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  • Discussion relating to the PRSL
Discussion relating to the PRSL

Moderator: JJMDiMunno

 #56939  by limejuice
 
I was looking at some older maps of this area, and there seems to have been a P-RSL branch to Sea Isle City. The ROW seems evident looking north from rt. 625 into the marshes between the town and the GSP. When was this branch abandoned? What other shore towns were served by the P-RSL?

 #57023  by PARailWiz
 
What other shore towns were served by the P-RSL?
Atlantic City, Ocean City, Stone Harbor, Wildwood, Cape May, and more in northern Jersey. You can see those on this map http://www.readingrailroad.org/reading/ ... x12_72.jpg
More knowledgable people could certainly tell you more.

 #58983  by TuckertonRR
 
I've got a copy of an old map from about '33 or so entitled "proposed lease of WJ&S RR by AC RR Co, and shows the line at MP 60 of WJS through Sea Isle Jct, and Ocean View to Sea Isle City "to be abandoned". Also "to be abandoned" is the line south of Sea Isle Jct. (which eventually parralells the CMSL today) along with the stations of S Seaville, Swain, Cape May CH, Wildwood Jct, Rio Grande, & Bennett. Also on the chopping block it looks like svc between Stone Harbor & Sea Isle (Stone Harbor, Peermont, Avalon, Townsends Inlet)

That makes me wonder....would anything be left of any rail - related things down that way?

 #76142  by choochoochuck
 
Actually, haha i just said thiis in another post but once PRSL was formed they immeadiately cutt serrvicie to Stone HArbor.

 #76363  by JJMDiMunno
 
choochoochuck wrote:Actually, haha i just said thiis in another post but once PRSL was formed they immeadiately cutt serrvicie to Stone HArbor.
Actually, I'm showing the discontinuance of service to Stone Harbor being on January 1, 1954...the last industry served was a lumberyard there...the last train pulled the last car out of there on December 30, 1953...

Mike DiMunno
www.SJRail.com: All about South Jersey Railroads!

 #76510  by choochoochuck
 
Yeah, service into Stone Harbor was discontinued in the 30s (says the Stone Harbor Railroad Book) but they continued to serve a lumber yard in Scotch Arbor into the 50s.
 #145722  by JimBoylan
 
TuckertonRR wrote:That makes me wonder....would anything be left of any rail - related things down that way?
I think I saw the READING's Strathmere station 7/3/2005, abandoned about 1924. The Atlantic City Railroad book has a photo of it as a lean-to, and one of the taverns near the bay has a shed of the same outline, but with the open side closed in.
The concrete foundations for the platforms, buildings, signal bridge, etc. at Sea Isle Jct. probably still survive, but the white milepost was WOODEN, and well decayed about 1985.
 #145725  by JimBoylan
 
TuckertonRR wrote:I've got a copy of an old map from about '33 or so entitled "proposed lease of WJ&S RR by AC RR Co."
Does your map show the proposed connections to preserve business while abandoning most superfluous trakage? ConRail had a copy and I remember much of it.
Brown Tower, Atco, Hammonton, Egg Harbor, Germania (Cologne), Atlantic City, Ocean City (51st St.), Goshen, Wildwood (Oak Ave.).
Woodbine Jct. was already built; Cape May and Glassboro may have been, too; and Winslow Jct. alterations may have been planned and done later.

 #145929  by glennk419
 
I was out wave running over 4th of July weekend between OC and Sea Isle and besides inspecting what's left of Crook Horn bridge from the "marine side", noticed a concrete bridge abutment between Strathmere and SIC. It is on the east side of the Intracoastal waterway well out in the marshes. With a little imagination, you can also make out the remnants of the ROW heading back toward the mainland. I assume this is the remains of the aforementioned Reading line. I also believe I've seen the shed that Jim mentioned and there are a few remaining pilings directly across the bay from that location.

 #155590  by glennk419
 
While reading the thread on the Cape May Point branch, Jim Boylan included a link to some US Army maps of the area. According to this map, there was a leg off of the OC branch which ran south from 51st Street, across Corson's Inlet, through Strathmere and then connecting with the Sea Isle branch. It is marked PRSL so it is not the trolley line. The map also shows the then abandoned Strathmere branch referenced in another thread. This is the first I've ever heard of this, very interesting stuff. Here's the link: http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NJ

 #155608  by PARailWiz
 
While reading the thread on the Cape May Point branch, Jim Boylan included a link to some US Army maps of the area. According to this map, there was a leg off of the OC branch which ran south from 51st Street, across Corson's Inlet, through Strathmere and then connecting with the Sea Isle branch. It is marked PRSL so it is not the trolley line. The map also shows the then abandoned Strathmere branch referenced in another thread. This is the first I've ever heard of this, very interesting stuff. Here's the link: http://historical.maptech.com/getImage. ... g&state=NJ
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n= ... ayer=DRG25

This link shows the latest (I think) quadrangle map of the area, and you can see a wye in the same location that branch goes.

 #155637  by glennk419
 
They appear to be very similar except the second map shows abandoned trackage, both show the 51st St passing siding and a wye. I just thought it interesting that this was never brought up before. The map I referenced was from 1941, certainly not all THAT long ago. Do you have a date on the later map?

 #155875  by JimBoylan
 
The 1941 map shows the old PRR line between its Sea Isle City wye and the new P-RSL wye at 51st St., Ocean City. If you think the Reading's entrance to Ocean City is roundabout, the PRR's was via Woodbine Jct., South Seaville, Sea Isle Jct., Sea Isle City, Whale Beach, Corson's Inlet and 51st St. To avoid running through Millville, PRR express trains sometimes used the RDG between Winslow Jct. and Woodbine Jct.
The RDG line ran from Petersburg (near Palermo) through Seaville, Strathmere, and then a few feet bayside of the PRR through Whale Beach to a dead end at Sea Isle City. About 1924, when the Reading was abandoned between Seaville and Sea Isle City, a connection was built in S. I. C. so the PRR could serve the former RDG freight customers in town.
My cousin remembers that in the 1940s there was one train a week, with a steam engine, referred to by the locals as the "Fishermen's Special", but he can't remember the consist.

 #170958  by mgdemarco2
 
We were recently in a boat near Strathmere. If you go just a few hundred yards south of the large antenna tower before the bridge into Strathmere, you can see what appears to be the remains of a bridge in the marshes as you look west. Also, as was mentioned earlier on this board the bar staff at Twisties in Strathmere has said their bar sits on the location of the former train station.

 #171612  by glennk419
 
I believe the shed at Twisties which sits perpendicular to the bay is the actual station building. Talk about the quintesential shore bar, I love that place, even without it's railroad history.