Working on the railroad

Modern holdups prevent work from continuing all the live-long day

By DEREK HARPER
Staff Writer, (609) 272-7203
Email:DHarper@pressofac.com

EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP -On Monday; Mike Locosis, Leon Novicke and Kevin Dowdy were doing something you just, about never see anymore.

They were building a railroad. It's technically just a railroad spur, a line about a half-mile long off of the main line. It is intended to connect a freight line that runs through Pleasantville about a quarter-mile north of the Black Horse Pike to a lumberyard and a stone company.

Work has been delayed by permits, nearby neighbors who object to a train in their back yard and other problems. But even so; in this day and age it is a rarity to see an industrial age holdover such as a railroad actually growing.

On Monday, about half the tracks were on the ground. They snaked down to the freight line between the recently cut trees. The fresh-laid ties were still black and smelled in that pungent way that train ties do, only much stronger.

The new steel spikes were still an unrusted, dull gray-blue. What the crew was doing was something that many people younger than 40 years old have never seen before. They were laying down tracks in an era that has seen many more pulled up.

Over the past half-century, the country's miles of rail lines dwindled as more people and goods traveled on roads and planes.

In 2001, the last year there were federal statistics, the nation had 97,817 miles of track, less than half what was in service in 1960 and nearly 26 percent less than the 116,626 miles in service in 1991, according to the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

But those same statistics seem to point to a future with more railroad construction.

Between 1991 and 2001, the total freight load carried by those lines grew by 44 percent, from 1,038,875 tons per mile to 1,495,472.

This spur will enable A.E. Stone to directly take stone deliveries from Pennsylvania quarries. The deliveries now. come into Pleasantville and are loaded onto trucks for the short final haul to the plant. This would cut down truck traffic in Pleasantville.

By building this spur, A.E. Stone Vice President Steve Kurtz said they would take in about 60 25-car trainloads of stone a year. Each train car carries about four truckloads of material.

Nearby Tri-County Lumber has also discussed using the spur, said James J. Daloisio, president of the Railroad Construction Co. of South Jersey Inc.

But at the present, building new lines is a rarity, said Daloisio. He estimated the company, which does work from northern New Jersey to Baltimore, builds less than a mile of new track a year. They restore many more miles, he said.

Laying tracks is heavy work, the work crew said.

First, surveyors had to trace where the line went in. Then, crews cut the thick trees down. Others followed, digging away dirt here and adding it there, in an attempt to get the bed completely level.

And then crews from the Paulsboro's Railroad Construction Co. of South Jersey Inc., their employer, put in the ties and rail by hand, using machines.

The big wood ties weigh about 50 pounds, and the rails are even worse. "They're about 100 pounds for every three feet, and they're in 60-feet rails," foreman Locosis said.

And now, with several hundred yards built, they are starting to get unwanted attention: children.

"We're actually starting to get kids out," Locosis said. They play on the unfinished tracks when the crews are not there.

Part of the spur goes through an easement purchased by Southern Railroad of New Jersey at The Press of Atlantic City's Pleasantville headquarters. Last week, Locosis said he asked a Press employee I whether children ever tamper with Press equipment.

"He said, 'No, but we've seen plenty of your equipment out in the parking lot," Locosis said with a laugh.

Locosis and his crews aren't at the site every day - they are also dispatched about once a week for emergencies, usually for minor derailments around the state.

The company is facing problems finishing the rail line, some of the same problems that would face any company trying to build new railroads. They wanted to finish this year, but that's increasingly unlikely.

Negotiations with the state and nearby property owners have pushed back the completion date.

"If there were no holdups, we'd have been done two months ago," Locosis said.

The company expects to hear from the state next week about their plans to cross Washington Avenue and Doughty Road, said Tom Collard, vice president for, Southern Railroad, which owns the line.

The company will also have to dig up part of the railroad so South Jersey Gas can put concrete shielding around a 12-inch gas main that was recently discovered underneath the tracks.

Attorney Tom Reynolds said Monday that his clients, Egg Harbor Township residents David and Nancy Sonnie, have given him the authorization to file suit in order to stop construction of the line.

"How would you like a train in your back yard?" asked David Sonnie, who lives a short distance from the unfinished rail line.

The Sonnies are worried that the trains would run at night and diminish their property value. They have worked with Egg Harbor Township officials to settle with the railroad and the companies that would benefit from the spur. While both Sonnies have worked for The Press, David Sonnie is retired.

The companies weren't willing to settle, Reynolds said.

A.E. Stone's Kurtz Said that while, it is possible, there is little chance of the train running at night. "My guys don't want to unload stones at night," he said.

He said most of the deliveries would run between the morning and afternoon rush hours, when passenger trains use the rail lines.

The holdups have delayed the line's completion and have kept the work crews idle. For these people doing an old fashioned job that few handle any more, the modern delays are frustrating. They should be done, and they wish their hands weren't tied.

Locosis pointed to the sandy stretch where the rail peters out, short of Washington Avenue.

"I mean," he said, "we could build that in two days."