Blue Comet Line Route "REDUX" 1968-2000 Era in Progress

[MMSS]

My location is ok. We only got wind and rain. My old town I used to live in got tornado's and complete power failure. The whole town in the dark after the tornado's.

I don't have any damage to my place thankfully. The only issue I have is the town's water is brown, brown like poop and I can't get anyone to answer the phone. It's after hours and I'm stuck waiting for answers until morning. No notice on their webpages either. Honestly looks like the river water is getting directly into the drinking water supply someplace.

Our coast was still getting pounded good as I type this. I live thankfully further inland away from the ocean.

There is already the possibility for another hurricane to form out in the Atlantic ocean though. This might be a rough year of hurricanes.

Robert

Glad you faired through everything OK there except for the water issue. It does sound like a backflow into the town's water supply which happens in storms like this.

I remember my days living on the Jersey Shore in Seaside Heights (Yes the famous Hurricane Sandy town.) in the early 1990's. Not a lot of hurricane activity at the time but 1991 to 1993 we had 7 major nor'easters. Have to love a storm at first you have a wind of 60MPH sustained, half inch to an inch an hour rain rate and temps of 67 degrees in Dec, Jan or Feb. Then as the center of the low passes, winds the same speeds, snowing at rates of 1 to 2 inches an hour & the temp bombing out at 17 degrees. And the whole event lasted 36 to 48 hours. I don't miss those days.

[conductorchris]

Robert, I hope you've got a source of something to drink besides the river or sewage from you tap!
Thinking through what could happen in a natural disaster where I live, it is water after the fact that seems like the greatest vulnerability. We can live without power, but not without water.
Christopher

[conductorchris]

By the way, Mark: I wanted to mention that I noticed that some of Paul Charland's rolling stock sets released last spring and earlier this summer are really appropriate for the Blue Comet CNJ lines. Specifically the tank cars (friction bearing 40' with platforms around the dome) and the plastics covered hoppers (he made an orange/white Dupont center flow that I've seen in several CNJ pictures)
Christopher

[MMSS]

By the way, Mark: I wanted to mention that I noticed that some of Paul Charland's rolling stock sets released last spring and earlier this summer are really appropriate for the Blue Comet CNJ lines. Specifically the tank cars (friction bearing 40' with platforms around the dome) and the plastics covered hoppers (he made an orange/white Dupont center flow that I've seen in several CNJ pictures)
Christopher

I know Chris ! When he was releasing them, I was thinking it was like Christmas In July ! I already have them in the trainset folder for my Blue Comet route ready to go for future projects for activities.

[MMSS]

Hey gang. After a round of Hyperbaric Therapy for the last month for a Diabetic Ulcer that I have had problems with over the years. I am back. But the work on the BCL upgrade hasn't stopped. It has slowed a bit because one of my RAM sticks decided to hurl its soul into the great void so I have been working on 1/2 speed more or less. Progress is that of more of the famous NJ Pine Barrens are done to Atsion, NJ, so almost to Winslow now.

The CNJ Seashore Branch has moved south too. It is up to the former NATCO plant which in this era will be the IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances) plant. This was actually the true last customer of the branch up to when the line was embargoed in 1983. Interesting note is that IFF wanted to continue rail shipments both in & outbound to the plant but Conrail didn't think it was economically sound to upgrade the 5 mile line for one customer at the end of it. So service ended in 1983 & IFF switched to truck shipments.

So while somewhat held up until I get a new 16GB memory stick for my PC, I been working on esthetics for the upgraded route. Mainly billboards right now. Nothing brings an era to life like roadside ads of the time. Ads of the times for products, movies, music, TV & radio, retail & services & even PSA's all jar something in your mind & bring you back to that time. Below is a sample of a few I made for the upgraded route. For some of the local business that are on some of the billboards here. Trains Simmers familiar with this area of NJ in the 60's & 70's will remember a few of them.

Small board style billboards were all over central & south Jersey back up until the late 1970's when towns started passing ordinances regulating them, Homeowners along major highways, state & county roads & even by grade crossings were known to rent out parts of their properties to let advertisers to put up small boards like these. Here are a few I made up, some even with custom artwork (The famous Palace Amusements one) I made up with my limited skills.




Double boards would get you coming & going. Usually the ads on the side you see while passing it is for something or a business ahead & vice versa for the other side. A couple of mostly custom ones in here to like Baywood Marina (A business one lagoon over from my parents 1st home) & the Springsteen concert (My 1st concert I even went to when I was 12-1/2 years old, I am the only person my age I know that seen the "Born To Run" tour). OK, enough of the useless trivia & on to the next.





The bigger green style boards made in the 1930's & 1940's were still very popular up into the mid 1980's in central & south Jersey. Many of them lined the major roads running parallel to the coast, running across causeways to the barrier islands & state & county highways. After Superstorm Sandy back in 2012, many of the existing billboard of this style were lost. Very few remain & are in use. Most of the artwork for the businesses are old ads I found online & I just put the address in the area for it on them. Some were custom ones like the Holiday Inn of Tomes River, Max's Hotdogs of Long Branch & Delilah's Den of Keansburg.







I will post a few screens of the work on the Southern Div. down to Atsion showing the work soon. That part also includes an "Easter Egg" in Tabernacle Township near the ROW that is prototypical. A monument to the late Mexican Aviator Emilio Carranza that is there inside Wharton State Forest. Emilio Carranza was known as the "Lindbergh of Mexico" crashed & was killed on the spot there in 1928 while returning to Mexico after a goodwill flight to the USA. School children sent money to erect a monument to Emilio Carranza on the site of the crash in 1931. During winter months the monument is visible from the ROW.

​Enjoy...….

[drelyea]

CCrraaaaazzzzzyyy Eedddiieeee's. His prices are Innnnnsannnnnne!!!!

Good to hear you're doing better. Boards look good, but well in advance of the Tristate era. Just curious though, what about the Midas Guys?

Doug Relyea

[MMSS]

Just curious though, what about the Midas Guys?

Doug Relyea

Thanks Doug. Funny you brought up the "Midas Guys". My cousin owns a franchise that was my uncles & I asked him last week if he has any old ads I can scan for using with the boards. His brother also has a "Lee Myles Transmission" franchise & I am looking for the old ads with Rocky Graziano in them from the 1970's.

[MMSS]

Like I said in the previous post, I was working on redoing the famous NJ Pine Barrens with scrub pines (Native to the area) along with some scattered oaks, birchs, etc also native the these parts too. Anyone farmilar with this area knows civilazation south of Whiting is spare. More so in the late 1960's into the 70's. So with that, I like putting little real life so your journey through the pinelands isn't so monotonous.

The old CNJ Southern Division (Or Bridgeton Branch if you rather call it) touched on some of NJ's state forests. Between Whiting & Winslow Jct. it did run through parts of Lebanon St. Forest (Now Brendan Bryne St. Forest but we won't call it that LOL) & Wharton State Forest. Just to the west at Carranza Road in Wharton St. Forest is the Carranza 1928 Crash Site Memorial, placed there in 1931. Paid by children of Mexico who saved & sent change to erect a monument to the "Lindbergh of Mexico" Emilio Carranza. It is one of those many misteries of the NJ Pine Barrens. If you like a quick little history of went on that night in July, 1928 here is a great link on the history of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzTX3qYYQKg

I also put in a NJ State Forest Fire Service Station & Fire Tower in the vicinity. Though the fire station was located close to here, this isn't the prototypical location. This area of the pinelands is a big hot spot for crown & ground fires in the state.

Ironic, 11 years later in 1939. The only major incident involving the CNJ's Blue Comet happened less of a mile north of Carranza Road which is were this site is. It happened during some of the heaviest rains ever to happen in that location of the NJ Pinelands (10.16 inches in 5 hours) & the Blue Comet hit a washout just south of Chatsworth. I think I am going to mark the wreck's Geo location with a marker just for history sake.

Thanks to Travis Ebner for the great camp ground scenery set in the D/L library here. They are almost perfect for the old style signs they use years ago in NJ state parks.

Below is the crossing at Carranza Road near the momument in the distance in Wharton State Forest.


Parking & rest rooms by the Carranza Monument.


Carranza Road looking SE by the CNJ grade crossing. A B52 bomber flying overhead means we are in one of the fly paths for McGuire AFB.


Another look of Carranza Road looking SE, the entrance to the NJ State Forest Fire Service is by the 1960 Ford van there.


A NJSFFS van sits at the entrance to the fire station & tower. The fire tower is in the distance.


A look down the CNJ Southern Division heading south by Carranza Road towards Winslow Jct..


Still a bit of work to do here, but it is getting close.


When it's dark in the pinelands, IT IS DARK. Using Tim Muir's old style street lamps are perfect for this because at one time, that is what was there.


Another early evening view looking west towards the monument.


Later in the evening, I can remember those incandecent bulb street light giving that ominous glow.



​Enjoy.....

[conductorchris]

Boy that is looking good, Mark!
Only thing that doesn't look right is that nicely tamped track with perfect geometry!
Christopher

[hiball 3985]

I like the conversion on my truck for the fire service great looking scenery also