Freehold Secondary OOS Section

GSC wrote: Old Official Guides list most of these road crossings as stations: Cranberry, Fairfield, Howell Station (where an old Camden & Amboy-style freight house still exists as a farm storage shed). Not sure if there were ever actual station buildings there (except for Howell, which had a structure) but were still listed, mileage and all, as stations.

Where is the Howell freight house? There is no structure directly at the Howell Road crossing, but aerial views show several small farm shacks just to the south. Is the freight station there?

The Station is located south of the crossing on Howell Station road. It is partially covered in vegetation but if you look at it it is definatly a train station. It was moved from its original site. There at one time was a long siding between Howell Station Rd and Okerson Rd and the remains of a station are still there next to the Rt #33 bridge. Hope this helps.
Jim H

I think CSAO should just reactivate the OOS portion and install a run around just south of Okerson Rd. It will make life easier for operations on the line as well as the Southern Secondary.

Eric read back in this thread, I talked about it before. Besides the line is owned by NJT. There just holding on to it until they make a determination on the MOM line when ever that is. Other wise I think they would have made it into a bike trail. But its nice to hope for.

i took a walk down the tracks from southard rd. and adelphia rd as a little shortcut the other day and realized that the tracks right past gold lumber there was a switch and ripped up the main track and left the switch in though. its facing southard rd. so the tracks that connect to the southern are the tracks that switched off

What does switched off mean? do you mean lined for the Southern as in a train from the Southern could come up if the switch in Farmingdale was lined for a move onto the FIT?

yes... and the siding for gold lumber is where the main was

Are we talking about the old PRR main that once crossed the CNJ at the Diamond in Farmingdale. There was always a switch on the east side of the road on the FIT that took you on the old PRR alignment.

wolfboy8171981 wrote:Are we talking about the old PRR main that once crossed the CNJ at the Diamond in Farmingdale. There was always a switch on the east side of the road on the FIT that took you on the old PRR alignment.

I think that is what he is talking about but like I said saying "switched off" throws me for a loop.

Me too.... Pictures are always helpful.

I'll have to dig out that old map I have of F'dale Jct. There were lots of sidings back in the day, the CNJ-side yard had two tracks, the connecting leg was two tracks for a stretch, and a lot of those industries there had sidings. I posted previously that a few years back, I was exploring the area and I found a Conrail GP-something parked in the woods on the old PRR between Southard Ave and the old diamond, it had come around the leg from the Southern, threw the switch, and backed into the piece of track heading to where the diamond had been, safely "in the garage" of trees for the weekend.

even if i took a pic u wouldnt be able to see what im talking about. Its horribly overgrown in that section.

Excuse me for my sloppy writing in the last post hope that makes it a lil easier to understand what i was trying to say

See if this helps.........

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23894098@N08/4007547859/

(click on 'all sizes' for a better view)

Appears very similar to the set up they used in Whiting Junction (sans the Tuckerton RR interface).