Abandoned line to Lawrenceville

Chessie -

....with current street maps, it seems that T-PTC ran a bit closer to your family's tavern than I thought. They may have been the last freight customer East of Lawrenceville.

Thanks to Jim, how cool is that about your relative's Tavern and the freight angle....from the 1930's-40's !

I stopped on Pennington Road in 1968 for a Reading freight of 3 hopper cars behind an SW1200 and caboose to cross. The hoppers were delivered to a stub end in Lawrenceville and coal was trucked to the school from there. The track came off of the Reading Trenton line and crossed Olden Ave. and I believe ran down the street a ways then into the woods. It crossed what is now I-95 and went to Lawrenceville. The Reading Trenton line is now a Conrail Shared Assets line which comes off the CSX main at West Trenton.

The 1954 Reading Railroad Freight Shippers Guide is online. Check it out.

For the Trenton-Princeton Traction Company, here are the Lawrenceville - Princeton customers:
http://www.readingmodeler.com/modules.p ... rt&sid=145
So it looks like Lawrenceville School and Princeton Theological Seminary shared a team track, while Lawrenceville Fuel (listed as a coal and oil company) and Mercer Feed had their own sidings.

And here are the 4 Trenton customers:
http://www.readingmodeler.com/modules.p ... rt&sid=146

Wish someone had taken pictures of this operation back in those days.

I have lived in Lawrenceville since 1941, and am very familiar with the Trenton-Princeton Traction Co.
Passenger service lasted until 1939 or 1940, when the line was abandoned beyond Lawrenceville. A condition of abandonment was that the Reading Company continue to serve three freight customers in Lawrenceville, and that steam locomotives not be permitted in Lawrenceville. The overhead wires were taken down, but two power stations, converted to office space, remain on Phillips Ave in Lawrenceville and on the Pennington-Lawrenceville Rd. This was a true interurban line, and was built to standard gauge.
The three customers were Lawrenceville Fuel, which received deliveries of coal for home heating, The Lawrenceville School, which transloaded coal from cars parked on the former main line to a central heating facility on their campus, and a feed company, which received feed for livestock on nearby farms.
Lawrenceville Fuel is still in existence, and I buy fuel oil from them.
The Lawrenceville School converted to gas about 30 years ago. The school also received the odd carload of fertilizer used to maintain their playing fields and golf course.
The feed company went out of business as suburban housing replaced farms in the area, and the building has been converted to condos.
When I-295 (now I-95) came through about 30 years ago, the line was cut back to the Lawrence - Ewing boundry, but was out of service.
One question that I never had answered was where the Lawrenceville School received their cars before the line to Princeton was abandoned.
The operating pattern in the late 1940's and 1950's was that a train would operate from Trenton using the East Trenton Branch as far as the junction with the TPT two or three times a week. In winter there would typically be one or two cars for the fuel company, and two or three for the school during the heating season. A car or two for the feed company could be expected on a year-round basis.
A diesel led the train into Lawrenceville in the 1940's, and a passing track in Lawrenceville would be used to run around so he could do his work. Later, The diesel would shove the consist all the way from Trenton, with the crew flagging the crossings.
All sidings on the line had long tails, so a freight train could duck in to let a traction car get by.
My mother used the line from time to time when she was a teenage girl. This would have been in the early 1920's.
The Trenton Traction line came out of Trenton from the corner of State and Broad (where there was a Grand Union). The route was up Broad St to Brunswick Ave, then up US206 through the village of Lawrenceville. The line was on the east side of the road, and if you look closely you can see where it ran. It ran in the middle of Main Street through the village of Lawrenceville, and there was a passing siding there. About a mile north of Lawrenceville it turned east on Fackler Road, and if you look closely you can see the old r-o-w on the south side of the road. It turned north again on Princeton Pike, but crossed Stony Brook on it's own r-o-w into Princeton, where it terminated near the PRR station. You can still see bridge abutments where the line crossed Stony Brook. JJH

John Harmon

Nice! Thank you for sharing your memories.

I have worked in the Lawrenceville, Ewing Area for the last 15 years and have an interst in the topic.

I just came across this thread, and perhaps can add a bit of context.
I grew up in Lawrenceville in the 1940's, and cut my railfan teeth on this line. Various documents indicate that the end of trolley service came in either 1939 or 1940, which was pretty late for interurbans. My mother actually rode the line when she was in high school in the early 1920's.
The Official Guides of the era have a listing for Trenton-Princeton Traction Company, but freight cars, which were indeed delivered from teh Reading's yard in Trenton, and chalk markings for "TL&P", giving credence to the name Trenton Lawrenceville & Princeton at one time.
I believe the line north of Lawrenceville was torn up when the trolleys stopped. There was only one customer left, which I believe was a lumber yard. One of the conditions of abandonment was that the Reading continue to serve the freight customers. They were forbidden to use steam engines on the line. The light rail may have been a factor in this ruling.
In the 1940's there were three significant freight customers on the line. One was Lawrenceville Fuel, which had their own siding next to the main line on Gordon Avenue in Lawrenceville.
As noted, The Lawrenceville School had their coal for their heating system. In the 1940's, these cars, which could number as many as six cars per week in the heating season, were parked on the main line for unloading and trucking to a storage pile on campus.
The third customer was Mercer Feed, which was located off the Lawrenceville-Pennington Road. That building has now been converted to condos.
Service was provided by a Reading first generation diesel switcher, which came up the line three times a week when traffic volume warrented, which it usually did during the heating season.
There is a picture in the book by Barker Gummere which purports to show a car in Lawrenceville, but I believe the houses seen in the background are on Spruce Street, in Ewing Township, through which the line passes on the way to Trenton.
North of I-95, the line is a walking trail as far as Lawrenceville. North of there, suburban housing developments have pretty much obliterated the line in many places.
As stated, the old city trolley line which came up through Lawrenceville on US206 turned east on Fackler Road, and if you look carefully you can still see the r-o-w on the south side of the road. It crossed Princeton Pike, and followed it on the east side until it reached a swampy area just south of Stony Brook. Remains of the trestle can still be seen.
John Harmon

A friend just sent me two photos of the Trenton - Princeton Traction Company. They are both dated April 19, 1940, which ends the argument about one year the line ended as an interurban. The photos were taken by John P. Scharle.
The first one is of Car 20 at Trenton. It is unremarkable in that several similar photos are printed in Barker Gummere's book.
The other photo is intriguing, in that it was taken out the rear window of a car traveling from Princeton to Trenton. The location is unidentified, but the line is straight as an arrow through fields and clearly shows a passing siding.
I walked the entire line between Lawrenceville and Trenton in the late 1940's, and the only passing siding was in the village of Lawrenceville. This was later used by the Reading Company as a runaround track for its freight train which serviced three customers near the end of the line.
My surmise is that the second photo was taken about half way between Lawrenceville and Princeton, perhaps near the point where the line crossed Province Line Road, or further north near the Stony Brook crossing. The siding is very short, and would not have accomodated the freight trains that serviced Lawrenceville which sometimes reached seven cars.
One of the customers at Lawrenceville was The Lawrenceville School, which unloaded cars parked on the "Main Line" and transloaded the contents to a site on school property. I've often wondered where these cars were parked when the trolleys were still running.

John Harmon

i grew up in princeton in the 70's and 80's and the rails were still visible through the pavement on witherspoon near spring st., and also down near the hospital

have walked the ROW near the institute and mike's tavern was a go-to for underage beer purchases

JJH wrote:One of the customers at Lawrenceville was The Lawrenceville School, which unloaded cars parked on the "Main Line" and transloaded the contents to a site on school property. I've often wondered where these cars were parked when the trolleys were still running.

I used to work for the school and I don't ever recall seeing any evidence of a spur. As an interesting side note, they burn natural gas primarily now but can also switch to fuel oil when the demand for gas is too great in the area. With Lawrenceville, Rider University, and Princeton University in such close proximity to each other all drawing natural gas they will switch to fuel oil when it gets really cold because the utility will switch them off to prevent too much pressure drop in the system. At least that's the way the guys in the boiler house explained it to me, which brings me to my point. I never saw any evidence of a spur anywhere near the boiler house and as far as I know, the old coal plant was located in roughly the same spot. I was planning on heading down there for the annual Christmas hockey tournament soon-maybe I'll take a walk around the grounds.

box297 wrote:i grew up in princeton in the 70's and 80's and the rails were still visible through the pavement on witherspoon near spring st., and also down near the hospital

have walked the ROW near the institute and mike's tavern was a go-to for underage beer purchases

Cool, I grew up in the township in the same era but don't remember the tracks on Witherspoon. I do seem to remember tracks near Great Road though.

It was a single track in the middle of Witherspoon St. Service was cut back to the end of the private right of way at the edge of Princeton about a year before the end of passenger service and the rails were paved over, according to Mr. Gunmore's book.

Badfish740 wrote:

JJH wrote:One of the customers at Lawrenceville was The Lawrenceville School, which unloaded cars parked on the "Main Line" and transloaded the contents to a site on school property. I've often wondered where these cars were parked when the trolleys were still running.

I used to work for the school and I don't ever recall seeing any evidence of a spur. As an interesting side note, they burn natural gas primarily now but can also switch to fuel oil when the demand for gas is too great in the area. With Lawrenceville, Rider University, and Princeton University in such close proximity to each other all drawing natural gas they will switch to fuel oil when it gets really cold because the utility will switch them off to prevent too much pressure drop in the system. At least that's the way the guys in the boiler house explained it to me, which brings me to my point. I never saw any evidence of a spur anywhere near the boiler house and as far as I know, the old coal plant was located in roughly the same spot. I was planning on heading down there for the annual Christmas hockey tournament soon-maybe I'll take a walk around the grounds.

*** Badfish, I don't believe there was ever a spur in the village of Lawrenceville other than the one serving Lawrenceville Fuel, which was parallel and adjacent to the main line. The switch was originally on the south side of Philips Ave, but was later moved to the north side to shorten the siding (doubtless reducing the cost of maintain ing the crossing), I am certain there was never a spur going into The Lawrenceville School.
I think the comment that the School probably used the Fuel Company siding to unload their cars when the trolleys were still running is probably correct. The passing siding could not be used, as there was a drainage ditch between the siding and the parallel local street, and besides it was needed as a passing track for the trolleys.
The old coal plant was not located on the site of the present plant, but in a low building located on the north side of where the Lavino Field House is now located. It was easily visible from the Lower School.
Trainlawyer, My familiarty with the line began about 1946, when I was 9 years old. At that time the rails ended immediately to the north of where the Lawrenceville School unloaded the coal cars. There was room for 4-5 cars, with the car closest to Gordon Ave being the one to be unloaded first. A couple of railroad ties prevented an inadvertent shove beyond the end of track. It's possible that during the war years, the physical track extended to Manning Lane, but I never saw it.
An interesting side note: When the School had more than one car to unload, they would use gravity shove the empty car across Gordon Avenue with a man riding the brake to stop it when it was clear of the street.
JJH

My grandparents lived on Denow Road, their farm eventually swallowed up by Rider. The tracks ran through their back yard and we walked them frequently as kids in the 50s. Because my grandfather was a PRR engineer, he knew the crews that came through, and one day flagged one down. It stopped, and my sister and I climbed aboard! We rode into Lawrenceville and back, pulling the lanyard on the horn at crossings. My grandfather told me that all of the engineers could tell who was driving any train because they all had their signature embellishments to the standard blasts.

This all seemed normal to me at the time, I figured every kid had a grandpop who could stop a train and have the crew give a ride.

[Edit] I see that the forum already has a Nellie Bly, so I should pick another log-in name. I should have known.

After posting a few times as "Nelly Bly" I will instead post as "Lawrence Crossing", leaving the Nellie Bly log-in to a long-time poster who spelled her name correctly!

Here's a link to the Reading Company's 1954 Freight Shippers' Guide:
http://www.readingmodeler.com/modules.p ... rt&sid=145

Station Report for Lawrenceville, NJ
Facilities and General Information
Public Delivery

Customers Serviced at this Location
Customer Name Business Delivery
Lawrenceville Fuel Company Coal and Oil Private Siding
Lawrenceville School Institution Team Track
Mercer Feed Company Feed and Grain Private Siding
Princeton Theological Seminary Institution Team Track