Port Reading Yard Operations and Vicinity

The track that connects Stiles Street Yard to the Garden State Secondary is the Linden Industrial Track. The Reformatory Industrial Track used to hop over the NJ Turnpike from a switch just south of the Rahway Movable Bridge. When the Turnpike was widened in the 90's, the Reformatory bridge was removed and a new connection to the Reformatory was established from the Port Reading Secondary just west of PD. Oddly, even though it was right next to Port Reading Yard, a Port Newark yard crew, PN-20, serviced the customers on the Reformatory Industrial when that bridge over the Turnpike existed.
There were times, in the early 90's, before General Motors re-opened the Linden Assembly plant, that Stiles Street was used as an overflow yard for Port Reading freight cars. The vast majority were tank cars.

Good memory Redfish. Now if I remember it correctly, there was an old rotted out coach sitting where the Reformatory tied into the Coast. The Reformatory was serviced by a PN crew although it was not always PN-20.

Thx for the info.... I just remember there being part of the reformatory branch on the NW side of the turnpike...kind of paralleling the turnpike to a tank farm. I could have it mixed up, since there are tracks all over the place around there.

Was the "Linden industrial" originally a CNJ branch line, or something that CR made up by combining pieces of other ROW's

Pretty much every teenager who lived in Carteret crossed that Reformatory Branch bridge over the Turnpike at least once!

Well before that, the branch came down into the Chrome section of Carteret via a route that is roughly along the current Chestnut Street, Coolidge Avenue, and Terminal Avenue, then headed north toward the old Liebig's Lane and connected with the CNJ Sound Shore Branch. At that time it was known as the New Jersey Terminal Railroad, which explained why one of the above named streets was called "Terminal Avenue."

I’m fairly sure the CNJ/PRR Reformatory branch was just south of the Rahway River while the CNJ Linden spur (I don’t think it had Branch status) was just north of it. And
I think the CNJ Linden spur was pre Conrail - maybe going back to the 1940’s or so, perhaps built to reach the GM Linden plant if it wasn’t for petrochemicals.
Jim S

I’m getting reports that NS 20W has derailed in the area…

I don't believe that the track that cuts east right off of the Rahway River Bridge is/was the Reformatory Branch, although I am not sure what the CNJ called it. I believe it was meant to allow connection to that part of the Sound Shore Branch that crossed the Rahway River much closer to the Arthur Kill on, if I recall correctly, a manually operated (!) swing bridge. This trackage provided an alternate to reach the then-busy part of the Sound Shore that served industries in Carteret and Chrome, like FMC, Foster Wheeler and US Metals. The swing bridge could then be taken out of service. What I don't know is when this track was built but I do know it's on the map that appears in the Official Guide of the Railways in the 1960s.

The relocated Reformatory Branch which headed west away from the CNJ "main line," if you will (actually the Elizabethport and Perth Amboy Branch now called the "Chemical Coast") came off a bit farther south, at about Charlotte Street on a road map, and swung over the Turnpike at about Oak Street. The ROW on the other side of the Turnpike is visible in online maps.

Conrail PR-19 working Motiva with NS 4506 leading and UP 8048 trailing. Car count unknown.

PR-6 working Port Reading with:

CSX 7000
CSX 737
CSX 8857

OI-16 Southbound at Port Newark

CSX 8136 leading
CSX 1712
NS 5285
CSX 6210 trailing in that order.

Nothing new in Stiles Street yard. Same ballast cars that have been in there but they haven’t moved in a while…

CSX 4568 is sitting at Tremleys Point if anyone wants to go get pictures of it.

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Tue Sep 13, 2022 6:03 pm Nothing new in Stiles Street yard. Same ballast cars that have been in there but they haven’t moved in a while…

Tank cars are being stored there since last Tuesday. The ballast cars are gone. Amtrak work train ties up in there for their tie replacement job.

I remember they were storing cars tank cars in there at some point before 2020. Then I think they cut the connection with the branch line at the south end sometime after.

CSX 9280 (ex Pan Am C40-8) is sitting at Tremleys Point if anyone is interested…