RE: (erielack) Blairstown

["Tupaczewski, Paul R (Paul)" <paultup_@_lucent.com>]

Paul B. wrote:


> The reason I ask is that E Stroudsburg is only a few miles 
> from Slateford
> Jct and the Cutoff, and handing up orders is redundant with TCS.

Why are orders redundant with TCS? TCS accounts for traffic flow, but how do you handle unusual circumstances? For example, what if there was a speed restriction in place? Or the signals are out? Even with a TCS system, there will ALWAYS be circumstances where you need to hand off orders to take care of certain items.

We've discussed those PRR-style train order signals at Port Jervis and Passaic Junction - both areas under TCS.

 
> I've seen pictures of the "Old Loop"; where exactly was the 
> "New Loop" in
> relation to old?

If you've seen the photo in Larry DeYoung's EL Vol. 3 book of the "old loop," the "new loop" curves off to the right, and makes a much wider radius turn back to the left, allowing trains to access the east end of the yard (the "old loop" brings the train into the west side of the yard). The reason for the old loop? Intermodal traffic. The piggyback pads were on the east end of the yard, and the new loop allowed trains to make one fluid movement to get to the pads. Prior to the new loop, the piggyback cars had to be switched back through the yard to get to the pads, a time-consuming and operationally-clogging movement.



> So a Hoboken-Croxton transfer would have to perform a back-up 
> move through
> "Nave" on the Weehawken line before proceeding through the 
> Bergen Arches?

There shouldn't have been a "backup move" - the Weehawken Branch was a straight shot right out of the Erie tunnel. "CP Nave" was a Conrail interlocking that was reconfigured, from what I understand.

Now that Bob pointed out the connection, it's coming back to me. When I was a student at Stevens Tech in Hoboken, one of my favorite dinnertime activities was to go down to the west side of the town and do some railroad archaology exploring. I always remember seeing the "two ramps", both starting about 1000 feet east of the Bergen Tunnel portals. One came off the south side of the tracks and went down a gradual ramp to the Weehawken Branch, and hooked up to it facing south. This would give any traffic coming out of Hoboken a straight shot to the Weehawken Branch and then Croxton. When I saw this track (circa 1992), it was barely a pair of rails in the dirt - I had thought it was a switching lead at the time. Today, it's all obliterated with the construction of the Light Rail line there.

The "other" ramp was the more intriguing one - it came off the north side of the DL&W tracks, and made a steep, sharp curve down to the Weehawken Branch, facing NORTH. What was THAT ramp used for?  I think the ramp is still visible from the DL&W level, but there's a horrible vertical "kink" due to settling of the ramp fill (I assume)

	- Paul

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