History of CNJ around Sheppards Mill?

Hi I am new to the forum and have a few questions about the history of NJ railways. I am a huge history buff mostly civil war, and I recently purchased a new home. An old railroad right of way runs through the rear of the property. After much research and several hours of reading I have discovered it to be part of the CNJ line from Red Bank to Bayside. Now for the interesting part. There is a building at the rear of my property....which turns out to be the The Sheppards Mill Station....I know from reading that the station opened in 1872-3 and closed in 1923....I was wondering if anyone else had any info or pictures of this section of the line. Was it ever a passenger train? or was this just a station for coal or water? I have many questions if anyone has any info or could point me in the right direction i would appreciate it. It is really cool to see this building still standing. the right of way actually runs through my neighbors property and they have a 100 year right of way for their driveway to cross the abandoned RR bed. To this day you can walk about 6 miles of the old rr bed. the tracks are long gone, but I would love to hear anything about this section thanks

chuck n
sheppards mill / bridgeton NJ

chazoz wrote:Hi I am new to the forum and have a few questions about the history of NJ railways. I am a huge history buff mostly civil war, and I recently purchased a new home. An old railroad right of way runs through the rear of the property. After much research and several hours of reading I have discovered it to be part of the CNJ line from Red Bank to Bayside. Now for the interesting part. There is a building at the rear of my property....which turns out to be the The Sheppards Mill Station....I know from reading that the station opened in 1872-3 and closed in 1923....I was wondering if anyone else had any info or pictures of this section of the line. Was it ever a passenger train? or was this just a station for coal or water? I have many questions if anyone has any info or could point me in the right direction i would appreciate it. It is really cool to see this building still standing. the right of way actually runs through my neighbors property and they have a 100 year right of way for their driveway to cross the abandoned RR bed. To this day you can walk about 6 miles of the old rr bed. the tracks are long gone, but I would love to hear anything about this section thanks

chuck n
sheppards mill / bridgeton NJ

First Off Welcome!

Thats really neat that you have some railroad history right on your property! I'm sorry don't have any info on the ROW. I'm sure your local town may have some info for you. You also might want to check out the CNJ forum.

Chuck, there's a picture of this station on pg. 451 in 'The Trail of the Blue Comet" by Baer, Coxey and Shopp.
The station bldg was built in 1891. It had a small passenger shelter and what looks to be a small freight platform. The pic is ca. 1916. There was a larger station at Greenwich, about 1.4 miles away, so that probably handled much more freight business than the Sheppards Mills Sta.

This is about all it mentions about the station, unfortunately. The book was published in 1994 by the West Jersey Chapter of the Nat'l. Railway Historical Society. The Library of Congress Cat Number is: 93-061448. IDK if it's still in print or not.

Please let us know if you find out anything more about the station.