The Freehold Secondary Mystery

[TOMSTV1]

They run a Santa Train from Brown's yard, to Freehold once a year.

[JohnFromJersey]

Will anyone be able to get some pictures of tomorrow's train?

[RailsEast]

For Freehold photos from previous years, see: http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/locThu ... x?id=91377" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Chris

[Blackseal Jim]

Neat story Gary !!!! Did those trains of petty rock come through Freehold to Spring Lake ? Train will be in town today. Monday is pretty much a guaranteed run. Builders General has 4 empties so the train heading back to Browns will be at least 5 with the splat.
Jim H

[JohnFromJersey]

Did the Nestle plant in Freehold ever use the railroad for transporting goods? If so, when did this stop, and why?

[CNWMAN]

I think I am uniquely qualified to answer your question John, I worked for Nestle for 20 years. Nestle had a long double siding against the building in the back of the plant for rail shipments. At one time, up to six railcars of instant coffee a day were shipped, and, green coffee beans were delivered as well. As a warehouse worker when I first started there in my early twenties, I loaded finished goods (instant coffee) and unloaded green beans ( 1000 150# bags per railcar, mostly new Raritan River boxcars in the seventies). I had a great opportunity to see the RS 11 Penn Central units come in the plant every day, and the engine crew would allow me on board while switching cars. We used to give the crew two cases of Tasters Choice every Xmas. The engineer for Penn Central was very friendly and always wanted us to give him empty burlap bags that he could take deep sea fishing, which we (myself and another railfan named Dennis K.) always did. Because of our relationship with the engineer, if the train was late after work hours, we would always go and board the engine and ride with him while Brockway Glass was switched with loaded covered hoppers of sand, and, on one occasion, enjoyed a cab ride back through downtown Freehold to the yard on Throckmorton St. near Builders Square.

Fast forward to the mid to late eighties, I am now the salaried Division Mgr. for all warehouse operations, by now rail had diminished to nothing due to corporate strategies shifting to trucking. As a result, Conrail notified me that we would have to pay a monthly "switch maintenance fee" of $ 1,200.00 or the switch would be removed. Based on our decision, I had the sad distinction of signing the paperwork confirming the decision to remove the switch from Nestle in 1989.

At one time Nestle saw the railroad as a free warehouse and did not see finished product as time sensitive, this all changed in the 1980's. The corporate folks I worked with despised the railroad and didn't want to do business with them at all. Two things I remember that stand out : Nestle had a strike in 1974 and some workers tried to lay down on the track leading to the plant to stop incoming shipments of green coffee. The engineer told Nestle he would not cross a picket line, and two Penn Central white shirts came to the plant, told the engineer to get out of the engine, blew the horn and came right into the plant without hesitating, as the guys got up off the tracks in a hurry ! Another was how the engine could not get up the grade to the plant every year when tall weeds would get on the rails and the big RS 11 would sit there and spin all its wheels until the heavy sanding got traction, incredible to see a stationary engine all revved up not moving.

Without question, the most amazing experience was riding the engine during a "flying switch" where the engine with six to ten cars went east past the Brockway siding about half a mile and reversed and accelerated back towards town, while the brakeman on the ground set the switch for Brockway. Another brakeman on the engine upcoupled the moving cars from the engine which slowed down as the cars kept going and went into the Brockway siding. Once they were in there the brakeman threw the Brockway switch to the mainline allowing the engine to go past it on the mainline and stop. He then reopened the Brockway switch as the cars rolled by gravity back out onto the mainline picking up speed. After they passed the switch, it was set for the mainline and the engine sped up and chased the rolling cars, coupling to them and coming to a stop before heading west back to Browns yard. They did this routine on a daily basis, no splat or going through town in cars first back then. It was amazing to ride the engine during this effort, I asked the engineer if the cars had ever kept going and I remember he said " Hasn't happened yet".

[GSC]

Neat story Gary !!!! Did those trains of petty rock come through Freehold to Spring Lake ? Train will be in town today. Monday is pretty much a guaranteed run. Builders General has 4 empties so the train heading back to Browns will be at least 5 with the splat.
Jim H

They were loaded at Trap Rock in Kingston and brought over the Freehold & Jamesburg right to Sea Girt and up the NY&LB to Spring Lake. I don't remember how long the trains were, but not that long as the siding at Lewis Lumber wasn't very long. I remember they ran rather slow. The line between Farmingdale and Sea Girt must not have been in great shape by then.

[baju]

I remember watching a similar move on the railroad behind my friends house on Pennsylvania ave in Wall. The railroad ran right behind his house. The engine an RS 3 or Sw1 would shove several cars east toward Manasquan...uncouple and the cars would drift eastward while the breakman would be controlling them with the handbreak wheel on the boxcars. They would coast to the small yard between Main Street and Broad street in Manasquan. The engine would then shove the coal hopper to the coal siding by the prr station. Deliver the boxcar to the lumber yard on Atlantic ave and take the remainder of cars to Sea Girt freight station...I assume. I remember a semi regular freight rumble past in the early morning hours 3 am to 4am when I stayed over for the night. This freight may of been delivering the jetty rocks from Kingston. I observed several cars with jetty rocks during the following day in the small yard in Manasquan. The doodlebug was operating twice a day. The doodlebug wasn't the 4666 at Kutztown Pa. It was slightly longer version with a horn that had a distinct Marbley sound. Sometimes it would run with a caboose or another passenger car. Occasionally a rs3 with a couple of passenger cars would run. All this occurred during the mid to late 1950s. I have some black and white pictures I took back then if I can ever load them. Sometimes we would walk the railroad from Manasquan to Allenwood to fish. If we were lucky we sometimes would ask the engineer of the freight delivering empty sand hoppers to a gravel pit on hospital road to give us a ride back to Manasquan in the mid afternoon. Those were fun times and a different world.

[TOMSTV1]

I lived at 1217 Pennslyvania ave. back in the 50s & 60s. I remember the 4666, the coal yard at Manasquan, and the Broad street Station too .

[baju]

I have a black and white photo ot the Prr Sw1 freight...heading west... passing in back of 1217 pennsylvania ave wall twp. From the old hultsart Apple orchard...now a cornfield and bicycle path.

[pumpers]

Baju, Tomstv -- sounds like maybe you guys are long lost buddies from 50 years ago??

[TOMSTV1]

I thought that was Bennetts's orchard, and I think he had a farm on the west side of rt-35, near the bridge, were the railroad passed through the middle of it.

[GSC]

Baju, I remember the "gurgly" sound of the Doodlebug horn. I lived in Neptune City at the time, right next to the NY&LB, and it would blow the horn for the Avon station as it ran west in the morning. It was my "alarm clock", running by around 6 am or so. Returning later in the day, that end of the Doodlebug didn't have a gurgly horn, just a one-note horn that was distinctly different from the low-note CNJ engines, and the 5-chime PRR E-units.

So much railroading around here back then. Great memories.

[baju]

During the late 1950s on a Sunday afternoon I observed the last steam excursion k4 make its way slowly west on the rails between Manasquan and Allenwood. My cousin is about 9 years older than me and remembers regular steam on that line. That would probably be in the late 1940s into the 1950s. I wonder if any one on here knows when they ended steam on the Freehold and Jamesburg for both freight operations and passenger.

[TOMSTV1]

What I've found is in 1954 steam trains ended on the Freehold and Jamesburg, I think there was an earlier model Doodle bug before the 4666, how ever in 1957, they ran a "Farewell to Steam" fan trip, with engine 612, and the Doodle Bug 4666 ran until May 1962. In 1964 they remove the line from Manasquan to Farmingdale.