Linden Local: A local train from Linden, NJ is returning to the yard after serving Deans, NJ off of the Northeast Corridor. Linden Yard was once a busy freight yard when General Motors (GM) had an active factory there. In 2002, GM announced the closing of the factory which ultimately closed in 2005. The last regular local job to work out of Conrail's Linden Yard was this train, CR LI26, whose duties included serving Cutters on the North Jersey Coast Line in Woodbridge, NJ as well as Deans on the Northeast Corridor. After the closing of the GM factory, this local job was moved to Metuchen Yard as CR ME18. By the early 2010s, CR ME18 was abolished and its duties were split off to other local jobs out of Conrail's Metuchen and Port Reading Yards. At the time of this photo, the outer tracks (Tracks 1 and 4) were Rule 251/signaled only in one direction. To access Deans off of Track 1, dispatchers would issue Form Ds to freight trains to operate reverse of the normal flow of traffic. CSXT 1546 was originally built as a GP15-1 for Conrail as CR 1639 and would be retired in 2019.
