Eastern Railroad Discussion > Greenville, NJ gantries and float bridges....gone

It is dark when I drive to work in the morning, and I've been taking a different route home thanks to a gas pipeline that is being installed in my area (Bayonne/Jersey City, NJ).

But, I drove home the normal way yesterday for the first time in a couple of weeks and did what I usually do when I drive over the National Docks: I looked left to see if anything was coming from Oak Island, and I looked right to see the "juice train" cars behind the Tropicana facility and the equipment in Greenville Yard. Something didn't look right at Greenville, and it took a moment for me to realize what it was. The float bridge gantries were gone.

I'm not sure if it was reported here at TO (I didn't see it), but the New York New Jersey Rail float bridges and gantries at Greenville were badly damaged by Sandy, and the gantries had to be torn down. The structure wasn't pretty, but it was cool....something from a previous era. And, it was still being used.

This link contains some information. The good news is that those people don't seem to know the meaning of the work "quit". Apparently, they went right to work rebuilding the float bridge operation, and that's the most important thing....but I will miss seeing the old gantry structure.


http://members.trainweb.com/bedt/indloco/nynjr.html#Hurricane


I have attached a photo that I took of that structure a few years ago. It isn't a good one, but I didn't want to "borrow" and post another person's photo.

JS



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/12 13:53 by melloj.

---

Thanks for the picture.

That area was once part of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Greenville Yard. Over the years acres have been carved away for Tropicana, for the BMW etc terminal, etc. You can still see vestiges here and there, like the catenary poles across the Greenville bridge, etc.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for the picture.
>
> That area was once part of the Pennsylvania
> Railroad's Greenville Yard. Over the years acres
> have been carved away for Tropicana, for the BMW
> etc terminal, etc. You can still see vestiges
> here and there, like the catenary poles across the
> Greenville bridge, etc.


In my tenure as a PRR brakemen, loaded many of car floats there. Lousy job in the winter!
Ed K.cp Laurel Run

Thanks, Lackawanna484. I believe you were the one who gave me ideas about where I could get photos of that area. I think that was about as close as I could get to the terminal without trespassing.

But, I was there to photograph an ex NS GP 15-1 (GMTX 0406) that was switching “juice train” cars behind the Tropicana plant. Taking a photo of the gantries was an afterthought. I figured they would be there forever.

And, Ed: I would have loved to have seen how this area looked when you were loading those car floats. The waterfront has changed a lot. It is still cold by the water for many months a year, though. That’s gotta be tough work.

I’m sure they were floating a lot more cars across the harbor in those days, too. I’m glad there is still some demand for that, and I hope it increases.

JS

Here is a photo of mine taken on February 13, 1990, it shows New York cross Harbor RR Alco S-1s 25 & 22 working the Ex-PRR float Bridge.

Ken Gear

---