Passenger Trains > [NJ] North Brunswick station village coming along

I had the opportunity to see the construction underway at the new transit village in North Brunswick NJ. The site is a former Johnson & Johnson manufacturing plant and warehouse complex along the NEC. Directly opposite the Adams maintenance yard on the NEC at milepost 37, approximately. The south end of the project has been cleared, a new Costco has been constructed, and several other buildings are in various stages. A huge wall of dirt has also been created. The north end, which is mostly warehouses, has been partly cleared.

When completed, the project will have a new station with platforms on both sides of the NEC, large parking facility, office buildings, and several residential towers on the west side of the railroad, covering both sides of US 1. The town has instituted zoning which allows greater density and height around the station, in return for reducing maximum zoned density in other sections of town. That area of US 1 is rapidly evolving into large office buildings and some smaller incubator type facilities in the pharma and tech industries.

The rail facility will also include a "tail track" to allow local trains to cross over from track 4 (local outbound) to track 1(local inbound) without fouling express tracks 2 and 3. The absence of a tail track at Jersey Avenue (milepost 34) and the timidity of dispatchers to allow trains to leave Jersey Avenue has been an ongoing issue. Jersey Avenue layover yard, and the signal plant at COUNTY crossovers are already seeing significant improvements which should result in greater capacity when all is completed.


http://www.ourtowncenter.info/

Please explain how the tail track will work. Thanks.

Marty Bernard



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/14 11:19 by MartyBernard.

I, too, am confused - how a train gets from track 4 to track 1 without fouling tracks 3 and 2....

boejoe Wrote:
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> I, too, am confused - how a train gets from track
> 4 to track 1 without fouling tracks 3 and 2....

The original plan called for an additional track south of the station which would allow outbound trains to go up from track 4 and on to a newly constructed [flyover and] tail track. Basically a figure Y, with one leg going to the outside of track 4, the other going to the outside of track 1. Once up on the tail track, the train could reverse directions and proceed down another track high over the 2/3 tracks and join the 1 track south of the inbound station.

There's a model for this in the PATH crossover just south of Newark Penn. An upper level train heads south from the station, crosses high above the tracks leading to platforms 3/4,[ pulls past the switch, changes ends, ]and descends on its own track into the lower level of the station.

Now, I don't know if this plan has been adopted, or if work is underway to make this improvement. If I get down to North Brunswick town hall this week, I'll see if there have been any plans filed for review. However, as a federal enterprise, Amtrak isn't normally subject to local or state land use rules or building permits on the right of way, etc.


Edited for clarity and to incorporate prr60's correct use of the flyover term



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/20/14 13:34 by Lackawanna484.

boejoe Wrote:
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> I, too, am confused - how a train gets from track
> 4 to track 1 without fouling tracks 3 and 2....

It will use a new flyover.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:

> If I get down to North Brunswick town hall this
> week, I'll see if there have been any plans filed
> for review.
>


Could you get some pictures too? I would think a flyover would be out of scale for the area.

Marty Bernard

prr60 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> boejoe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I, too, am confused - how a train gets from
> track
> > 4 to track 1 without fouling tracks 3 and 2....
>
> It will use a new flyover.

And it is a loop with a flyover, so that trains that arrive at North Brunswick from NY can carry on westbound and turn on the loop flyover and be ready to run eastbound from North Brunswick without fouling any through traffic on any track. This is also how trains stored in the expanded Jersey Avenue Yard will get turned to run east to New York. Also Jersey Avenue will get a full high level platform on tracks 1 and 4 with an overbridge for pedestrians connecting the two to the parking lot.

You can see a track diagram in this Railway Age article about halfway down...

http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/high-performance/amtrak-sprints-toward-a-higher-speed-future.html?channel=

Jishnu Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> prr60 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > boejoe Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I, too, am confused - how a train gets from
> > track
> > > 4 to track 1 without fouling tracks 3 and
> 2....
> >
> > It will use a new flyover.
>
> And it is a loop with a flyover, so that trains
> that arrive at North Brunswick from NY can carry
> on westbound and turn on the loop flyover and be
> ready to run eastbound from North Brunswick
> without fouling any through traffic on any track.
> This is also how trains stored in the expanded
> Jersey Avenue Yard will get turned to run east to
> New York. Also Jersey Avenue will get a full high
> level platform on tracks 1 and 4 with an
> overbridge for pedestrians connecting the two to
> the parking lot.
>
> You can see a track diagram in this Railway Age
> article about halfway down...
>
> http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/passenger/high
> -performance/amtrak-sprints-toward-a-higher-speed-
> future.html?channel=

Thanks for that link, Jishnu. That answers a number of questions, but poses a few others.

Do you know if the illustration in the article is a final, approved version? Over laying the loop on the current area suggests that the east side of the loop will penetrate fairly deeply into what is now park land and ball fields, etc.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
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> Thanks for that link, Jishnu. That answers a
> number of questions, but poses a few others.

You are most welcome!

> Do you know if the illustration in the article is
> a final, approved version? Over laying the loop
> on the current area suggests that the east side of
> the loop will penetrate fairly deeply into what is
> now park land and ball fields, etc.

You cannot tell from that schematic where things actually are. Roughly speaking the loop comes in towards NEC and becomes track 0 or A or whatever they will call it near where the high tension power lines cross the NEC west of Adams. So the loop is a considerable distance to the west of the J&J station location which is roughly right opposite Adams MOW center. The Conrail track on the north side of the NEC is going to be acquired and used for accessing the loop. I believe the final surveys have been substantially done and land acquisition is supposed to take place soon as soon as enough money appears in the budget. There is money in the 2015 NJT budget for this project. It is an NJT project, not an Amtrak one. Amtrak is building in all access points and two new high speed interlockings to mesh in with the proposed loop as part of the NEC HSR project which depends on the removal of the conflicting moves at County to meet the schedule targets. So this is more than just a maybe someday kind of project. It has real funding behind it over the next 4 years.

Most of the loop is on the south side of the track. The flyover is diagonally northeast to southwest across the NEC. I cannot recall whether track 0/A will be built out all the way to North Brunswick station with a crossover to track 1 at the end of the loop, or if it will join the NEC right at the end of the loop only with no additional track parallel to the NEC on the south side.

I have a privately acquired slideset which shows the details, which unfortunately I cannot share in public. It was presented at TransAction, so it may be available publicly somewhere.

Thanks for that additional information.

There is a currently unused freight lead, which you mention, that runs all the way from north of COUNTY, through Jersey Avenue with a small break, through the station, and south under Hoes Lane bridge, continuing on to the J&J site, and then a little bit farther south.

Other than an occasional customer at the US 1 cross over, I don't believe there are any other shippers or receivers on that section of the line.

Lackawanna484 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for that additional information.
>
> There is a currently unused freight lead, which
> you mention, that runs all the way from north of
> COUNTY, through Jersey Avenue with a small break,
> through the station, and south under Hoes Lane
> bridge, continuing on to the J&J site, and then a
> little bit farther south.
>
> Other than an occasional customer at the US 1
> cross over, I don't believe there are any other
> shippers or receivers on that section of the line.

That is the property that is being acquired as I understand it, and that will form the lead to the Midline Loop on the north side. It will provide access to the Midline Loop from both the County/Jersey Avenue Yard which will be expanded considerably, and from both Jersey Avenue and North Brunswick stations.

The freight track is or was the Delco Lead. I recall in the early 90s there was a morning Conrail switcher everyday.
What happened to J&Js facility?

RRTom Wrote:
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> The freight track is or was the Delco Lead. I
> recall in the early 90s there was a morning
> Conrail switcher everyday.
> What happened to J&Js facility?

Demolished. This is the manufacturing and warehouse facility on the northbound side of US 1, just south of Adams Lane bridge.

The whole situation is quite sad. There's probably two million feet of warehouse and obsolete manufacturing space, all of it with rail access in that three mile stretch of NEC from the south side of New Brunswick to Beekman Lane / Northumberland Road. Perhaps one occasional customer in an area which used to see at least one daily trick. Totally hollowed out, lots of unskilled and light skill jobs vanished.