Welcome to Dividing Creek

Welcome to Dividing Creek, a web site focusing on freight railroads in southern New Jersey and freight operations on the New Jersey Division of the Winchester and Western Railroad. This site is dedicated to the railfan interested in the diverse operations of railroading in our corner of the world. While the trucking industry dominates shipping here, there are many people who do not realize the importance of the railroads to South Jersey commerce. Suprisingly, there are many freight trains running in South Jersey every day. The challenge is in knowing where they are running on a given day. I hope this web site can answer some of your questions. It may also raise some new ones. Feel free to contact the webmaster at the address below if you have any questions or comments.

Southern New Jersey, the area of New Jersey roughly defined as being south of an imaginary line between Trenton and Barnegat Inlet, hosts four notable shortlines and a class one railroad. With the dissolution of Conrail, two more class one railroads will be operating through this area as well.

The shortlines consist of the Bridgeton based Winchester and Western, the Southern Railroad of New Jersey at Winslow, SMS Rail Services out of Bridgeport and the Cape May Seashore Lines of Rio Grande.

As part of their purchase agreement for Conrail, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Corporation will continue to operate Conrail in South Jersey in what is known as the "shared assets" area. This does not exclude either railroad from running its own trains in the area.

The Winchester and Western is by far the largest freight hauling railroad in the area operating on about fifty miles of trackage in an almost circuituous route in Cumberland and Salem Counties. The Southern Railroad of New Jersey operates freight trains on Salem County trackage between Salem and Swedesboro. The railroad also operates via New Jersey Transit's Atlantic City Line to customers on its Plesantville Branch. The compact operations of SMS Rail Services is by no means small. They provide a dedicated switching service to the Pureland Industrial Park off of Interstate 295 in Bridgeport. While the Cape May Seashore Lines does not yet handle freight, they do have an impressive passenger excursion service blossoming in Cape May County. The historic Budd RDC's they use once operated all over South Jersey on the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, the predecessor to the remants of today's railroads in the region.

Freight trains operate on all of these railroads any time during the week. The largest concentration of freight traffic emerges from Conrail's Pavonia Freight Yard in Camden. More than twelves trains typically run daily from Pavonia Yard making the Camden area the busiest area for freight trains in South Jersey. When New Jersey Transit Trains are included in the numbers, more than twenty-six trains operate in the area daily. When NJT's Camden-Trenton Light Rail System starts operations, close to forty trains will be operating in this region. Saturdays and Sundays typically see less traffic. For more info on the operation of trains see Freight Schedules in this web site.

Numerous freight trains transverse the Delair railroad bridge daily passing through Pavonia yard where trains are made up for their final destinations. The majority of this freight passes along the Penns Grove Secondary Track. By far, the longest and most frequent trains can be found along this trackage south of Woodbury. Typically, six trains work this trackage in 24 hours five days a week. The Vineland Secondary Track diverges south from Woodbury as well. Freight here is delivered to Conrail's Millville yard, also an interchange for the Winchester and Western. A train can be seen at least once a day five days a week along the following lines: Mount Holly Secondary Track between Pennsauken and Mount Holly; Bordentown Secondary Track between Delair and Burlington; Salem Secondary Track between Woodbury and Swedesboro; and the Beesley Point Secondary Track between Camden and Winslow Junction.

Check out the many resources available here. I am striving to put as much into this web page as space and time allows. Your contributions on a particular line are welcome. Feel free to email the webmaster with any questions or comments.

Return to Main Page