namely Long Branch. I think they also had a few switch problems too. It seems that things started to clear up about 3pm, but there were significant delays though. Hopefully all is well for the evening rush.....

It was indeed train 3240.

My train, 3231 was en-route to Red Bank, having made Middletown, when it slowed and came to a stop. We sat here for maybe a minute or more when we lost power. 3240 passed us a minute or two later, apparently moving along just fine, but... I tend to wonder. I'm not exactly sure what was going on at this point. For those interested, a Comet IV was leading (5027? 5024? 5017? I forget at this point), and 4430 was pushing. 4430's rear pan suffered damage and the head of the pan hit the rear of the roof of the motor and the elbow was nearly contacting the wire. Interesting that this was in the constant tension catenary section of the NJCL, something that no one has mentioned yet.

After maybe 10 mins without power, we got power back and sat for awhile, awaiting dispatcher instruction. They reversed us to 3240's location, a good mile or so away, picked up 3240's passengers and sent us east as 3240. 3231's passengers disembarked at Middletown and were rescued by 4331, which made the trip up to Middletown. 4331 headed back down, making all stops to Bay Head.

Overall, 4331 arrived in Point Pleasant Beach about one hour late, but I feel as if the delays were probably a lot worse farther east. I was fairly impressed with the speed with which the decision was made about what to do and the intelligence that was used by the dispatcher, doing something that really confused the passengers, but made a lot of sense as far as keeping the railroad moving.

All was cleared up by the time I returned from the beach on 4372/3272.

OCtrainguy wrote:Also, related to the crossovers, does the SA31 use one at Hazlet/Matawan?

That would have to be the one Jgtshu referred to as Lloyd. It's right by the Beers Street grade crossing in Hazlet.

I usually do not get as far north as Red Bank and have not been in the area for a few years but decided to railfan the area Thurs. from the station area. It was really nice of NJT to pull out all of that work equipment and display it by running in up and down the line several times and even parked some of the stuff on the Navesink River Trestle for me to get some great shots. I began to think that NJT really likes rail fans.Unfortunately some kill-joy NJT gendarme showed up and gave me the now standard" you need a permit for security reasons spiel". Apparently the word is not out to the NJT Police as he informed me quite plainly that I needed a permit even though I was NOT on NJT propperty. He reiterated that any photography of any of their equipment or property from anywhere is forbidden.Angela, would you please tell your police that the permit is not needed to photograph off NJT property.

Well, at PJ, numerous people cross the tracks at unauthorized locations, (i.e. the area between the yard and the platform) because their homes are right across the rails.

I was waiting for that train at Matawan, which was scheduled to arrive at 11:13. At about 11:20, recorded announcements were being made that the train to NY was delayed due to over head wire problems, and they would report back to us. At 11:30 and 11:40, the same announcement was made and people started to get really fed up. Some carpooled to bus stations or other train stations. At 11:50, I decided there was no use waiting. A relative who just happened to be making the same train didn't want to leave and find another way to get to the city, so I went off on my own. I drove over to the Old Bridge bus terminal, where a number of people from my train station were boarding a bus at around 12:30, which I was on. On the bus, I got a call from my cousin (the one at the train station)... at that point, busses were sent to Matawan, and passengers were being bussed to Metropark station.

The train I was going to make was the first one affected by the wire problems.