Train Chasing on the Western End of the old

Raritan River Mainline

April 18, 2005 – Tom and Jack

Goal: Catch the local Conrail (today its NS/CSX CSAO, as they jointly own the track) switching Silverline, the last active customer on the Western end of the old Raritan River main line. Once this customer stops receiving freight, the entire line gets abandoned from East Brunswick, Ryders Lane, the Bridge over the NJ Turnpike, Milltown, and the Lawrence Brook trestle on into North Brunswick. Since there are no more active customers in New Brunswick, the entire Western line will get abandoned.

Plan: Start at Browns Yard, catch the SA-02 leaving at 11AM, and chase it to Silverline if we can.

Map of Plan

The day started out great, blue skies and cool temps. Jack and I met early for breakfast in the East Brunswick IHOP, ate and talked, drank lots of coffee, and finally headed to Browns Yard at 10AM.

Just click on the links below to follow our journey as we chased SA-02 from Browns Yard to Silverline.

Table of Contents

Runyon Water Shed Trestle

(thinking we had some time, we explored this little know and ancient trestle buried in the woods)

Leaving Browns Yard

Shots of SA-02 leaving Browns Yard

Passing the Gillespie Branch

Switching Boxcars at Jernee Mill Rd

First Customer of the day gets box cars of bricks

Crossing the South River Draw Bridge

A nice “then and now” shot

Passing the Milltown Freight Station