National Docks Secondary - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

National Docks Secondary is freight rail line within Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area in Hudson County, New Jersey

Hudson County, New Jersey

Hudson County is the smallest county in New Jersey and one of the most densely populated in United States. It takes its name from the Hudson River, which creates part of its eastern border. Part of the New York metropolitan area, its county seat and largest city is Jersey City.- Municipalities...

, used by CSX Transportation

CSX Transportation

CSX Transportation operates a Class I railroad in the United States known as the CSX Railroad. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles...

. It provides access to the national rail network to maritime, industrial, and distribution facilities at Port Jersey

Port Jersey

Port Jersey is an intermodal freight transport facility that includes a container terminal located on the Upper New York Bay in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The municipal border of the Hudson County, New Jersey cities of Jersey City and Bayonne runs along the long pier extending into the bay...

, the Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne

Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne

Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne was a U.S. military ocean terminal located in the Port of New York and New Jersey which operated from 1942 to 1999. The site is on Upper New York Bay south of Port Jersey on the eastern side of Bayonne, New Jersey. Since its closure it has undergone maritime,...

(MOTBY), and Constable Hook as well as carfloat operations at Greenville Yard. The line is an important component in the planned expansion of facilities in the Port of New York and New Jersey

Port of New York and New Jersey

The Port of New York and New Jersey comprises the waterways in the estuary of the New York-Newark metropolitan area with a port district encompassing an approximate area within a radius of the Statue of Liberty National Monument...

. The single track right of way comprises rail beds, viaducts, bridges, and tunnels originally developed at the end of the 19th century by competing railroads.

Route

The line is used to access the port at the Upper New York Bay

Upper New York Bay

Upper New York Bay, or Upper Bay, is the traditional heart of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and often called New York Harbor. It is enclosed by the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Staten Island and the Hudson County, New Jersey municipalities of Jersey City and Bayonne.It...

, which lies east of those crossing the Northeast Corridor

Northeast Corridor

The Northeast Corridor is a fully electrified railway line owned primarily by Amtrak serving the Northeast megalopolis of the United States from Boston in the north, via New York to Washington, D.C. in the south, with branches serving other cities...

. It runs parallel to the New Jersey Turnpike Newark Bay Extension for most of its length and passes through a cut

Cut (earthmoving)

In civil engineering, a cut or cutting is where soil or rock material from a hill or mountain is cut out to make way for a canal, road or railway line....

in the Hudson Palisades. It travels north-south on the east side of Bergen Hill

Bergen Hill

Bergen Hill refers to the lower Hudson Palisades in New Jersey, USA, where they emerge on Bergen Neck, which in turn is the peninsula between the Hackensack and Hudson River, and their bays. In Hudson County, it reaches a height of 260 feet.-Rail:...

and through a short tunnel crossing beneath the PATH rapid transit system. At its southern end trains cross Newark Bay

Newark Bay

Newark Bay is a tidal bay at the confluence of the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers in northeastern New Jersey. It is home to the Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the largest container shipping facility in Port of New York and New Jersey, 3rd largest and one of busiest in the United States...

over the Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge

Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge

The Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge is a vertical lift bridge spanning the Newark Bay in northeastern New Jersey. It is used by CSX Transportation travelling through the North Jersey Shared Assets Area of the United States rail network along the National Docks Secondary line. The bridge is just north...

to the Oak Island Yard

Oak Island Yard

Oak Island Yard is a freight rail yard located north of Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal and Newark International Airport in an industrial area of Ironbound, Newark, New Jersey, USA. The sprawling complex includes engine house, classification yard, auto unloading terminal, and maintenance...

in Newark

Newark, New Jersey

Newark is the largest city in the American state of New Jersey, and the seat of Essex County. As of the 2010 United States Census, Newark had a population of 277,140, maintaining its status as the largest municipality in New Jersey. It is the 68th largest city in the U.S...

, while at is northern end trains reach Croxton Yard and Bergen Subdivision

Bergen Subdivision

The Bergen Subdivision is a railroad line owned by CSX Transportation in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The line runs from North Bergen north to Bogota along a former New York Central Railroad line...

via the Long Dock Tunnel

Long Dock Tunnel

The Long Dock Tunnel is a tunnel in New Jersey that runs diagonally through Bergen Hill, a section of the New Jersey Palisades in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States...

. It is an alternate, or secondary, route to the Passaic and Harsimus Line

Passaic and Harsimus Line

Conrail's Passaic and Harsimus Line serves freight in northeastern New Jersey, as an alternate to the mainly passenger Northeast Corridor. It takes trains from the Northeast Corridor and Lehigh Line near Newark Liberty International Airport northeast and east into Jersey City, New Jersey, serving...

across the Kearny Meadows

West Hudson, New Jersey

West Hudson is the collective name of the municipalities of Kearny , Harrison , and East Newark located west of the Hackensack River and east of the Passaic River in Hudson County in northeastern New Jersey. The Passaic River separates it from Newark and Belleville, and the Hackensack River...

for trains passing through the Port of New York and New Jersey

Port of New York and New Jersey

Renewal and expansion of port

The National Docks Secondary is a integral component in the anticipated expansion of the Liberty Corridor and Cross Harbor Freight Movement projects, including the intermodal container

Intermodal container

An intermodal container is a standardized reusable steel box used for the safe, efficient and secure storage and movement of materials and products within a global containerized intermodal freight transport system...

transhipment operations on the west side of the Upper New York Bay

Upper New York Bay

in the Port of New York and New Jersey

Port of New York and New Jersey

. To that end, as of 2010, the track is being restored, tunnel clearances increased, and redundant overhead bridges removed to allow double stacking of the high-cube containers increasingly favored for intermodal transportation. The line will connect with ExpressRail Port Jersey, a ship-to-rail container transfer operation, planned to open in 2014, and to the planned new post-Panamax

Panamax

Panamax and New Panamax are popular terms for the size limits for ships traveling through the Panama Canal. Formally, the limits and requirements are published by the Panama Canal Authority titled "Vessel Requirements"...

container terminal

Container terminal

A container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example trains or trucks, in which case the terminal is described as a maritime...

at MOTBY. The line will also handle traffic for an expanded carfloat facility and new barge-to-rail waste management

Waste management

Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or disposal,managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the process is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics...

operations at Greenville Yard to transport waste out of the New York Metropolitan Area

New York metropolitan area

The New York metropolitan area, also known as Greater New York, or the Tri-State area, is the region that composes of New York City and the surrounding region...

History

The line is a remnant of the extensive freight rail infrastructure that once dominated much of the Hudson County, its right of way a combination of routes originally developed by different companies. The name is taken from the National Docks Railway which maintained yards and a storage depot at Black Tom

Black Tom explosion

The Black Tom explosion on July 30, 1916 in Jersey City, New Jersey was an act of sabotage on American ammunition supplies by German agents to prevent the materiel from being used by the Allies in World War I.- Black Tom Island :...

, an island in the Upper New York Bay

Upper New York Bay

greatly expanded by land reclamation

Land reclamation

Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, is the process to create new land from sea or riverbeds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamation ground or landfill.- Habitation :...

and connected to the shore at Caven Point by a long causeway

Causeway

In modern usage, a causeway is a road or railway elevated, usually across a broad body of water or wetland.- Etymology :When first used, the word appeared in a form such as “causey way” making clear its derivation from the earlier form “causey”. This word seems to have come from the same source by...

.
The line was built during an era of tremendous growth along the west shores of the bay and the North River (Hudson River) fueled by competing railroads wishing to gain access to the harbor to develop shipping

Shipping

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

and carfloat operations as well intermodal passenger transport

Intermodal passenger transport

Intermodal passenger transport involves more than one mode of transport of passengers. Some modes of transportation have always been intermodal; for example, most major airports have extensive facilities for automobile parking and have good rail or bus connections to the cities nearby. Urban bus...

terminals.

Its complex history reflects the era's shifting alliances among competing railroads. The National Storage Company was an arm of Standard Oil

Standard Oil

Standard Oil was a predominant American integrated oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world and operated as a major company trust and was one of the world's first and largest multinational...

, which constructed storage and lighterage facilities on Black Tom Island and the Communipaw

Communipaw

Communipaw is a section of Jersey City, New Jersey west of Liberty State Park and east of Bergen Hill, and site of one the earliest European settlements in North America. It gives its name to the historic avenue which runs from its eastern end near LSP Station through the neighborhoods of...

shoreline in 1876. Standard Oil had a contract with the Pennsylvania Railroad

Pennsylvania Railroad

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....

(PRR) for transport of oil, but the Pennsylvania's charter prevented it from extending a line from its cut through Bergen Hill

Bergen Hill

to the National Storage facility. The National Storage Company was thus compelled to use the Central Railroad of New Jersey

Central Railroad of New Jersey

The Central Railroad of New Jersey , commonly known as the Jersey Central Lines or CNJ, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s, lasting until 1976 when it was absorbed into Conrail with the other bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States...

, which had tracks adjacent to the Black Tom facility.

To circumvent the restrictions on the Pennsylvania Railroad's charter, Standard Oil and the Pennsylvania colluded in 1879 to create the National Docks Railway Company to connect the National Storage facilities directly to the Pennsylvania line. The line would of necessity run through the property of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and the Central strongly objected to the condemnation of its land for the benefit of its competitor. After an extended legal battle, in 1882 the National Docks won a surprise concession from the Jersey City aldermen for an elevated track between the junction with the PRR and the oil docks, and the line was quickly constructed and opened in 1883, operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The line was subsequently extended as the Bergen Neck Railroad to Constable Hook in Bayonne

Bayonne, New Jersey

Bayonne is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. Located in the Gateway Region, Bayonne is a peninsula that is situated between Newark Bay to the west, the Kill van Kull to the south, and New York Bay to the east...

where Standard Oil had additional facilities. In 1891, the Bergen Neck and the National Docks were consolidated.

Six years after its initial construction, in 1889 Standard Oil reached agreement with the New York Central Railroad

New York Central Railroad

The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...

(NYC) to connect the National Docks Railway with the NYC's West Shore Railroad

West Shore Railroad

The West Shore Railroad was the final name of a railroad from Weehawken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City, north along the west shore of the river to Albany, New York and then west to Buffalo...

at National Junction. The line consisted of the New Jersey Junction Railroad

New Jersey Junction Railroad

The New Jersey Junction Railroad was part of the New York Central Railroad and ran along the Hudson River in Hudson County, New Jersey, from the West Shore Railroad yards at Weehawken Terminal south to Jersey City...

and the National Docks and New-Jersey Junction Connecting Railroad, with the National Docks Railway coming under the control of the NYC. It was now the Pennsylvania's turn to protest against the crossing of its property, and a costly "frog war

Frog war

In American railroading, a frog war occurs when a private railroad company attempts to cross the tracks of another, and this results in hostilities, with the courts usually getting involved, but often long after companies have taken the matter in their own hands and settled, with hordes of workers...

" ensued. When finally completed in 1897 the 450 feet (137.2 m) long tunnel under Pennsylvania's Waldo Avenue yards had cost $750,000, twice what had been projected. In 1911, the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad, the fore-runner of the Port Authority Trans Hudson, opened a tunnel under the PRR right of way from its Exchange Place terminal

Exchange Place (PRR station)

The Pennsylvania Railroad Station was the intermodal passenger terminal for the Pennsylvania Railroad's vast holdings on the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay in Jersey City, New Jersey. By the 1920s the station was called Exchange Place in response to local nomenclature...

. It emerges in the yard and passes over what is now known as the Waldo Tunnel. The New Jersey Junction Railroad later became part of Conrail's River Line

River Line (Conrail)

The River Line is a rail corridor located between Jersey City, New Jersey and Selkirk, New York, running along the west bank of the Hudson River. A parallel track, which was operated as part of the River Line from Jersey City to Weehawken, New Jersey, was known as the Weehawken Branch...

until it was abandoned, the right of way in Hoboken

Hoboken, New Jersey

Hoboken is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 50,005. The city is part of the New York metropolitan area and contains Hoboken Terminal, a major transportation hub for the region...

and Weehawken

Weehawken, New Jersey

Weehawken is a township in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township population was 12,554.-Geography:Weehawken is part of the New York metropolitan area...

now used by Hudson Bergen Light Rail.

When the Lehigh Valley Railroad

Lehigh Valley Railroad

The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...

(LVRR) opened its terminal

Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway

The Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway was a Lehigh Valley Railroad company organized in 1891 through the consolidation of the companies that formed the Lehigh Valley's route from South Plainfield through Newark to Jersey City via its bridge across Newark Bay...

on the Morris Canal Basin

Morris Canal

The Morris Canal was an anthracite-carrying canal that incorporated a series of water-driven inclined planes in its course across northern New Jersey in the United States. It was in use for about a century — from the late 1820s to the 1920s....

in 1888, it initially reached it over the Central Railroad's line and later obtained trackage rights on the National Docks Railway. To protect its access to its terminal, the LVRR acquired a half-interest in the National Docks in 1890. In 1891 it consolidated its other holdings in northeastern New Jersey

Gateway Region

The Gateway Region is located in the northeastern part of State of New Jersey in the United States of America. The area encompasses Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Passaic, Union and Middlesex counties...

to form the Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway

Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway

, and in 1892 begun running a route on a bridge

Lehigh Valley Railroad Bridge

over Newark Bay

Newark Bay

.

In 1897, another consolidation took place with the merger of the National Docks Railway Company, New Jersey Junction Connecting Railway Company, Kill von Kull Railway, and Bay Creek Railway, the latter two lines being short lines running south to Bayonne

Bayonne, New Jersey

. The merged company was known as the National Docks Railway. Much of the company was eventually absorbed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad

Lehigh Valley Railroad

in 1898. By 1900 it had full ownership of the line to its terminal at the mouth of the Hudson. Under the direction of LVRR the National Docks Railway remained an important connecting "beltline" along the Hudson Waterfront

Hudson Waterfront

The Hudson Waterfront is in northeastern New Jersey along the lower reaches of the Hudson River, the Upper New York Bay and the Kill van Kull. Though the term can specifically mean the shoreline, it often used to mean the contiguous urban area between the Bayonne Bridge and the George Washington...

, handling traffic for the Erie

Erie Railroad

The Erie Railroad was a railroad that operated in New York State, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, originally connecting New York City with Lake Erie...

, New York Central

New York Central Railroad

The New York Central Railroad , known simply as the New York Central in its publicity, was a railroad operating in the Northeastern United States...

, and Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Railroad

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....

External links

northern end mid section southern end

You Tube:Cabride on National Docks Secondary from Long Dock Tunnel to Liberty State Park
Blue Comet website photo: Conrail seen passing JCMC
RRpicarchiives
Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Route

Renewal and expansion of port

History

See also

External links