Historic Northeast Corridor Question?

Mike:

I have a Don Ball book, The Pennsylvania Railroad 1940's - 1950's. In that book it states that every 24 hours 475 passenger trains and 120 freight trains operated over the New York to Washington main line.  What the book doesn't say is how many of those trains operated end point to end point versus running over just a portion of that line.

And with the downgrading and eventual closure of Potomac Yard, north-south Conrail traffic used the Lehigh Valley and Reading to Harrisburg and the old PRR line down through Hagerstown to Winchester where it was handed over to NS.  Since CSX already had the former B&O out of northern New Jersey, any traffic destined to them would likely have interchanged in the north Jersey area.

Curt

To follow up what Curt just stated, I remember railfanning at the Elisabeth, NJ station, in the mid to late 1950s. The four track PRR main line crossed over the CNJ four track main line, right at that location. One could stand on the PRR station platform, directly above the CNJ main line, and view westward on the CNJ, and southward on the PRR. Every time I visited there, I can NEVER recall when there was NOT some sort of train within sight on the PRR main line alone, i.e. a train approaching, a train passing, or a train disappearing in the distance, one direction or another. I would stand and watch, or photograph, for at least 3 to 4 hours at a time.

while not as high a traffic count as passenger, there was a substantial amount of freight that ran on the PRR mainline. In the mid 1960's I watched along the ROW here in Metuchen as at least 5-6 freights per hour would roll by, pulled mostly by GG1's then later E44's.

 

for a 10 year old it was pretty amazing watching double headed G's pull 100 car freights by at 45-50 mph.

 

of course what I didn't see, but heard, was all the freights that ran overnight.

 

Interesting.  Where did all that freight go?  Of course now with commuter and Amtrak there are more passenger trains than 475 on the NEC.  

 

I guess I am also curious as to how many freights now travel the NEC daily (CSX, NS, CR Shared Assets)?

I'm no expert, but .... pretty sure that Conrail (now Shared Assets, CSX, NS [and still CP?]) gets their freight trains into NJ via the old Lehigh Valley RR mainline, into the Oak Island facility in Newark. Mainline freight doesn't travel on the NEC.. Just Amtrak and NJ Transit.

 

Some very local freights travel on one of the NEC tracks in the area ... from Newark to the now closed GM assembly plant in Linden NJ, and a couple of other industries in the area.

 

Mostly parts of the former Central RR of NJ is used to get freight around NJ from the Newark Oak Island facility. Again, not the NEC (PRR) mainline.

All of the NS Port Road traffic has to enter the corridor.  Would that be about 20 trains daily?

When the PRR ran the North East Corridor commute operation, the trains ran from the metro centers to where the commuters lived.  In some cases there was overlap so the commuter trains ran from metro centers to metro centers.  When Amtrak came along they did not operate the commuter trains, so the states took over the commuter operation.  Now the commuter trains ran from state line to state line. From Philadelphia south the trains ran to the last station in Pennsyvania.  To the north the trains ran into Trenton, the first station out of Pensylvania.  This loss of integration would result in a lot more trains and fewer passengers.  

 

Some of this has been overcome, but today the North East Corridor is still not as well intergrated as it was when the PRR ran it.

back then, most of the westbound freights originated in Oak Island (Newark) or Greenville (Jersey City).

 

today, freight runs on the LV and Port Reading secondary, depending on loadings and final destination. for example: the Port Reading line handles Ethanol, double stacks bound for the Authur Kill ports and trash trains.

One correction I would make - no through freights went to Winchester. CR (PC, PRR) interchanged with NS (N&W) at Hagerstown and continued south to Roanoke and beyond.

Bulk freight, as we knew it in the 50's, 60's, and 70's just doesn't exist because practically nothing is manufactured in the NE part of the USA anymore.

 

Most of the freight they we consume now comes in containers from China, off-loaded at Port of Elizabeth, and put onto tractor trailer trucks for local delivery.

 

Here's just one example of which I am familiar: As a telephone company employee, I worked for a few months in their right-of-way and property department, playing with maps, while on the mend from a broken neck.  If you take a look at the phone company yards where poles and large reels of cable are stored, you'll note that almost every one has its own private railroad siding.  Most of the sidings are either torn up or overgrown, now. 

 

But the phone company was not the only industry -- for example fuel companies (coal, oil) wire manufacturers (copper, plastics, rubber) lumber yards, aerospace (aluminum, rubber) -- that relied on heavy deliveries by rail.  New Jersey, the Bronx, CT, and Long Island were once studded with factories and rail lines. They're mostly all gone, now.

 

 

"Some very local freights travel on one of the NEC tracks in the area ... from Newark to the now closed GM assembly plant in Linden NJ, and a couple of other industries in the area."

 

To be more clear in my post, local freights between Newark Oak Island and the Linden "yard" need to use a track on the NEC (PRR) mainline part of the way.

 

 

Kinda off-topic, but here is an 1972 photo of the above mentioned spot that "Hot Water" railfanned back in the 1950's. The lower tracks are the CNJ mainline, a PennCentral GG-1 pulls a passenger train on the former PRR mainline crossing over it.

 

The debris on the left is the remnants of the passenger station, that was demolished by a derailing freight that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back when it was Pennsy...say 1940...How many daily passenger trains used the NEC?  Also, since it was a freight main then as well...where did Conrail shift all the North-South freight traffic to?   Did Penn Central run a bunch of freight on the NEC?

 

Mike

 

It is stunning to think of the geographic and economic position of the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1940.  The principal cities on the PRRs north-south main line, NYC, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington were the 1st, 3rd, 7th and 11th largest in the nation that year.  And, as we all know, the Pennsy main line to the west tied in with the north-south main line at Philadelphia to reach Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh.  Those were the 2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th and 10th largest cities in America at the time.  Of the top ten cities only L.A. and Boston weren't served directly by the PRR.  New York was the nation's largest port and Baltimore was also in the top 10.

 

The volume of passenger and mail traffic between those cities every day was staggering.  The volume of freight was huge as well. Imagine watching the airliners, trucks and buses traveling between those cities today if they all crossed at Philadelphia!   That volume, combined with the communication technology of the time, is why the PRR had four track main lines north and south as well as to the west.

 

Unfortunately, like some of its stock holders, the PRR took wealth as a birthright and was slow in responding to changing technology, a changing economy and a changing society.  Stifling government regulation didn't help, especially when trying to catch up with those in the transportation market that had moved ahead of the Standard of the World.

 

 

 

although the Edison Ford plant has been closed for a number of years, there are still carloads coming in and out of Raritan Center on the Bonhamtown Branch, that travel on the ex-PRR mainline up to Oak Island, a couple times a week.

 

Don't forget the PRR had a Paralleling Freight line cut off too. I believe one was from Metuchen, NJ through Woodbridge, NJ. The other was the more infamous Trenton Cut off. Since the Conrail Amtrak crash in Maryland back in the 1980's, Freight train charges have increased substantially and most freight is diverted off the NEC. NOt much freight moves on the NEC during the peak hours and during the day.

Isn't the Trenton cutoff a major NS route?   SO where does the Port Road Branch traffic go once it hits the corridor in MD...and how many trains?

Today, Pope Creek Branch CSX trains move from New Carrolton (from Benning) on the NEC to Bowie and then down the Creek into southern Maryland.   The creek serves two coal fired power plants, an aggregate plant, and 84 Lumber.   Anywhere from one to four trains per day.  NS also runs a usually daily local from Baltimore as far south as a Home Depot yard near the Seabrook MARC (Rt 193).  Most of these trains move at night, late evenings.  Some day time traffic on weekends.

 

The "creek" was built as the Baltimore and Potomac.  It had a state charter from Baltimore to Port Tobacco in Southern MD that allowed branches up to 20 miles long.   After many B&O political failures in Annapolis to get into Washington, the PRR purchased the never finished B&P, running it south WEST to Bowie, before turning south east to Port Tobacco.  They then built a branch line to Washington, making the southern leg of the NEC.  

 

Bob

 

Dave:

 

Thank you for the correction!  I knew that line ended at Winchester but, wasn't 100% sure exactly where the PRR/N&W interchange took place. 

 

Curt

the PRR did not have a separate freight line out of Metuchen. what was there was the Lehigh Valley that had run from South Plainfield through an interchange in Metuchen and on to Woodbridge and Perth Amboy.

the only other line is the Bonhamtown Branch that served what was Raritan Arsenal and Navy docks on the Raritan River. the far end of that branch did connect to the aforementioned LV near Hopelawn in Woodbridge Twp, but was not used as a through freight line.

 

The CNJ station at Elizabeth still stands, but the track is gone. 

 

The Pope's Creek branch ended at the mouth of Pope's Creek, where there was a car ferry terminal, where barges would carry freight cars to Norfolk area.  The tracks over to the CReek are gone, but the line continues east of US 301 to a power plant near the bridge over the Potomac

 

As for freight activity, the four track NEC in SE PA was supplemented with an additional track on each side serving innumerable heavy and light industries along the metropolitan zones.

 

Plus the Philadelphia beltway of freight lines circling the city was it's self four tracks wide the length of the riverfront.  Switchers moving cars around constantly. 

 

My dad and I rolled film showing multiple freight movements in all directions both along the miles of Philly's waterfront's four freight only tracks, Chester's manufacturing district and the many delivery tracks along the Paoli-Philly "Mainline" tracks which were also five and six tracks wide in many communities.

 

Everything moved by rail.