Abandoned Trains

Hi Dan,

I've been to this site, Southern R.R. of New Jersey, a few years ago. At the time the Revel Casino in Atlantic City was being built and I was one of 400 electricians on the site. Anyway, this was actually my second visit to that R.R. I think that the pics that you see of the rolling stock & motive power are there for parts use. I know that when I was a fireman for the New Hope & Ivyland R.R. (#40) we used to keep similar "stuff", south of New Hope, on sidings for parts replacement when needed. They sometimes have some old interesting rolling stock. In fact Google Southern R.R. of New Jersey and you will see all the pics that they have, real interesting! That area is known as" Winslow Junction". It is known for the train wreck of the "Midnight Flyer", as you will read on the sign that's on the "Images Section". If your anywhere close to it, being that your in Pennsy, you should check it out. The Railroad was origanally Central Railroad of New Jersey and some of the pics will show a train bridge going over S.R.R. of N.J. (nee C.R.R. of N.J.) which was the route of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. I think that part of the P.R.S.L. is also still active, but I'm not sure who occupies it.

Steam Forever

John J. Giuliano

I find the use of the term "abandoned" today is not understood. Youtubes of abandoned everything abound. Someone owns these and they are on private property. heck, there is one of a couple of dudes going through a decommissioned ( abandoned) nuclear reactor.

Anyway, the Winchester Western operates freight activities there now. If you noticed, the rail heads are shiny on adjacent tracks. They haul sand from the quarries still. A very nice sand for glass manufacturing. Winchester Western Sandman. This train passed while I was looking at some of the "abandoned" engines and cars near a working quarry.

There is a story of a group that wanted to run a sightseeing tourist line that didn't make it.

Sad to see that prescription drug dealers are using the car.

Yeah that video is on the Southern Railroad of New Jersey.. Or Winchester & Western? That's the old CNJ Southern division right? That line might lead to Lakewood, Lakehurst and up to the North Jersey Coastline. I could be wrong. I haven't been down to Winslow Junction in a while.. If I'm correct in the late 90's and into the early 2000's they stored ex CNJ F3's there as well as an LV C-420.

Although I'm a big CNJ fan I still wish those F3's would be repainted into their original Bangor and Aroostook scheme. I think that's what they were originally cause I know they weren't of CNJ heritage. The LV C-420 is 414. I think it's owned by Delaware Lackawanna and works around Scranton with CNJ 1554... I could be wrong, my memory about this stuff is off.

That's some pretty impressive drone piloting.

Would like to clear up some info on my my rant. The real name of the train, according to "pineypower.com, is "The Owl", something that I didn't know, the sign at Winslow Jct. says the "Midnight Flyer". As the article says, it was a "nickname" given to that train.  Anyway, go to that website and scroll down to "Railroad History at Winslow Junction",  get some better info that should clear up some facts. Very interesting read!!!

      Steam Forever

          John

Just to add a few more tidbits, Winslow Junction was where the Blue Comet left the CNJ Southern Division mainline and took Reading track east to Atlantic City. The PRR and the Reading had roughly parallel lines running to AC from at that point.  After the 1933 merger to create the PRSL the Comet traveled east on the former PRR track. I do not believe the Winchester and Western operates at Winslow. That is Southern Railroad of NJ track. The SRNJ has always been very railfan-friendly but, as others have said, the equipment is on private property and should be respected as such. The paved road that parallels the track where the equipment is stored is public and more than close enough to get good photos from. 

as I told some of my students years ago, its NOT abandoned. Someone still owns it and you are trespassing. they were poking around a multi unit freight train up in the adarondacks years ago, climbing in and out of box cars taking pics. I told them that those cars were being stored there for an extended period of time and they need to stay off them and railroad personnel could get them into trouble for trespassing.

Yep.  The only equipment that's safe to explore is that which is in museums.

NJCJOE posted:

That's some pretty impressive drone piloting.

Joe, For the smooth inside shots he's using one of these. It's a DJI Ronin which has the same camera stabilization as the quad copters for super smooth level shots even if your running with it.https://www.dji.com/ronin

There needs to be an Island of Abandoned Trains, so Santa can fix them. 

John Pignatelli JR. posted:

There needs to be an Island of Abandoned Trains, so Santa can fix them. 

  "We're on the island of misfit trains, and here we don't want to stay..."

I am always leery of prowling around abandoned stuff in today's world. I usually have protection along.  I wish I knew how to download slides because I have some of a long line of CR cabooses sitting in the scrap yard waiting for the end. Nice sunny day but it still was creepy.

"Sad but inspiring."

Sad... absolutely.

Inspiring? Not to me.  Instead, I found it depressing: Broken dreams. Vandalism. Drug addiction. Historic equipment going to waste... and more. 

No, none of that is very inspiring to me.

But I will certainly agree with you on the "sad" part.

I think the abatement of equipment and land is one of the reasons the abondondment is often assumed now.

In world of "universal code", these scenes that had increased over the last century are becoming more unusual to the eyes of the modern person.

While waiting for the holiday train to roll past I noticed many tresspassing detourants missing since the time of my youth. Fences and no trespassing signs all gone. Securing your land with these things is a long standing practice for persons and businesses alike. We assume everyone has our sensibilities, the law in general does not. In general I'm not trespassing if the signs arent posted every X ft.(?) in here in Michigan. To me its easy to see how people can assume its OK.

There were a group of wood cabooses about 75 yards from the park I grew up playing in, that hadn't moved my whole life. Kids got hurt, hobos and drug addicts used them regularly and constant citizen complaint brought no action. Finally,  when I was about 15, a group of folks burnt them to the ground with kerosene. A fire truck showed at a park gate, and the fire chief couldn't seem to find the key to the gate, or bolt cutters, or even a hack saw.

  It made me smile knowing that our neighborhood was that much safer despite my love for these "crummys".

I don't blame the people. The River Rouge yards a mile or so away. Those fences would have made a much safer storage area, and steel box cars could have been stored by the park...locked. Or they could have been fenced in. As long as they sat, it didn't even need a gate.

How bad was the condition? Those trains in the video look pretty good.  Hobos built small fires inside had eventually burnt small holes trough the floors in places over time. I think the final straw was a compound fracture of a kids leg in one.

Yes, the whole subject is rather tied up moral turmoils for me. Same as SOME cases of graffiti. "Two sides of a coin standing on its edge".