Some history questions

1) When did the Camden & Atlantic fall under PRR Control?

Control of the C&A was taken over by the PRR on 1 January, 1883.

2) When did the line from Winslow Junction and through Tuckahoe get controlled by the Reading (via ACRR)? Via some obscure BBS posting I Googled this portion was initially constructed by the Philadelphia and Seashore Railway in 1892 and then quickly went through a number of changes (Including a brief control by PRR controlled West Jersey RR). I have Tuckahoe to Cape May by Reading controlled ACRR as the late 1890's; any date more specific?

All the various railroad companies of the P&R influance were combined into the Atlantic City Railroad,which was incorporated on 14 June 1901. Before the date of actual incorporation, there was a lot of leasing and lending and other corporate goings on by the P&R with the different railroad operations in South Jersey.

........PRR had built into Atlantic City via the West Jersey & Atlantic around 1879 - 1880, why did they need a second line to AC.
....... if so, why not use their existing route via Millville?

The C&A line was shorter and didn't have the choke points like Woodbury, Glassboro and Newfield interlockings which required reduced speed operation and AC trains could be affected by other train movements. The C&A was also a better physical plant in layout as far as curves and some other local restrictions.

Also, a valuation report in the early 20th century incicates that PRR (via WJ&S) had trackage rights on this line from WinslowJct. to Woodbine. How did they secure trackage rights from arch competitor Reading, did the move much traffic under these rights

The 25 year granting of trackage rights to the WJ&S was made by agreement on 25 January 1906 and benefited the ACRR in tax and insurance breaks as well as shared maintenance cost of the line. The 32 mile Winslow to Woodbine line had to be double tracked to accomadate the increase in traffic and there was other improvements made to the line such as improving the line gradients and widening many curves. The entire line was also then equipped with automatic block signals and a new interlocking plants were built at Tuckahoe and Woodbine. The improvments at Winslow Interlocking was also done at this time to the plant that's there today. This project elevated the ACRR mainline and did away with the at grade crossing with the CNJ as well as other improvements. This was all done within the agreement terms that put almost all the cost of the improvements on the WJ&S, so it was a win-win situation for the ACRR.

The use of the ACRR between Woodbine and Winslow gave the WJ&S a faster ,more direct route to Camden via the C&A mainline from the Cape May County shore points. It also allowed by the same route for WJ&S trains to go directly to Philadelphia using the Delair Bridge (built in 1895-96) via the junction at Vernon in Haddonfield.

And remember that all these shenanigans was about speed and who could provide faster service to the public between the city and the shore.

Help any??

xjqcf wrote:My apologies for not responding sooner.

That was very informative; thank you very much!