Sound Shore

Reviving this topic for one more data point: The January 1959 issue of the Official Guide of the Railways still shows the Sound Shore Branch with passenger service. This was all Carteret had for at least eight years, since by 1951 the CNJ's shore trains weren't stopping at "West Carteret" on their way from Elizabethport to Perth Amboy -- in fact, that station was gone.

Talked with one of the old timers the other day. Said there were no station buildings along this line only spots with step stools for loading unloading passengers. He said the train served the chemical factories for employees. Umtrr-author, Thank you for these posts and keeping this topic alive.

Quoting and referencing from the "Rule 93" article in the June 1951 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman (I now keep it handy, or at least handier than before)... there's a small passenger shelter at Warners in one of the photographs. Hardly a "station," it looks more like the size of an urban bus stop enclosure.

In the text it's noted that "Carteret boasts a real station building with a Western Union office and Railway Express." No pictures, but it is shown in the accompanying map as being at a right angle to Roosevelt Avenue, and having its own spur. Historic Aerials is more concerned about slapping its copyright notice on everything 100 pixels apart from each other, so it's hard to see clearly, but it looks like that building was still there in 1954, replaced with a shed in 1957, and completely gone in 1963 (as the passenger service, and the bridge over the Rahway River, would have been as well). The Industrial Road cuts right through this site now.

Another photo in "Rule 93" features the Chrome water tower with two spouts. Behind it at some distance is the Chrome "Station." I doubt it's any bigger than a handcar shed. Historic Aerials is of no use here whatever. Same with the modest sized Grasselli Station-- too blurry and too full of copyright notices to be of any value. I see that the trackage is all gone there also.

I don't think what you were told and what's in the article are mutually exclusive. It would make sense that the "stations" were down to step stools at the end.