CR on the Southern Secondary

Pine Creek Railroad when they were still out in Freehold?

Actually it was Manalapan, Rt-9 North of Freehold.

They left in 1952.

@CharlieL Thanks. Don’t really know too much about that place. There was a few people over there actually. That big abandoned building in the back used to be Agway, which dealt with a lot of grain. There was an Agway in Lakewood too, located next to the crossing on County Line Rd.

Good wikipedia article on Pine Creek Railroad.

"Maybe they had a big tax hike there like what happened to the Pine Creek Railroad when they were still out in Freehold? I’ll ask my friends dad about this when I get the chance."

Pine Creek was originally a for-profit business in the Township of Marlboro (not Freehold) and paid business and property taxes. There was a push to clean up Route 9 and attract more business (look what it's become today) and cute little seasonal tourist attractions weren't in the master plan. Taxes along the Route 9 corridor were increased, and Jay Wulfson worked hard to establish Pine Creek as a not-profit museum corporation and the tax breaks it could enjoy. He did, but Marlboro didn't go for the change and continued to treat Pine Creek as for-profit and the subsequent tax increase. I looked through old tax records in Freehold and saw that from year to year, Pine Creek's "parent company" changed. Wright & Wulfson, Wulfson, Pine Creek RR Co., Pine Creek RR Museum Inc. Maybe Marlboro didn't care for the changes in ownership (same people, different company and corporate names) It became the NJ Museum of Transportation Inc. as part of the agreement to move to State-owned property in Allaire State Park. The move took from 1963 to 1965. Like much of national railroad history, Pine Creek also had some very confusing times to follow.

@GSC Interesting. I remember hearing about a tax hike but never any of the details surrounding it. I just assumed they wanted Pine Creek gone so they could build more developments out there. With so much land being cleared out and developed in NJ it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the case.

Interesting, thanks for the historical background. I have good memories of visiting the Pine Creek at Allaire with my late grandparents and riding behind steam there, including the Shay. Shame they don't have steam there anymore but I've enjoyed recent visits and am glad to see it still going. Apparently their caboose (converted from an old box car) made its last revenue run as a standard gauge caboose on the Southern Secondary before being acquired by the Pine Creek RR - at least that's the story I heard.

Just got word that tree clearing has begun on Howell Road. I’ll go check it out tomorrow.

Didn’t expect the work to start so quickly...

I think I mentioned the tree clearing last week, but only 50 ft or so for the repaving operation, in prep for (hopefully) the crossing. That would be in the grant thread. At any rate nothing further had been done there as of 3 PM today (I travel that road frequently).

@CharlieL Thank you. I think I remember looking around there a while back and remember the tracks appearing to be underground! C&D have their work cut out for them.

Due to unforeseen circumstances I may not be able to provide info on SA31 today. Sorry guys.

Matt Johnson wrote: ↑Tue May 04, 2021 8:55 pm Interesting, thanks for the historical background. I have good memories of visiting the Pine Creek at Allaire with my late grandparents and riding behind steam there, including the Shay. Shame they don't have steam there anymore but I've enjoyed recent visits and am glad to see it still going. Apparently their caboose (converted from an old box car) made its last revenue run as a standard gauge caboose on the Southern Secondary before being acquired by the Pine Creek RR - at least that's the story I heard.

The steam railroad museum/tourist industry took a big hit after the boiler explosion at the Gettysburg RR about 25 years ago and the tractor explosion in Ohio. Boiler rules became far stricter than before by federal standards, when every state had its own version of the rules. There was a reason Pennsylvania had so many steam operations; their rules were more loose.

Pine Creek's CNJ caboose 91155 spent its last revenue days on the Southern, based out of Red Bank. In 1972, arch bar trucks were outlawed and what was left of CNJ's 91000-series wood cabooses were put to pasture. 91155 is historically significant as it was the very first CNJ class NE 8-wheel caboose, rebuilt from Southern RR of NJ boxcar 31943 in 1874. It is one of the oldest rail cars still in regular service. Why CNJ started the numbering at 91155 is anyone's guess. In 1921 it was rebuilt with a steel frame (wooden frames didn't like to be placed in pusher service, for obvious reasons) and became class NEa. The caboose was delivered by CNJ to Farmingdale's then-yard where it was loaded onto a lowboy and trucked to Allaire.

Pine Creek's Southern connections include the Quincy & Torch Lake 2-8-0, tender, and Russell snow plow arriving in gondolas via the Southern at the team track that once was adjacent to today's Extech at Asbury Road, along with the three CNJ/CRP boxcars and wood caboose 91245 that sat stranded in Toms River for so long, on the OOS portion of the TRIT.

@GSC Wow. I knew they had stuff brought in by rail but not on that kind of scale. Didn’t know there was ever a team track by Extech either. I personally think we could use some more team tracks around here.

Any word on SA31? Listening to the scanner but haven’t heard them call yet..

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