Southern Pacific Switching Layout

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Not to kink up that idea, but there are some historical things to consider.

1). I should clarify that initially the Lehigh Valley interchange wasn't abandoned. it was however sold to land developers in the late 1980s, early 90s. Houses are currently built on it. the CNJ main is the only way in, but again, this actually matches your track plan pretty close.

2.) In the late 60s, commuter trains in New Jersey went all over the place, literally. Nearly every north jersey railroad had its own commuter terminal. In 1967, the Aldene plan was implemented, which re-routed CNJ commuter trains over the Northeast Corridor, and then onto the Lehigh Valley (which would become the Lehigh Line during Conrail), before being switched back onto the CNJ mainline at Aldene (hence the Aldene plan). In 1983, NJ transit was formed and named the route the "Raritan Valley Line", and i think NJ transit owns the CNJ tracks out west. However, the very first station on the Raritan Valley line is Roselle park, right near the former interchange, and then the line goes less then a mile west where it bumps into the CNJ interchange with the Rahway Valley.

Whats all this have to do with the Rahway Valley?

Trains were probably interchanging with the Rahway valley at night, since the stations bracketing both Interchanges create the most traffic on the entire line, so these are busy stations. This means when you stage "inbound" cars, you can assume they were dropped there overnight.

Also, in recent years, NJ transit has loaned out its freight GP40s (4300-4303), and so if you want to model strange visitor power, the Atlas GP40 might not be a bad idea. Morristown & Erie Alcos also tend to show up in weird places as long as they are not far from the M&E itself.

3.) also a tiny kink in the story (this is really just me nitpicking), NJ DOT didn't get involved with the freight end of things much. It was more about Highways and moving people. In fact, NJ DOT wanted so little to do with railroads, that it was among the first to sponsor legislation to rid Conrail of commuter obligations, forming NJ transit Rail Operations to take over the rail commuter services. as early as 1981, trains were showing up in NJ transit paint, two years before NJ transit officially existed as a rail operator.

long story short, the NJ DOT doesn't concern itself with such things. The current day Morristown & Erie operations on the Rahway valley are all because of new customers who wanted the service.