Millstone Branch Update

Drove past the end of the Millstone Branch today in Franklin Twp. Veronica Ave xing has 6' tall trees growing between the rails. The Clyde Rd xing has both crossbucks removed and the vegitation is several feet high. The lights on the back of the Hermann warehouse are not illuminated. I think they stopped shipping in the early 2000s. I'm amazed CR never abandoned that line. The end sat derelict from the early 80s to 1999.

carajul wrote:The lights on the back of the Hermann warehouse are not illuminated. I think they stopped shipping in the early 2000s.

Don't quote me, but I think Hermanns received occasional freight service at Clyde Road up until the 2009 recession.

Do you mean Herman's as in the sporting goods chain? I haven't seen one of their stores in about 15-20 years, long bankrupt I guess. Maybe the warehouse was used by someone else, or it could be I just don't get out much. JS

I think the hermann he is talking about is the warehouse and trucking company

It was Herman Warehouse. CR did one heck of a rehab on that line in 1998 when Herman reactivated their spur. Nothing ran on that track for 20+ years.

On another good point I checked out the row past Clyde Rd now that its winter all the vegetation is dead. The new housing develolments on each side of the row have NOT been built on it. The row is a hump with trenches on each side and 5' of woodlands on each side thst the new house backyards butt up against it.

This reaffirms my beleif that Penn Central or Franklin Twp still owns the row (the NS real estate dept told me CR only bought the line to Clyde Rd.)

However the house that is right up against S M Rd put a small storage shanty in his backyard and plopped it down directly on the row! This is an older house from the 70s. I doubt he had permission to do that!

And what was really amazing was that I found lots of ties still in place leading up to S Middlebush Rd and around 5 ties in the woods near the end of the line in E Millstone!!!

Sorry for the typos Im using a smart phone.

carajul wrote:It was Herman Warehouse.

Got it, thanks.
http://historicaerials.com/ clearly shows 4 cars behind the warehouse in 2007.
Poking on the internet, it seems they moved headquarters to Stults Rd in Dayton, near NJ Turnpike exit 8A, and have an impressive operation across the country now.
http://www.hermanntds.com/ On modern aerial photos http://binged.it/XVPBXL, depending how much I zoom in, I see either a siding under construction (off the Amboy Secondary) or one finished with rail cars on it at their 83 Stults Rd. location. Their web site also says they have a location with RR access in S. Brunswick (seems to be just north of Deans Lane, served from the NEC).
JS

At lunch I found a gold mine of old pictures of the Millstone branch on-line, from one of the local history/picture books of the Franklin Township area. Many 100+ years old.
http://books.google.com/books?id=uTrobt ... er&f=false. It is a Google Book preview - you don't get all the pages (and I'm not sure if you will see the same ones I see, or if you get the same pages each time you click), but page 46 shows a picture of the rubber plant in Millstone, which it says didn't close til 1983. Pages 34 - 68 are the RR and industry-related pics, although I can't see past page 50. I guess rail service ended in 1972(?) from what I have seen posted here on Millstone related threads here the past few years. Also, it burned down in 1912 but was rebuilt on site.
From elsewhere on the web http://answers.google.com/answers/threa ... 17179.html, before it was a rubber plant (1910), it was the Olcott Distillery , starting in the 1850's,until 1880, when Fleischmann Distillery Company bought it. I saw conflicting links on whether it was a whiskey (largest in the US?) or a yeast distillery. One said that Fleischmann's invested $600K, and shipped live yeast in refrigerated RR cars.
Have fun, JS

I spoke to Mr. Herman himself today via email. He stated that they still use rail quite a bit BUT have moved their rail logistics to "other" facilities.

Take a look at page 41 on that book. That pic was taken looking north toward the tracks in the farm field that is now Virginia Ct. You can see the tracks were up on a hump as the row is today! In yhe 1948 pic of te Middlebush station you can see the track is very light rail and its already engulfed in weeds. Service lasted until 1973 and by then it was one boxcar every 3 months.

I took a ride up to East Millstone from County yard in January 1971. The first trick County drill would go up usually on a monday morning. The Loralei rubber company was up at the end of track in East Millstone. County yard YM Bob Le Gates told me the owner of Loralei hated the railroad with a passion and would ship by rail to harass the company. The drill would be gone for 3-4 hours running out to East Millstone and back which forced the second trick drill to make overtime covering the fact no work had been done in County yard in the morning. Mile run yard, County's official name was quite busy in those days covering the Delco lead work including Deans,the Baldwin street yard team tracks and the Millstone branch. Triangle Cable, numerous warehouses, Jersey paper, A and D beer distributors,Phillips concrete, Morrison steel, Container Corp of America etc.all were located on the Millstone branch mostly below Rt 27.Once past Clyde road I cant recall any shippers just Loralei rubber. The track was in pretty bad shape with little or no ballast and a couple of spots wehere the rails jumped up in front of the Alco S-1 switcher.Some of the Hwy crossings had lights but most were stop and flag overs. Once you hit E. Millstone there was a runaround track in the middle of town. The loaded car was dropped, the empties ( this day there were two ), were pulled past the load on the runaround and then coupled up to the load and shoved it to its spot. Old man Loralei I guess came out of the plant and cursed at the conductor and they had a small dust up.I was told this was S.O.P with the man. We then pulled back to the runaround and ate breakfast in a small restaurant. we headed back about an hour later at 5 mph and that was that. I sure wish i had a camera back then!

Zeke wrote:I took a ride up to East Millstone from County yard in January 1971. The first trick County drill would go up usually on a monday morning. The Loralei rubber company was up at the end of track in East Millstone. County yard YM Bob Le Gates told me the owner of Loralei hated the railroad with a passion and would ship by rail to harass the company. The drill would be gone for 3-4 hours running out to East Millstone and back which forced the second trick drill to make overtime covering the fact no work had been done in County yard in the morning. Mile run yard, County's official name was quite busy in those days covering the Delco lead work including Deans,the Baldwin street yard team tracks and the Millstone branch. Triangle Cable, numerous warehouses, Jersey paper, A and D beer distributors,Phillips concrete, Morrison steel, Container Corp of America etc.all were located on the Millstone branch mostly below Rt 27.Once past Clyde road I cant recall any shippers just Loralei rubber. The track was in pretty bad shape with little or no ballast and a couple of spots wehere the rails jumped up in front of the Alco S-1 switcher.Some of the Hwy crossings had lights but most were stop and flag overs. Once you hit E. Millstone there was a runaround track in the middle of town. The loaded car was dropped, the empties ( this day there were two ), were pulled past the load on the runaround and then coupled up to the load and shoved it to its spot. Old man Loralei I guess came out of the plant and cursed at the conductor and they had a small dust up.I was told this was S.O.P with the man. We then pulled back to the runaround and ate breakfast in a small restaurant. we headed back about an hour later at 5 mph and that was that. I sure wish i had a camera back then!

At least you have the memories though Zeke! Thanks for the awesome story, oh how I wish I was around back then!

Imagine that, a time when Mile Run Yard (County) had its own crews (instead of being served by Metuchen)! I've always heard this about the owner of the rubber company, I wonder what the RR ever did to tick him off so bad?

Wow thanks for the story! Too bad you didn't have a camera. I have NEVER seen pics of the E Millstone end of the branch from the 60s or 70s. Philips Cement still has its siding in place but I haven't seen cars spotted there ever going back to the early 1980s. I think CR must have chased them away.

It's nice to see the row not built upon around Middlebush. But in 2001 those 3 huge luxury homes along Amwell Rd just before E Millstone were built. For some reason their backyards were built ontop of the row and butt right up against the Colonial Park golf course. So the row has been severed (not by buildings but by grass). In 1971 that area of Franklin must have been so rural with 5 cars/day on Amwell. Interesting about the track condition and you could only go 5mph. I the book "The Men Who Loved Trains" they said PC earned $2,000 for deliveries to the factory annually but it cost them $4,500 to make the deliviers!

In the early 2000s I caught the NS drill heading back to County Yard crossing over Veronica Ave and they were doing around 25mph.