Journal Square Local
Conrail shared assets local train SK-13 (doing leftover work from M-F job OI-14) is seen light engine westbound on the Waldo Running Track coming under Tonnelle Ave. They had just pulled a long cut of flats loaded with empty trash containers down toward end of track beneath Journal Square and have run around and are heading back toward the main. To the right are the PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson) mainlines via the tunnels to Lower Manhattan.
The Waldo Running Track used to be a continuation of Conrails P&H (Passaic and Harsimus) Line. Prior to 1994 all north south trains to and from the River Line main passed this way and diverged north at CP WALDO (now gone). But now this trackage is just a dead end runaround that extends maybe a quarter mile behind me. It is used only by these locals that pull trash cars in here to run around and then shove back around past CSXT's South Kearney Yard and down the Central Avenue Industrial Track. Down at the end of that lead is the NJRC (New Jersey Rail Carriers) transfer point where containers of waste are loaded on to COFC flats for movement west on NS train 63V to Mingo Junction West Virginia for hand off to the Ohio Central railroad for final delivery to a land fill located off the old PRR Panhandle Line.
In days of old all of this was former Pennsylvania Railroad territory and until 1959 the PRR ran suburban trains to and from their Exchange Place station on trackage shared with the affiliated Hudson and Manhattan (today's PATH) thru here. The H&M opened the station here at Journal Square, then known as Summit Avenue in 1912 and the disused catenary poles and remains of the old electric infrastructure date from the PRR's 1930s electrification project. The weedgrown far tracks that the local occupies once led to PRR's Harsimus Cove freight terminals on the Jersey City waterfront.
If you'd like to read more here is a great story about operations in the North Jersey area during the Conrail era that explains some of the traffic patterns and routings I described: railfan.com/wiseguys-wayfreights-conrail-north-jersey/" rel="noreferrer nofollow
And here are some links to learn more about PATH:
www.panynj.gov/path/en/about/history.html
hoboken.pastperfectonline.com/archive/45CDC2F1-59A0-4758-...
Jersey City, New Jersey
Friday October 2, 2020
Journal Square Local
Conrail shared assets local train SK-13 (doing leftover work from M-F job OI-14) is seen light engine westbound on the Waldo Running Track coming under Tonnelle Ave. They had just pulled a long cut of flats loaded with empty trash containers down toward end of track beneath Journal Square and have run around and are heading back toward the main. To the right are the PATH (Port Authority Trans Hudson) mainlines via the tunnels to Lower Manhattan.
The Waldo Running Track used to be a continuation of Conrails P&H (Passaic and Harsimus) Line. Prior to 1994 all north south trains to and from the River Line main passed this way and diverged north at CP WALDO (now gone). But now this trackage is just a dead end runaround that extends maybe a quarter mile behind me. It is used only by these locals that pull trash cars in here to run around and then shove back around past CSXT's South Kearney Yard and down the Central Avenue Industrial Track. Down at the end of that lead is the NJRC (New Jersey Rail Carriers) transfer point where containers of waste are loaded on to COFC flats for movement west on NS train 63V to Mingo Junction West Virginia for hand off to the Ohio Central railroad for final delivery to a land fill located off the old PRR Panhandle Line.
In days of old all of this was former Pennsylvania Railroad territory and until 1959 the PRR ran suburban trains to and from their Exchange Place station on trackage shared with the affiliated Hudson and Manhattan (today's PATH) thru here. The H&M opened the station here at Journal Square, then known as Summit Avenue in 1912 and the disused catenary poles and remains of the old electric infrastructure date from the PRR's 1930s electrification project. The weedgrown far tracks that the local occupies once led to PRR's Harsimus Cove freight terminals on the Jersey City waterfront.
If you'd like to read more here is a great story about operations in the North Jersey area during the Conrail era that explains some of the traffic patterns and routings I described: railfan.com/wiseguys-wayfreights-conrail-north-jersey/" rel="noreferrer nofollow
And here are some links to learn more about PATH:
www.panynj.gov/path/en/about/history.html
hoboken.pastperfectonline.com/archive/45CDC2F1-59A0-4758-...
Jersey City, New Jersey
Friday October 2, 2020