Cliffwood Station?

Hey all,

I was looking at a New York and Long Branch map and saw a station labeled "Cliffwood", but I could not find any evidence of the station in photographs or videos. Was there once a Cliffwood station a little North of Matawan or was it something else?

PS: i want to find out because I'm making the NYLB route in Railworks (im not that good route builder, im just doing it for the fun of it)

Yes there was indeed a Cliffwood station. While I have never been able to pin down exactly where it was I am tempted to say RR east (north) of Anchor Glass. The only photos I have ever seen of the station had it cut off and there was a K4 in the photo, hope that helps a bit.

Probable station site, landmark is signal "L51".

R36 Combine Coach wrote:Probable station site, landmark is signal "L51".

Yes this is where i thought the station was. It was North of Cliffwood Ave. according to here:http://raildata.railfan.net/cnj/homecnj.html

There also appeared to have been a few sidings a little bit furthur south...

NY&LB RR ETTs show Cliffwood at NY&LB milepost 5.43, for reference, Matawan shows at MP 6.65 (that would be the OLD Matawan station).
April 1948 ETT shows WEST bound trains at 7:38 am, 10:58 am (flag stop), 3:46 pm, 5:12 pm and 6:05pm (f) running Mon - Sat and two trains on Sun at 12:19 pm (f) and 9:28 pm (f);
EAST bound there were trains at 4:43 am, 5:14 am (f), 6:37 am and 6:55 pm with only ONE Sunday train at 5:56 am.
ONLY CNJ trains stopped there.
and OMG, on Saturdays there was a 4:41 am PRR train out of Bay Head....must have been a deadhead...no one would ride a train at that hour.
In 1966 the CNJ has TWO trains Mo-Fr WEST at 4;52 pm and 6:26 pm with ONE on Sat. at 5:02 pm; EAST trains were at 5:27 am and 7:08 am M-F and 6:18 am and 8:28 am on Sat. No Sunday service
By 1967 they were no more.

I suspect it was just off the north side of Cliffwood Ave (as Kaback describes just east/north of Anchor Glass) as opposed to just south of County Road. And if you look at the railroad map at the link above that seems to indicate closer to Cliffwood Ave.

Cliffwood Ave is a main thoroughfare in the area- connects Matawan, Old Bridge, Cliffwood Beach and Keyport. It has some commercial on it.

County Road is more of a residential street that doesn't really lead any place.

Historic Aerials doesn't show any discernible infrastructure at either spot but does show how county road was pretty barren even into the 1950's.

I grew up in the area in the area and even owned my first home just a few miles from either spot. I remember the time just before NJT, but the "station" was long gone even by then- i used to ride the cabs of the early arrows between Matawan and South Amboy almost every other weekend for a time- i dont remember seeing anything that looked left over.

NY&LB wrote:and OMG, on Saturdays there was a 4:41 am PRR train out of Bay Head....must have been a deadhead...no one would ride a train at that hour.

Haha, I see what you did there. Well played sir.