Bicentennial Freedom Train on NY&LB? (or anywhere in NJ...)

There is a plaque in the ground at the former Bradley Beach yard where the American Freedom Train went on display during August of 1976.

That was the furthest point west (south) that the train ran on the NJCL, the concern was that the (2) movable bridges below Bradley beach were not
strong enough to support the weight of the steam engine.

At that point in the NJCL's history Bradley Beach was also the furthest point out that freight trains ran, the last customer being the Asbury Park Press
whom accepted deliveries of newsprint that were then trucked to it's printing facility in Neptune.

Ken

The train was displayed at Morristown on the siding/grounds of the Mennen Company. As pictured, the engine and some of the mechanical support cars made the short move over the Morris & Essex to the Morristown & Erie yard and shop (if I remember correctly they wanted to get the engine over a pit). If memory serves, they did have a minor derailment on the interchange tracks but it wasn't too bad.

Yes Donko, the track the train is moving onto (the old Morristown run-around) is long gone and the configuration of the interchange tracks was changed (significantly reducing capacity) when the Shop Rite (now Staples) plaza was built. I'm surprised they went there with the big engine - that run-around wasn't in the best of shape.

Don, ex-CP 1286 was used on the HICO trip on the L&HR in 1967. The attachment is the postcard of the train passing Great Meadows, NJ.

And yes, AFT 1 did derail at about that point on the M&ERR interchange.

The AFT was never on L&HR rails.

That's what I thought, nice picture. Raced my car at Island dragway 2 years ago, station and track was still there for a few hundred feet. My personal opinion is those G5's the CP built are some of the greatest steam engines ever built. Note the feed water heater that I belive is now gone from the 86. Modern, light enough to run on the 90lbs rail of a shortline and able to run 60mph from here to C.A. with a 6 or 7 car train. It's no wonder the CP was building them in 48 and 49, they just work.. and work well..

DC

peconicstation wrote:There is a plaque in the ground at the former Bradley Beach yard where the American Freedom Train went on display during August of 1976.

That was the furthest point west (south) that the train ran on the NJCL, the concern was that the (2) movable bridges below Bradley beach were not
strong enough to support the weight of the steam engine.

At that point in the NJCL's history Bradley Beach was also the furthest point out that freight trains ran, the last customer being the Asbury Park Press
whom accepted deliveries of newsprint that were then trucked to it's printing facility in Neptune.

Ken

pretty neat to know- thanks. I guess my imagination was not getting the best of me.

The more i think about it, at some point i must have seen or heard or read about the diesels pulling it down backwards- I had some ambiguity in my mind about if i really did see if with steam...

CNJ4104 wrote:I have instamatic pics of it going through Matawan pulled by two black ConRail stenciled GP38's / GP38-2's. Standard freight power on the NY&LB at the time. The 4-8-4 followed shortly. Most likely the largest steamer to traverse the NY&LB and yes, the weather was not good. Fog and drizzle.

CNJ 4104
Scott Speed

any chance you could find a scanner and post?

One of the RDG T-1s DID polish the L&HR rails, but it was in the '60s, as part of L&HR's centennial celebration. There are details in the Morning Sun L&HR in Color book, which I don't have handy right now.

Marty Feldner wrote:The AFT was never on L&HR rails.

Thanks Marty for refreshing my memory! It was the train in the picture above I remember!

EDM5970 wrote:One of the RDG T-1s DID polish the L&HR rails, but it was in the '60s, as part of L&HR's centennial celebration. There are details in the Morning Sun L&HR in Color book, which I don't have handy right now.

This is drifting away from the American Freedom Train, but there are details right here on Railroad,net (from 9 years ago- ouch!)

http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 183&t=3595

Found a few images I took of the American Freedom Train on July 25, 1976 while on display at Mennen Arena in Morristown, NJ.

Two more views to follow in the next post.

And here are two more photos of the AFT at Mennen Arena, Morristown, NJ July 25, 1976.

Thanks for sharing! I wonder if I'm in that crowd somewhere. Brings back some pleasant memories...

This overview of the American Freedom Train is from the Bradley Beach Chamber of Commerce website.

"To honor the two hundredth anniversary of the United States, Ross Rowland, Jr., a New York commodities broker and railroad steam engineer, had the idea to help celebrate the Bicentennial with a traveling exhibition of artifacts from two hundred years of American history. The result was the steam powered American Freedom Train, filled with over five hundred treasures of Americana. The twenty-five car train carried such artifacts as George Washington’s copy of the Constitution, the original Louisiana Purchase, Judy Garland’s dress from “The Wizard of Oz”, Joe Frazier’s boxing trunks, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s pulpit and robes, and a rock from the moon. From April 1, 1975 until December 31, 1976, more than seven million Americans visited the train during the tour of all forty eight contiguous states. Tens of millions more stood trackside to see the train go by. On Labor Day weekend, 1976, the train, whose cars were painted red, white and blue, was parked at the Bradley Beach/Neptune siding. There was always a line to get in to see the pieces of our American history. Inside the train, visitors stood on a moving walkway that took them past the cases of memorabilia. At the Freedom Train site, the Bradley Beach post office had a substation made out of a mail truck with an awning over the back door of the truck. Two postal employees sat in the back of the truck, selling special stamps and cancelling letters with a Freedom Train postmark."

AFT southbound light engine move at Williamstown Jct on the PRSL 7 Sept 1976 by me. I didn't have the train in tow because of some goofy stuff at Frankford Jct in Philly, not sure what it was now.
I have more photos, I'll dig them out and scan them when I get time.