Sea Girt info needed....

....specifically the year ( or months ) when the junction with the PRR branch just South of the the Sea Girt station ( still intact on site but no longer a NJ Transit commuter stop ) on the NY&LB went OOS.

There used to be 4 tracks and a classic signal bridge ( the concrete footings are still in place ! ) at the busy Sea Girt Ave. grade crossing near the small but quainte village of shops and restaurants. Just South of this grade crossing were I think a couple of cross-overs and the 2-track PRR line heading around a sharp curve off to the West. This PRR line ducked under Rt. 71 beneath a classic humped-back roadway bridge that was subsequently demolished ( and Rt. 71 leveled ) a couple years after this line was abandoned and the rails/ties torn out.

Also would welcome comments/info on

1) How far North of Sea Girt station the 4-track ROW existed.

2) Was their an interlocking tower hereabouts controlling moves between the PRR and the CNJ.

3) Of course the obvious....are any pics available on this area in operation or pics of the excess track, the Rt.71 bridge and/or that signal bridge being removed.

Thanks.

Here is a picture at SG jct, showing the signal bridge, tracks and a doodlebug!!

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/introduction.html

More info on the PRR to 'da shore.

http://jimquest.com/writ/trains/puddlejumper.htm

Carter -

Pic 1 certainly brings my memories into focus. We're looking north over the 4 tracks and the signal bridge I recalled as a youth there at the Sea Girt Ave. grade crossing.

Now some confusion....

In Pic's 2 & 3....are we looking southbound toward the junction ( can't make it out ) just south of the Sea Girt Ave. crossing ? If so, 2 of the 4 tracks are not pictured. Were they perhaps already severed by this time ( 1962 ) and what's shown in Pic 1 OOS ? Was SG Tower located on the northbound side of the ROW adjacent to that grade crossing or further south at the actual junction point ?

Much thanks for the info and any added comments/help !

Another look at pics 2 & 3 Carter....comparing the telegraph poles on either side of the ROW in all 3 pics plus the condition of the ROW on both sides of the 2 active mains and the switch just out of view on the right ( leading to a 3rd track ? ), seems to suggest that we might be NORTH of Sea Girt station as opposed to south of it.

If the exact location of SG tower can be determined it would aid my bearings and hopefully eliminate my confusion.

The pavement over that grade crossing in pic 1 looks to be somewhat new ( in 1962 ) and I can't quite determine if the 2 far tracks are severed at it or run thru the mecadem.

I may be wrong, but I think the turnout you see in pics 2-3 on the right just in front of the departing doodlebug is the switch to the Freehold Ag RR that the car is about to enter.

Others on this board may give better info, but IIRC SG tower was South of the station right at the junction and just South of Sea Girt Ave, which is the crossing, I beleive, in pic 1.

Here’s a map of the Sea Girt area that may answer all your questions: http://raildata.railfan.net/cnj/homecnj.html . Scroll down on the left side of the web site and find the words “New York & Long Branch Railroad.” Then click on “Milepost 30.0 - 38.0.” This map will show you the Sea Girt area.

The map shows two main tracks with two yard tracks on the western side. The yard tracks are double ended. The facing ladder track is to the north, and the trailing ladder track joins the southbound main (railroad west) before Sea Girt Avenue. The tower appears to be south of Sea Girt Avenue and the turnout to the Freehold and Jamesburg Agr. RR is from the southbound NY&LB track, just south of the crossover that would enable eastbound F&JA traffic to traverse onto the northbound (railroad east) NY&LB track.

The link provided in the earlier post (http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/introduction.html) shows that the PRR doodlebugs ran here into 1962. The track appears to have been torn up shortly thereafter. I recall the track was gone by 1968 between Sea Girt and a point maybe a mile east of the CNJ-PRR diamond in Farmingdale. The Sea Girt tower was gone by then too, but the station remained. It remained in service into the 1970’s – only a few trains stopped there by then – but this was the closest to home for me when traveling from Hoboken via PATH to Newark and by CNJ or PC the rest of the way.

This web site shows the PRR freight trains in the area, as of 1959 or so: http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/F ... _1960.html . It shows that PRR freight NJC-1 turned at Sea Girt to return as NJC-2 to Waverly. It seems this small Sea Girt yard met that purpose.

This web site, http://broadway.pennsyrr.com/Rail/Prr/F ... _1960.html , shows freight being blocked and set off at Jamesburg for “F&JA Branch, Jamesburg exclusive, to Manasquan incl., and Earle, N.J.” While no named or numbered train appears to identified to shove freight on the F&JA, these blocks would have been forwarded by some train, perhaps this unnamed train also turned at Sea Girt before its trip back west.

The link provided (http://jimquest.com/writ/trains/puddlejumper.htm) shows a picture of the PRR doodlebug in the Manasquan station. This is the PRR Manasquan station – not the NY&LB Manasquan Station, and was just west of Central Avenue (I think). So the picture was apparently taken facing west. This is a map of the area – it even shows the F&JA still in place!
http://mapsonus.switchboard.com/bin/map ... tclickpost
(Enter "Central Ave" and "Manasquan, NJ" into the mapsonus form).

As for the highway bridges, there are similar designed bridges of similar age still standing. The most representative of the former Rte. 71 bridge is on (well, under!) Rte. 34 in Allenwood where it crosses the F&JA roadbed, which itself is now a bike path. Another bridge of similar design is the Rte. 9 bridge in Freehold over the Freehold Secondary. This second one is being replaced now, so it may be possible to get pictures of this bridge being removed.

FB -

Unfortunately, I'm getting an 'Error 404 - File not Found' for the first 2 links....can you please check'em out ? Thanks.

Tom,

Same thing for me until I noticed that there is a period at the end of the URL. That causes the error condition. Copy and paste it into your brouser without the ending "."

Tri-State Tom wrote:FB -

Unfortunately, I'm getting an 'Error 404 - File not Found' for the first 2 links....can you please check'em out ? Thanks.

Edited the September 10th post to eliminate those pesky periods and commas by moving them. Also added instructions for the mapquest form to make it work and added url and /url to make the "oldtimetrains" link work. Enjoy!

I am in awe of anything dating from that period. I would have loved to have seen SG tower first hand!

I remember growing up in the Long Branch area seeing the doodlebug in the evening come north toward Red Bank while waiting for my father to come in on one of the Pennsy trains from NYC. In 1959 my mother and I went to Washington. She asked me if I wanted to ride the doodlebug to Trenton to get on the Washington train there, or if we should take the train to Newark and go from there. Since I wanted to have breakfast in the dining car (there were still diners on many of the PRR NYC-WAS trains) I chose to go via Newark. What a wrong decision, as I never got to ride the route across the state.