Camden & Amboy Railroad Memorial (original stone sleeper)

If nothing pans out, let me know. I am a trustee at the Pemberton Township Historic Trust. I am sure we could work them into a display (with rail) on our property. Beats having them get sent to a landfill. But as I asked earlier, someone must own them. I am in South Jersey so it is diificult for me to investigate from down here. Let me know if we can help.

Later!
Mr. Ed

Going to resurrect this thread to discuss this article:

gmnews.com Suburban

There is a blurb here about resurrection of passenger service; I assume as an extension of Light Rail. I'll post a link for that topic separately.

Link: Camden & Amboy Extension

Memorial pays tribute to Camden-Amboy Railroad

Much of that developmental transformation in Central Jersey was the byproduct of the Camden-Amboy Railroad, according to local historian Chuck Hager.

Chartered on Feb. 4, 1830, the Camden- Amboy Railroad was named for its destination points, Camden and South Amboy, and was the first railroad in North America to use steam-powered locomotives, Hager said. Horses or livestock pulled earlier railcars.

...

On Sept. 21, Hager and several other members of the commission pieced together a memorial in Spotswood incorporating stone pavers that were used to build the original railway in Spotswood in the 1830s. The memorial is located alongside the railroad tracks off Main Street.

The Camden-Amboy Railroad “is an important piece of history,” Hager said. “The memorial was built to help people be aware of its historical significance.”

Read the print version of this article the other day, and was surprised to hear about this as I had heard nothing prior. Location of the "Memorial" is in the small sliver of land that was spruced up a few years back between the tracks and Main Street, across from the Schweitzer Plant. I took the mention of passenger service restoration to mean the MOM line (even though it wouldn't pass through Spotswood, a bit of "journalistic license" on the part of writer).

Its easy to miss (only about 8 feet of track and a sign), but is really nice to see such a recognition of the C&A. The stone sleepers are definitely not original to the spot that they are now located, so could these be the sleepers from just up the road at the old A-B plant? Also speaking of this, what is the condition of the sleepers that were supposedly (I think) in Jamesburg? Like I said it isn't much, but if anyone is in the area I suggest making a quick stop to check out some local and national railroad history.

Hightstown already donated some stone sleepers to the Smithsonian. When the PRR roadway was torn up they found a section of the stones under it. They added a display next to the relocated freight house that the historical society occupies. If you drive along Docks Corner road in the Dayton section of South Brunswick there are some scattered along the road side which must have been built on old C & A roadbed...

wis bang wrote:Hightstown already donated some stone sleepers to the Smithsonian. When the PRR roadway was torn up they found a section of the stones under it. They added a display next to the relocated freight house that the historical society occupies. If you drive along Docks Corner road in the Dayton section of South Brunswick there are some scattered along the road side which must have been built on old C & A roadbed...

I looked on old maps, such as the topos at historicaerials.com, and there is no trace of a RR ever on what is now Docks Corner Rd (at least as far back as 1913 topo). The RR's back then are as they are now. Maybe the original C&A was in a very different RoW than what i think of as the C&A through the edge of Jamesburg, Helmetta, Spotswood, etc.??? Or there was a pre-1913 siding there that was gone by 1913??? JS

The C&A memorial is very nice in Spotswood. The Anhueser Busch property where there was the original C&A Memorial (red sign) is now blocked of with locked gates.
The gates have been put up recently, also noticed that Asphlundh Tree Company Trucks have been parking there as well. To my knowledge the C& A Stones are still
on the Anheuser-Busch property, but they are overgrown with poison ivy etc. The stones are definitely part of history and they should be preserved. The C&A is also
historic. Steve Coraggio

The former site of C&A sleepers near where the old Anheuser-Busch used to be located now had locked gates barring vehicles from entering. I don't know who owns that property now or who put the gates up. The gates have been in place for a while now, last one to two years.
Steve Coraggio