Camden & Amboy remnants?

In the mid-1980's and early 1990's I lived in Somerset Cty, NJ and frequently drove for business south to the Philadelphia area. I tended to take US 130 from South (North?) Brunswick down to I-295. There was a stretch of rt 130 (I think it was in/around Hightstown) that paralleled a one-track rail line. I recall seeing very occasional Conrail traffic, but the line seemed to be rarely used. Was this part of the original Camden & Amboy route?

Last summer was forced by traffic to exit the NJ Turnpike and drove thru Hightstown on my way back to Philly.

It's definitely old PRR trackage, and I'm fairly certain it can trace its heritage to the old C&A. I'd heard that the line was heavily taxed by the state of NJ as a "main line," so to save money CR severed the middle section and created two secondaries.

Parts of it are still there, in the weeds, while other parts have been severed or blacktopped by local businesses accessing the roadway.

They had basically ripped out the section of tracks through the center of Hightstown along with the bridge by the the Firehouse (year?). Then, when they rebuilt the Rt 130/Rt 33 junction on the southside of Hightstown in/about 1983, they removed the Rt 130 overpass bridge and obliterated the piece of ROW there.

I believe that when they built the new Rt 133 Bypass on the northside of Hightstown, the highway embankment runs right over the ROW too. There is a sign there that notes the C&A running through that area.

Some of the more prominant C&A trackage can be found as the ROW of the River Line from Bordentown south, the non River line track north (east) of Bordentown, segments around Jamesburg (is the iron rail pegged to the rock sleeperS there?), and near South Amboy. Local foamers can tell you the official names of the tracks.

Can't provide a definitive answer on this one, but I have a 1934 PRR New York Division Employees Timetable which lists the entire C & A as a single branch, carding at least three daily passenger moves and operated by the "unattended block stations" later redesignated as "Block-Limit Stations", which PRR used on lightly-trafficked lines.

Newer ETT's indicate that all the trackage in queston (Camden to Perth Amboy via Bordentown) was still intact by the mid-1960's, but it was no longer recognized as a single entity. The line was probably first severed aroud 1970, with the portions north and east of Trenton likely the first to go.

Yahoo has a group dedicated specifically to the C & A (that's Camden and Amboy, not Chicago and Alton for the midwesterners ), but activity there is very sporadic.

Here's a link:
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/P ... -Division/