Railfan's Guide to the NS Lehigh Line: Manville

Railfanning Norfolk Southern's Lehigh Line
Manville, NJ - Bethlehem, PA

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By: Dave Abeles
Photos by the author.

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The NS Lehigh Line is Norfolk Souther's only main line to the North Jersey Terminal area, serving the New York City metroplotican area. This tour will take the reader from east to west, beginning at milepost LE 35.8 at CP-Port Reading Junction in Manville, NJ, and ending at milepost LE 88.6 at CP-Bethlehem in Bethlehem, PA. We will take a look at modern operations along the route, but first, a bit of history:

The line was built by the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the 1870's, and by 1875 had reached the port of Perth Amboy, NJ. The LV was one of the "Anthracite Roads" that made the majority of its money moving the hard coal and manufactured goods between Buffalo, NY, Scranton, PA, and the NY metro area. PRR actually ownded much of LV's stock. As the industry declined after World War II, LV saw an eroding traffic base. LV single-tracked their mainline between Port Reading Junction and Easton, PA in the 1960's, but the slide continued. PRR purchased the balance of LV's stock in 1961. After the PRR/NYC/NYNH&H merger and bankruptcy in 1968, LV was bankrupt by 1970, along with other northeastern railroads. The U.S. government stepped in and LV was one of seven roads merged into Conrail on April 1, 1976.

Conrail improved the track structure of the route, and it became increasingly important to Conrail's system through the 1990's. In 1999, Conrail was bought and split by CSX and Norfolk Southern, with NS taking ownership of the Lehigh Line. Since then, traffic has increased significantly, and NS has improved infrastructure accordingly.

Today, the entire territory is controlled by the NS Lehigh Line Dispatcher, located in Harrisburg, PA via radio frequency 161.070 mHz. The mainline is all NORAC Rule 261 - any train on any controlled track in either direction - and is controlled via a CTC signal system, with the exception of the double track between CP-Richards and CP-Bethlehem. This area is governed by NORAC Rule 251 - each track is signalled in only one direction, signal indication will be the authority for trains to operate with the current of traffic. Movements against the current of traffic will be governed by non-signalled DCS rules. This means that Track 1 is only signalled for westbound movement and Track 2 is only signalled for eastbound movement. If the dispatcher wants to run a train on the opposite main, then they must issue a Form-D to the train.

Traffic

On average, Lehigh Line traffic consists of 25-30 trains in a 24-hour period. Traffic is generally heavier in the evening, overnight and early morning; the early bird catches the worm. Traffic peaks towards the end of the week, with Thursday through Saturday normally being the busiest days with all intermodal trains running. Regulartrains and approximate times across the railroad are as follows:

Train Schedule
Note: Times are based at Pattenburg, NJ, roughly the center of the line
Note: "AR" stands for "As Required"
Symbol	Direction	Type	Frequency	Time	Origin	Destination
052	East	Air Products High and Wide	AR	Late Morning - Afternoon	Wilkes Barre, PA	Morrisville, PA
11J	West	Automotive	Daily	Morning	Doremus, NJ	Toledo-Airline, OH
18G	East	Manifest	Daily	Morning	Conway, PA	Oak Island, NJ
18N	East	Automotive	Daily	Night-Early Morning	Fostoria, OH	Doremus, NJ
19G	West	Manifest	Daily	Morning	Oak Island, NJ	Conway, PA
20G	East	Intermodal	Tue-Sat		Corwith, IL	Croxton, NJ
20K	East	Intermodal	Daily	Night-Early Morning	Chicago-63rd Street, IL	Croxton, NJ
20R	East	Intermodal	Daily	Night	Chicago-Ashland Ave, IL	E-Rail, NJ
20W	East	Intermodal	Sat-Tue	Evening-Night	Chicago-Ashland Ave, IL	Croxton, NJ
211	West	Intermodal	Tue-Fri	Early Morning	Croxton, NJ	Atlanta-Inman, GA
212	East	Automotive/Intermodal	Wed-Mon	Morning	Atlanta-Inman, GA	Croxton, NJ
213	West	Automotive/Intermodal	Saturday	Early Afternoon	Croxton, NJ	Atlanta-Inman, GA
214	East	Intermodal	Daily	Early Morning	Atlanta-Inman, GA	Croxton, NJ
21G	West	Intermodal	Tue-Sat	Night	Croxton, NJ	Corwith, IL
21M	West	Intermodal	Daily	Morning	Croxton, NJ	Chicago-63rd Street, IL
22V	East	Intermodal	Monday	Afternoon	Harrisburg, PA	Dockside, NJ
23M	West	Intermodal	Mon-Sat	Early Morning	Dockside, NJ	Chicago-47th Street, IL
23R	East	Empty Intermodal	Tuesday	Morning	Charlesston, SC	Dockside, NJ
24V	East	Intermodal	Tue-Sun	Morning	Chicago-Ashland Ave, IL	Dockside, NJ
24Z	East	Intermodal	Daily	Night-Early Morning	Chicago-Ashland Ave, IL	Croxton, NJ
25K	West	Intermodal	Mon-Fri	Evening	Croxton, NJ	Cicero, IL
25R	West	Intermodal	Daily	Night	E-Rail, NJ	Rutherford, PA
25V	West	Intermodal	Mon-Fri	Night	Dockside, NJ	Harrisbug, PA
25Z	West	Intermodal	Daily	Night	E-Rail, NJ	Chicago-47th Street, IL
32A	East	Manifest	Mon-Sat	Afternoon	Allentown, PA	Croxton, NJ
33K	West	Manifest	Sun-Fri	Afternoon-Night	Croxton, NJ	Allentown, PA
36G	East	Manifest	Wed-Sun	Afternoon	Allentown, PA	Oak Island, NJ
38T - CP 256	East	Manifest/Intermodal	Tue-Thur-Sat	Early Morning	Binghamton, NY	Oak Island, NJ
39Z - CP 257	West	Manfiest/Intermodal	Tue-Thur-Sat	Night	Oak Island, NJ	Binghamton, NY
500	East	Coal Loads	AR	AR	Shire Oaks, PA	Portland, PA
508	East	Coal Loads	AR	AR	Shire Oaks, PA	Portland, PA
509	West	Coal Empties	AR	AR	Portland, PA	Shire Oaks, PA
64J	East	Trash Empties	AR	AR	OHCR - Mingo Junction, OH	Kearny, NJ
64R	East	Ethanol Loads	AR	AR	IAIS - Blue Island, IL	Seawaren, NJ
65J	West	Trash Loads	AR	AR	Kearny, NJ	OHCR - Mingo Junction, OH
65R	West	Ethanol Empties	AR	AR	Seawaren, NJ	IAIS - Blue Island, IL
66Q	East	Ethanol Loads	AR	AR	Chicago, IL	Linden, NJ
67Q	West	Ethanol Empties	AR	AR	Linden, NJ	Chicago, IL
68Q	East	Ethanol Loads	AR	AR	St. Louis, MO	Seawaren, NJ
69Q	West	Ethanol Empties	AR	AR	Seawaren, NJ	St. Louis, MO
H65	Turn	Local	Mon-Fri		Allentown, PA	Washington, PA
H71	Turn	Local	Mon-Fri	Night	Allentown, PA	Martins Creek, PA
H74	Turn	Local	Sunday		Allentown, PA	Washington, PA
H74	Turn	Local	Monday	Afternoon	Allentown, PA	Royce Runner
H74	Turn	Local	Tuesday	Afternoon	Allentown, PA	Portland, PA
H76	Turn	Local	Friday		Allentown, PA	Royce Runner
H76	Turn	Local	Thur, Sat		Allentown, PA	Portland, PA
H76	Turn	Local	Wed, Sun		Allentown, PA	Aeropress
H78	Turn	Local	AR	AR	Allentown, PA	Portland, PA


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The Tour

Before we begin the tour, a word of caution: railroad property is private. Local police, as well as NS police, keep an eye on railroad property throughout New Jersey. NS police are known to deal firmly with railfans. None of this text is intended to encourage or justify trespassing of any sort. Additionally, due to a general lack of parallel local roads and a track speed of 50 mph, chasing is virtually impossible. It is best to pick a spot and wait for trains. That said, photo opportunities abound throughout the route and the courteous, respectful railfan photographer will be rewarded with quality opportunities and memorable images.

Manville

Our tour begins at milepost LE 35.8, CP-Port Reading Junction, in Manville, NJ, under control of the Conrail Shared Assets North Jersey Dispatcher. The junction was once a series of diamonds between the LV main line and the Reading’s main line towards the CNJ main line. Today, the diamonds are removed, but the junction remains busy with NS freight off the Lehigh Line and with CSX freight off the Trenton Line. Port Reading Junction itself is inaccessible via public property; however, plenty of good locations exist just to the west in downtown Manville.

Just to the west of Port Reading Junction is a trash transfer station that loads containers and flat cars for shipment south and west. They maintain their own power to switch their yard, consisting of an ex-Amtrak SW-1 and a GP9. Their trackage incorporates the former Reading main tracks to the north of the Lehigh Line.