CR on the Southern Secondary

Train IS parked at Patterson Avenue

Train arrived back at yard before 1pm. CSX 4423 spotted.

Thanks guys....quite an eventful week for the Southern. I'm sure that upper management at Woodhaven is happy; Conrail got that fairly big mess cleaned up quickly, and was back on schedule within 5 days. Kudos to the crews involved and thanks to everyone here for the updates. I still propose that the Southern is (over)due for ties & tamping...it's been far too long, especially with the traffic volume over the past few years....just my opinion....
Chris

I don't know how CSAO is governed in terms of expansion (unlikely) or contraction (much more likely), but I would imagine if maintenance is being deferred despite much better carloading then perhaps something is in the works behind the scenes to see the Southern Secondary perhaps spun off like the NS lines on the Delmarva.

I have nothing at all to base this on aside from being up too late reading railroad.net posts on a Friday night. Just a theory.

I know one is the sale or lease of lines from one company to another whereas anything from CSAO would have to be approved by both NS and CSX...and perhaps even some agency due to the fact that CSAO was a creation born of the splitup of Conrail to ensure access in complicated areas like northern New Jersey.

That being said, the Southern, and its associated little branches, aren't at all like northern New Jersey. It would, in my opinion, be a relatively easy group of lines to spin off to an interested operator.

Again, nothing to base this on. Just a thought as to why maintenance might be being deferred on a line with growing business. Then again, it might be much more mundane, like scheduling or budgeting or whatever.

Id imagine a decision to sell off anything between the two companies would be a decision of the stockholders.

I was with my good friend when we got stopped for the SA38/31 At Main Street in Farmingdale at 4 am for the train the other night. I saw my buddy on Railroad.net and rrpicturearchives.net yesterday. Got a good kick out of that.

He was telling me that he has been on a serious train kick within the last month. Always nice to see. Lol.

SemperFidelis wrote:I don't know how CSAO is governed in terms of expansion (unlikely) or contraction (much more likely), but I would imagine if maintenance is being deferred despite much better carloading then perhaps something is in the works behind the scenes to see the Southern Secondary perhaps spun off like the NS lines on the Delmarva.

I have nothing at all to base this on aside from being up too late reading railroad.net posts on a Friday night. Just a theory.

I know one is the sale or lease of lines from one company to another whereas anything from CSAO would have to be approved by both NS and CSX...and perhaps even some agency due to the fact that CSAO was a creation born of the splitup of Conrail to ensure access in complicated areas like northern New Jersey.

That being said, the Southern, and its associated little branches, aren't at all like northern New Jersey. It would, in my opinion, be a relatively easy group of lines to spin off to an interested operator.

Again, nothing to base this on. Just a thought as to why maintenance might be being deferred on a line with growing business. Then again, it might be much more mundane, like scheduling or budgeting or whatever.

I always thought that they've been delaying track maintenance in hope of the MOM line materializing, but we all know how that went. Would be interesting to see the line get sold to CSX or NS, we might see service on the Freehold OOS or even trains in Toms River again. Who knows.

SemperFidelis wrote:I don't know how CSAO is governed in terms of expansion (unlikely) or contraction (much more likely), but I would imagine if maintenance is being deferred despite much better carloading then perhaps something is in the works behind the scenes to see the Southern Secondary perhaps spun off like the NS lines on the Delmarva.

I have nothing at all to base this on aside from being up too late reading railroad.net posts on a Friday night. Just a theory.

I know one is the sale or lease of lines from one company to another whereas anything from CSAO would have to be approved by both NS and CSX...and perhaps even some agency due to the fact that CSAO was a creation born of the splitup of Conrail to ensure access in complicated areas like northern New Jersey.

That being said, the Southern, and its associated little branches, aren't at all like northern New Jersey. It would, in my opinion, be a relatively easy group of lines to spin off to an interested operator.

Again, nothing to base this on. Just a thought as to why maintenance might be being deferred on a line with growing business. Then again, it might be much more mundane, like scheduling or budgeting or whatever.

Lets remember that Conrail does not own the Southern from Red Bank to Glidden, but NJDOT does. Conrail owns from Glidden to Lakehurst. I am surprised the Southern is still classified as a "Secondary" and has not been downgraded to Running or Industrial Track, like the Freehold was almost 10 years ago. Unless traffic from the NJSL comes about, Conrail doesn't have a real return on investment for a true upgrade of the Southern back up to 25mph.

NS or CSX would have zero interest in this line or even expanding it. CSAO will hold on to it for as long as they can. If it went anywhere, it would have to go to some kind of shortline operation. And with the climate of small business in NJ dont expect to see that anytime soon either.

Here are two videos from last week

SA-93 chase from Red Bank to Farmingdale:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ6V4sPKykQ" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

SA-31 the following night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M1_iVGV2Jw" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Not Southern Secondary related, but 2303 has the NJT 4101 leading today. Will post again when SA-31 calls Coastline

SA-31 permission to open Church at 3:51 PM

Saw a crew dropping off more ties,just south of Union ave.in Lakehurst NJ today 12-22-16.

CSX 4415 shf + 12, approaching Maxwell Rd. in Eatontown at 5:10 in the pm. 1 Box up front, not sure if it's a brick car or not (ABOX marks), the rest for Woodhaven.