Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS H74 pn the Washington Secondary

Seen on a stretch of track that does not get much recognition, NS's H74 (Allentown, PA to Washington, NJ) makes the slow trip up NS's Washington Secondary to Washington with twelve cars in tow. My reason for saying this was a slow trip is that it is my understanding that this track has a ten mile per hour speed restriction in place. It is seen here approaching the Mill Pond Road grade crossing at 2:53 PM on April 19th. Motive power for this trip was NS 5664 (GP38; ex-PC 7736, ex-CR 7736 and NS 2913) and NS 4619 (GP59).  

---

The Washington Secondary is a neat line.  It crosses Warren County which is still mostly rural and agricultural.  The is at least one chicken farm operation that gets feed by rail along with several other industries that generate traffic.  Yes, the line is 10 mph which makes it a slow go, but you can certainly get every shot you want.

The was talk about 10 years or so ago about extending commuter service to Washington (which was where the service terminated until the cutbacks of 1966).  Frankly, even at passenger speeds it would be a really long commute.  The portion between Hackettstown and Netcong barely makes sense - part of the reason it was reinstated was for reverse commuters to the BASF HQ in Mt. Olive which has since been shut down.

Tim

Im out in stewartsville  on the washington line a few times a year.  The only active sidings are BASF in Washington, team track in Washington (i believe)
and the plastic injection molding co in stewartsville.   BASF has been the vast majority of this jobs work.  They can switch there for 2-3 hours.  Especially with a 2 main crew and working with air, it takes forever.   The majority of the cars are to leave in washington for the H02 dover drill, which comes down 2-3 days a week, and most of those cars go to the M&E at lake jct.  The tank cars on the end of the trains are for BASF.  It can take 5 days to get a car from Allentown yard to a consignee on the M&E, 50 miles away.  Power usu almost always 2 units, a mix of gp-38/SD-40/GP-59.  The HH GP-38's get out here too.  Have seen the HH sd-40's, but i think they are all retired or in a rebuild program now.
Pix...
1.  the local coming up on Man st Pburg OH bridge
2.   Passing the Pburg union station (out of view, left) and joining the NS main to Allentown
3. Half way between Pburg and washington NJ.  Rural NJ

The track is still 10 mph  low joints on the sticjk rail that hasn't been upgraded since the Roosevelt administration.  They are afraid of too much rocking action with 100 ton cars these days. 

---

---

---

It should also be noted Morris County and Warren County are working with the North Jersey Tranportation Authority on lowering the track in Phillipsburg under the South Main Street bridge (currently 16'-6") that restricts car height on the branch.  This will allow some additional carloads on the Morris County owned branch lines run by Morristown & Erie as well as be a little more appealing to any other potential customer looking to ship or receive the larger cars.

Additionally there are 6 bridges that limit weight to 263,000lbs.  We are also working to get those upgraded.

http://www.njtpa.org/Planning/Regional-Studies/Completed-Studies/Morris-Warren-County-Rail-Corridor-Study/Morris-Warren-County-Rail-Corridor-Study.aspx