Beesley's Point Future

I was in Cape May two summers ago and followed the train tracks as best I could - they seemed to end behind a grocery store. There didn't seem to be many potential freight rail customers to my untrained eye. I have no clue about potential customers along the line north of Cape May. Car storage is nice and it generates money for Tony but I can't see potential customers for running freight service.

@Dcell there’s a few.

Cape Mining and Recycling
South Jersey Fuel & Propane
Tri County Building Supply
Cape May County Municipal Waste Transfer Station
Globe Petroleum

The only ones I’m not sure about are Cape May Lumber and Seashore Food Distributors. Both are pretty small, and trains are usually better for people who deal with a larger loads of whatever product they sell/distribute. Also Cape May Lumber is a bit far from the tracks so they’d probably have to do transloading from somewhere, provided they don’t already.

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 08, 2021 4:52 pm NJDOT doesn’t do grants for passenger rail? Odd.

Well if that’s the case then couldn’t CMSL get a grant to rehab the line for freight service but do passenger runs later on as a long term goal?

NJT already receives a boatload of money from the state, since it's a state company. They wouldn't do grants, the state would just give money to itself.

Dcell wrote: ↑Wed Dec 08, 2021 5:10 pm I was in Cape May two summers ago and followed the train tracks as best I could - they seemed to end behind a grocery store. There didn't seem to be many potential freight rail customers to my untrained eye. I have no clue about potential customers along the line north of Cape May. Car storage is nice and it generates money for Tony but I can't see potential customers for running freight service.

The line runs all the way to Winslow Junction if you follow it on a map. I believe it's still mostly in tact and unimpeded on. Cape May last had revenue commuter rail (not tourist rail) running out of Lindenwold back in October 1981

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 08, 2021 5:32 pm @Dcell there’s a few.

Cape Mining and Recycling
South Jersey Fuel & Propane
Tri County Building Supply
Cape May County Municipal Waste Transfer Station
Globe Petroleum

The only ones I’m not sure about are Cape May Lumber and Seashore Food Distributors. Both are pretty small, and trains are usually better for people who deal with a larger loads of whatever product they sell/distribute. Also Cape May Lumber is a bit far from the tracks so they’d probably have to do transloading from somewhere, provided they don’t already.

Going off of what @Ken W2KB said that is speculative. The Southern and FIT got grants since there is already more than a few customers on those lines with the potential for more (in addition to it being a potential North-South corridor discussed in the thread for 2021 rail grants), whereas the Cape May Branch has not had any freight service on it since it was handed over to Tony in the 80s.

I'm sure there is potential but unless Tony got the local businesses to show not only him but the state that gives out these grants that they would use rail for shipments, nothing can happen.

I think if CMSL can convince those people I mentioned to get service (and provide good service for cheap) I think they can pick up a few of them. Maybe not Tri County because they already deal with SRNJ on their Pleasantville Industrial Track, but who knows.

The biggest customer would probably be the waste transfer station. The garbage will continue to be trucked to the landfill in Woodbine no doubt, but it’s baled materials of whatever can be recycled (usually cardboard and paper) that would come out by rail. Put the bales in boxcars, then ship to the buyer directly. I believe a company called WestRock gets inbound shipments of such bales, recycles them into paper and put the paper rolls in boxcars to be shipped out.

Plastic can be baled, sold, and shipped in the same manner but I don’t know anyone who would ship it by rail.

I wonder how much revenue that would generate vs. the cost to rehab the line with or without state grants. This part of Jersey is rough as it's so isolated from the rest of the state; in order to go anywhere else, especially to Delaware, in a timely and costly fashion, you have to travel quite a ways up north from Cape May. Not a very appealing place to year-round industries.

They've been talking about some sort of bridge from Cape May to Lewiston for decades but the cost has been too daunting for the planners of it. They say there's no demand for it now, but if they were to build it, it would instantly transform communities in the southernmost peninsula of Jersey, like Cape May, and that would bring in more people and industries that would probably use rail. Maybe you could even put rail on the bridge, but I don't know what the rail situation in Delaware is nor do I know if it would be used at all

R&DB wrote: ↑Thu Dec 09, 2021 4:08 pm

#1586494 by JohnFromJersey
Thu Dec 09, 2021 3:31 pm

The ferry works just fine.

It takes about 80 minutes to cross and can only take on a certain amount of vehicles at a time.
I don't think the demand is there for a bridge at this moment but if were to ever be built, it would certainly open up a lot of opportunities to some of the more far-flung areas of Delaware and NJ but unfortunately close them to the ferry.

Be a looong time before there's enough demand for a ten-mile bridge (or bridge-tunnel).

Anyone know if CMSL has begun running freight between Tuckahoe and Winslow yet?

Two of Tony's engines were spotted in Folsom late last week heading to Winslow Jct.

Not yet. Takeover should be later this month.

I have the same situation( landlocked by the RR - CSX) in Alabama re: some land given to me from my Father , Did you ever hear from Trainlawyer ?
If you did , if you could share his contact m that'd be greatly appreciated.

Kent McCain

Kent,
I'm not sure if Trainlawyer is still on RR.net, I seem to remember someone asking about him a while back. Perhaps someone with more info will see this & respond, either here or via pm.
Chris

RailsEast wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 1:56 am Kent,
I'm not sure if Trainlawyer is still on RR.net, I seem to remember someone asking about him a while back. Perhaps someone with more info will see this & respond, either here or via pm.
Chris

Trainlawyer has been banned from this forum for inaccurate and false information.

David wrote: ↑Thu Nov 10, 2022 12:47 pm Trainlawyer has been banned from this forum for inaccurate and false information.

David, I'm a fan of your forum but the you're inconcisent with your ruling here. I enjoy reading these often, but this has ticked me off and I need to air it out.

First of all, if you're gonna ban him for false info, fine. But a certain someone else has been much worse and yet he still is on the forums, and even defended by you.

Said individual (who I will not name but you could figure out probably) has been spreading very inaccurate info for years. It first comes up with these "sand trains" that seems to be a fantasy with no basis whatsoever, as well as his "sources" indicating C&D not taking over the lines and not only doubling down but tripling down on that statement. All of his lies are from his "sources" which he does not have.

I cannot forget, he was trash talking C&D nonstop so much that Kean had to come on to assure them everything going on. Those stuff alone would be bannable for everywhere else. To add, he also has come on these forums bashing the crews on the conrail trains.

Lastly, many crewman have complained nonstop about what said person has done around the lines for all of their habits including trespassing and giving the crews ZERO privacy filming them everywhere. Stuff like this is a big reason why the railfan community gets such a bad rep. Nobody likes armchair railroaders who thinks they know everything, like this individual does.

Overall, You just can't get rid of trainlawyer for some misinfo, but completely just be OK with all of this happening. Something needs to be done to save the forums reputation since they are not good right now.

Please, be more consistent when it comes to ruling like this. The forums have lost credibility from this person. Thank you.