Delaware and Raritan River Railroad-General Discussion

Wolfgang5150 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 13, 2022 2:19 am 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.

How big was a "full train" back then? I remember Gold's siding not being particularly long, so I'll assume that around 12 cars or less was a "full train"

Wolfgang5150 wrote: ↑Thu Oct 13, 2022 2:19 am 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

The owner of the property is known as a notorious slumlord who lets his property sit until he can get the absolute most money for it. He owns a lot of other properties, especially down the shore, that have similar dilemmas; good real estate/location, but has been empty for quite some time. Rumor has it, he is waiting for someone to approach him with a housing development plan, which sucks since that land would be better off being a train station or some sort of industrial property

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 9:14 am Has anyone seen the train today? SA31 didn’t do the interchange yesterday.

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 9:27 am Nope. RB-1 did not run today.

I believe this is only the first or second time there has not been a delivery on either a Tuesday or Friday.

CharlieL wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 9:50 am 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.

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 10:10 am How much rail are they dropping off?

So is that why there was no RB-1 today - they are focusing on doing some extensive track work? And quite a lot of rail was dropped off by the Main St crossing, I would say at least a few hundred feet of rail.

There’s a train for the Southern in Browns Yard with an EOTD on it. Maybe they’ll bring that down later?

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 11:08 am There’s a train for the Southern in Browns Yard with an EOTD on it. Maybe they’ll bring that down later?

That would be a pretty late run for RB-1, going into the night, if they did that today. Probably would be better to save it for tomorrow/Tuesday...

Got a car count on that train?

Farmingdale this morning at Marl Rd. That big truck was picking up the ties.

Extensive track work. Finally. The Southern is so beat up, looking south from the Asbury Rd. crossing you can see how bumpy the tracks are from years of trains and little to no maintenance.

A railgrinder coming down the Southern would probably do it some good, but I think it's far too late for that in many places

Main St Farmingdale today

JohnFromJersey wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 11:10 am

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 11:08 am There’s a train for the Southern in Browns Yard with an EOTD on it. Maybe they’ll bring that down later?

That would be a pretty late run for RB-1, going into the night, if they did that today. Probably would be better to save it for tomorrow/Tuesday...

Got a car count on that train?

If RB-1 even runs later.

I think it was 7-8 for Woodhaven and a tank.

At least 50 lengths of rail, that's what - 2000 feet, or a thousand track feet.

I did not count, could be more. If it goes south maybe for Lakewood-Lakehurst. Guess we'll wait and see.

I'm lovin all this activity. Certain people who panic easily should be as well.

CharlieL wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 1:28 pm At least 50 lengths of rail, that's what - 2000 feet, or a thousand track feet.

I did not count, could be more. If it goes south maybe for Lakewood-Lakehurst. Guess we'll wait and see.

I'm lovin all this activity. Certain people who panic easily should be as well.

If they are replacing rail in sections it would mostly likely be 39ft sections of stick rail as most of the sections are 39ft But I have seen all different lengths on southern in places. I believe all the track is being reused from other locations and RR's and 39ft stick rail was used all over the Country
So 39 feet is the norn. And the simple answer why is rail from the beginning was transported in 40ft cars flat or gondola.

Forest, thanks for the pics. I did not even notice the new ties stacked at Marl Rd, just the ones by the crossing gate.

Seems to me they've handled about 40 or 50 bundles of new ties, probably more as I can't check every day. With 25 - 30 in a bundle (I think 25), that's a lot of ties. will need to go back and check the grant request, I seem to remember 5000 wood ties, but memory ain't that great.

I can’t help but wonder what all the new rail is for…

According to the grant they are going to pull and salvage some 100PS rail and replace it with 132 lb with the 100ps used later in phase 2.

If it was for the FIT, it would be by the old Gold's Lumber site. The rail is probably to replace the rail going through Farmingdale, where earlier this year a section of it snapped. All the rail in Farmingdale is almost, if not more than, 100 years old.

CharlieL wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 4:07 pm According to the grant they are going to pull and salvage some 100PS rail and replace it with 132 lb with the 100ps used later in phase 2.

What's "Phase 2" going to be? Double tracking in some places? New sidings?

JohnFromJersey wrote: ↑Fri Oct 14, 2022 4:15 pm
What's "Phase 2" going to be? Double tracking in some places? New sidings?

Or reconnecting Farmingdale with Freehold?