Does anyone recall the agent who worked at Raritan in the mid 70's? I was a student at NCE (now NJIT) in 73 and 74 and hung out quite a bit between trains. He was quite a railfan as were more than a few of his craft on the CNJ and Rdg in those days... He had worked on the "CRP" side quite a while and had been involved in the old "Quakertown & Eastern" stam excursions in the late 60's. In his office was a full-sized framed Howard Fogg print of brand-new RS2's going through Lehigh Gap (commissioned by Alco) If I get to the scanner I have the negs still of some of the goings on back then-especially when they started the P'burg trains again. Before CR, the mid-day train was a full 8-or-so car push-pull with the old blue steam coaches. Only a few dead head crew members ever rode it back then! What a rush climling thru High Bridge and Hampton at about 45 or so!
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CNJ Raritan station agent in 1973 and 74
- Discussion of the CNJ (aka the Jersey Central) and predecessors Elizabethtown and Somerville, and Somerville and Easton, for the period 1831 to its inclusion in ConRail in 1976. The historical society site is here: http://www.jcrhs.org/
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Tan: I rode that mid-day round trip with a pair of RDCs about 1977. At P-burg, the conductor explained that the main purpose of the trip was to return the crews of the 2 morning Philipsburg trains home and pick up the crews for the evening pair. So, each midday trip had 2 rush hour sized crews, one worked, and one rode the cushions! On the way back, I noticed quite a crowd of employees boarding at Raritan.
Thanks,Jim-that's what I recall as well. It seems around the beginning of Conrail it went form a full Raritan coach train to a GP7 or 40 and 3 or so ex-KCS, etc coaches (the smooth side ones in dark blue.). then RDC's til the cutback to High Bridge again.