Raritan Central Railroad: Shortline Operations in Northern New Jersey

The Raritan Central Railroad is a shortline railroad that operates in Edison, NJ, servicing the Raritan Center and Heller Industrial Parks and the Conrail interchange in Metuchen. They run most days of the week in the morning and afternoon with a variety of older EMD power, including a few geeps and SW1500s, some of which are leased..

My bud Danny and I took the morning of Wednesday, December 20th to ride up document their morning routine, as a buddy of mine was working. We see one of their jobs, RC-1 as it crosses the very busy grade crossing of Route 1 in Edison as they head to Metuchen before heading back to the Raritan Center. Power for this job is RC SW1500 1074 and LTEX GP38-2 2244, obviously of BNSF heritage. After yarding the inbounds and taking a break, the crew shifts the yard before working the Home Depot Warehouse within the park and drops a car at Quality Warehouse Distribution before calling it a day.

While RC-1 did their thing, RC-2, who signs on between 8-9 AM started their work and made their way over to the Northfield Industrial Track before pulling and spotting hoppers at Quality Warehouse before calling it a day as well. They used a pair of SW1500s, RC 1100 and LTEX 1520..

Thanks for watching!