(rshsdepot) Remembering Central Railroad of NJ

[Bernie Wagenblast <brwagenblast_@_comcast.net>]

Remembering Central Railroad

By JAMIE GOLDENBAUM
New Jersey Herald Staff Writer

From toy trains circling under the Christmas tree to giant locomotives
roaring over the tracks, railroads have been attracting hobbyists for
generations.
Trains emerged before airplanes, cars and trucks. They transported
materials, goods and people. And, they opened up previously impenetrable
locations.
The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey (CNJ), which once ran through
Sussex County, is one of the oldest railroads in the nation, having been
established in the 1830s.
Although the road was centralized in the area of Jersey City, Newark,
Elizabeth, Perth Amboy and Red Bank,rail routes extended to the Delaware Bay
on New Jersey's southern end and into Scranton, Pa., off to the west.
The impact CNJ brought to the state sparked a group of interested hobbyists
to join forces and establish the Central Railroad of New Jersey Historical
Society. "We decided that the rich heritage the railroad gave to New Jersey
was being lost, that we would form a group, which became the Central
Railroad of New Jersey Historical Society and try to preserve the history
and to educate people through different programs and a publication," said
Frank Reilly, president of the historical society.
A published 64-page book on the railroad's history also includes firsthand
accounts from former employees and photographs that Reilly obtained while
working for the company from 1966-72.
A CNJ Festival Day was organized by the society in October at Liberty State
Park. It attracted 200-300 former railroad employees, who participated in
roundtable discussions with other visitors and afforded the society an
opportunity to introduce its first publication.
Liberty State Park is also the location where the old Jersey Central
railroad station was headquartered.
Constructed in 1889, the station still stands today and is maintained by the
state. Much of the original rail lines are now part of the New Jersey
Transit system.
Activities at the festival included demonstrations of how trains
communicated in the 1800s, as well as how railroad signals operated.
Reilly said the festival crowd was estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 visitors by
park police.
Rail service throughout New Jersey opened up remote regions of the state and
provided rural area residents the chance to travel distances away from home.
"Once the railroad came to town, the town was connected to the outside world
and its success and growth were assured ... The railroad not only provided a
rapid mode of transportation, when 10 mph was considered breakneck speed,
but served as the major and often only reliable communications link with
other areas," Reilly wrote. "Until railroads came to an area, the average
person never traveled more than 20 miles from their home in their lifetime."
The CNJ went through Sussex County with a small route that led to Sparta and
Ogdensburg.
Over a century period, the CNJ traveled in and out of northern New Jersey
from 1876-1976, Reilly said.
"The Jersey Central built a branch of main line at High Bridge to reach the
iron mines in Morris County," said Reilly, who is also the executive
director of the Morris County Department of Transportation Management. "They
built this line from High Bridge through Chester, past Lake Hopatcong and on
up to the Edison station (in Sparta and Ogdensburg). That was the rail line
that went into Thomas Edison's experimental steel production plant, where he
tried to separate iron ore from rock with electricity.
"He built a plant up there," Reilly said. "Unfortunately, electricity was
expensive in those days. No matter what he did to reduce his cost, he couldn
't."
Nearly 1,000 copies of the publication have been sold, Reilly said, and the
society had 3,000 copies printed.
The book is for sale about 40 percent under the suggested retail price,
Reilly said, costing $17.35 for a soft cover and $25.25 for a hard cover
edition.
A copy can be obtained by mailing a check to the CNJ Historical Society, c/o
Thomas Gallo, 55-A Fulton St., Keyport, N.J., 07735-1907.


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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