I was in New Hope today with my girlfirend and a group of friends. I had not been in Lambertville and really looked around in a few years. It's not a pretty site on the railroad. All I saw was heavy duty 130lbs rail getting lost in a forest. If one looks back in this post I have asked twice if the BRWT has any plans to cut and spray the line. There always very helpful, yet no one answers that question. The BRWT has done a great job on the railroad and they keep going forward. But you can only spead yourself so thin with projects at any one time and this is not a priority. In my 10 years at New Hope I always remembered we had all the shops and people in New Hope, L-ville really didn't have much going on. I CANT BELEIVE HOW THAT HAS CHANGED in only 5 years. Lambertville's retail district must have grown by at least 300 % ! In the past the main st. (Bridge St) was where 85% of the retail stores were. Now retail store and people were all the way down to Finkels, I couldn't beleive the change. If the BR guys can get the line opened again I'm sure the ridership would be stronger then ever ! On the bad side, if the line is not cleared in early 2010 I would say it's gone for good with out a professonial clearing crew. Everywhere I checked the ROW had tree's 1 to 3 inches growing in the gauge as soon as you got a few feet from the crossing. My cell phone camera took some fair shots, and remember it's winter and it's a jungle.
In this pic I am standing approx 200 yards south of the station looking torwards Trenton. I'm standing in the run around
(double tracks) on the bridge that's over the canal so the brush wasn't to bad. MP 16 is on my Right Side. A local resident has put crap all over the ROW and the South switch for the run around has been pulled out ??? It was over grown badly with pricker brush.
From Bridge St. looking North one can see the crossing light stands still in place before the track disapear into the brush. The bank on the canal has also given way in a few spots and the RR is slipping into the canal.
In this last view you are at Finkels Hardware looking South, Bridge St is approx 2/10th of a mile to the South. Forget brush, there's good size tree's grown in the gauge North and South of this crossing.
I truly hope the BRW guys can find a way to rehab the beautiful section of Railroad, it would be a home run for sure. If anyone on that side of the fence ever want's to do something down there as far as a clean up, cutting or spraying. I'm sure alot of us on the Bel -Del would jump over the fence and help out with saws and the chipper.
Good luck guys !!!! Someone's got to take the bull by the horns and clear the ROW before it's to late and another section of beautiful, historic, New Jersey railroad history is gone for good.
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