(The following article by Joe Malinconico was posted on the Newark Star-Ledger website on September 11.)
NEWARK, N.J. — The autumn of 2002 marked a low point in NJ Transit’s ongoing battle with fallen leaves.
Train after train became bogged down on the tree-lined Morris and Essex lines, struggling to scale small hills because the tracks were too slick with the crushed leaves’ oily residue. NJ Transit turned to its customary defenses against slippery leaves — sand and brush-like metal scrubbers — but they proved woefully ineffective.
So this year, NJ Transit is bringing in the heavy weaponry.
They call it Aqua Track, a odd-looking rail contraption equipped with two high-powered pumps that shoot water with a force of 20,000 pounds per square inch, which officials say is strong enough to cut through wood.
Attached to a 10,000-gallon water tank, Aqua Track’s main objective is to spray the leaves’ intractable residue off the tracks. A secondary set of sprinklers is designed to blow the leaves themselves away from the tracks to prevent the slick oil from forming.
“We’re delighted that NJ Transit is taking this ages-old problem seriously,” said Doug Bowen, vice president of the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers.
Metro North, which operates in Rockland and Westchester counties in N.Y., has been using a similar track-cleaning gizmo for the past five years, calling it Waterworld.
“We found it to be the only answer to the implacable wax build-up of leaves and the problem of slip and slide,” said Metro North’s spokesman, Dan Brucker. “Even though we have sand and even though we have scrubbers, believe it or not, nothing compares to Waterworld.
“It’s so strong that if you sprayed your deck with it, it would cut the deck in half,” Brucker added.
NJ Transit’s $420,000 version of Waterworld was delivered two weeks ago and will be ready to roll before the leaves start falling, officials said.
Mounted on a flatbed rail car, Aqua Track runs off two 250-horsepower diesel engines. Its potent nozzles extend down below the rail car, poking several inches above the tracks. A conductor, a mechanic and an operator will squeeze into its cramped control cabin.
Sometime in October, Aqua Track will set out at 11 p.m. on a nightly mission, up and down the various branches of the Morris and Essex lines, where the combination of leaves and hills traditionally has caused problems.
Mostly, the Aqua Track will move at speeds of 30 mph, but will slow down to 10 mph along particularly troublesome stretches, like the hill in Glen Ridge and the hill between Summit and Chatham.
“We’re not saying this means we won’t have any leaf problems, but this is the best thing available right now,” said Glenn Sullivan, NJ Transit’s deputy general manager for infrastructure engineering.
Still haunted by last autumn’s leaf delays, commuters had mixed reactions to Aqua Track.
“Based on the solutions we heard about in the past, it’s hard to have much confidence,” said Gerard Geisler, who takes the train from Chatham. “I’ll take a decidedly wait-and-see attitude.”
“I’ll give technology every chance,” said Jim Le Mon, another Morris and Essex line rider. “Expectations are low. Anything they can do will be appreciated.”
At one point, NJ Transit was looking into a device that shoots laser beams to clear the leaf residue from the rails. That version is being tested in England, where railroads have dealt with tracks slick from leaf oils for years.
“We’d rather have the British develop it right, before we try it out,” said NJ Transit Executive Director George Warrington.