Branch off CSX line near Trenton

[kilroy]

I attended Rider College starting in September 1977 and there was no service on the trolley by then.

[pumpers]

Kilroy (and others), do you know when that stretch of 95 (from Route 1 west past Lawrenceville & Ewing to the Delaware River) was constructed - the section that crossed over the trolley ROW?. I haven't been able to find the date. I know the highway number changed at least once (was 295? before the switch to 95 about 5-10 (?) years ago..)
JS
PS. I think the highway may have been built with an underpass for the trolley line (which may have never been used or even had rails on it). Can anyone confirm? If it existed, is the underpass still there (maybe now part of the Lawrence trail network)??

[CJPat]

I-295 officially runs from the intersection with US Rt 1 south to the Delaware Memorial Bridge area. I-95 funs north through Phila and turns East at the Delaware and breaks off and joins I-295 at Rt 1 and then begins again on the NJTurnpike presumably at Exit 7A and continues North to Maine. I-95 was supposed to run East from Ewing/Pennington, through Princeton and join the Turnpike around Exit 8 or so. I believe the Princeton Bennies were able to shut down that plan in the 1960's/early '70's? Talk about some strong Political Power to disrupt The Major Interstate in the US breaking the flow of Boston to Washington DC. The money that had to change hands to pull that one off must have been mind-boggling.

I am fairly certain that I-295 always ran at grade level past Rider College's property and never had a bridge constructed. Almost all the trolley's were eliminated in NJ by approx. 1948 (not county the Newark Subway). The big hit came in 1924 during the Big Trolley Strike over the mandatory reduction of trolley operating personnel from a typical crew of 2 (conductor & Operator-Engineer?) down to just the Operator who had to run the trolley and collect fares at the same time (like a bus driver). After the mid-1930's, the trolley system began to dissolve due to the less expensive bus which started to become more reliable and didn't need to pay for special ROW infrastructure. I think Phila still has the electrified buses running off of Cantenary, don't they?

Upon the demise of the trolley, I believe Reading operated a small steam locomotive to run the few cars up the line and back. Rider College moved to Lawrence in 1959 so I doubt they ever had any passenger support from the railroad. Maybe coal deliveries? Although I never saw anything indicating a siding ever existed.

I don't know when the tracks went dormant or were pulled up. Please provide any corrections if I am erring in anyway.

[pumpers]

CJ - see the links in my post on the first page about the trolley history - it lasted bringing coal to Lawrenceville to perhaps the early 70's, running past Rider. When 195 was built from Hamilton to the shore, they put an overpass in for the Pemberton and Hightstown RR, but I think the P&H went out before 195 was finished. I am wondering if the same thing happened with the trolley and 95 near Rider. (And I am fairly sure that what is called 95 now from the Delaware River by the Mercer COunty airport to Route 1 had a different number until 5 or 10 years ago).
JS
PS. At one point in the mid 1980's (perhaps after the routing through Princeton to the NJ Turnpike that you describe was shot down) there was a move to connect what is now 95 from the Pennington area up to 287 in the Manville /Bound Brook area, if I recall correctly, very roughly following the direction of the old Reading Trenton line (now CSX). I know because I lived in a town in between at the time. We called it "son of 95". That didn't fly either. On 95, somewhere in the Pennington area, driving towards Rte 1 there is a sharp turn to the right. 20-25 years or so ago , before the trees filled in, it used to look like the road was supposed to go straight and they did initial clearing, and it was later connected (via the curve) to Route 1 like it is now. I never saw a map with the original route, but that it sure what it looked like at that bend - that could have been the start of your Turnpike connection ROW. Looking at maps it was perhaps between Federal City Rd and Route 31.

[kilroy]

Can't answer your questions pumpers other than to say when I attended the highway was known as 295.

[CJPat]

Pumpers
You are correct about the P&H under I-195. The stretch with the overpass was built shortly after they shutdown. I assume since at that time, the ROW was not abandoned, the State was fobliged to build a bridge. Not the case for up by Rider College. No bridge.

The bend in the highway immediately east of Exit 4 Rt 31 was indeed the route I-95 was supposed to go in its intent to run eventually through Princeton. I have worked in Lawrenceville and Ewing for the past 20 years and there has been no road name changes for the highway. As you know, Exit 1 is Rt 29, Exit 2 is Bear Tavern Rd, Exit 3 is Scotch Rd, Exit 4 is Rt 31, Exit 5 is Federal City rd, Exit 7 is Rt 206 and Exit 8 is Princeton Pike. As you see all these exit numbers are consistent with one road, I-95. Rt 1 is the northern terminus of I-295. Had I-95 continued properly, Exit 5-8 would have been numbered for I-295 (Exit 68 is US Rt 1) instead until it reached the junction with I-95.

If you are sure the tracks made it into the Diesel era, I will believe you, but I am fairly certain the ROW was abandoned by the time they built the Highway.

[pumpers]

Kilroy, CJ, thanks. I think you are both right.
I spent some time on Google, which confirms that part of the 95 stretch we are talking about indeed used to be 295 ( as Kilroy and I remember) but it was over 20 years ago when the transition happened, not 5 or so like I thought - before CJ's time in the area. (I know time does fly but wow...). I do seem to remember coming south on Route 1 to the interchange and having 295 in both directions. I guess they called them east and west.
From http://www.interstate-guide.com/i-295_denj.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; , about 2/3 of down the page:

Here is an older, button copy version of the Interstate 295 transition to Interstate 95 southbound signage at the U.S. 1 interchange north of the capital city of Trenton. This is not the original terminus of Interstate 295 however, as Exit numbers used to continue two miles westward to the New Jersey 31 interchange. The truncation of Interstate 295 to this interchange occurred in the early 1990s. ...

That 295 originally went a few exits to the west of Route 1, and that west of Rte 31 was always 95, is consistent with the idea that 95 was supposed to diverge from that area towards Princeton and the Turnpike, and 295 was just tying into it.

If anyone digs up a map of the original 95 plan please post a link.
I guess that this part of 95/295 was constructed in the mid 70's, but haven't found confirmation.
JS
OK, to make sure we stay on a RR topic to keep the moderators happy: in my youth in the late 70's, I was driving from the central NJ area with a carload of rowdy friends to see a basketball game in Philadelphia, never having been in Philly before and not really knowing where we were going. I remember we were on a highway (recently constructed 95 in hindsight) coming into the city , and it was winter and already dark. Suddenly 95 ended (or we got off at the wrong exit?), and we tried to navigate by dead reckoning, and we found ourselves on a very dark street in an industrial area near the waterfront, with no traffic so we kept going. THen all my friends started shouting like h... - there was a train coming right down the middle of the street right at us. That's when we decided it was time to pull over and then turn around! Best I can figure almost 40 years later is that it was around the Ben Franklin bridge along what is now Columbus street by the river - where the Reading Belt line used to run in the street. The scene was like out of an old movie - the warehouses, dark street, a train, ..

[glennk419]

OK, to make sure we stay on a RR topic to keep the moderators happy: in my youth in the late 70's, I was driving from the central NJ area with a carload of rowdy friends to see a basketball game in Philadelphia, never having been in Philly before and not really knowing where we were going. I remember we were on a highway (recently constructed 95 in hindsight) coming into the city , and it was winter and already dark. Suddenly 95 ended (or we got off at the wrong exit?), and we tried to navigate by dead reckoning, and we found ourselves on a very dark street in an industrial area near the waterfront, with no traffic so we kept going. THen all my friends started shouting like h... - there was a train coming right down the middle of the street right at us. That's when we decided it was time to pull over and then turn around! Best I can figure almost 40 years later is that it was around the Ben Franklin bridge along what is now Columbus street by the river - where the Reading Belt line used to run in the street. The scene was like out of an old movie - the warehouses, dark street, a train, ..

You were obviously on Delaware Avenue and at that time, the piers and associated rail traffic were still much more active than today. At that time, it would have been Conrail (OR more ironically CP / DELAWARE and HUDSON RR as they were the contracted operator for the Port Authority) service coming out of Greenwich yard at the south end by the stadiums as the Reading branch down American Street was already pretty much already truncated below Girard Avenue.
Most of that trackage is still miraculously still in place up the middle of Delaware Avenue or Christopher Columbus Blvd or whatever they call it this week but service to the piers, even those still having connected sidings, is virtually nonexistent.

[transit383]

An excellent description of the unbuilt I-95 can be found here:

NYC Roads - I-95 (Unbuilt)

An equally interesting description of the route's northern terminus near Metuchen and a spur (I-695) to Bound Brook can be found here:

NYC Roads - I-695 (Unbuilt)

I-95 was supposed to continue north after the current Exit 4 (NJ-31) interchange. The wide grassy median of I-95 between Exits 4 and 5 was for the ramp system connecting I-95 and I-295. I-95 would have continued north paralleling US-206 and the Reading line before joining with I-287 near Exit 4 and I-695 spurring off to join I-287 near Exit 10.

There is a housing development off US-206 in Hillsborough that would have had a section of I-95 dissecting it. The ROW is clearly visible in this Google Maps view.

To keep things on topic... had I-95 been built, perhaps congestion on it today would jump-start the West Trenton Line.

[pumpers]

That's the Pike Run condo development in Montgomery Township you point out. Actually, that came about in the late 80's early 90's, long after I95 was dead. I was living in Montgomery Township at the time. In response to the end of 95, there were state and county efforts to build local roads to handle traffic. One was the "son of 95" I described earlier (which now that my neurons warm up was not supposed to cover all that 95 distance, but still a good part of it). Another was that the state wanted to turn route 206 from Somerville to Princeton into a 4 lane divided highway, like Route 1 or Route 22 . 206 was and still is mostly a 2 lane road, even today still with rural looking sections in that area. It was supposed to chew up a large part of the mayor's farm right alongside 206, so you can be sure all the stops were pulled out to fight it. Guess the DoT should have checked that one out ahead of time! The compromise in the end was the town legally agreed to a 206 bypass starting in northern Montgomery, going through the site of the yet to be thought of Pikes Run condo, and then through Hillsborough, and leaving most of 206 in Montgomery and the mayor's farm alone. The northern part of the bypass (east of 206) is mostly built in Hillsborough, don't know if it is open yet. That ROW through the future condo land was agreed to by the town and that's why it was there when condo was built later. Of course, once all those condo residents moved in and found out about the highway to be built in the middle of them them, they raised h..., even though it had been in the news and on the maps for a quite a while (did the realtors tell the buyers about it? -- What do you think??). The scuttlebutt was the insiders had the condo built there, knowing that the ruckus the new residents would raise years later would kill the deal the insiders had agreed to, which was necessary to stop the project at the time. (It is NJ of course).

BACK TO RR TOPICS: WHen the new 206 bridge over the ex-Reading/CSX TRENTON LINE tracks at the Belle Meade /Montgomery border right by Pike's run was built a few years ago, that sealed the deal. -- that was built heavy duty to keep carrying all the 206 traffic, so there will be no bypass in Pikes Run now or even any part of Montgomery - only the Hillsborough section gets a bypass. Montgomery: 2 , NJ DOT: 0
JS
EDIT: Thanks for the 95 plan link. They called that section the "Somerset Expressway". Here is another I just found with maps and text describing how it changed over time: http://www.raymondcmartinjr.com/njfreew ... _Map0.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;