Freehold Branch questions

[Kaback9]

I'll post this hear and if not enough responses come I will move to the NJ railfan forum. Anyway here are my questions regarding the Freehold Branch.

1.) What did a typical passenger train look like?

2.) What type of cars would have made up a Freight Train on the branch? I have seen photos of trains with mostly boxcars and one or two covered hoppers.

3) In Morganville near where the station was there look to be the remains of a coal or ash dump can someone help me identify what it exactly was?

Thanks

Brandon.

[ChrisU]

1)Well a typical passenger train was a camelback and I guess about 5,6 cars usually 2 cars in the last years of passenger service.
2) Regular boxcars and sometimes reefers I have even seen coal cars in picturesand tank cars were on that line and lets not forget Conrail ran to imperial Oil in the early 80's.
3) Not sure on this one but maybe a coal dump.

[Kaback9]

Arrow thanks but I was hoping for more than that. I know all of what you just said, I'm talking companies and their car loads, and also if passenger trains every carried milk or if there was even a mail contract at one time along the line. I have a schematic for lack of a better term of the line but there are no way to tell what industries were on it. I guess I should really just head back down to the hall of records in Freehold and do some more work. I should have made my first question more specific oh well. Thanks for trying!

[CJPat]

The Karagheusian Rug Mill (later purchased by J.P. Stevens Co.) at Jackson and Center St., Freehold was a big customer on the Freehold branch. I believe they got their weaving materials from their former Karagheusian spinning plant , later owned by the Romerovski Bros. in Aldene (the Big factory at the Gordon St overpass on the CNJ mainline) and the materials were transported in box cars to Freehold for fabrication into carpets. The factory eventually closed in 1964 (Bruce Springsteen mourned the closing of the mill in his hit song “My Hometown”; his father Douglas had worked there.*).

* from the web site http://www.textilehistory.org/KaragheusianGulistan.html

[Kaback9]

Thanks Pat, I have done some poking around the rug mill now the Police Office! I could see where box cars would be used there, but I was not sure. I also wonder if Silverts Furniture got any deliveries via the CNJ as it looks like they own a warehouse along the ROW that could have had a spur. Sorry I ask som many question but I have been thinking about doing a modular HO scale layout base on the Freehold branch. In theory if I could model the entire 12 mile route, so I have a layout design in mind, now I'm wondering how I could operate it, if and when I decide to build this.

Does anyone know when they stopped interchanging cars with the Pennsy via the Freehold & Jamesburg route?

[CJPat]

I hope you already have found this to help you locate industries and spurs along the Freehold branch (just look under Freehold Branch): http://raildata.railfan.net/cnj/homecnj.html

Sorry, but I can't help with the interchange question. I am guessing that the main point of interchanging at that location was to exchange cars that were going back and forth from the west off the NEC or the Camden & Amboy and up the CNJ (like for the Karagheusian Rug Mill and Imperial Oil)?

[Kaback9]

Pat I have been using that as a guide line, it really helps. I heard recently that the interchange was used when there was a fire with a bridge in Matawan on the NY&LB or something like that, anyway it was used to route NY&LB trains around the damage. That was the last I heard of the interchange being used.

[Jtgshu]

Pat I have been using that as a guide line, it really helps. I heard recently that the interchange was used when there was a fire with a bridge in Matawan on the NY&LB or something like that, anyway it was used to route NY&LB trains around the damage. That was the last I heard of the interchange being used.

the fire you are referring to happened on Dec 6, 1946. According to the Unique NY and LB, "the CNJ and PRR put aside their traditional rivalry and put together a joint schedule that would detour trains around the burnout by using CNJs Southern Division from Red Bank to Farmingdale, and its Freehold Branch inbeween there (freehold) and Matawan. The PRRs Sea Girt to Jamesburg line and its Camden and Amboy division from Jamesburg to Raritan Draw were utilized. An emergency Schedule went into effect on Dec. 9th." (pg. 109 of Unique NY and LB)

they got a single track wooden trestle in service in 10 days.

The permament (and current) fill was opened for service on June 18, 1953.

[Kaback9]

Thanks JT! Now I know what time I should set this layout to! I'll be able to run locals and have NY&LB power running through.

[NY&LB]

http://timetables.m72express.com/scans/ ... FireTT.jpg

12/7/1947

A very interesting Emergency Train Schedule!

[NY&LB]

On a somewhat related note, in the early 70's Raritan Draw was struck by a barge during the middle of the day, that evenings rush was accomplished by running from NYP to Monmouth Junction (GG 1 powered), changing engines at Monmouth Junction and then running up the Amboy Secondary to South Amboy. CNJ trains also ran that route, with the engines changing ends at Monmouth Junction. I suspect NJT would just use busses should that hapen today, the railroads USED to be able to deal with such events but I think that type management is a lost art today.

[Ken W2KB]

On a somewhat related note, in the early 70's Raritan Draw was struck by a barge during the middle of the day, that evenings rush was accomplished by running from NYP to Monmouth Junction (GG 1 powered), changing engines at Monmouth Junction and then running up the Amboy Secondary to South Amboy. CNJ trains also ran that route, with the engines changing ends at Monmouth Junction. I suspect NJT would just use busses should that hapen today, the railroads USED to be able to deal with such events but I think that type management is a lost art today.

Much may have to do with lost tracks/routes, either gone completely or track speeds too low to be practicable for passengers. Amtrak will use detours from time to time when freight derailments, floods, etc. block normal routes. Closest I ever came to a detour on NJT was several years ago when both tracks just west of the Raritan Yard eastern lead switch were blocked by two dead trains, so we were routed west to High Bridge via one of the Raritan Yard tracks an back onto the main at west end of the yard.

[Kaback9]

http://timetables.m72express.com/scans/ ... FireTT.jpg

12/7/1947

A very interesting Emergency Train Schedule!

Wow! Thanks for that link!

[Jtgshu]

when wires were pulled down in Metropark in the summer of 2003, it was strongly considered by NJT to have equipment moves to Trenton via the Amboy Secondary to Midway, becuase there was only 1 train in Trenton, and the wires were expected to be fixed very early in the AM, meaning that there would be no way to get the trains to Trenton for the AM rush.

It ended up that the NEC got fixed faster than they expected, so it never came to fruition, but who knows if some other issues would have popped up to prevent it from happening.

I wonder if River draw was ever severely damaged (like it has in the past) would NJT ever do a detour down the Amboy Secondary (or the Freehold Branch if MOM was built that way). I don't think so, as it would just be easier to suspend service

[GSC]

The CNJ wye interchange at Freehold had only one way out...the west leg connected with PRR, the rest of the wye was just for turning engines, and the east leg served a lumber yard. People who were around during the active days tell me there wasn't a lot of interchange there between CNJ and PRR, but there was some. CNJ had rights to the yard that existed by today's Builder's General, there were no freight car storage tracks in the wye.

Pics I have from the early 50s show mostly 2-3 car passenger trains with camelback power, and freight was usually pulled by Fairbanks-Morse 1500-series diesels. Freights could be any amount of cars, little by little the trains got shorter.