Wakefern /Grocery Haulers, Elizabeth, NJ

Can anyone remember the last time either Wakefern or Grocery Haulers sidings in Elizabeth were serviced?

I used to sporadically railfan around NJ including that area in the 1990s, and honestly I don't recall seeing any cars spotted at the main building on York St. (and viewing Google Street's historical views that building was reconfigured around 2012 or so - there were a number of loading dock doors along the West side of the building (alongside the branch that heads NW across Division) which I never saw used, and there was another siding that crossed York near its intersection with Dowd Ave. which was pretty much buried in pavement when not torn up in areas. The Wakefern building on Division, I don't recall if I ever saw cars spotted there (or if it was even Wakefern then), but I do recall Gallo across the street used to have a decent number of 60ft Insulated boxcars on their siding (can't tell if they still do from Google Satellite).
One last thing I recall (sadly I don't think I took an image of it - this was before digital images were widespread you know) - this building on Division used to load scraps of metal (aluminum maybe) directly from that side door behind the blue containers into a high-cube gondola (NOT a dumpster, it was a gondola). Looked pretty cool to me.

Last I checked it out, back before my employer burned down and we shipped so many, many loads by truck there, I recall a line into the building proper that obviously had not been used in some time. I see no evidence of that configuration on aerials so my memory must be lousy.

If you happen to ever be up that way I would love to know if the tracks are still in place.

Thanks for the info.

SemperFidelis wrote:Last I checked it out, back before my employer burned down and we shipped so many, many loads by truck there, I recall a line into the building proper that obviously had not been used in some time. I see no evidence of that configuration on aerials so my memory must be lousy.
...
Thanks for the info.

Your memory is likely not faulty. Remember I mentioned the main (South?) building along York Ave. was completely rebuilt c. 2012 - you can see this if you use Street View on York, and go back to the earliest images (in 2012) where the new walls are being put up (including the west side where I recall a siding and loading docks). There seems to have been a set of sidings (on Historical Aerials) that came off the branch and turned SE into the South building. . Modern aerial view shows those sidings are no longer there, but they are fairly visible on Historic Aerials in the 2007 view (although apparently unused). Also visible is (I believe) the siding along side the west wall of the South building. The building directly to the north of Wakefern on Evans St., which I thought was another Wakefern building, is actually a Detention Center. The building where the branch curves NW toward Division Ave. is a Wakefern building, however I couldn't see any indication of active rail service in the views (it was built, according to the aerial views, between 1987 and 1995) but Historical Aerials often has Potato-Mode imaging anyway so...maybe?

Thanks again.

I'd love to know why they stopped using rail but I would imagine that the answers would be the usual litany of complaints about service and pricing. We were only about 20 road miles from them and, though a very active rail receiver, hadn't shipped by rail in decades. Such a short move with a very, very light product would have been sheer insanity to ship by rail, even if the truckload numbers were incredibly high.

Sir Ray wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 9:06 pmHistorical Aerials often has Potato-Mode imaging anyway

????

Potato Camera..

Basically to no-one's surprise the older Historic Aerials have rather low resolution and contrast (is that a building shadow, or a siding full of reefers, or a dark-pavement driveway...you get the idea.
Calling poor imaging Potato applies to still images as well.

Learn something new every day. Potato-Mode is now in my lexicon.

Sir Ray wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 6:16 pm ... but I do recall Gallo across the street used to have a decent number of 60ft Insulated boxcars on their siding (can't tell if they still do from Google Satellite)...

Looking in Streetview mode on Google Maps, with a date of Oct 2022, the rails at the Division St. crossing look shiny (but not at Fairmont Ave.) Looking behind the Gallo building (on the north corner of Division and from Division St) from Streetview I don't see any cars, but from the current Google maps satellite image (which says copyright 2022 at the bottom of the screen, FWIW), I do see an orange boxcar at the northwest end of the Gallo building. And at the building NW of Gallo, the one with solar panels on the room, it also looks like 2 orange boxcars on the west side (is that also Gallo??) So it seems that the branch is still hanging on, but I am not 100% sure when the satellite picture was actually taken.
JS

JS

pumpers wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 11:44 pm

Sir Ray wrote: ↑Thu Dec 01, 2022 6:16 pm ... but I do recall Gallo across the street used to have a decent number of 60ft Insulated boxcars on their siding (can't tell if they still do from Google Satellite)...

Looking in Streetview mode on Google Maps, with a date of Oct 2022, the rails at the Division St. crossing look shiny (but not at Fairmont Ave.) Looking behind the Gallo building (on the north corner of Division and from Division St) from Streetview I don't see any cars, but from the current Google maps satellite image (which says copyright 2022 at the bottom of the screen, FWIW), I do see an orange boxcar at the northwest end of the Gallo building. And at the building NW of Gallo, the one with solar panels on the room, it also looks like 2 orange boxcars on the west side (is that also Gallo??) So it seems that the branch is still hanging on, but I am not 100% sure when the satellite picture was actually taken.
JS

Upon reading this post, I returned to Google maps, but this time instead of bemoaning the fact that the 3D view icon was not visible in satellite (I have noticed this occurring more and more over the past few months), I instead went to street view on Division, and pulled back and - Hey, now there's Satellite 3D view - Thanks for finally waking up Google (insert po'd emoji here). Everything was nice and clear, and would have been rather useful when I posted this last week. the two boxcars on the West side of the unmarked building (turns out it is Gallo wine, there is a small sign on the North side). You can note the (still existing but overgrown siding at Van Brunt, where I saw the scrap gondola loaded). Now, the track than crosses Fairmount heading north does indeed peter out in the weeds after a dozen or so metres, but it used to go to the Tank Farm by the airport (at least according to the 1982 Topo - oddly, that topo shows serval spurs that head west in the blocks between Woodruff and North (I can see that), but oddly did not show what this view shows was a ROW curving East. Well, whatever.
Anyway, that Wakefern building on Division has what looks like 9 dock doors along its (decent looking) siding (possible only 2 are used since they have the better dock door weather seals.). Sadly, no indication of recent rail usage.

OK, I spent too much time there in the 1990s, and too much time on this post, but I leave it with 1 question. Here is (or was) the Conrail Elizabeth office - clearly Former CNJ (the 3D view you can see the old freight docks on its back (East) side. I swear that in the 1990s the building had large "Chrome" lettering on its front, possibly saying CONRAIL, maybe something else, but it stood out to me. Steetview only goes back to 2012 for the area, so does anyone else remember those letters?

It appears that at the present only the beginning of the track is used to help set up equipment on the yard tracks. No cash customers on the spur.

Durobag on the racetrack gets service