Trenton New Jersey

I might be very wrong here, but any confirmation would be appreciated. Yesterday I drove Route 1 from Pennsylvania to Trenton and got off on 29 South. At the traffic light in front of the Katmandu night club I made a left. On the left I saw a side street next to some abandoned aprtments with what looked like trolley tracks in the grass. The ex PRR mainline is kind of close. Maybe it was a siding of some sort. I hope they are trolley tracks. Can anyone confirm?

That's the NJTransit River LINE diesel light rail line.

msernak wrote:Route 1 from Pennsylvania to Trenton and got off on 29 South. At the traffic light in front of the Katmandu night club I made a left. On the left I saw a side street next to some abandoned aprtments with what looked like trolley tracks in the grass.

To split hairs, it's a branch off the Camden & Ambouy's Trenton Branch, now used by the North Jersey Transit River Line. Somebody mows the grass, so you can see that there is a switch to single track a few feet farther away from the street. Both tracks crossed Rte. 29 and turned South into the American Bridge plant, now the baseball stadium and its retention pond. At one time, there must have been a switch to reach the river dock just North of Katmandu Club, as there is a concrete bumper on the riverbank for a siding that was torn up earlier. That would be just about the upper limit of steamboat navigation on the Delaware River, as the falls are only a few feet North. A branch of this branch ran South between Coats and Union Sts., crossing Federal and Lexington Sts. into a small building. The junction switch may still be in the grass.
The Trenton & Mercer Co. Traction 5 foot, 2 inch gauge trolleys crossed in Lamberton St. until December, 1934; Public Service Rwys. 4 foot, 8-1/2 inch and 5 foot gauge trolleys also crossed, I think in Union St., until about 1930.
One of the American Bridge Diesel engines is right across the river, now No. 395 on Tyburn RR in Fairless Hills. American Bridge had a locomotive crane and some flat cars at the end, which were scrapped there when the stadium was built, after the office building was built on the tracks between there and Katmandu.

My mom actually told me there was a major connection between some place on perry street into PA in trenton and her grand dad would travel between new york and philadelphia on business and alternated between the railroad and trolly lines. Is the terminal on perry street still there? I hardly ever venture past the nj transit station in trenton or i'd check myself (I do not drive).

HBLR wrote:My mom actually told me there was a major connection between some place on perry street into PA in trenton and her grand dad would travel between new york and philadelphia on business and alternated between the railroad and trolly lines. Is the terminal on perry street still there? I hardly ever venture past the nj transit station in trenton or i'd check myself (I do not drive).

The former bus and trolley terminal is at 132 Perry Street, cross of North Broad St and North Montgomery Street. The building is now a detox clinic. Google Street View Their website http://www.nhts.net/ has a photo of the rear of the building on the homepage.

The trolley & bus Terminal at 132 Perry St. was for the local Trenton & Mercer County - Trenton Transit service. Its about a 2 block walk to the Pennsylvania-New Jersey Rwys. - Trenton-Princeton Traction Co. Terminal on Hanover St. near Willow St. Pennsylvania cars from there used the Calhoun St. bridge to cross the river. In earlier years, Torresdale, Bristol & Trenton trolleys also used this terminal and bridge, and on some summer weekends, even continued over the Frankford, Taconey & Holmesburg line to the Bridge St. Elevated Terminal in Philadelphia.
Public Service Rwys. also had a trolley terminal in Trenton for their Fast line from New Brunswick, Newark, and Jersey City, a ferry boat or subway ride away from New York; and their Riverside line to Camden, a ferry boat ride away from Philadelphia.
Your great-grandfather had a variety of routs to choose from.