200px, County yard County Yard is a

rail yard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or u ...

complex comprising Adams Yard, Delco Lead, and the eponymous County Yard along the Northeast Corridor (NEC). The complex straddles the

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

and

North Brunswick North Brunswick is a Township (New Jersey), township in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. It is centrally located in the Raritan River, Raritan Valley region within the New York Metropolitan area. At the ...

border in Central New Jersey. Originally developed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, it is owned by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous U.S. States and nine cities in Canada ...

. The

New Jersey Transit Rail Operations NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It operates commuter rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark. NJ Transit also operates rail servic ...

(NJT)

Jersey Avenue Station 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 industrial area next to a New Jersey Transit rail yard. Unlike all other stations on the Northeast Corri ...

(at milepoint 34.4) served by its

Northeast Corridor Line The Northeast Corridor Line is a commuter rail service operated by NJ Transit between the Trenton Transit Center and New York Penn Station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor in the United States. The service is the successor to Pennsylvania Railroad ...

, is just south of County Yard, and just north of Adams Yard and Delco Lead. In 2014, NJT began a project to upgrade the yard and build a "train haven" and re-inspection station. County Yard will be able to store 132 rail cars. The aforementioned Delco Lead, further south along NEC, would be expanded to five additional tracks able to park 312 rail cars and a service and inspection facility would be built to return equipment to service.

History

County Yard was originally part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and is located where the

Millstone Branch The Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad (M&NB) 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 Decembe ...

joined its mainline, now the NEC. It was named for Alexander T. County, a vice-president and treasurer who lived in New Brunswick. A new tower and

interlocking 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 sometimes collectively re ...

at "COUNTY" were opened in 1900. Passenger service ended in 1930. The Jersey Avenue Park & Ride station opened October 24, 1963, at the beginning, or eastern end, of the

spur line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

. The PRR was eventually succeeded by

in 1971, which shares the NEC with NJT's

and other commuter lines.

Delco Lead

200px, Part of the Delco Lead (far track) at the 34 mile marker. During

Hurricane Sandy Hurricane Sandy (unofficially referred to as ''Superstorm Sandy'') was an extremely destructive and strong Atlantic hurricane, as well as the largest Atlantic hurricane on record as measured by diameter, with tropical-storm-force winds spann ...

in October 2012, nearly 400 NJT rail cars and locomotives were damaged when they were left in low-lying, flood-prone rail yards at Hoboken Yard and the Meadows Maintenance Complex in the Kearny Meadows. This prompted NJT to consider expanding storage to accommodate locomotives and cars at two

Central Jersey Central Jersey is the central region of the U.S. state of New Jersey. The designation of Central New Jersey is a distinct administrative toponym. Geographic area and descriptions While the State of New Jersey is often divided into North and ...

locations. Five miles of electrified track at Delco Lead will be used to store rail vehicles during extreme weather events. In total, the Delco Lead and County Yard will provide storage capacity for 444 vehicles. In January 2014, NJT awarded a $7.64 million design and engineering consultant service contract to

Jacobs Engineering Group Jacobs Solutions Inc. is an American international technical professional services firm. The company provides engineering, technical, professional and construction services, as well as scientific and specialty consulting for a broad range of cli ...

to conceive a "train haven" at County Yard where equipment could be stored during serious storms. The work, called the Delco Lead Safe Haven Storage and Re-lnspection Facility Project, involves reconfiguring and expanding the yard into the adjacent Mile Run Yard, which is not in service. Plans call for the new facility to include an inspection facility, since when equipment is taken out of service for weather reasons it is required by federal law to be re-inspected before being brought back into use. Further funding was provided in 2015, 2016, 2017. In 2019, $95 million was allocated to the expansion project.

Adams Yard and Mid-Line Loop

Amtrak and NJ Transit which are developing a high-speed corridor between New Brunswick and Trenton. with several projects planned for the "New Jersey Speedway" section of the NEC, which include a new station at

and a

flying junction A flying junction or flyover is a railway junction at which one or more diverging or converging tracks in a multiple-track route cross other tracks on the route by bridge to avoid conflict with other train movements. A more technical term is " g ...

and

balloon loop A balloon loop, turning loop, or reversing loop ( North American Terminology) allows a rail vehicle or train to reverse direction without having to shunt or stop. Balloon loops can be useful for passenger trains and unit freight trains. Bal ...

called the Mid-Line Loop between MP 36 and MP 37 on the NEC south of the new station and Amtrak's Adams Yard, allowing trains to turn around and enter and leave service without crossing over tracks, and function as a staging area for a mid-line, middle zone, terminus.

Turboliner storage

In January 2018, Amtrak moved three derelict RTL-III

Turboliner The Turboliners were a family of gas turbine trainsets built for Amtrak in the 1970s. They were among the first new equipment purchased by Amtrak to update its fleet with faster, more modern trains. The first batch, known as RTG, were built by ...

gas turbine train A gas turbine locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a gas turbine. Several types of gas turbine locomotive have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving ...

s formerly used on the Empire Corridor from storage in Bear, Delaware. Two sets went to Adams Yard and one went to

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...

's Cedar Hill Yard. They are currently used for employee training, however their fate is unclear. As of April 2021, the sets located at Adams Yard are still in storage.

References

External links