Rt 1 bridge over RRRR rebuilt!

It was my understanding that the Rt 1 bridge in New Bruns/EBruns was being leveled and the RRRR row would be severed. CR cut the track back to Silverline. Just drove over Rt 1 today and the bridge has been rebuilt. What's going on? Still a few potential customers west of the Rt 1 bridge. Don't know why the hell CR was so quick in tearing the track out.

That's ConRail for you. They are responsible for removing a lot of track. Heck years ago they tore up the L&HR line so there would not be any competition for them.

carajul wrote:It was my understanding that the Rt 1 bridge in New Bruns/EBruns was being leveled and the RRRR row would be severed. CR cut the track back to Silverline. Just drove over Rt 1 today and the bridge has been rebuilt. What's going on? Still a few potential customers west of the Rt 1 bridge. Don't know why the hell CR was so quick in tearing the track out.

This was completed at least a year ago now, old news (just like the "quarry" in South Amboy). And that wouldn't be "Conrail for you" that would be the NJDOT for ya, as they stated before construction that they wanted to remove the bridge and regrade that portion of Route 1 to improve sight lines while driving. Meanwhile, they start a multi-year construction project with the end result pretty much being the same exact thing. The ROW was severed though, and the bridge now goes over a portion of the new interchange that serves DeVry, Bristol-Meyers, etc.

In addition, the only "potential" customers on the other side of Route 1 would be Bristol-Meyers and Permacel Tape (if they are even still open) and neither has received service for at least 15-20 years. Also, I'm not sure if Silverline still receives service, as their 3 leads have been cut down to 1 (looking at Google Maps) and we all know how the housing market has been the past few years. Silverline was the last customer on the west end of the Sayreville Running Track (the former RRRR) AFAIK, and at least the last customer past Milltown. Industry and manufacturing in Middlesex County has really gone down the tubes over the last decade. Can anyone provide any insight if Silverline is still served?

The Silverline facility was actually J&J years ago. All those tracks were cut out in the late 80s when J&J moved. Silverline has always used just 1. I think they get service once a week. Obviously there are closely tied to the housing market and their biz has probably tanked.

Bristol Myers hasn't gotten service since they stopped manufacturing at the New Brunswick plant in the early 90s. Its all just offices now. I don't know where the spurs were located but the old RRRR maps show 3 spurs going in. I'm assuming they were chemical tank cars.

Across the row from Bristol there is a warehouse that still has a spur going into it.

Continue west into New Bruns the old pax station area is now condos. The RRRR and then CR had a substantial transload facility there but CR pulled the plug. The streets in the condo complex follow the layout of the old row wye configuration.

Silverline gets more product than what is delivered there. They have a transload agreement at another location and truck a substantial amount of product in.

The right of way may not have tracks but probably was not abandonned so the r.o.w recieved a new bridge or something. Just a thought, don't really care that much about it.

When they re-built the bridge on Rt 1 they lowered it so it will never seen trains again. The lowering allowed NJDOT to raise the speed limit from 50 to 55 on Rt 1 from Ryders Lane to just south of US 130 that was already 55 mph.

Silverline is now a division of Andersen Windows.