NEWARK, N.J. — From toy trains circling under the Christmas tree to giant locomotives roaring over the tracks, railroads have been attracting hobbyists for generations, according to the New Jersey Herald.
Trains emerged before airplanes, cars and trucks. They transported materials, goods and people. And, they opened up previously impenetrable locations.
The Central Railroad Company of New Jersey (CNJ), which once ran through Sussex County, is one of the oldest railroads in the nation, having been established in the 1830s.
Although the road was centralized in the area of Jersey City, Newark, Elizabeth, Perth Amboy and Red Bank,rail routes extended to the Delaware Bay on New Jersey’s southern end and into Scranton, Pa., off to the west. The impact CNJ brought to the state sparked a group of interested hobbyists to join forces and establish the Central Railroad of New Jersey Historical Society.
“We decided that the rich heritage the railroad gave to New Jersey was being lost, that we would form a group, which became the Central Railroad of New Jersey Historical Society and try to preserve the history and to educate people through different programs and a publication,” said Frank Reilly, president of the historical society.
A published 64-page book on the railroad’s history also includes firsthand accounts from former employees and photographs that Reilly obtained while working for the company from 1966-72. A CNJ Festival Day was organized by the society in October at Liberty State Park. It attracted 200-300 former railroad employees, who participated in roundtable discussions with other visitors and afforded the society an opportunity to introduce its first publication.
Liberty State Park is also the location where the old Jersey Central railroad station was headquartered. Constructed in 1889, the station still stands today and is maintained by the state. Much of the original rail lines are now part of the New Jersey Transit system. Activities at the festival included demonstrations of how trains communicated in the 1800s, as well as how railroad signals operated.
Reilly said the festival crowd was estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 visitors by park police. Rail service throughout New Jersey opened up remote regions of the state and provided rural area residents the chance to travel distances away from home.
“Once the railroad came to town, the town was connected to the outside world and its success and growth were assured … The railroad not only provided a rapid mode of transportation, when 10 mph was considered breakneck speed, but served as the major and often only reliable communications link with other areas,” Reilly wrote. “Until railroads came to an area, the average person never traveled more than 20 miles from their home in their lifetime.”
The CNJ went through Sussex County with a small route that led to Sparta and Ogdensburg. Over a century period, the CNJ traveled in and out of northern New Jersey from 1876-1976, Reilly said.
“The Jersey Central built a branch of main line at High Bridge to reach the iron mines in Morris County,” said Reilly, who is also the executive director of the Morris County Department of Transportation Management. “They built this line from High Bridge through Chester, past Lake Hopatcong and on up to the Edison station (in Sparta and Ogdensburg). That was the rail line that went into Thomas Edison’s experimental steel production plant, where he tried to separate iron ore from rock with electricity.
“He built a plant up there,” Reilly said. “Unfortunately, electricity was expensive in those days. No matter what he did to reduce his cost, he couldn’t.”
Nearly 1,000 copies of the publication have been sold, Reilly said, and the society had 3,000 copies printed. The book is for sale about 40 percent under the suggested retail price, Reilly said, costing $17.35 for a soft cover and $25.25 for a hard cover edition.
A copy can be obtained by mailing a check to the CNJ Historical Society, c/o Thomas Gallo, 55-A Fulton St., Keyport, N.J., 07735-1907.