(rshsdepot) Pemberton and Hightstown Railroad

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From the Asbury Park Press.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
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Little left but memories of Plumsted's railroad
Once-bustling short line closed in '76
BY _JOSEPH SAPIA_ (mailto:JSAPIA_@_APP.COM.) 
STAFF WRITER
Along an Upper Freehold road, a driver may notice a sudden, almost  
imperceptible rise, followed by a just as sudden, slight decline. 
The specter of an old railroad crossing? Not as ghostly as one may think,  
considering the road's name is Davis Station, as in railroad station. 
If one does not notice the rise and fall in roads, one may see a narrow swath 
 through woods, fields and farmland. Look for the swath — with Jersey Central 
 Power & Light Co. electric wires — paralleling Sharon Station Road and Route 
 539 in Upper Freehold and High Bridge Road in Plumsted. 
These are remnants of the now-defunct Pemberton and Hightstown Railroad, also 
 known for most of its 100 or so years as the Union Transportation Company, 
or  simply the "UT." 
"I think about it every time I go across where the tracks were — the old  
times," said Charlie Horner, 81, of Plumsted, who worked for the UT from 1952 to  
its closure in 1976. 
From the 1860s to the 1970s, the UT was the think-I-can, think-I-can — and it 
 did! — short line serving the farm belt between Pemberton in Burlington 
County  and Hightstown in Mercer County. At both ends, the UT linked to other rail 
lines  and the outside world. 
There is even a book about it — "Pemberton and Hightstown, A Chronicle of  
Railroading through the Farm Belt of New Jersey" by John Brinckmann. 
"Originally, it was created so the farmers could get their milk and other  
stuff to market," said Plumsted Township Committeeman Kenneth H. Francis, 47,  
whose family's roots with the UT go back to great-grandfather Fred Johnson. 
Starting in about 1949, the Johnson-Francis family had controlling interest  
in the UT until it closed, said Francis' father, Kenneth J., the railroad's 
last  general manager. Kenneth J.'s wife and Kenneth H.'s mother, Mildred, was  
secretary-treasurer. The UT's base was in Plumsted near where Ace Hardware  
sits. 
On March 24, 1864, the Pemberton and Hightstown incorporated, according to  
Brinckmann's book. On Feb. 6, 1868, the railroad opened its approximately  
25-mile line. 
"Once the Pemberton and Hightstown settled into a daily routine, farm life  
was influenced for the better," according to Brinckmann's book. "Gone were the  
long, tiresome journeys over rutted or dusty roads as stages and wagons 
withdrew  to more localized duties." 
"Village affairs quickened with schedules of four comely passenger trains  
affording arrivals and departures of local affluents, city shoppers, a few  
commuters and the perennial expectation of U.S. Mail." 
Passenger-freight stations, according to Brinckmann's book, were at one time  
or another in Hightstown, five in Upper Freehold (at Sharon, Imlaystown, 
Davis,  Cream Ridge and Hornerstown), New Egypt in Plumsted, Cookstown and 
Lewistown in  New Hanover, Wrightstown, Fort Dix and Pemberton. Additionally, there 
were  freight-only sites. 
Passenger service ended about 1931, said Frank Inman, 86, an Upper Freehold  
resident who worked full-time for the UT from about 1949 to 1971 — as laborer, 
 trackman and brakeman — and part time before that. 
In the 1930s, Lakewood replaced New Egypt as a resort destination, said  
Kenneth J. Francis, 70. So the need for a commuter line diminished. 
But the freight line chugged along, although the UT's control of the line got 
 smaller around World War II (only from the Fort Dix area to Hightstown) and 
got  physically shorter (Fort Dix to Route 524 in Upper Freehold, or about 
half its  original length) when the New Jersey Turnpike construction, in the 
early 1950s,  cut off the railroad from Hightstown. 
"I was fortunate to be there before we got rid of the steam engine," said  
Horner, a railroad firefighter who shoveled coal to fuel the engine. 
A diesel-fueled engine replaced the steam engine in 1959. 
"I came up through the ranks from a "gandy dancer,' " said Horner, using the  
railroading term for one who lays and maintains track. 
The UT probably peaked in the mid-1920s, then spiked during World War II with 
 carrying military supplies and troops, Kenneth J. Francis said. Business 
picked  up in the late 1960s and early 1970s when construction of Interstate 195, 
done  in phases, was under way in the Upper Freehold area, Inman said. 
"That little railroad brought in girders for some of those bridges on  
(Interstate) 195," Kenneth H. Francis said. 
And the railroad hauled in materials for the building of Jackson's Six Flags  
family-entertainment complex, which opened in 1974, the elder Francis said. 
The UT was profitable, but the owner of the tracks — the Penn Central — was  
not. In 1976, the federal government created Conrail to consolidate Penn 
Central  and five other bankrupt railroads. The UT got caught up in this 
reorganization  and ceased operating, although the corporation lingered on paper until 
about  1980, Kenneth J. Francis said. 
"I felt as anyone would who lost a job they had for 20 or 30 years," Horner  
said. "You miss it and you hate to see them go out of business." 
Shortly after the UT shut down, the tracks were torn out, Horner said. 
Today, one of the old railroad's few physical remnants is a wooden trestle  
carrying the right-of-way across Lahaway Creek in Upper Freehold's  
Hornerstown. 
Of course, the memories of the UT remain.

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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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End of RSHSDepot Digest V1 #1453
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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org