Rustygunz60 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 14, 2021 11:37 pm
I second R&DB's suggestion regarding Trail of the Blue Comet. Most of what I know regarding the line is from that book. I've read it at least three times since getting it about 20 years ago and learn more each time. Considering the fact that it's about the size of a medium-sized phone book (remember them? 
), it can take several readings to absorb even a fraction of the info therein.
I concur as well, as I have also re-read my copy that I got decades ago, prompted by (to me) an upturn in activity in this forum some months ago. The beginning is sedate enough, because the Jersey pinelands of the 1840s didn't have much industry beyond a few iron smelters and some agriculture products. The story moves along thru the ages and various take-overs, mergers, bankruptcies, and so on (yes the Blue Comet itself get a chapter - I found it amusing that some of the Blue Comet passenger stock ended up repurposed as yard offices later on). I found the later chapters (Post WWII) the most interesting, not only due to discussion of operations, but as things start out decent but begin falling apart (literally as well as financially) - one big killer was New Jersey property taxation, and while that was eventually addressed to a degree, it wasn't the only issue. The book's narrative* ends on a rather pessimistic note at the time of it's writing (c1993), 17 years after the ConRail take over (and after several branches were sold off to short-lines). Let's put it this way, the last narrative chapter (chapter lucky 13) is called "Till The Sands Run Out", and it isn't upbeat at the end (and since then even more traffic was lost, e.g. Ciba BAST in Tom's River, although not ConRail's fault). It's been 27 years since the book's publication, is this the time when its dire predictions are proved wrong (I dunno, I'll guess we'll see)
*OK, I say narrative as there is a following chapter on maritime operations of ferries and steam ships, as well as appendices covering stations and locomotive rosters of the 19th century predecessors.
