Ammo dumps

[Green_Elite_Cab]

A perfect opportunity for an entire model railroad might be Earle Naval Weapons Station, here in New Jersey. Its a pretty extensive facility on the northern end of the New Jersey Pine Barrens. This is a major stockpile of naval shells, bombs, missiles, etc. for the Atlantic Fleet. There are a couple interesting things about this operation-

1.) it has its own private government owned branch from the interior of New Jersey all the way to the shore.

2.) At the shore is a MASSIVE pier, that separates at the ends almost like a trident. Its big enough that you can almost see it from space (you should have no problem finding it with google earth, just look south of Staten Island"). MANY resupply ships should be able to dock there.

3.) At least into the LATE 1990s, the Navy used Baldwin switchers (VO1000s) painted in yellow to do this work. To put this in perspective, Almost all Baldwin switchers were gone from the area before Penn Central was formed in 1968, and the remainder were immeadiately retired by Conrail in 1976.

4.) The navy apparently also used to run a yearly passenger train for handicapped children from a nearby school, using borrowed coaches from the CNJ. Apparently, the base acquired an ex-PRR P70 coach from NJ transit sometimes in the early 80s. Apparently there was much red tape that wasn't present from either CNJ or Conrail in regards to loaning coaches. The author of the previously mentioned book, Robert Yanosey, was the director of rail transportation at NJ transit at the time. He had them pull the best P70 they could find out of the scrap line. The trip apparently was a success, but the bureaucratic paperwork at NJ transit was so much, that it was easier to just give the coach to the navy, rather than try and get it back (it was to be scrapped anyway).

This coach apparently was repainted by the navy for this trip, though I haven't found any photos of it.


I have no idea what sort of power currently runs in the base, or if they still run that excursion train (the book made it sound like this event still occurred up until fairly recently). Still, that is plenty of opportunity for some interesting stuff.


I could easily see a point-to-point layout, with the bunkers and yard at one end, a short "branch" through the pine barrens, and the other end being the LONG pier. The tracks would have to cross the PRR/CNJ owned NY&LB, and maybe even do some interchange.