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  • Ocean City, NJ - Whats left

  • Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey
Pertaining to all railroading subjects, past and present, in New Jersey

Moderator: David

 #1282900  by Tom_E_Reynolds
 
So I find my self on vacation in Ocean City, NJ, and I want to know to know "whats left"? What can I still find to prove a railroad once came though town?

Where was the station, and does it still exist? Any remodeled and reused railroad buildings at all?

The real prize would be to find some rail in a crossing or sidewalk...Whats left of the ROW?

I know almost nothing of the PRSL's final days in Ocean City...

I've got a week to find what left...

Can anyone point me to some good maps?
 #1282910  by Rivetjoint
 
The old station, now called the Ocean City Transportation Center, sits at Haven & E.10th St. Looking at Google Satellite View, the Ocean City Bike Path follows along Haven and sure looks like it might have been the ROW 'back in the day'. Working your way south down Haven to around 50th St. and you should see the old ROW curving west. Good luck and enjoy.
 #1283112  by glennk419
 
Tom_E_Reynolds wrote:So I find my self on vacation in Ocean City, NJ, and I want to know to know "whats left"? What can I still find to prove a railroad once came though town?

Where was the station, and does it still exist? Any remodeled and reused railroad buildings at all?

The real prize would be to find some rail in a crossing or sidewalk...Whats left of the ROW?

I know almost nothing of the PRSL's final days in Ocean City...

I've got a week to find what left...

Can anyone point me to some good maps?
As mentioned above, the 10th Street station still stands and is in good repair. The ROW is largely intact between 36th Street and the Crook Horn Bridge approach. The rails are still in place between roughly 39th - 44th and 46th - 50th Streets with some of the residents using the ROW for flower gardens at the southern end. There is a gravel road that parallels the ROW at 51st Street where you can still see some of the rails from the passing siding and which will take you out to the bridge site. Various signal and power poles are still standing and the mast for the home signal for the bridge may still be standing. There is also still an old iron crossbuck at the Crossings Motor Inn between 34th and 35th Streets at Haven Avenue which I believe came from the 35th Street crossing.

On the mainland side, the ROW is easily observable from the Garden State Parkway overpass. The only other remnants are a relay cabinet at the Rt 9 crossing and a couple poles at Stagecoach Road. If you have time, Tuckahoe is only a 15 minute drive from OC. At Tuckahoe stands the restored P-RSL station and signal tower and it is the base of operations for CMSL. If you go out the 34th Street Bridge and stay straight across Rt 9, it will take you to Rt 50 and straight into Tuckahoe. Look for Reading Avenue just past the firehouse on the left and that will bring you to the tracks.

Hope you enjoy your stay in Ocean City.
 #1283275  by peconicstation
 
Tom_E_Reynolds wrote: I know almost nothing of the PRSL's final days in Ocean City...
In the final years of (1974ish to 1981) operation train service to the former PRSL Cape May County lines was pretty simple.

Year round there was a single rush hour round trip between Cape May & Ocean City to Lindenwold (where passengers connected to the PATCO line to reach Camden and Philly).
A single RDC car from Cape May and Ocean City would join at Tuckahoe for the trip.

During the summer months (late June to labor day), a 2nd rush hour trip was run (1 hour apart from the year round train), and a weekend/holiday trip would leave Lindenwold in the mid-morning, and return in the early evening.

After the cancellation of the Cranford to Bayonne scoot trains in 1978, several former CNJ RDC cars were used, in particular for summer season trains when more than 1 RDC would be needed.
The summer of '79 saw an uptick in seasonal business as there was a minor gas shortage at that time.

It is worth noting that in the last few years of service during the summer months, the Cape May County lines were busier than the Atlantic City line.
By the late 70's the Atlantic City line was down to (2) rush hour trips, with no weekend, or holiday service.


Ken
 #1283321  by BigDell
 
As mentioned above, the 10th Street station still stands and is in good repair. The ROW is largely intact between 36th Street and the Crook Horn Bridge approach. The rails are still in place between roughly 39th - 44th and 46th - 50th Streets with some of the residents using the ROW for flower gardens at the southern end. There is a gravel road that parallels the ROW at 51st Street where you can still see some of the rails from the passing siding and which will take you out to the bridge site. Various signal and power poles are still standing and the mast for the home signal for the bridge may still be standing. There is also still an old iron crossbuck at the Crossings Motor Inn between 34th and 35th Streets at Haven Avenue which I believe came from the 35th Street crossing.

That is fascinating... Who actually owns what's left of the ROW? The state? Conrail? County? Just curious how that works....
 #1283343  by chuchubob
 
peconicstation wrote:...
Year round there was a single rush hour round trip between Cape May & Ocean City to Lindenwold (where passengers connected to the PATCO line to reach Camden and Philly).
A single RDC car from Cape May and Ocean City would join at Tuckahoe for the trip.
...
Ken
This was re-enacted by CMSL in conjunction with their centennial celebration of Tuckahoe tower:
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=556366" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=556368" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=556370" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://chuchubob.rrpicturearchives.net/ ... ?id=556374" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 #1283860  by Tom_E_Reynolds
 
In my quest to find what remains, I found a few old photos on the wall of the bike shop on Asbury Ave.
A few of them highlighted the floods from the 1962 Nor'Easter. And look at what I found:
PRSL-OceanCity-10thStreetStation-1962Flood.jpg
PRSL-OceanCity-10thStreetStation-1962Flood.jpg (215.62 KiB) Viewed 7142 times
It shows the still active passenger station, a RDC, the old freight station, all under water!
Looks like the PRSL couldn't get that RDC to higher ground in time!

March 8th, 1962.

This is a great find!

Thanks to Annarelli's Bicycle Store for letting me borrow the photo, and A & A Computers for making a great copy on his scanner for us!
 #1284126  by David
 
Nice picture!
 #1284152  by glennk419
 
Tom_E_Reynolds wrote:In my quest to find what remains, I found a few old photos on the wall of the bike shop on Asbury Ave.
A few of them highlighted the floods from the 1962 Nor'Easter. And look at what I found:
PRSL-OceanCity-10thStreetStation-1962Flood.jpg
It shows the still active passenger station, a RDC, the old freight station, all under water!
Looks like the PRSL couldn't get that RDC to higher ground in time!

March 8th, 1962.

This is a great find!

Thanks to Annarelli's Bicycle Store for letting me borrow the photo, and A & A Computers for making a great copy on his scanner for us!
Great shot. Hard to tell if that was taken after the water receded or if that's as deep as it got. If the latter, the RDC would have been fine. It appears that the burned out gas station at the bottom of the photo didn't do nearly as well. Obviously it ignited during the flood and the fire apparatus couldn't get to it. Nowadays, the water still get's a couple feet deep at 9th and West during a nor'easter or even a good rain storm at high tide.

Hope you had a good week in OCNJ and that some of our pointers were helpful.
 #1446252  by DelcoRR
 
Some pics from 2014..
1: 10th Street Station
2: Haven Ave
3: looking north from about 48th St
Last edited by DelcoRR on Fri Oct 06, 2017 8:34 am, edited 2 times in total.
 #1446269  by R&DB
 
DelcoRR,
I find it amazing that rail in pics 2 & 3 has not been removed by the city and sold for scrap.
EDIT:
So I went to google maps and found about 2,567 yards of rail. Looking at the pictures it appears to be about 72 lb/yd rail so there is approx. 184,824 lbs of steel. (Not including tie plates, spikes, etc.) At $0.07 per pound (today's price) there is at least $12,937.68 laying in the sand. Some of the better ties could be sold for landscaping. The only issue is labor. Perhaps some kind of public/private partnership might make it feasible. Of course if they could sell the rails and tie plates to a tourist railroad that could use them, pricing could be much higher. (Cape May Seashore Lines could use some of this material.)
 #1446278  by glennk419
 
R&DB wrote:DelcoRR,
I find it amazing that rail in pics 2 & 3 has not been removed by the city and sold for scrap.
EDIT:
So I went to google maps and found about 2,567 yards of rail. Looking at the pictures it appears to be about 72 lb/yd rail so there is approx. 184,824 lbs of steel. (Not including tie plates, spikes, etc.) At $0.07 per pound (today's price) there is at least $12,937.68 laying in the sand. Some of the better ties could be sold for landscaping. The only issue is labor. Perhaps some kind of public/private partnership might make it feasible. Of course if they could sell the rails and tie plates to a tourist railroad that could use them, pricing could be much higher. (Cape May Seashore Lines could use some of this material.)
Ironically, I believe NJT or NJ Dot still owns the ROW, not the city. CMSL actually did harvest some rail several years ago and used it to (re)build a couple sidings at Tuckahoe. At this point, not sure that the remaining rails and tie plates would even be service worthy.
 #1446284  by pdtrains
 
Its possible that ROW was railbanked. Spcly if owned by the state. Doesnt mean they couldnt have taken up the rails, but there's lots of ROW w rail around...with the thought that "some day". But obviously not in my lifetime. The rail is still there from Lakewood to Winslow Jct on the old CNJ main.
Back when scrap steel was really worth nothing, and there were very few electric steel mills, rail was left everywhere. There's still rail from Camp Kilmer in New Brunswick, and I wudnt be surprised it the AC rwy tracks are still under Atlantic Avenue,