(The following story by Richard Degener appeared on the Press of Atlantic City website on December 3.)
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — The great train mystery has been solved.
Residents in rural sections of Dennis and Middle townships were wondering why two miles of railroad cars recently chugged into town. They wondered if the rail cars that look like tankers were carrying hazardous materials. Some just wanted to know why a sleepy little rail line that sometimes runs a couple cars of tourists was suddenly so busy.
As it turns out, the largest railroad freight line east of the Mississippi simply needed a place to ride out the bad economy. The cars normally carry coils of steel to manufacturing plants, but these are not normal times. Railroad cars that aren’t working are just in the way.
“They are being stored right now. There’s no demand for them,” said Robert Sullivan, of CSX Transportation.
The rail freight company has 21,000 miles of track between East St. Louis and Boston, Montreal and Miami, but Sullivan said it still looks for places to store unneeded equipment. Cape May County may be linked by rail via Tuckahoe to the rest of the country, but it’s still considered pretty much out of the way. Cape May Seashore Lines used to use the track between Cape May and but has not been Tuckahoe active in the area recently.
Tony Macrie, of Cape May Seashore Lines, said he was happy to provide track space to store the cars. He said having equipment on the rail line actually helps preserve it.
“It sounds goofy, but as long as trains are on the track, it stabilizes the track bed. Railroads push freight cars at certain times of the year to keep the track stable,” Macrie said.
When the trains arrived, Dennis Township Mayor John Murphy and Middle Township Mayor Nate Doughty started getting calls. With some signals out, workers had to light flares at the crossings while the trains passed.
The cars look like tankers, adding to the speculation, and some remember a local propane company contemplating using rail to bring gas here instead of trucks. Others thought they may be linked to the B.L England Generating Station, an Upper Township electric plant that brings coal in by rail to fire the boilers.
“I’m worried for friends that live next to the railroad tracks in Dennisville,” said South Dennis resident Ruth Fisher, who first reported the trains.
Sullivan said the cars are not tankers and are actually called “gondolas.” He said they are empty and have never carried anything hazardous.
Macrie said all 13 railroad companies in New Jersey are storing cars to ride out the bad economy.
“This is a reflection of the economy of today. With the slow economy, these cars have no work. They’re getting them off the track and in storage,” said Paul Mulligan, a rail enthusiast from West Cape May.
But there is hope for people such as Mulligan who want to see trains used more. It is cheaper and more environmentally friendly to move products by rail, according to Mulligan, so maybe the economic downturn could revive the railroad industry.
“One rail car saves five tanker trucks on the highway. Rail freight is one way to use fossil fuels as efficiently as possible,” Mulligan said.
The key to getting these particular cars moving may be reviving the domestic automobile industry, he said.
“The steel industry is not moving product. It produces coils of steel at the steel mills for the automobile plants,” Mulligan said.
The line of trains runs from southern Dennis Township into northern Middle Township. Doughty has no problem with them as long as they don’t attract vandals or vagrants, as happened when Macrie stored rail cars in Rio Grande. They have since been removed.
“In Rio Grande, we had a problem with people living in them. I don’t think people will live in there, but anything is possible in this economy,” Doughty said.