Freight on the NYLB

Does anyone know if there is any freight that passes through Asbury Park these days?

Good to be back!

I believe the last freight that went through there was in 1987. Has not been a freight since.

Thank you. I thought maybe there was a lumber company or something else to the south along the line.

Would that 1987 service happened to have been to the siding of The Asbury Park Press?

SemperFidelis wrote:Would that 1987 service happened to have been to the siding of The Asbury Park Press?

I think so. There was a few people still getting shipments at the time actually. One of them was Jager Lumber in Belmar.

Asbury Park Press eventually moved out and wanted to get rail service out of freehold but was unsuccessful. Now they get all their paper from International Paper on the Amboy Secondary.

Thank you again. I just saw that the old building was demolished and that the paper had moved inland. Maybe now that there is a new operator for the Freehold area they will start getting paper directly.

SemperFidelis wrote: ↑Sun Nov 20, 2022 11:22 am Thank you again. I just saw that the old building was demolished and that the paper had moved inland. Maybe now that there is a new operator for the Freehold area they will start getting paper directly.

I’m not sure about that. Not because of C&D but because of how Freehold is run. I’ve heard the local government wants nothing to do with the train and through rezoning they have made it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for new rail sidings to be built. I’m still looking into this though.

Also service on the Freehold Industrial Track has been very strange lately. Largely due to heavy track repairs in Englishtown but also because the train now originates and terminates in Freehold Yard. Been running at random times…

I'll have to take a trip down that way and check it out.

The repairs are near Rex Lumber in Englishtown. So far they’ve made a big difference. Train is supposed to run Monday and Thursday very early in the morning, but lately I’ve heard they’ve been running on Saturday. Look for a black GP10 with a red bay window caboose.

The new operator has a dedicated topic on here as well. Delaware and Raritan River Railroad-General Discussion

Cool beans. Just getting readjusted back to normal life and using up to date tech again so if there's a ton of spelling and syntax errors, you'll know it's me typing.

Glad some decent operators took over.

The last freight on the NY&LB was about 1987. Conrail brought boxcars to the Neptune/Bradley Beach yard and delivered them across Memorial Drive to A.G.Rogers' moving company's warehouse. Rolls of newsprint were unloaded there and trucked to the Press's Rt 66 plant. That was the last freight operation, including the very last lumber deliveries to Builder's General in Little Silver. There hasn't been freight south/west of Red Bank since then. The Press still exists in offices in the AIG building across from where the Press was on Rt 66. Printing is outsourced, as most of the Press is now online.

Any lumber for BG in Little Silver is delivered by rail to BG in Freehold and trucked to other locations.

Belmar native here.
I think I remember seeing a freight train in Belmar around 1982 or so. I remember a tank car (maybe going to Bay Head)
My 2 Little League fields were along the train tracks (Belmar Elementary School and the field on Railroad between 12th and 13th). All of the sidings in Belmar were unused when I was growing up in the 1980's.

I remember the cars on sidings in Asbury Park and Bradley/ Neptune. Only one time do I remember seeing a freght train near the Memorial Drive crossing.

I worked at Brown's Yard in the early to mid 90's. There were 3 active customers on the NY&LB back then. Anchor Glass in Cliffwood, there was a customer just east of Lloyd Road that got boxcars of wood pulp and made paper plates, and Builders' General in Little Silver. The Asbury Park Press received up to two boxcars at a time on the Southern Secondary using the Standard Roofing Siding in Tinton Falls near Pine Brook Road.
My memory is failing a bit, but the last freight for customers on the NY&LB was late 1996 or very early 1997. Anchor closed in 96, followed by the paper plate plant, which was due to horrible track. Finally, Conrail and Builders' cut a deal to ship the lumber for Little Silver and Toms River to it's Freehold location.

I think Monmouth Plastics in Asbury was still getting cars into the early 90’s

If I remember correctly the last freight deliveries beyond Asbury Park were a lumber load to Belmar or Spring Lake then there was a piece of power generation equipment brought to either Spring Lake or Point Pleasant. After that one of the locals that drilled the lumber yard in the Middletown Red Bank area would occasionally run to Bay Head and loop the train before heading back. Finally in the slower months, Conrail would run a pair of engines out of Browns to Bay Head and back to keep crews qualified. This stopped just before takeover.