Delaware and Raritan River Railroad-General Discussion

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 1:33 pm After Hurricane Sandy, Woodhaven began to get much larger shipments. That and most of the customers were gone by that point.

Train will be in Farmingdale in about 5-10 minutes

Was Gold's the last major customer on the line to go out-of-business? And before Gold's went OOB, who was before them? I know the TRIT customers are mentioned semi-frequently on this thread/threads relating to the Southern, but those guys IIRC were gone by the late 90s/early 2000s.

The 2 customers on the TRIT were gone 96/97ish. Builders General in Toms River and at Little Silver on the NJCL started getting all of their deliveries via the Freehold location. That was a business deal between Conrail and Builders. Ace Gas on the TRIT stopped getting cars sometime after Builders General stopped their TRIT service.
In the mid 90's the steady customers on the SOUS/TRIT were Asbury Park Press, the plastics place at Collingswood, Dinaso Lumber, Woodhaven, and Builders General along with 7 or 8 occasional/seasonal customers. WPSA-35 used to make 2 round trips a week back then, Mon/Tues and Thurs/Fri. Sometimes they would have over 30 cars in the train. Browns yard was a busy place back then.

That's right it was frequency engineering in Farmingdale. The other place we got deliveries from locally was something like Cell Wave. It's been a long time so I could have the wrong name. They were on 79 by Matawan. None of these items came to Monmouth by train though. It was all truck deliveries.
Does anyone know when Fort Monmouth stopped getting trains? Before I deployed to Nam in 72, I was at Monmouth briefly and they were getting train cars. When I reenlisted I returned to Monmouth in 78 and I didn't see any train cars at the warehouses anymore. The locomotive was still there and later on the fire academy had a mock train set up for responders training. I also heard there used to be passenger trains into the Shrewsbury or Oceanport side of Monmouth. Can anyone confirm this and if so, when and why did they stop it?

JohnFromJersey wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 6:07 pm

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 11, 2022 1:33 pm After Hurricane Sandy, Woodhaven began to get much larger shipments. That and most of the customers were gone by that point.

Train will be in Farmingdale in about 5-10 minutes

Was Gold's the last major customer on the line to go out-of-business? And before Gold's went OOB, who was before them? I know the TRIT customers are mentioned semi-frequently on this thread/threads relating to the Southern, but those guys IIRC were gone by the late 90s/early 2000s.

I think so. Before Golds they lost PolyOne, US Components, Dinaso Lumber, and OceanGro.

Speaking of lost customers, S&A/Cary Mouldings on the Freehold Industrial will soon be moving out of state. I hear they are leaving due to NJ business taxes…

Edit: Turns out Cary was bought out recently too.

https://www.geon.com/news/geon-acquires-cary-compounds

What I read they were bought out by an Ohio company.they are combining operations with their other companies they have bought into ohio. I don't think taxes had anything to do with it.

glenn cannizzaro wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 9:24 am What I read they were bought out by an Ohio company.they are combining operations with their other companies they have bought into ohio. I don't think taxes had anything to do with it.

I see. Until now several of my people told me that’s what was going on. Seeing as how NJ taxes are part of the reason others in this area have left,(Bayshore Vinyl did after they got bought out buy their employees) I figured Cary was also following the trend considering what I was hearing.

Other than lumber, I'm pretty sure NJ taxes and general business climate are the main reasons companies are leaving. Am still hopeful D&RR can pick up new business. Their service appears to be sufficiently better that businesses may look for sites along their trackage. Keeping my fingers crossed.

BTW, hi-rail working this morning between Marl Rd and Central Ave in Farmingdale. May be just picking up ties but there appeared to be some interaction between them and JCP&L employees at the power company yard.

Can’t say what the JCPL talking is about, but as of yesterday Tracks Unlimited was picking up removed ties. Word is the tie work is pretty much done and the new ties will be spiked and possibly tamped. What comes next is anyones guess. I hear Lakewood to Lakehurst is next, but we will see…

Edit: Look for rail joint bars spray painted orange. Forgot to mention those are being replaced where needed.

FrontFrank wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 8:45 am That's right it was frequency engineering in Farmingdale. The other place we got deliveries from locally was something like Cell Wave. It's been a long time so I could have the wrong name. They were on 79 by Matawan. None of these items came to Monmouth by train though. It was all truck deliveries.
Does anyone know when Fort Monmouth stopped getting trains? Before I deployed to Nam in 72, I was at Monmouth briefly and they were getting train cars. When I reenlisted I returned to Monmouth in 78 and I didn't see any train cars at the warehouses anymore. The locomotive was still there and later on the fire academy had a mock train set up for responders training. I also heard there used to be passenger trains into the Shrewsbury or Oceanport side of Monmouth. Can anyone confirm this and if so, when and why did they stop it?

Thank you for your service. Monmouth Racetrack, which is pretty close to Fort Monmouth, used to get passenger trains (most of the rails for it are still there, hell, the switch is still there too). I'd imagine if Fort Monmouth got passenger trains, it was probably up until the Korean War

glenn cannizzaro wrote: ↑Wed Oct 12, 2022 9:24 am What I read they were bought out by an Ohio company.they are combining operations with their other companies they have bought into ohio. I don't think taxes had anything to do with it.

This is exactly what happened to Bel-Ray

Seeing all of the talk about Gold Lumber I figure I’d chime in. There was a Southern Pacific boxcar on their siding around October-November 2008. I believe that was the last car to come off of the lead to the lumber yard. Around 2006/2007 I can remember a full train with a csx engine in the bright future paint parked, turned off on the freehold industrial past the Gold lumber switch up until Southard road where the rest of the train was on the other side of the crossing. I thought it was wild how much the train was leaning, just sitting there.

After the Lumber yard closed, the local riff raff built a pretty impressive skatepark inside the main warehouse, probably made with most of the leftover product on the property. Not too sure what happened when they closed their doors because it seems that they left almost everything in place and just vanished. Still find it interesting that such a big piece of land hasn’t been redeveloped into literally anything else

Hi-rail working again today between Central Ave and Marl Rd. Dunno what they are doing, not picking up old ties.

Some brush cleared between RR ave and where the Pennsy tracks end, maybe for hi-rail or other equipment to get access to those tracks.

Another delivery of ties and some rail sitting by the crossing gates. I suspect they are going to repair track between Academy and Marl Rd.

Has anyone seen the train today? SA31 didn’t do the interchange yesterday.

Nope. RB-1 did not run today.

That explains the activity in Farmingdale this A.M. Large hi-rail loading ties, looks like to be headed south; also the flatbed they have to haul rail equipment (tracks on bed) sitting, either just unloaded or waiting to pick equipment up. I did not see any new equipment that may have been unloaded.

How much rail are they dropping off?