For all practical purposes the effort to build a state sposored transportation museum are dead. The State Commission died by statue about 18 months ago and the City of Philipsburg(the chosen location) has tired of waiting for progress from the Legislature and have recently approved a new development master plan which calls for Condos where the museum was going to go. I argued unsuccessfully in 1995 when I served on the Commission to site it in Liberty State Park where I believed we could get serious Corporate sponsorship funding but I lost out to the Philipsburg group. Too bad as I believe we would have by now had it up and running at LSP. As the saying goes-you can lead 'em to water..........
Ross Rowland

Hi,

It's been months since the last Boonton, NJ, report. Have any cars been cut up or moved off site?

If not, are there any rumors on when the actual work of scrapping &/or moving will take place?

I'm particularly interested in news concerning the wood, cupola, CNJ caboose.

Thanks, Roger

Hi,

It's been *4* months since the last Boonton, NJ, report. Have any cars been cut up or moved off site?

If not, are there any rumors on when the actual work of scrapping &/or moving will take place?

I'm particularly interested in news concerning the wood, cupola, CNJ caboose.

Thanks, Roger

As of Monday afternoon there seems to be no visible change from New Year's in the status of the equipment.

GME

Of course, the irony is that an old yard is being rehabbed in Boonton to store cars in the URHS collection, while just up the rails these cars are faced with the torch.

Rob

OK. If I may, I'd like to put this into context for those who are not familiar with the site.

Yesterday I went to visit a customer who had just relocated to Division street in Boonton, NJ. So I am figuring that while I am up there I'll find these cars in Boonton to see what this is all about. Well it turns out the cars are at the end of Division St. There are 11 cars there. Let me see if I can paint a mental picture for you.

There are two old stations that have been converted to buiness ventures. At the end of both platforms, track had been laid and these passenger cars installed. On one end of both old stations are two cars each and on the other there are four and the other side there are three for a total of 11 cars. At the end of the row of three, I could see something red sticking up that could be a caboose but the platform was cluttered with debris so I didn't venture down to the end. The cars closest to the station have electric meter sockets mounted for all of the cars in the line up with rigid conduit running to the other cars. The cars are boarded up except for one that is wide open. Inside you can see emptiness except for commercial grade red carpet.

The cars look OK for something that has been sitting for so long but again the cost to move these is prohibitive so in all likelyhood they will be cut up.

Hope this helps for those of you who cannot visit the site.

Later!
Mr. Ed

I have no first hand knowledge of the condition of these cars. Assuming that a host of prerequiste conditions can be met-I wonder if anybody has considered moving them over the road on rubber wheels ?

Contained within another thread is an explanation of how another group has managed to do this with freight cars- on a 'volume' basis. They have also moved a 'critter'-a small diesel locomotive-in this fashion.

I believe that if a group wants to move equipment, the railroads needed to be viewed as the 'court of last resort.' More often than not, the local car inspector or freight crew who has to 'bless' and execute the move is in the position to put the kibosh on things for any number of rational (or irrational) reasons.

In contrast, a local rigger/trucker type only gets paid if the job gets done-so completing the job is in their best interest.

That said, NS holds the freight rights on the Boonton line. I suspect that movement of the cars would fall under their purview. Need I say more ?

My final comment is this-I have seen many oversize loads (in the form of modular home sections) travel both I-287 (which roughly parallels the Booton line) and Route 80. In fact, these loads originate in the Lehigh Valley region of PA.

Dave

Having been in the modular home business I can tell you that they are under a height that would restrict their movement and they are shipped on a chassis called a frame and can travel at highway speeds.

Our fearless leader looked at the Boonton cars many years ago and figured that it would take a big crane to move them off of the rails into the old station parking lot to be loaded on a lowboy. The streets around the site are very narrow which might just make it very difficult if not down right impossible to get the low boy out of there. But if the highway bridge would hold the weight, a crane could be staged on it and the cars lifted onto the lowboy up there. But I really didn't take note of overhead wires which someone posted earlier is a problem.

Later!
Mr. Ed

A bit of intrigue ????

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=24271

This latest URHS folly is not related to these cars. In fact this "new" yard is about 1 mile timetable west of the passenger station where the cars are. In the 20 years that I have followed the tangled trail that URHS has taken they have never expressed an interest in these cars.

I have heard about their Boonton yard adventure for some time now and when I saw how close it is to the Boonton station, I presumed they would take an interest in the cars because if I remember correctly, their web site states that they are interested in preserving rail equipment or parts to assist in restoration of that equipment.

I was up there a few weeks ago and drove by the restored Lackawanna freight house and saw the construction equipment there but did not put 2 and 2 together. I wish I had!

Later!
Mr. Ed

I wonder what the local folks will have to say about whatever equipment shows up at this storage yard.

Like so much of Northern NJ, Booton is 'NIMBY territory.'

Dave

Over in the New Jersey Railfan Forum at Railroad.net The Rising, on Mon Nov 28, 2005, (emphasis added) wrote:


Today is two weeks from that deadline and so far as I know absolutely no substantive action has been taken by Somerset Terminal to remove the cars.

GME