Delaware and Raritan River Railroad-General Discussion

North at Squankum Road 12:07 Pm

JCP&L working on removing Guy wires at Railroad Ave, Farmingdale

Heard from someone else that those wires being in the way is why this part has taken so long. Apparently C&D wanted this done faster but JCPL said wait until the summer was over and less power was being consumed.

Question:
1) In which RFP is the construction of the south wye leg mentioned?
2) If that RFP exists, what is the expected completion date?
3) If no RFP exists, what would the current prep work fall under?

Thanks in advance

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CR2721 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 14, 2023 11:48 am Question:
1) In which RFP is the construction of the south wye leg mentioned?
2) If that RFP exists, what is the expected completion date?
3) If no RFP exists, what would the current prep work fall under?

Thanks in advance

Sent from my SM-G981V using Tapatalk

I could find nothing other than a dotted line in one of the RFP's which mentioned the new leg of the wye,
However, they are cleaning up the pole which is fouling the ROW, apparently in preparation for removal. This is work happening now.

At the same time, they are doing more cleaning of the old ROW which led to the diamond. I can only speculate that they have an OK to include it in the work covered by the grant and/or RFP or they are spending their own money.

I expect we will see work proceed on the wye with completion before the end of the year.

In any case it looks as if it will soon be a done deal.

Question for the oracles among us: Any word about the possible one-time freight move down the NJCL ?

I think it was confirmed it was fake sadly.

I posted the RFP with the south leg of the wye a long time ago....no time to go looking thru things now. It had a section number, just line the rest of the parts of the construction from Freehold to Farmingdale. In fact, I pasted it bc there was so much "is there going to be a south leg of the wye" chatter.

As for the dotted line, I believe that was because it is new ROW construction, as compared with rehab of existing Railroad.

Speaking of dotted lines or more specifically solid lines new versions of Google maps show the rail between Freehold and Farmingdale as a solid line. This indicates tracks instead of blank space.

Well, the pole with the stay cables that was fouling the ROW for the south wye leg has been yanked. Roadbed has been prepared up to Railroad Ave. Ties and rails next week? No sign of the new switch on to the southern yet.

Pity I haven’t been able to take any pictures of the work. At least it’s all coming together at least.

They are cleaning the brush along the tracks between Central Ave and Marl Rd along railroad Ave. Prep to redo the track as part of the wye? Belvidere & Delaware crew doing the work.

Per the Facebook group they ran up to Farmingdale today. Must’ve had a tanker car or Extech load

Bracdude181 wrote: ↑Thu Nov 16, 2023 10:21 am Per the Facebook group they ran up to Farmingdale today. Must’ve had a tanker car or Extech load

No they only went as far as Prestone. They came back to the Freehold yard too quick. I was hanging out at freehold.

Speaking of maps showing the new line, plotaroute's map shows the wye on it here...

Per Facebook, the trees along the tracks of Railroad Ave are gone - it looks like they will be taking out the rest of the brush that remains shortly. In addition, there is a gentleman in one of the Facebook groups (who I believe is also in the forum here) who said he has spoken to an employee of C&D who stated that the stack of ties at the Freehold Team Track is for "the runaround," but didn't say where the runaround is going - he also said that this C&D employee confirmed no train tomorrow. Also said that 2005 is "pretty much used up."

Now, this is purely speculative, but it I am convinced that they are going to double-track through Farmingdale and use it as a runaround. It will be a tight fit, but I have noticed the following things that have convinced me:

• First and foremost, the cutting of the trees around Railroad Ave much beyond where the wye will be.

• If any of you guys are familiar with Farmingdale, between Main St and Academy St, there was a pretty large part of the ROW next to the tracks that was often used for parking by patrons of local businesses. C&D did not start blocking off this part until fairly recently with "No Trespassing" signs

• This is something no one has really mentioned but I've noticed, but if you look northbound on the Southern Secondary from Main St towards Red Bank, next to the Country Farms, you can see that on the left of the tracks, they have done some moderate brush clearing. Before, there were absurdly tall weed trees growing in that spot, and that spot looks wide enough to put some tracks down.

• Lastly, the Main St and Central Ave lights have been broken for a long time - when they redid the Central Ave crossing, they did not fix the lights. It would make sense that they aren't touching the lights yet, since if they do put in a second track/runaround in Farmingdale, they would have to rewire the crossing anyway.

The only things I can think of that wouldn't support my speculation are:

• When they redid the Central Ave crossing, why didn't they set it up to be two-tracked?

• The runaround wouldn't even be half a mile long, it would be more about 0.4 miles long. It's unlikely that this line will need 1+ mile long sidings/runarounds anytime soon, but I'd assume with runarounds, longer is always better from the start

• They would have to cross the second/runaround track over the northbound leg of the wye, putting a diamond-like crossover on a curved piece of track near a switch, I'd imagine, would be a PITA