Why no freigh rail service to sand quarry S Amboy?

Why doesn't that new huge sand quarry in S Amboy where the PRR coal yard used to be have rail service? The yard tracks were all still in until a few years ago when the quarry took off. Seems ironic. That's the type of biz that should use rail service but they torn the tracks out, removed all the tracks from the rail bridge, and repaved it so trucks could use it! It's all just a smidge east of the NJT pax station.

Also does anyone know what's going on with the old coal yard in S Amboy? It looks like it's all been flattened with new fill.

What year did the PRR close this yard? I was there in the mid-90s and all the track was still in and catenary. Looked like a post-nuclear bomb apolocyptic movie set.

I'm going to say by looking at historic areials the yard was closed in 1969 and track removed 1970. I can't believe the size of that yard opearation. The entire area around the current NJT pax sta in S Amboy all the way along the waterfront was a solid rr yard. It looks like the yard was all coal cars and they were loaded onto barges on the waterfront.

They call it Progress!

Some of that coal was for the power plant too. Some big PRR steam power worked that yard.

Rail service would be like any other business. Is enough sand moving to warrant rail service? How long a distance? Does the destination / consignee have rail service? Is a lot of product going to one place, or several? Is it easier to just call a broker and order twenty trucks today and ten trucks tomorrow?

Most of the quarries I used to run out of with a dump trailer once had rail service, even had tracks still in place, but I never saw a rail car in any of them. Just trucks.

Just business.

Not sure if this is the location your referring to, but looking at Google Maps I wouldn't exactly call it "huge" or a "quarry". In addition, its right on the water with what looks like the ability to load barges in some way.

I wouldn't be surprised if the land that makes up the former PRR Coal yard is contaminated in some form.

The old shops, the coal yard, the leakage from the MUs, what sweet soil that must be.

Just to clarify, I believe these are the locations in question:


In addition, I found this old thread that you started, that answers a few questions and provides some other interesting reading on the area.

I question whether that is a quarry too - look at the Bing view for the location. OK, now lets look at the 1987 Historic Aerials for that location. OK, so in 25 or so years of sand mining...the place looks essentially the same? Are they mining a pick-up bed of sand a day and that's it? Or are they bringing in sand from other sites and just using that location as a sort of storage/transfer station (to barges, I presume - looks like they have had waterfront loading facilities for decades).

After decades of sand mining in a rather confined space, I expect to see a giant crater half-way into the Earth's upper Mantle...

The company was called McCormack Sand and they loaded barges. I believe they had an Alco switcher or two, and the sand came in hoppers from a quarry somewhere on the PRR main in one of the Brunswicks or Plainsboro. (No PRR 0-6-0s at the bottom of the quarry that I'm aware of, however).

The company is Amboy Aggregates. They dredge sand from the Ambrose Channel and it is sent out via barge around NYC/CT.

Ðauntless wrote:The company is Amboy Aggregates. They dredge sand from the Ambrose Channel and it is sent out via barge around NYC/CT.

Read that last night myself, they were formerly known as McCormack Sand. In addition, it seems that they are in the process of shutting down.

Dig a deep hole there and it would soon be full of water.

Maybe becasue the Sand Quarry doesnt want rail service.