New York and Long Branch

[NW Mailing List]

Actually electrification goes all the way to Long Branch.
Tom Cosgrove

On 8/9/2011 10:40 PM, NW Mailing List wrote:

>  Jerry,

> Thanks for the additional details, most of which I remember to some 

> degree.  You see, from October 1956 to September 1958 I was an 

> Army draftee assigned to the Army Signal Research and Development 

> laboratory (the Hexagon) at Fort Monmouth, NJ, (the lab was actually 

> near Eatontown) doing radio interference testing and remediation.

> I tried to get off base on alternate weekends as my meager finances 

> would allow.  Most weekends my destination was New York, where the USO 

> had a whole blackboard chalked up with free tickets to Radio City 

> Music Hall, Broadway and Off-Broadway plays, Yankee's baseball games, 

> etc., all of which I took advantage of.

> I always took the train anytime I traveled from Fort Monmouth.  I 

> could walk out the east gate to the NY&LB Little Silver station and 

> get a PRR train or a CNJ train.  Only a few trains stopped at Little 

> Silver, so I would often take a local bus from the east gate to Red 

> Bank where all of the trains stopped.  The PRR trains went into either 

> Penn Station in Manhattan or Exchange Place in Jersey City where I 

> could transfer to a Hudson and Manhattan (aka Hudson Tube) train into 

> Manhattan.  The trains to Penn Station were diesel south of South 

> Amboy and electric between South Amboy and Penn Station (the 

> electrification now extends to Red Bank, south of South Amboy).  Some 

> of the PRR trains into Exchange Place, such as one nicknamed "The 

> Broker," were power by K4 Pacifics, sometimes double headed.  The CNJ 

> trains were diesel powered and terminated in Jersey City where I could 

> get a ferry across the Hudson River to Liberty Street in Manhattan.  

> In good weather a morning ferry ride across the Hudson with the 

> approaching New York skyline ahead was a pleasant experience.

> On these weekends, and some mid-week leave days, I rode just about all 

> of the NJ commuter lines and some of the Long Island RR lines.  Also, 

> during the almost two years that I was there, I rode into, or through, 

> every station on the New York City subway system.

> My work in radio interference testing resulted in 132 days TDY 

> (temporary duty away from base), and these trips often involved train 

> trips.  I also took leave in order to take some train trips on my 

> own.  I have pleasant memories of the DL&W's /Phoebe Snow/ from Newark 

> to Buffalo and a Nickel Plate train on to Erie, PA, where we ran radio 

> interference tests on a multi-gauge, multi-coupling, multi-brake 

> system "universal" diesel-electric that GE had built for the Army 

> Transportation Corps.  The return trip was in the observation car of 

> the /Empire State Express/.  There was an overnight trip in a Pullman 

> on the B&O's /Washingtonian/ from Jersey City to Washington and 

> daylight rides on the PRR's /Senator/ and /Keystone/ (the latter a 

> low-slung train) in the northeast corridor.  Other name trains 

> included the Lehigh Valley's /Black Diamond/ Buffalo to Newark and the 

> New Haven's low center of gravity train, /John Quincy Adams/ New York 

> to Boston.  Finally in my memory, a Budd RDC ride through Hoosac Tunnel.

> As Archie and Edith used to sing, "Those were the days!"

> Gordon Hamilton

> ----- Original Message -----

>

>     *From:* NW Mailing List <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>     *To:* nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org <mailto:nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org>

>     *Sent:* Monday, August 08, 2011 12:47 PM

>     *Subject:* New York and Long Branch

>

>     Rails Remembered, in the Arrow, includes time spent riding trains

>     of the NY&LB.  I lived there for the first 15 years of my life,

>     and would like to add to the content of the article.  The southern

>     end of the line was a model RR style loop at Bay Head; and the

>     loop is still there !  During steam days, all NY&LB trains started

>     their northbound journey from Bay head; the loop included many

>     storage tracks for staging.  The land would be valuable real

>     estate; but probably would need extensive remediation before it

>     could be sold for residential use.  Bay Head is an upscale

>     seashore town; the loop property would be worth many millions.

>     The PRR locomotive change took place at South Amboy, on the south

>     side of the Raritan River.  It was also the eastern end of the

>     legendary (and sometimes infamous) Camden and Amboy RR.  The

>     combined PRR--CNJ trackage extended north across the Raritan River

>     on a low trestle w/ swingbridge, through Perth Amboy; and

>     separated at a junction north of that town.  The CNJ tracks

>     continued north to Elizabethport (a junction), then turned east to

>     the terminal at Jersey City.  The PRR tracks turned northwest,

>     through Woodbridge, then joined the PRR main just south of Rahway.

>     That junction, still in use, was interesting.  The four track main

>     was elevated; the tracks from the NY&LB

>     increased from two to three, and entered the junction from below,

>     at three different points.

>     Today, all commuter trains use the ex-PRR tracks; many of the

>     trains are electric MU's (originating at Long Branch); locomotive

>     drawn trains from Bay head terminate at PRR's station at Newark 

>     New York bound commuters can finish their journey by changing

>     either to a NJT train to Penn Station; or by changing to PATH

>     (today's name for the original 'Hudson Tubes').

>     Anyway; loved the article and the chance to remember my early years.

>     Jerry Crosson (now residing in Missouri)..

>

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-- 
Tom Cosgrove
Past Captain RBVFA Squad, EMT-B
N2VFK
SKYWARN Spotter LME002
Red Cross Disaster Volunteer since 1995

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