Nostalgia & History > Conrail's "Dirt" Train

This is a continuation from yesterday's "Where is it Wednesday" thread (Click HERE to see and read a little more on it).  In short: from late 1994 to the end of 1995, Conrail ran a six-day-a-week dedicated train from Wayne NJ to Jersey City, NJ, utilizing ore jennies to carry dirt from a swamp being created in Wayne to the waterfront in Jersey City, where it would help build the Liberty National Golf Club.  Six pictures to follow:

1.  First up is another shot of the train at the Jersey City terminus, taken in March 1995.  It was a bit difficult to shoot - an unsightly fence butted up against the south side of the tracks.

2.  On April 26th 1995, I was able to shoot it on the move as it started its journey to Wayne.  Here is C39-8 #6009 doing pusher duties as the train sits on a siding on the National Docks line under Bayview Ave., waiting to head north.  Manhattan's Empire State and Chrystler buildings can be seen in the distance.

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3.  A closeup of #6009, with Manhattan's World Trade Center towers seen through the trees on the right.

4.  I caught up with the head end about a mile north at Communipaw, a once famous location on the Central Railroad of New Jersey (more on that in a bit).  C39-8s #6005 and #6008 along with SD40-2 #6515 (probably substituing for an ailing C39-8) do the honors.

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5.  Going away as it heads north towards Croxton yard.  The New Jersey Turnpike's Newark Bay Extension is behind the train.

6.  Finally, the #6009 brings up the rear. Years earlier I would have been standing on the multiple-track CNJ main coming out of the Communipaw Terminal (and substantial yard tracks) on the waterfront.  The through truss bridge used to carry the National Docks line over the CNJ tracks, but at some time in the past (I would think the 1980s) it was replaced by a fill. The trusses are now history.

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Thanks for viewing!

Rob Benkovitz
West Palm Beach Florida

Great bunch and write-up, those freshly painted C39s looked really nice. Gotta love the gritty urban landscape around much of northern Jersey (reminds me a lot of growing up around Detroit)...

JG

Interesting scenes indeed. Those C39-8's are B I G. The difference between them and the SD40-2 is readily apparent.  Be a long drop from cab woindow to ground tho.  Ben

Were these CR humpbacks equipped with Locotrol or whatever GE called theor early DPU? When I first moved to our home here hard on the ex-Reading Mainline CR used to run Taconite trains of Venezuelan ore from the South Philadelphia ore dock. They ran with 3 locos on the headend and two locos about 2/3rds back in the train. It was reported they were going to a steel mill in Ohio at the time. The Bethlehem blast furnaces were recently closed. But we did get CSX Bituminous coal trains headed for the Bethlehem Coke Furnaces.
When the empty ore train came back east all 5 locos were on the headend. Not much more of DPU was seen until our modern day monster train PSR trains showed up.
The first few times those early DPU trains went by I looked out the window expecting to see a second train on the double track, but it was the DPUs. Psyched out!
Today I hear the DPUs on the manifest trains and don't even give them a second thought! Heck the 60-80 car rock trains seem like short sprinters!
Gonut

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> Were these CR humpbacks equipped with Locotrol or
> whatever GE called theor early DPU? When I first
> moved to our home here hard on the ex-Reading
> Mainline CR used to run Taconite trains of
> Venezuelan ore from the South Philadelphia ore
> dock. They ran with 3 locos on the headend and two
> locos about 2/3rds back in the train. It was
> reported they were going to a steel mill in Ohio
> at the time. 

Saw those a few times, they were headed to WP Steel in Mingo Jct. or Weirton Steel across the river. On Horseshoe Curve they ran with 10 six-axles and made quite a ruckus going up over the mountain. Quite a sight to see, but as for the C39s being remote-conrol equipped I can't remember...

JG

Great photos & story!
From my recollection - no - the C39-8's did not have Locotrol but the 6050-6059 group of C40-8W's did have it.  And as mentioned, a few test "double trains" were tried out using those units as well as some with the SD80MAC's later.  Somewhere in my collection I have a shot of one or two of these moves that were 15-20 years ahead of their time!
-Alex

Interesting photos. The second photo shows the Empire State Building in midtown Manhattan, just to the right of the locomotive. The thrid photos show the rwin towers of the World Trade Center at the southern end of Manhattan..Thanks for posting. 

Feature story in March, 1995 RAILPACE...

As stated the dirt was removed to create a swamp to replace swamps that were taken with the construction of Interstate Route 287 through northern NJ in the late 1980s.   That highway extention opened in 1994 or 95.

I live about 5 miles from the Wayne location but only managed to photograph the train a few times.  I believe the weekday operation ran during the middle of the workday or overnight after commuter trains ran.

The NYS&W made a play to run the dirt trains using a defunct portion of the former Erie New York and Greenwood Lake Branch and then connecting with their mainline in Pompton Lakes, NJ.

However Conrail won out by building a spur off the NJT line in Wayne just prior to it crossing into Lincoln Park.

It was really neat the one time I was able to get to Great Notch, NJ and see the loaded dirt train struggling to get to the crest of the hill.

Thanks for triggering these memories! 

Really neat post, good stuff Rob!
~Dave

Those trusses in the last shot carried the NEW JERSEY CONNECTING RR over the Jersey Central exiting Jersey City Terminal. In my black and white film days I saw a LV diesel switcher up on that bridge and somewhere I have a shot of a PL&E switcher on that bridge!