The Freehold Secondary Mystery

Excellent find !!!! I've never seen that map before. Looks like the foundry was quite extensive.
Jim H

Thanks Tomstv. My mistake. I saw the foundry complex there on all the maps and assumed it was all foundry tracks, so I never zoomed in. The enginehouse is there in the Sanborn 1885, 1889, 1889, 1895, 1901 and 1909 maps, but gone in 1916. Hope this link works: http://library.princeton.edu/libraries/ ... ehold.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(It is Sheet 1 on most of the years except for 1895 it is sheet 7 (although the page that comes up says 1885 in the text on the right.
PS. The link to Tomtv's map in his post worked around noon, but now coming back from lunch it doesn't seem to work right now.

http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_mat ... rn-web.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Try this web page, go to Monmouth co. then Freehold, then index sheet under 1909.
I would send the page, but for some reason it keeps loading the 1885 picture ?
Hope this helps.

Absolutely fantastic !!!! Thanks . It also shows the Joeseph Brakley cannery which has also been a mystery to me.
Jim H

Thanks Jim, glad it worked out, always glad to help out a fellow rail fan.

Great pics of the Farmingdale station.

In the bigger pic, that red pickup sure does look like my 1949 Studebaker.

That post about the Seabreeze almost broadsiding the Blue Comet was interesting. Trains using the station had to foul the diamond. During a snowstorm, the engineer of the Seabreeze missed the distant signal. The derail put the Pennsy engine on the ties and it bumped along to a stop, avoiding a crash. Must have been some sort of interlocking if a derail was set.

East of F'dale, the Hurley Pond Road crossing is easy to find, with that little bridge right there on the ROW. Walking a hundred or so yards toward town, there was a concrete base for the distant signal. When I first saw it, the mast was still standing, although no signal head. Next time it was just the base. Not sure if it still exists, it's been a long time since I went to see it.

GSC wrote:Great pics of the Farmingdale station.
In the bigger pic, that red pickup sure does look like my 1949 Studebaker.

Maybe I am wanting to see too much in a fuzzy photo, but to the left of the red pickup it sure looks like the rear fins of our 1960 Chevy Impala convertible. Could also have been 1959 (but not 1958 or 1961). Probably there was a similar looking Ford or Dodge, but I don't remember them so well. Jim

looks like a 60 Chevy Impala, I can see the rear fins. So the picture of the station is at least 1960,witch is 2 years before they shut down the Doodle bug 4666 in 1962.

Yep, that was our car - white with the black stripe (although a convertible)! But the fins on a 1959 Impala were pretty darn similar IIRC. Jim
P.S. I just cheated and googled some pics - the taillight details were different in 1959, but nothing you could see in that pic. Also, the side stripe, which is not obvious in the pic, was less prominent in 1959. So maybe it's a 1959 (or a different brand).

Are you sure it's not just a 1960 Rambler?
http://www.amcrc.com/sale/toddfeng3.jpg

A had a friend who had a '59 Chevy. The wings were the same, but the tail lights were big feather-shaped affairs, one to each side.

The Studebaker isn't mine, as far as I know. In 1962 I would've been 8 years old and not yet driving. I bought my '49 Stude in '71.

pumpers wrote:

Farmingdale June 1931.pdf

Farmingdale 1931 map

Excellent map! I've lived in the area for a long time now, and I never knew that Farmingdale was THAT much of a railroad town back in the day. I also never knew the tracks were double tracked at a point (When did the cease to be a thing?). I've heard people say so, but I could never find anything confirming that, until now.

As for Farmingdale station, when was it removed? I've never seen it. I know it's long gone, but it seems like it stuck around for a while, even after CNJ was out of the question. Another question, when did it remain CNJ/Conrail property, or did the town of Farmingdale gain ownership of it?

Blackseal Jim wrote:I don't think there are any freight customers on the Coast Line anymore. If and when sand trains return on the Southern Div , I can't imagine NJT will like them unless they run at night which they did back in the CNJ days. Im guessing that the loaded sand hoppers would go to Browns first , so sending them through Freehold would be more direct. I remember as a kid when Brockway Glass got sand. I'm not sure if that was sand from south Jersey. I think that's mainly for construction, but I could be wrong. I'm really amazed at how much rehab work is being done on the Southern Division south of Lakehurst.

Jim H

There's a thread that was talking about the re-activation of service on that part of the Southern Secondary, but according to one of the posters, they've recently stopped work. The transportation fund ran out, so they couldn't proceed.

There's been a lot of delays with its reactivation, as they've been planning/working on this for over a decade. I don't think we'll see much more with the project until some sort of new Hudson tunnel project is commenced, since that will require a lot of sand.

I've heard that the MOM line was supposed to be bundled with the ARC tunnel, but that was axed. It's questionable if the MOM line will be/is bundled with any other future plans.

I've seen the M.O.M. line listed as part of NJT 's future planning , but that's it. And now with the Transportation fund dried up , who knows when work will resume on the Southern Div. So as a kid I remember watching the sand freights from my Grandparents porch on Academy St in Farmingdale . When did the lengthy trains I hear about stop running through Freehold to Farmingdale??? I'm 47 and never seen anything run between the two towns.
Jim H

As for Farmingdale station, when was it removed? I've never seen it. I know it's long gone, but it seems like it stuck around for a while, even after CNJ was out of the question.

Station was removed sometime around 1976. It had not been in use since about 1963.