B&O routing to NYP

During the first World War the USRA changed the terminus of B&O service from CNJ's Jersey City terminal to the PRR's New York City station. I know from the Official Guide that Bound Brook was the last stop for NY bound trains before PRR territory. I'm guessing the trains continued to use the Reading to Bound Brook and then switched to the CNJ--as they did before USRA intervention. But how did they get from the CNJ to the PRR? Did they go over to the LV at Aldene and thence to the PRR as trains do today? Did those connections even exist back then?

The interchange at Aldene did not exist during the First World War. It wasn't built until 1967.

Most likely it went from Reading to LV at Bound Brook and thence to Newark onto PRR to NYP.

I remember reading that that's what it did, but I can't remember the source.

The only reference I can find right now is from the CNJ 1918 Valuation report, Schedule of Foreign Roads Trackage Rights over CNJ.
RDG had rights from Bound Brook Junction to Bound Brook for 1.6 miles. That would get them to the Bound Brook freight yard.

I checked the April 1919 Official Guide. In the Guide, [ - - ] meant a train did not stop at that station; [.....] meant it ran via a different route. In the Reading listing, the timetable for the CNJ-RDG joint service from Jersey City to Philadelphia also showed the B&O train times at Penn Station, Manhattan Transfer, and Bound Brook; the CNJ stations intermediate to Bound Brook showed only [.....] for the B&O trains, which pretty well nails it down that the B&O trains used the LV from Bound Brook. There's a book by Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., called The Royal Blue Route (or Line?), which as I recall gives chapter and verse about that whole episode; unfortunately I don't have a copy.

There is another option (besides getting on the PRR from LV at Hunter) which the LV did before it built as far north as Newark.

Let's assume the B&O got on the LV (from CNJ) at Bound Brook. A few miles eastbound from there on the LV main at South Plainfield was a junction on the LV where the LV Perth Amboy branch (might have the name wrong) branched off . On the way to Perth Amboy it crossed under the PRR just west of the Metuchen station. There was a connection for sure between the LV on the way to Perth Amboy to the PRR in an eastbound direction (although eastbound traffic would have to cross over the usual westbound PRR tracks). The stub of this connection is still there on the PRR and used for MoW equipment storage, etc. This Perth Amboy branch was the LV mainline from PA (which went to Perth Amboy starting in 1975) before the extension from South Plainfield to Newark (which then became the main) in 1891. From 1875 to 1891 LV passenger traffic got on the PRR in Metuchen, and in 1891 the connection point was Newark (where the current mainline crosses PRR). I think that lasted a few years til LV built their own terminal in Jersey City.
JS

EDIT: just found this 1918 LV board of directors report, which says that on April 28, 1918, B&O trains started running on the LV between Pt. Reading Junction (near Bound Brook) and Newark Junction to get on the PRR to go to its NY station. So ExCon and R&DB are correct. http://books.google.com/books?id=6dI7AQ ... 22&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Many thanks for digging that up and posting it -- I'd forgotten all about that junction at Metuchen and just assumed they went via NK and Hunter. Now I'm wondering why the B&O trains didn't go via Hunter, since the LV's trains were already doing that. (Actually, the Metuchen route would have permitted the B&O to continue serving Elizabeth, but there's no mention of that in the B&O schedules in the Guide.)

I looked in the June 1916 Official Guide, and the mileage shown in the LV listing from Bound Brook to West Elizabeth (the last station before the LV station in Newark) checks out pretty closely with what I estimate for Port Reading Jct. to Newark Jct. -- the distance to Metuchen is much less. It then occurred to me that Newark Jct. has to be NK -- duh -- that's where the NK comes from. I remember the connection at Metuchen; from all appearances there was a tight curve up a steep grade.