South of Exit 10 on the NJ Turnpike

[Teutobergerwald]

Can anyone list the rail lines that the NJ Turnpike passes over south of Exit 10, down to the Delaware Memorial Bridge? And the frequency of service/primary traffic the lines haul ? Thanks much.

[rrbluesman]

If youve just crossed over the Delaware Memorial Bridge you are at Dupont's Deepwater Plant in Carney's Point, NJ. Dupont has a switching operation on their plant, but the line that connects to it is the Carney's Point Branch, although I cant speak for the frequency of activity. 295 runs parallel on both sides to the Carney's Point Branch on the west and the Salem Branch on the east until Woodbury, NJ where the two branches join the Millville branch. The Millville Branch runs to Camden.

[von schlieffen]

Also the PATCO speedline/NJT ACL, Beesley's Secondary, Mt. Holly/Hainesport Industrial, the C&A in Cranbury though I think the tracks stop just short, some tracks that serve an industrial park in Jamesburg, the MIlltown Branch (former Raritan River RR), maybe more North but that's where my geographic familiarity ends. None gets much usage except the NJT/PATCO, which sees dozens of passenger trains daily.

Of the ones rrbluesman said, the Millville branch is the busiest, hauling mostly sand sand hoppers from a quarry operation near Newport, NJ, a few miles from the bay, via an interchange with the Winchester & Western RR. There's other business along the line, served by a Conrail local out of Millville. The busy Pennsgrove Secondary technically never meets the turnpike, there's a short spur off of it called the Deepwater Industrial track that goes under the Delaware Memorial bridge, but the Deepwater Generating plant switched to natural gas and no longer takes coal deliveries, so I don't think it's been used in a few years.

The Salem branch, at that point owned by Salem County, crosses under the turnpike near Woodstown and is seldom used now that the glass factory in Salem is no more. A few cars may pass through here each week, mainly headed to Kopper's poles and Mannington Mills.

[RailMike]

The Camden & Amboy trackage ends just a few hundred yards south of where it goes under the Turnpike. However, there is a reverse switch that serves a warehouse on the west side of the pike, though it hasn't been used for a while it seems. A small forest was recently cleared in the area; might this be another customer?

When the Turnpike was recently widened between Exits 6 and 8A, most of the inner lane bridges weren't even redecked, let alone reconstructed. Yet the bridge over the C&A (and a parallel 2-lane road) was completely rebuilt, as in from the ground up. The bridge was particularly complex because of the sharp angle. The construction contract apparently also included rebuilding the tracks underneath. So while I doubt this pricey construction project would be wasted by not seeing service resumed, it wouldn't be the first time. (If the tracks were abandoned, a much cheaper highway bridge could have been substituted, or even eliminated altogether due to that road's relatively low traffic count.)

Just south of Exit 3, in the Bellmawr area, there's a track that literally comes to an end right at, if not under the Turnpike. It's the "Gloucester and Mt. Ephraim Branch"; not sure when it was abandoned. There are still some industrial spurs just west of the pike. The section leading to the pike seems to be remain as tail track for switching or backing moves.

[transit383]

The NJDOT Straight Line Diagram for the NJ Turnpike shows all railroad and highway crossings and their associated milepost for the length of the highway. Some of the rail lines in the document are in need of updating to reflect the current railroad (such as MP 10.08 - PRSL Salem Branch), but the location of the crossing and mileposts are correct.

NJDOT Straight LIne Diagram - NJ Turnpike MP 0 to 52.1 (Exit 6)
NJDOT Straight LIne Diagram - NJ Turnpike (I-95) and Eastern Spur - The I-95 and NJTPK mileposts don't coincide on this section of highway, so note the green boxes on the diagram that say "TPK" milepost and "DOT" (I-95) milepost
NJDOT Straight LIne Diagram - NJ Turnpike Western Spur

These handy diagrams are available for all State highways as well as County routes: http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/refdata/sldiag/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;