Tom Gallo's "Henry Hudson Trail" book has a lot on this. Some good pics of stations, like North Long Branch, East Long Branch, West End. Interesting to scope it out on a local map, where all the lines criss crossed in town.
As built, the line from Eatontown (c 1861) swung north toward North Long Branch and on to Sandy Hook to the boat terminal. This is the line that went through the later Branchport junction. Next came the New York & Long Branch (backed by Red Bank interests after the R&DB line was all but shut down between Eatontown and Port Monmouth.) NY&LB reached Long Branch, and officially ended at Cedar Ave. South (west) from there, the New Egypt & Farmingdale RR went on to Ocean Beach (Belmar). (Interesting story about how the name of this line came about). In Long Branch, a line was built from the Eatontown - Sandy Hook line going south to the NY&LB curve at Cedar Ave. (The long driveway entrance to the grocery store there was that ROW).
The whole Long Branch trackage affair resembled a big "K".
A lot of the trackage still exists from the Eatontown - Sandy Hook line through town. Look in old grade crossings for rail, most of them just north of Broadway.
More fun, trace the old trolley ROW. It ran on private land (not on the streets), north of and parellel to most of Broadway, with a bridge over the NY&LB. This is harder to trace, but portions are still there.
A former co-worker, who lived in Eatontown, used to shoot glass insulators with a BB gun along the ROW from the back of Fort Monmouth to Monmouth Park. He at least saved a couple, including some rare purple ones.
Lots of places in Long Branch still scream ROW.
As built, the line from Eatontown (c 1861) swung north toward North Long Branch and on to Sandy Hook to the boat terminal. This is the line that went through the later Branchport junction. Next came the New York & Long Branch (backed by Red Bank interests after the R&DB line was all but shut down between Eatontown and Port Monmouth.) NY&LB reached Long Branch, and officially ended at Cedar Ave. South (west) from there, the New Egypt & Farmingdale RR went on to Ocean Beach (Belmar). (Interesting story about how the name of this line came about). In Long Branch, a line was built from the Eatontown - Sandy Hook line going south to the NY&LB curve at Cedar Ave. (The long driveway entrance to the grocery store there was that ROW).
The whole Long Branch trackage affair resembled a big "K".
A lot of the trackage still exists from the Eatontown - Sandy Hook line through town. Look in old grade crossings for rail, most of them just north of Broadway.
More fun, trace the old trolley ROW. It ran on private land (not on the streets), north of and parellel to most of Broadway, with a bridge over the NY&LB. This is harder to trace, but portions are still there.
A former co-worker, who lived in Eatontown, used to shoot glass insulators with a BB gun along the ROW from the back of Fort Monmouth to Monmouth Park. He at least saved a couple, including some rare purple ones.
Lots of places in Long Branch still scream ROW.
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