PRR Line to Sea Girt

Tri-State Tom wrote:

Back to Sea Girt....

What about a siding near the junction into the adjacent Fort Monmouth property ?

...do you mean the Sea Girt Army Camp?

For Manasquan's Centennial in 1987, they published quite a complete volume on the history and development of town. They reproduced a number of maps from the late 1800's on showing the development of the town, and many of the maps showed the railroads.

I dug out the volume tonight and based on the maps, I can add the following...

Two maps from 1873 show what we are calling the Sea Girt branch of the PRR by the name of the Freehold & Farmingdale Railroad. This route heads east across Broad Street and curves north to what was then the Central Railroad of New Jersey. What is interesting is that there is no "junction" or "SG" interlocking at this time; the CNJ did not yet continue south of the curve connecting to the Freehold & Farmingdale. The remainder of the CNJ past Main Street Manasquan south through Brielle, Point Pleasant and Bay Head was not yet constructed in 1873.

A more detailed 1878 map still only shows the CNJ curving to the west to connect to the F&F; still no junction or track to the south. The map shows the CNJ as single track to Broad Street. Just west of Broad Street, there is a passing siding that extends to just past North Main Street and the station is located about midway along the double-tracked section. Interestingly enough, the Sea Girt branch is now labelled the Farmingdale and Squan RR on this map. There is also a very short siding to a small "Engine House" located off of the curve near Pearce Avenue. This would be near where the #2 Firehouse is today, and not very far from my backyard...

In 1889, a lot has changed. The single track route south from Sea Girt that curved west toward the "Farmingdale and Squan" is now double track and continues south from Sea Girt through Manasquan, past a new Main Street station, and continues off the map toward Brielle. The "Farmingdale and Squan" is now a junction with the north/south NY&LB in Sea Girt at what was later called "SG" interlocking. The former CNJ is now called the New York and Long Branch, which is noted to be "PRR & CNJ". There was a siding serving the Main Street station from the south off the westbound (Bay Head) track and a long siding serving what most recently was Manasquan Lumber extending south off the eastbound track. Another siding off of the eastbound track served a cannery and later an ice house near where the Elks Club is today.

This map does not quite extend to where the SG interlocking would have been, but the single track leading off of the now NY&LB is still there along with the little single track siding and engine house. This branch is now listed as the Freehold and Jamesburg Railroad; a passenger station is shown near Broad Street and a freight station is shown east of North Main Street. The passing siding is still there, but another siding is shown on the south side extending from west of the freight station and ending just west of the passenger station at a "coal yard".

In a short section dedicated to the railroad influence in Manasquan, it is confirmed that the first railroad to town was from the west in 1872. The "Farmingdale and Squan Village" railroad to Manasquan was noted as being an eastward extension of the "Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad" to Manasquan. It then extended across Broad Street, curving north and ending in Sea Girt. The CNJ had not reached Sea Girt in 1872.

In 1875, the CNJ had built the NY&LB as far south as Sea Girt and the two lines were connected. It was stated that this now allowed the CNJ to run as far south as the Manasquan Broad Street station. The NY&LB reached Point Pleasant in 1880 and the PRR and CNJ assumed joint operation of the NY&LB in 1882. The PRR leased both the "Farmingdale and Squan Village" and "Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad" in 1881, looking to capitalize on service to the shore through Manasquan from both north Jersey and New York from the north on the NY&LB, as well as from Philadelphia and west Jersey over the original two lines they now leased. They ultimately connected to the PRR main line, now the Northeast Corridor; at Monmouth Junction.

So the very first rail to Manasquan and Sea Girt was over the now long abandoned "Sea Girt Branch". The NY&LB arrived a couple of years later, but at least it remains!

But in all of the maps and history discussion, there was no mention of a siding into the Sea Girt Army Camp.

Tech, interesting post. I can't lay my hands on the reference material right now but IIRC the Sea Girt military facility wasn't established until the late 1890's, maybe for the Spanish-American War in 1898. That would account for why your maps show nothing going in there.

IIRC, there was siding into Sea Girt Army camp. Up until about 1980, the rails were still in some of the surrounding streets, crossing Sea Girt Ave and curving Southeasterly away from the NY&LB. You might find pictures in books referencing Woodrow Wilson's tenure as governor of NJ. I believe he used the Camp as a summer home.

Speaking of rails through the camp,the Atlantic Coast Electric Railway Company ran a trolly through there,back in the early 1900s. here is an old picture of the trolly comming through the Sea Girt Plaza..

Here's a better pix of the trolly at Brighton ave, in Spring Lake Hights

JLo, TOMSTV beat me to it with a possible answer about "other" rails in the vicinity of the Army Camp.... Trolleys! The Manasquan history book recalls that "...on the east side of the (...now North Jersey Coast mainline) tracks at the junction of Stockton Lake Boulevard was the end of the trolley line... ...went through Sea Girt on 3rd Avenue, across Wreck Pond to 5th Avenue in Spring Lake, then to 3rd Avenue then up to Asbury Park."

As for what is now the Sea Girt Army Camp, the earliest map that shows that property and the adjacent railroad is dated 1892. The Army Camp property is listed as the "N.J. Military Encampment". What is now the NJCL is listed as the New York & Long Branch Railroad and is shown then as two tracks along the same route as today; the "Sea Girt Branch" is shown as single track leaving the NJCL and curving to the south and west toward Broad Street.

Thanks! That makes sense, although the 3rd Ave Route for the Trolley is interesting in Sea Girt. It would required a crossing of Wreck Pond at its widest point.

I recall when the DOT resurfaced Rt. 71 in Bradley Beach in the early 80s, they tore out the trolley tracks for the line you described that had been covered for 50 years.

For what it's worth,I've restored some of the pictures that were lost,because I changed to a different server. A lot of the pictures came from the local books,like "THE UNIQUE NEW YORK & LONG BRANCH",and "THE TRAIL OF THE BLUE COMET"
Hope this helps.

JLo wrote:I recall when the DOT resurfaced Rt. 71 in Bradley Beach in the early 80s, they tore out the trolley tracks for the line you described that had been covered for 50 years.

And the tracks through Neptune remained beneath Route 71 until 2006, when the NJDOT reconstructed the road and removed the tracks.

Photos in this thread:
http://www.railroad.net/forums//viewtop ... 27&t=26143

More trolley tracks were removed early summer 2009, Main St., Bradley Beach. Here and there, Main St. in Asbury Park, along where the NJCL station is, some trackage will appear through the blacktop.

Sea Girt Camp had a few tracks, serving various buildings. Next time you are at the Camp, there's a warehouse building that is situated east-west on the south side of the camp, with a long loading platform. At the east end of the building, a bumping post is still there, although trackage has been gone a long time. This building was used as the temporary morgue for victims of the Morro Castle ship disaster on Sept 8, 1934.

There was a small yard on camp property on the east side of the NY&LB, right behind where SG tower stood. Don Wood's "Unique NY&LB" book shows box cars there in the shot of SG Tower.

Here are a few parting shots of the PRR 4666,The last passenger train to run on the Sea Girt to Trenton line,in 1962.
the first picture is at Freehold

Next is at the former Broad st.Station Manasquan.

next is at the Sea Girt Station,the rest are on the NJ coast line.

Great shots of the Doodlbug!

I was about 5 years old and living in Neptune City at the time, right next to the NY&LB at the old Sylvania Ave. wooden bridge over the tracks, and I remember the westbound Doodlebug heading to Sea Girt about 7 in the morning, with it's "gurgly" horn blowing for the Avon station, my "alarm clock". 4666's westound horn sounded like it had water in it, I'll always remember that sound. Its eastbound single-note horn was also unique in sound, neither CNJ single low-note or Pennsy 5-chime, I'd hear that around suppertime on its return trip.

The signal bridge at Sea Girt was by far the coolest thing I ever saw back in those days, aong with that tangle of junction trackage. Dad was a closet railfan, and we'd go see these things on the weekly Sunday rides we took back then. (Google search for the concept of "going for a ride", all but forgotten today)

My first "chase" was when Dad took us out one summer day and we found a PRR freight train in Sea Girt, and followed it to Allenwood, where it picked up a box car, and then it went along past Allaire and the 547 crossing near Farmingdale. Dad went to every grade crossing and we waited for the train, not going very fast, and the crew waved at the little kid that I was each time. We left it after it crossed the diamond at Farmingdale, other places to go on Dad's itinerary. The PRR train was an SW unit, two box cars, and a caboose. A big thrill for me that day!

Thanks G.S.C. ! for your story,glad to hear it. Just a blast from the past.

http://tomsriver.tv/photo/1951-railroad

http://tomsriver.tv/photo/1951-railroad-tr

Nice pix, but they aren't of the line to Sea Girt. These are of the Philadelphia-Bay Head Junction line, which formerly ran across the Barnegat Bay to Seaside Park and then north up the barrier island.