CNJ Again

Kevinhooa

Explorer
Mar 12, 2008
332
25
41
Hammonton, NJ.
www.flickr.com
I know this line has been getting talked about a lot lately, but I found something interesting the other day I figured some might like. Almost exactly a mile south of Harris Station, Delorme Atlas loc. 56 - J10, is a ballasted section of the tracks that looks like it may have been redone right before they were abandoned. There were very few trees between the ties and the ballast almost looked like it was set only a year or two ago, (weird compared to the cinder everywhere else.) And on the west side of the tracks were two beat up Box car doors! Laying flat on the ground and half covered with pine needles. They were too heavy to lift to see if the markings were still there, but it looks like they are painted brown, although most of it's light rust. The wheels are gone from the rollers on the top and bottom and the one looks pretty bent, so they're not in great shape or anything, but it was neat to see such a relic buried in the woods. They're right at the crossing of the small road that leads south down the west side of the tracks from Harris Station.

Kevin
 

GermanG

Piney
Apr 2, 2005
1,143
479
Little Egg Harbor
Even if a particular line had declining use, such as this one, it still had to have minimal maintenance. I’ve seen those boxcar doors and believe they are what is left of a derailment in that area. If the rails or ties were damaged in the accident, they would have had to be repaired. That might account for the newer ballast you observed. The CNJ practiced what was known as “deferred maintenance” along the southern division, due to declining finances, and derailments were common. Conrail abandoned the line south of Lakehurst in the late 80s due to the track conditions and declining traffic
 

Teegate

Administrator
Site Administrator
Sep 17, 2002
25,951
8,695
door04072002.JPG
 
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