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  • Railroad tracks in Trenton

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

Moderator: David

 #764592  by pumpers
 
I have no doubt that Conrail/NJT and maybe even CSX/NS have inspectors who pay close attention to the bridge. But stuff does happen you don't expect, and there are always chances of a ship hitting the piers, etc. JS In San Francisco bay a few years ago, a tanker grazed one of the piers of the SF Bay Bridge to Oakland, and it didn't damage the bridge, but tore a hole in the tanker and started leaking...
And these were not amateurs, but profesionals running the ship. So could happen here.

JS
 #1444858  by pumpers
 
In the first link, it is a little fuzzy, but by that orange cone, is that the piece of rail removed to declare the line OOS, posted about by Jersey Jeff in 2010 - also mentioning the cone? (I don't know the exact legal terminology resulting from removing a rail). It looks like a section from the right rail is laying between the tracks, although if it is just laying there, I'm surprised no one has helped themselves to it for scrap after 7 years (and that the cone is still standing too!).
 #1444869  by pdtrains
 
Jersey Jeff wrote:I was in Trenton yesterday for a meeting and while walking down W. State Street past the DEP offices & federal courthouse, I noticed that the rail had been cut and an orange cone placed at the spot just off of W. State and parallel to the Trenton Freeway.
These days, the RR's frequently do things like this to save money from having to maintain hwy crossing equip, and to pay less in RE taxes. Especially in NJ were RE taxes or so high. If there is active track, it's property "with improvements" and the taxes are higher.

If Delair Bridge ever went oos for any length of time...CSAO could have the track from the NEC to the bordentown line back in service in a day or 2.
 #1444893  by ccutler
 
From the photos they apparently didn't trim back the trees. So a maintenance truck would clear but a train would get stratched up etc.