End of Steam on NJ Main Line ?

I have admittedly vague memories of our family taking the train from Newark Penn to D.C. in the mid 1950's. Some old family photos taken on board seem to show a heavy dose of black smoke from the head end en route thru New Jersey southbound at track speed....

Might our train have been pulled by a steamer back then ?

Possibly but more likely smoke from the GG1 which I understand had an oil fired engine on board for producing auxilliary power for the coaches.

Steam pulled one? passenger train a day from Jersey City to Bay Head (on the main line as far as the junction just west of Rahway) until at least 1956, probably 1957. But I don't recall any picture or mention of any steamer ever pulling a scheduled passenger train to Washington after 1935, except maybe for a detour. Anybody else?

To Tri-State Tom, in reference to your post about a possible steam rail trip from Newark to Washington on the Northeast Corridor in the 50's...

...I seem to recall seeing another post from you asking about PRR operations in Sea Girt... Did your Newark to Washington trip perhaps start at the Jersey shore? An early to mid 50's trip up the North Jersey Coast Line to Newark on the PRR would most definitely have been pulled by steam, probably a K4; as far as South Amboy, where the K4 would be swapped for a GG-1 for the trip to New York. Your Washington trip down the corridor from Newark or New York would also most definitely been behind a GG-1.

I was very young then, but I also vaguely remember what were the last days of steam on the North Jersey Coast Line. The CNJ was already running diesels in the 50's and the end of PRR steam was about 1956-57. I lived way up on the Manasquan river at the time, past the Rt. 70 bridge; but on a morning when the wind and weather conditions were just right and the K4's let loose on the whistle as they crossed the Manasquan River drawbridge, that whistle would echo and reverberate all the way up the river to greet me when I woke up in the morning. I will never forget the sound of the whistles on those engines....

The last K-4 ran on the New York and Long Branch on Monday, November
4, 1957 from Bay Head Junction to South Amboy. One of the trains that
was scheduled to get steam power right through to the end at that time
was the "Broker" which ran into the old Jersey City terminal.
Steam was not easily replaced on the N.Y. & L.B., the PRR thought they
would be able to replace steam engine for engine but they found that the
K-4 would easily handle a 12 to 15 car train in that territory where as it
took two E-7's to do the same job with the heavy rush hour trains. The
first diesels showed up there in April of 1956.
The big benefit of the diesels were the fact that they could make the
turn especially at South Amboy much faster than a K-4 could with the
need for coal, water, fire cleaning etc. The big plus for the K-4 as I
mentioned earlier was their ability to handle a bigger train than a single
diesel and the railroad did not have enough diesels to run everything on
the Long Branch with them.
They were running them out, in other words when a K-4 was having major
problems or was due for heavy repairs, it was set aside and another one
brought out of storage to replace it.
In 1957, I had just started on the New Haven Railroad and just got a car
so I made frequent trips down to South Amboy and Bay Head to witness
first hand the swan song of these splendid locomotives.
My last ride behind a K-4 was the fantrip with 612 which operated just two
weeks before the last K-4 ran on this line. Great memories.
I strongly recommend the book "The Unique Ndw York & Long Branch" by
Don Wood. No person better knows this territory or operation better than
him and he wrote this book about it. I suspect it is long out of print but a
copy might be found through one of the book dealers, possibly Ron's Books in Harrison, New York or another possibility is Kevin Farrell in
Boston, Massachusetts. If you are really interested in this, the book is
well worth your effort and expense.
Noel Weaver

kevikens wrote:Possibly but more likely smoke from the GG1 which I understand had an oil fired engine on board for producing auxilliary power for the coaches.

IIRC, the oil burner in the GG1's was actually for the steam generator which provided heat for the coaches. As with any oil fired burner, I guess it could have belched and produced the black smoke that Tom saw in his pictures. I also recall a crash near Princeton Junction in the 70's between a G and MOW car, the ensuing fire was caused by the fuel oil burning after the collision and destroyed the motor. Steam generators were also installed in some of the E60's for use with the heritage fleet but I believe those were electrically powered.

All steam generators burned FUEL OIL. The six lowest numbered E-60's
had two OK 4625 steam generators in one end of the carbody. If both of
them were working good, they could about equal the one steam generator
on a GG-1.
Maybe I should state that the first six E-60's originally had steam
generators, I think they were removed and replaced with HEP equipment
later on. 950 - 955 Were the ones that had the steam generators at one
time.
Noel Weaver

Thanks for the clarification on the E60's.

Hi all,
I was talking to a ex PRR engineer at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania on December 18th.04

He was the last engineer to run the K-4 # 3750 in 1957 , he has kept all of his engineer log books .

His name is John Forman Applegate age 88 he worked for the PRR from 1942 to 1979 into Conrail .

He was asigned the New York Div. from New York to Harrisburg, Pa.

He lived only two blocks from Bay Head Jct. He now lives with his daughter in south Jersey .

Len.