1.
Rail yard
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A rail yard, railway yard or railroad yard is the US term for a complex series of railroad tracks for storing, sorting, or loading/unloading, railroad cars and/or locomotives. Railroad yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock stored off the mainline, railroad cars are moved around by specially designed yard switchers, a type of locomotive. Cars in a railroad yard may be sorted by categories, including railroad company, loaded or unloaded, destination, car type. Railroad yards are built where there is a need to store cars while they are not being loaded or unloaded. Large yards may have a tower to control operations, many railway yards are located at strategic points on a main line. Main line yards are often composed of an Up yard and a Down yard, there are different types of yards, and different parts within a yard, depending on how they are built. They are decoupled and let to accelerate into the classification equipment lower down, a flat yard has no hump, and relies on locomotives for all car movements. A large sub-group of such yards are known as Staging yards, the long haul carrier makes the round trip with a minimal turn around time, and the local switch engine transfers empties to the loading yard when the industries output is ready to be shipped. In the staging yard, the locomotive is most likely operated by industry, since overall throughput speed matters, many have small pneumatic, hydraulic or spring driven braking retarders to adjust and slow speed both before and after yard switch points. Along with car tracking and load tracking to destination technologies such as RFID long trains can be broken down and reconfigured in transfer yards or operations in remarkable time. Transfer yard is a yard where consists are dropped off or picked up as a group by through service such as a Unit Train, but managed locally by local switching service locomotives. Unit tracks may be reserved for Unit trains, which carry a block of all of the same origin and destination. Such consists often stop in a yard for other purposes, inspection. Freight yards may have multiple industries adjacent to them where railroad cars are loaded or unloaded and then stored before they move on to their new destination. Major freight yards in the U. S. Major U. K. goods yards include those in Crewe, Reading and Bescot, near Walsall, coach yards are used for sorting, storing and repairing passenger cars. These yards are located in areas near large stations or terminals. An example of a major U. S. coach yard is Sunnyside Yard in New York City and those that are principally used for storage, such as the West Side Yard in New York, are called layup yards or stabling yards. Major U. K. coach stabling yards include those in Crewe and Longsight, Manchester, which are operated by various regional train companies
2.
New Brunswick, New Jersey
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The City of New Brunswick is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is the county seat of Middlesex County, and the home of Rutgers University, the city is located on the Northeast Corridor rail line,27 miles southwest of Manhattan, on the southern bank of the Raritan River. The corporate headquarters and production facilities of several global companies are situated in the city, including Johnson & Johnson. New Brunswick is noted for its ethnic diversity, at one time, one quarter of the Hungarian population of New Jersey resided in the city and in the 1930s one out of three city residents was Hungarian. The Hungarian community continues to exist, alongside growing Asian and Hispanic communities that have developed around French Street near Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and it was first inhabited by the Lenape Native Americans. The first European settlement at the site of New Brunswick was made in 1681, the settlement here was called Prigmores Swamp, then known as Inians Ferry. In 1714, the settlement was given the name New Brunswick, after the city of Braunschweig, in state of Lower Saxony, in Germany. Braunschweig was an influential and powerful city in the Hanseatic League, later in the Holy Roman Empire, and was an administrative seat for the Duchy of Hanover. Shortly after the first settlement of New Brunswick in colonial New Jersey, George, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, alternatively, the city gets its name from King George II of Great Britain, the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. New Brunswick was incorporated as a town in 1736 and chartered as a city in 1784 and it was incorporated into a town in 1798 as part of the Township Act of 1798. It was occupied by the British in the winter of 1776–1777 during the Revolutionary War. The Declaration of Independence received one of its first public readings, by Col. John Neilson, in New Brunswick on July 9,1776, in the days following its promulgation by the Continental Congress. The Trustees of Queens College, founded in 1766, voted to locate the college in New Brunswick, selecting the city over Hackensack, in Bergen County. Classes began in 1771 with one instructor, one sophomore, Matthew Leydt, classes were held through the American Revolution in various taverns and boarding houses, and at a building known as College Hall on George Street, until Old Queens was erected in 1808. It remains the oldest building on the Rutgers University campus, the Queens College Grammar School was established also in 1766, and shared facilities with the College until 1830, when it located in a building across College Avenue from Old Queens. The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, founded in 1784 in New York, moved to New Brunswick in 1810, New Brunswick was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on September 1,1784. The existence of an African American community dates back to the late 18th century, the citys Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, located at 39 Morris Street, was originally established in 1825 at 25 Division Street, making it one of the oldest in New Jersey. New Brunswick began attracting a Hungarian immigrant population around the turn of the 20th century, hungarians were primarily attracted to the city by employment at Johnson & Johnson factories located in the city
3.
Northeast Corridor
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The Northeast Corridor is an electrified railway line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through New York City, Philadelphia, the NEC closely parallels Interstate 95 for most of its length, and is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency as of 2013. Branches to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Massachusetts, though not considered part of the Northeast Corridor, the corridor is used by many Amtrak trains, including the high-speed Acela Express, intercity trains, and several long-distance trains. Most of the corridor also has frequent commuter service, operated by the MBTA, Shore Line East, Metro-North Railroad, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA. Several companies run freight trains over sections of the NEC, much of the line is built for speeds higher than the 79 mph allowed on many U. S. tracks. Acela covers the 225 miles between New York and Washington, D. C. in under 3 hours, and the 229 miles between New York and Boston in under 3.5 hours. Under Amtraks $151 billion Northeast Corridor plan, which hopes to roughly halve travel times by 2040, the Northeast Corridor was built by several railroads between the 1830s and 1917. The route was later consolidated under two railroads, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad between Boston and New York, and the Pennsylvania Railroad between New York and Washington, boston-Providence, Boston and Providence Railroad opened 1835, partially realigned in 1847 and in 1899. Became part of the Old Colony Railroad in 1888, providence-Stonington, New York, Providence and Boston Railroad opened 1837, partially realigned 1848. Stonington-New Haven, New Haven, New London and Stonington Railroad opened 1852-1889, New Haven-New Rochelle, New York and New Haven Railroad opened 1849. New Rochelle-Port Morris, Harlem River and Port Chester Railroad opened 1873, Port Morris-Sunnyside Yard, New York Connecting Railroad, opened 1917. Sunnyside Yard-Manhattan Transfer, Pennsylvania Tunnel and Terminal Railroad opened 1910, Manhattan Transfer-Trenton, United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company opened 1834-1839,1841, partially realigned 1863 and 1870. Trenton-Frankford Junction, Philadelphia and Trenton Railroad opened 1834, partially realigned 1911, frankford Junction-Zoo Tower, Connecting Railway opened 1867. Zoo Tower-Grays Ferry Bridge, Junction Railroad opened 1863-1866, grays Ferry-Bayview, Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad opened 1837-1838,1866,1906. Bayview Yard-Baltimore Union Station, Union Railroad opened 1873, Baltimore Union Station-Landover, Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road opened 1872. Electricity was in use on branch lines of the NYNH&H for interurban streetcars via third rail or trolley wire. The NH announced in 1905 that it would electrify its main line from New York to Stamford, electric locomotives began serving Grand Central on February 13,1907, and all NYC passenger service into Grand Central was electrified on July 1. NH electrification began on July 24 to New Rochelle, August 5 to Port Chester and October 6,1907 the rest of the way to Stamford, steam trains last operated into Grand Central on June 30,1908, after which all NH passenger trains into Manhattan were electrified
4.
Pennsylvania Railroad
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The Pennsylvania Railroad was an American Class I railroad, founded in 1846. Commonly referred to as the Pennsy, the PRR was headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the PRR was the largest railroad by traffic and revenue in the U. S. for the first half of the 20th century. Over the years, it acquired, merged with or owned part of at least 800 other rail lines and companies and its only formidable rival was the New York Central, which carried around three-quarters of PRRs ton-miles. At one time, the PRR was the largest publicly traded corporation in the world, with a larger than that of the U. S. government. The corporation still holds the record for the longest continuous dividend history, in 1968, PRR merged with rival NYC to form the Penn Central Transportation Company, which filed for bankruptcy within two years. The viable parts were transferred in 1976 to Conrail, which was broken up in 1999, with 58 percent of the system going to the Norfolk Southern Railway. Amtrak received the electrified segment east of Harrisburg, with the opening of the Erie Canal and the beginnings of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, Philadelphia business interests became concerned that the port of Philadelphia would lose traffic. The state legislature was pressed to build a canal across Pennsylvania and it soon became evident that a single canal would not be practical and a series of railroads, inclined planes, and canals was proposed. Because freight and passengers had to change several times along the route and canals froze in winter, it soon became apparent that the system was cumbersome. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania granted a charter to the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1846 to build a rail line that would connect Harrisburg to Pittsburgh. The Directors chose John Edgar Thomson, an engineer from the Georgia Railroad, to survey, the crest of the mountain was penetrated by the 3, 612-foot Gallitzin Tunnels and then descended by a more moderate grade to Johnstown. The western end of the line was built from Pittsburgh east along the banks of the Allegheny. In 1857, the PRR purchased the Main Line of Public Works from the state of Pennsylvania, the line was double track from its inception, and by the end of the century a third and fourth track were added. Over the next 50 years, PRR expanded by gaining control of railroads by stock purchases. This line is still an important cross-state corridor, carrying Amtraks Philadelphia to Harrisburg Main Line and he served as PRRs first Chief Engineer and third President. Track connection in Philadelphia was made via the PRRs Connecting Railway, the PRRs Baltimore and Potomac Rail Road opened on July 2,1872, between Baltimore and Washington, D. C. This route required transfer via horse car in Baltimore to the lines heading north from the city. On June 29,1873, the Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel through Baltimore was completed, the PRR started the misleadingly named Pennsylvania Air Line service via the Northern Central Railway and Columbia, Pennsylvania
5.
Amtrak
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Founded in 1971 to take over most of the remaining U. S. passenger rail services, it is partially government funded yet operated and managed as a for-profit corporation. Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces, operating more than 300 trains each day over 21,300 miles of track, some track sections allow trains to run as fast as 150 mph. In fiscal year 2015, Amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had $2.185 billion in revenue, nearly two-thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas, 83% of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles. Its headquarters is at Union Station in Washington, D. C, the name Amtrak is a portmanteau of the words America and trak, the latter itself a sensational spelling of track. From the mid-19th century until about 1920, nearly all intercity travelers in the United States moved by rail, historically, U. S. passenger trains were owned and operated by the same privately owned companies that operated freight trains. About 65,000 railroad passenger cars operated in 1929, from 1920 into the later 20th century, passenger rails popularity diminished and there was a series of pullbacks and tentative recoveries. Rail passenger revenues declined dramatically between 1920 and 1934 because of the rise of the automobile, in the same period, many travelers were lost to interstate bus companies such as Greyhound Lines. However, in the mid-1930s, railroads reignited popular imagination with service improvements and new, diesel-powered streamliners, such as the gleaming silver Pioneer Zephyr and Flying Yankee. Even with the improvements, on a basis, traffic continued to decline. World War II broke the malaise, passenger traffic soared sixfold thanks to troop movements, in 1946, there remained 45 percent fewer passenger trains than in 1929, and the decline quickened despite railroad optimism. Passengers disappeared and so did trains, few trains generated profits, most produced losses. Broad-based passenger rail deficits appeared as early as 1948, and by the mid-1950s, by 1965, only 10,000 rail passenger cars were in operation,85 percent fewer than in 1929. Passenger service was provided on only 75,000 miles of track, the 1960s also saw the end of railway post office revenues, which had helped some of the remaining trains break even. The causes of the decline of rail in the United States were complex. Until 1920, rail was the practical form of intercity transport. By 1930, the companies had constructed, with private funding. In 1916, the amount of track in the United States peaked at 254,251 miles, some rail routes had been built primarily to facilitate the sale of stock in the railroad companies, they were redundant from the beginning. These were the first to be abandoned as the financial positions deteriorated
6.
NJ Transit Rail Operations
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NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It provides commuter service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken. NJ Transit also operates service in Orange and Rockland counties in New York under contract to Metro-North Railroad. This does not include NJ Transits light rail operations, as of 2012, NJ Transits commuter rail network consists of 11 lines and 164 stations, primarily concentrated in northern New Jersey, with one line running between Atlantic City and Philadelphia. The former Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines Atlantic City Line is also included in the Newark Division, Conrail, CSX, Norfolk Southern and several short lines currently have trackage rights contracts to operate freight service on NJ Transit lines. The Morristown & Erie Railway can only use NJT trackage to get between its owned trackage, it cannot serve customers on NJ Transit trackage, a similar situation exists for Conrail on the Atlantic City Line. These lines were purchased by the New Jersey Department of Transportation in the late 1970s for railbanking purposes, other major yard facilities are located at Hoboken Terminal. Amtraks Sunnyside Yard in Queens, New York serves as a facility for trains to New York Penn Station. Additional yards are located at outlying points along the lines, there are eight non-revenue work diesels used for these purposes. Equipment owned by Metro-North carries AAR reporting marks MNCW without exception and these locomotives carry NJTR reporting marks for revenue service. Not included are the EMU cars, which are technically locomotives, ONLY active revenue locomotives are listed, retired equipment is unlisted. All non-revenue locomotives are diesel-powered and legally carry the same NJTR AAR reporting marks as all other equipment without exception, as these locomotives lack HEP, they do not haul trains in passenger service unless performing a rescue. NJ Transit has a fleet of over 1,000 passenger cars, the fleet and examples are described below. Except for the Comet IIM, all examples shown are cab cars leading or on the end of trains. Car groupings are, except for the Arrow III MUs, arranged in the order, cab cars, trailers with lavatories, and trailers without lavatories. Single Arrow III MUs are GE Model MA-1J, married pairs are GE Model MA-1H, NJ Transit provides passenger service on 12 lines at total of 165 stations, some operated conjunction with Amtrak and Metro North. NJ Transit NJ Transit Rail Draft 2012 State Rail Plan
7.
Jersey Avenue station
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Jersey Avenue is a New Jersey Transit station on the Northeast Corridor Line in New Brunswick, New Jersey. It is near Jersey Avenue, in an area next to a New Jersey Transit rail yard. Jersey Avenue opened in October 1963 as part of an experimental park, Jersey Avenue has a different layout than most New Jersey Transit stations. Instead, the platform is set behind the southbound platform. With this layout, northbound trains cannot service Jersey Avenue and thus bypass the station en route to New York, some southbound trains do terminate at Jersey Avenue, using a siding that is also used by special northbound trains that originate at the station. As of 2015, additional design and engineering work to reconfigure the station was funded, the New Brunswick Parking Authority manages the parking lot at Jersey Avenue. Parking costs $180/quarter as of January 1,2010, there is currently a waiting list of 2 years. Daily parking is available in the white numbered spaces at the rear of the lot for $6. 00/day. Spaces in private lots adjacent to the station are available for $75–$100 per month, the new station was started as an 18-month experiment done by the committee to provide people with access from the railroad to their cars in a new park and ride. The station cost $256,185 and supplemented the New Brunswick station 1.5 miles north on Albany, Wall and Easton Streets. The new station, slated to open in October, was to be funded by grants from the state and federal governments, the station opened October 24,1963. New Jersey Route 91 County Yard Millstone Branch Jersey Parking
8.
Northeast Corridor Line
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The Northeast Corridor Line is a commuter rail operation run by New Jersey Transit along Amtraks Northeast Corridor in the United States. It is the successor to Pennsylvania Railroad trains between Trenton Transit Center and New York Penn Station, after arrival at New York Penn Station, some trains load passengers and return to New Jersey, while others continue east to Sunnyside Yard for storage. Most servicing is done at the Morrisville Yard, at the west end of the line, the Northeast Corridor Line is colored red on New Jersey Transit system maps and its symbol is the State House. The Princeton Branch is a service connecting to the line. Penn Station had originally intended for long distance passenger trains. With the overhead electrification complete, the PRR could run trains of multiple units direct to Manhattan. The weekday schedule in September 1951 had six trains a day from New York to Trenton, seven from New York to New Brunswick, two from Jersey City to Trenton and six from Jersey City to New Brunswick. That includes just the trains terminated at Trenton or New Brunswick, many more trains from New York to Philadelphia. By the 1960s the financial situation of the Pennsylvania Railroad had deteriorated, in 1968 NJDoT funded construction of the new Metropark station and in 1969 they funded 35 new stainless steel Jersey Arrow MU cars. The state continued to fund replacement of the aging pre-war MU equipment with the Arrow II, finally in 1983 the State took over all of the Conrail operations under the aegis of a new statewide public transport agency, New Jersey Transit. During the 1990s New Jersey Transit contracted with Amtrak to accept monthly NJT passholders on the Clocker trains, the Clocker last ran on October 28,2005, and thereafter New Jersey Transit began several extra Trenton-New York express trips. Connecting SEPTA Trenton Line service between Philadelphia and Trenton is listed in the timetable, the Northeast Corridor Line runs from New York Penn Station to Trenton Transit Center along with Amtrak. The Northeast Corridor Line operates a service between the outlying stations and the terminal zone which begins at Newark International Airport Station. During the peak period North Jersey Coast Line trains stop at North Elizabeth through Rahway, stations between Rahway are served by Jersey Avenue Locals, which originate and terminate at Jersey Avenue station. Finally Trenton Express trains make their first/last stop at Princeton Junction or New Brunswick, a few all stops locals operate sporadically on weekdays as well and all day on weekends. Jersey Ave locals make local stops between Rahway and Elizabeth outside peak periods, North Elizabeth station is skipped by most NEC Line trains and express trains cannot stop at Jersey Ave eastbound. With high levels of service and a route through one of the most densely populated areas of the United States, on an average weekday in 2012, the Northeast Corridor Line handled 117,400 boardings. These trains are made up of Comet series cars or Bombardier Transportation Multilevels, the modern era of commuter operations began in 1983 when New Jersey Transit Rail Operations took over the service from Conrail
9.
Millstone Branch
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The Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad was chartered in the mid-19th century as a seven-mile long branch line from New Brunswick, New Jersey to East Millstone, New Jersey. Construction was completed and the line began operation on December 19,1854, the Millstone Branch boasted 12 passenger trains a day from East Millstone to New York City. Passenger stations, which were small wooden shacks, were located at East Millstone, South Middlebush Road, Clyde Road, Voorhees. Passenger service permitted Millstone residents easy access to New Brunswick for shopping on weekends, with the advent of the automobile, all passenger service ended in 1930. After that year the track past Route 27 was only used sporadically by a freight train to access the rubber factory in East Millstone, track became weed covered. The stations at Clyde and Voorhees were abandoned on June 8,1932, the last passenger station to survive was Middlebush, which was razed in 1948. The Jersey Avenue Park & Ride station operated by NJ Transit opened October 24,1963 by the Pennsylvania Railroad, in an attempt to cut costs, the Pennsylvania Railroad merged with rival New York Central to form the Penn Central Transportation Corporation in 1968. Penn Central wanted to abandon the branch by this time but was required by federal law to serve any customers who wanted rail service regardless of profitability. Penn Central filed for bankruptcy in 1970, and sold all its assets to the new government-created Consolidated Rail Corporation in 1976. Penn Central only sold the portion of the Millstone Branch up to South Middlebush Road to Conrail while retaining ownership of the portion from South Middlebush Road to East Millstone. In 1971 several warehouses were built along Clyde Rd, three of which had rail spurs installed and connected to the Millstone Branch, however, only one of the warehouses ever used rail service. One of the rail spurs has since removed, never having been used. In the summer of 1980 the track was removed from a point several hundred feet west of the Clyde Road crossing to East Millstone at the Delaware, a small section of track can be found between William and Market Streets in East Millstone. Motorists complained that the poorly maintained grade crossing near Colonial Park was causing damage to their cars, by this time, there were no active customers past the Route 27 crossing, the branch fell into disrepair and became overgrown with vegetation. For the next 30 years the branch west of Route 27 remained active solely to provide service to Hermann Warehouse Corp, Conrail replaced many ties, several switches, and removed all overgrowth and laid new ballast along this corridor. Just east of South Middlebush Road the track is removed, and this includes Railroad Avenue that is still a street in the Middlebush section of Franklin Township. In 2001 three large homes on the outskirts of East Millstone were built on top of the right-of-way that borders Colonial Park. In 2006 a new housing development was built just east of South Middlebush Rd, the bridge pillar in the middle of the Millstone River which was intended to carry the tracks to the Mercer & Somerset railroad still stands
10.
Interlocking
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In railway signalling, an interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements through an arrangement of tracks such as junctions or crossings. The signalling appliances and tracks are collectively referred to as an interlocking plant. An interlocking is designed so that it is impossible to display a signal to proceed unless the route to be used is proven safe. A minimal interlocking consists of signals, but usually includes additional appliances such as points and derails, some of the fundamental principles of interlocking include, Signals may not be operated to permit conflicting train movements to take place at the same time. Switches and other appliances in the route must be set before a signal may allow train movements to enter that route. Railway interlocking is of British origin, where numerous patents were granted, in June 1856, John Saxby received the first patent for interlocking switches and signals. In 1868, Saxby was awarded a patent for what is today in North America as “preliminary latch locking”. Preliminary latch locking became so successful that by 1873,13,000 mechanical locking levers were employed on the London, at the time, Toucey was General Superintendent and Buchanan was Superintendent of Machinery on the NYC&HRR. Toucey and Buchanan formed the Toucey and Buchanan Interlocking Switch and Signal Company in Harrisburg, the first important installations of their mechanism were on the switches and signals of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company and the New York Elevated Railroad Company in 1877-78. Compared to Saxbys design, Toucey and Buchanans interlocking mechanism was more cumbersome and less sophisticated, Union Switch & Signal bought their company in 1882. The challenge facing the industry was achieving the same level of safety and reliability that was inherent to purely mechanical systems. An experimental hydro-pneumatic interlocking was installed at the Bound Brook, New Jersey junction of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, by 1891, there were 18 hydro-pneumatic plants, on six railroads, operating a total of 482 levers. The installations worked, but there were defects in the design. By 1900,54 electro-pneumatic interlocking plants, controlling a total of 1,864 interlocking levers, were in use on 13 North American railroads. This type of system would remain one of two competing systems into the future, although it did have the disadvantage of needing extra single-use equipment. Interlockings using electric motors for moving switches and signals became viable in 1894, another interlocking of this type was installed in Berlin Westend in 1896. By 1913, this system had been installed on 83 railroads in 35 US States and Canadian Provinces. Interlockings can be categorized as mechanical, electrical, or electronic/computer-based, in mechanical interlocking plants, a locking bed is constructed, consisting of steel bars forming a grid
