Mystery train traverses county

Oct, 15-2009 9:46 am

By CAROLE MATTESSICH
Staff Writer

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE – Just in time for the Halloween season, there were sightings of a mystery train traversing the county.  Or, at least, a train was spotted traversing the county for somewhat mysterious reasons.
While the topic seems entertaining at first blush, municipal and emergency officials say the matter bears further examination.
The question buzzed among residents who live near the old railroad tracks in Middle Township, Lower Township, and Cape May last Thursday, Oct. 8:  what the Sam Hill was that long, rusting train that was slithering its way southward through the county?
Residents who live near the tracks could not recall a train passing in the past few years, let alone a freight train sporting more than 40 large, dilapidated freight cars of various shapes and sizes ranging from the classic coal hod to graffiti-strewn container cars.
Many of the freight cars bore holes, deep rust and twisted steel.
The train traveled down the county’s spine at about 10 miles per hour.  Electricity is not turned on along the old train tracks, so the traffic lights and safety signals at various crossings did not light up or issue any warning sounds.  Instead, a single lineman materialized at each major intersection where the train crossed municipal and county roads, stopping vehicular traffic and waving the massive train through.
At some intersections, traffic was halted for more than 20 minutes.
After receiving calls from residents in Middle Township, the Gazette tracked down the train in Lower Township as it was about to cross Route 109 (Ferry Road).  A lineman either declined to answer, or was unable to hear, a reporter’s questions before jumping aboard the back of the train as it made its way toward the railway trestle that crosses the Cape May Canal.
On the other side of the canal, resident Bob Douglass was surprised to see a freight train suddenly passing as he sat on his porch on a usually bucolic street.
Douglass says he counted more almost 50 freight cars as they passed his home on Cold Spring Avenue.
“It was like junk metal,” Douglass said of the freight cars.
Later that evening, Douglass said, sounds indicated that only a locomotive was traveling back north.  Middle Township residents also spoke of seeing and hearing a “very short” train traveling northward Thursday evening, minus the scores of freight cars that traveled south earlier in the day.
So, where were the freight cars, and why did they make their southward journey to begin with?   Residents also were beginning to ask:  how, in a post-9/11 world, could such a massive vehicle pass through the middle of a county without explanation?
Over the holiday weekend, piecing together residents’ advice, the Gazette located the freight cars in an area behind farmlands and residences on Seashore Road in Lower Township and West Cape May, extending up toward the secured utility yard owned by the city of Cape May at the end of Canning Row.
The train may be viewed by pedestrians at the end of Wilson Drive in Lower Township, looking toward Cape May.
Locating the train, though difficult, was easier than locating anyone who could explain what the train was and why it moved twisted hulks of steel southward through the county.
Municipal and county officials had no idea why the train passed through their jurisdictions.
Township managers in both Middle Township and Lower Township, and the city clerk in Cape May, were aware that something had transpired, either through personal observation or through residents’ questioning, but they said that no notice was provided to the municipalities about the reason for the trip, the traffic stoppages, or the contents of the freight cars.
Some officials suggested contacting Cape May Seashore Lines, Inc., a short line railroad whose president and general manger is Tony Macrie.  Seashore Lines reportedly has a license to use the 27-mile long rail lines between Tuckahoe and Cape May, and, at least in past years, has run short trains of vintage passenger cars to quaint stations at the Cape May County Zoo, Cold Spring Village, and along some themed runs at Halloween and Christmas.
The company’s website, www.capemayseashorelines.org, advertises rail service between Richland (Atlantic County) and Tuckahoe, and a “Cape May Court House/Cape May Service” that does not appear to be occurring, and its business telephone numbers listed for the company were not in service.
Macrie did not return calls placed to his cell phone.
Internet research disclosed that the company owns six locomotives and a small number of vintage passenger coach cars dating back to the 1950s and ’60s.
But that’s not what residents saw last week.
And it didn’t answer the questions being raised:  Why were the large cars moving through the county?  Was anything inside the massive cars?  If so, should residents be concerned about materials falling out of the dilapidated cars?  And is it safe to store the cars near residential areas?
Frank McCall, the county’s emergency management director, said Tuesday that residents are wise to be concerned about such questions.
Confirming that Seashore Lines has the right to use New Jersey Transit rails within the county, and stressing that the company is free to operate pursuant to whatever the terms of its license may be, McCall said Tuesday that the question of oversight over rail and other transportation currently is of great interest to the emergency management community nationwide.
“We need to redefine permitting, especially here in New Jersey,” McCall said, explaining that existing permitting schemes may include too many assumptions about the safety of a carrier transporting materials like propane gas or chlorine.
Mobile units like trains can be as important to understand and monitor as fixed critical infrastructure, McCall noted, and the protocols for ensuring safety are under development.
McCall praised the residents who raised questions about an event they were unsure of.
“Everywhere you look at incidents that deal with national security, it all begins at the local level,” he said.  “Our eyes and ears begin with our local residents who should be encouraged to report things like this.
“Citizens don’t need to be over-excited, just watchful,” he continued.  “No entity is in the public safety business all by itself.  It stems from one man sitting on his porch counting cars, and, together, we can identify what is happening and why.”
McCall said that learning about last week’s mystery train already has led his department to take some steps ensuring that the level of awareness will be heightened.
“We’re going to begin a process to take this to another level,” he said.  “It may be painstaking, but it will be worth it.”
At press time, the Gazette was awaiting return calls from the office of Sen. Jeff Van Drew, who sits on the Transportation Committee of the state senate, and from the United States Coast Guard, which exercises jurisdiction over the Cape May railway trestle.
Oddly, it appears that over the holiday weekend Macrie told the Cape May County Herald, another local newspaper, that last week’s freight train run was intended only to “clean the train tracks” and that the train did not cross Route 109 in Lower Township.
But eyewitnesses saw the train after it crossed the Cape May Canal trestle, and the Gazette’s photos bear witness to that fact that the large hunks of twisted steel that once served as freight cars now sit, idle, on a train track behind Seashore Road, leaving more questions than answers.
Carole Mattessich can be e-mailed at gazette@catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 250.