PRR Line to Sea Girt

Guys

My great uncle was a PRR conductor out of Browns Yard, and he used to operate on this line all the way between Sea Girt and the Northeast Corridor. I have a hand drawn "track map" that he had to draw, from memory, in order to qualify as a conductor on this line. It shows all tracks, all customer sidings (with names) and all signals for the entire length of Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad. It is one of my favorite items that he left me.

Unfortunately, it is on paper that is about 16 inches wide and at least 3-4 feet long. I have no idea how to make a copy of something that is this long. I have been wanting for years to have it mounted and framed, but have not gotten that far yet. Happy to pull it out and answer any questions, if I can.

Al

A place that copies blueprints or engineering plans should be able to help you out...of course it will cost you a few bucks.

Railamer wrote:Guys

My great uncle was a PRR conductor out of Browns Yard, and he used to operate on this line all the way between Sea Girt and the Northeast Corridor. I have a hand drawn "track map" that he had to draw, from memory, in order to qualify as a conductor on this line. It shows all tracks, all customer sidings (with names) and all signals for the entire length of Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad. It is one of my favorite items that he left me.

Unfortunately, it is on paper that is about 16 inches wide and at least 3-4 feet long. I have no idea how to make a copy of something that is this long. I have been wanting for years to have it mounted and framed, but have not gotten that far yet. Happy to pull it out and answer any questions, if I can.

Al

wow, thats great! Definintely would be a great thing to have mounted on a wall! gives me a few idea of framing and hanging some of my own hand drawn maps...

Thats the old PRR way of doing things - had to draw and recite the whole line from memory......you KNEW the line when you were done!

snavely wrote:A place that copies blueprints or engineering plans should be able to help you out...of course it will cost you a few bucks.

Triangle printing is pretty good.

http://www.triangleprinceton.com/

I've seen this photo a few times over the years. Is this a shot of a wreck? The car looks twisted. I've seen a wider shot of this, and the car appears wrecked. Look at the roof. Can't tell if the trolley is damaged. Anyone know the story here?

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

What a great treasure Railamer has!

Frank Riddle was the last passenger trainman on the Doodlebug. Some years later, he donated his uniform to the NJ Museum of Transportation / Pine Creek RR at Allaire. Before his health failed, he would volunteer as a conductor on the Pine Creek, of course dressed in that uniform.

I posted the picture of the Trolly a wile back,in answeras to what some old rails were,near the coast line. The picture is of
a car vs. Trolly. I cropped the shot to better show the trolly.Here is a before and after of Brighton ave and 4th ave,then
and now

Great shot. I always thought that was evidence of a "miscalculation" on someone's part.

I lived a few years just across the tracks on Beverly Ave in SLH. Isn't that intersection Brighton and 5th? Mom and we kids walked that way to 3rd Ave for shopping many many times.

As you look at the Trolly,you are looking west,the NJT RR. line is behind the Trolly. The location is 4th & Brighton ave,
Springlake HTS.

Apparently, all the real estate of the line between Farmingdale and Sea Girt went to a company called "Pendel." They had a trustee, so I assume they were bankrupt. Pendel sold the property to Conrail. Conrail sold the property to the State of New Jersey, by and through the Commuter Operating Agency of NJDOT (NJT's predecessor) on June 15, 1984, but was effective retroactively April 1, 1976.

So it look like the ROW made it into NJT ownership. I guess the area around Sea Girt was sold off as excess property.

The deed is available on the Monmouth County Clerks' website.

The ROW from Main St. Manasquan has been paved all the way to Allaire State Park as a rail trail. A nice trail to bike.

"Pendel" was a Real Estate division or subsidiary or something of PennCentral and probably Pennsylvania Railroad. It usually owned land that wasn't being used for railroad operations. The Final System Plan may have a clue about why ConRail got the land. More likely, the state wanted the land all along, and

Pendel sold the property to Conrail. Conrail sold the property to the State of New Jersey, by and through the Commuter Operating Agency of NJDOT (NJT's predecessor) on June 15, 1984, but was effective retroactively April 1, 1976.

was a way to sell the land at net liquidation value, and let the United States, owner of ConRail at that time, be responsible for any difference. Most of the commuter and Amtrak lines were sold in this manner, for this reason.
Very interesting!

The Pendell company sounds a bit like the United New Jersey Railroad and Canal Company.

In the book "The Wreck Of The Penn Central", it was said that the real estate holdings of PRR / PC were huge and continued to show profits even when the railroad operations divisions were crashing and burning. The real estate part was not part of the railroad (on paper at least), and didn't have to put any money into the money-losing operations divisions. Creative bookkeeping at its finest.

Hey, mega kudos to all of you here on your extremely interesting reflections, research and commentary !

This old-timer has found it all quite entertaining and educational....

WELL DONE !