Customers along M&E original main

Just wondering if the M&E is doing anything to re-acquire lost customers along the main that goes thru Morristown. There are quite a few spurs not using rail. Is the RR management trying to smooze the customers back to rail?

Also, why don't they serve the lumber yard anymore? That spur is now a jungle. Seems like lumber would be good on rail shipping. The spur goes right thru the parking lot.

I traveled the line on Live Maps and it appears the only thing the line is used for anymore is store old NJT and pax cars.

The surviving customers are B&G, Royal Lube and Givaudan, all at the east end. In the late 80s or even early 90s, there were as many as a dozen active customers. The Jefferson team track was recently built to serve as a "community freight station" to customer not directly on line. Not sure how much use it has.

R36 Combine Coach wrote:The surviving customers are B&G, Royal Lube and Givaudan, all at the east end. In the late 80s or even early 90s, there were as many as a dozen active customers. The Jefferson team track was recently built to serve as a "community freight station" to customer not directly on line. Not sure how much use it has.

There is also a new customer along the team track just west of Jefferson Ave. I have seen several tank cars spotted there recently.

I assume you're referring to Morristown lumber. While they have a siding they're a small local outfit that hasn't gotten a car since sometime in the late 70's or so. Lumber used to move to Channel much later till they went belly-up. The ex-NJT Comet 1b's are now off the property. Some of the pass cars at Whippany are stored PV and generate some revenue.

Suburban Propane is just east of the Whippany yard with the long siding extending to Route 10...........there are a few cars the M&E has stored there, you can see them from Route 10. SP will use rail based on seasonal temps and price.

The Whippany Paper Eden Mill (located off Parsippany Rd now a vacant lot) was the largest customer on the line for many years until it closed in the late 80's
This was had a major impact on M&E and many local contractors and merchants in town.........wast paper and finished product would be shipped in / out........... The M&E would move about 20 box cars per day at the WHippany Paper Mill alone! freight would come and go from both ends of the line.

Channel closed in 1991, the same year the Ridgedale (Vornado) spur was last used.