by Jeff Kovacs/photos as noted
Camden & Amboy – The First Railroad
The first railroad to enter the coast off Raritan Bay in New Jersey was the Camden & Amboy Railroad (C&A) in December 1832. The C&A developed South Amboy as a “railroad town” and spurred its growth. Initially constructed to South Amboy to establish a passenger ferry and marine freight service to New York City, by 1876 it was developed into a bituminous coal terminal by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which had absorbed the C&A in 1872.
This traffic subsequently required development of larger yards and engine terminal facilities, and later grew to include construction in 1911 of two McMyler rotary car dumpers, along with two concrete steam-heated thawing sheds, which were in operation until closing March 31, 1971, resulting in the loss of 80 jobs to Seaboard Coal Dock and railroad employees. Before that time, on May 19,1950, the dumpers, along with the rest of South Amboy, suffered extensive damage when an ammunition barge being loaded on a PRR pier near the dumpers exploded, resulting in 31 deaths and 350 injuries.
ABOVE: This aerial view illustrates the South Amboy coal handling facilities in their Pennsylvania Railroad heyday. In the foreground are two McMyler rotary car dumpers; in the center are two steam-heated car thawing sheds, along with the PRR power plant; to the right is the engine house and servicing facility. The coal yard at right served the Werner Generating Station; and in the upper right is the 1700-car capacity Receiving and Storage yard. —Fairchild Aerial Surveys
Coal shipments, still 3,607,711 tons annually as late as 1966, were shipped on ocean-going vessels, and also to New York harbor customers via PRR (and later Penn Central) tugs and barges. Arriving coal trains were routed from Enola, Pa., powered by electric locomotives such as the P-5a, E-33 and E-44, as the line from Monmouth Junction (Midway) via Jamesburg to South Amboy was electrified in 1936, until electric operations were ended system-wide by Conrail in 1982.
The extensive coal handling facilities, including receiving and storage yards with a “working capacity” of over 2,000 cars, were phased out after 1971. The steam-era engine terminal, which remained substantially intact and later operated by NJ Transit Rail Operations (NJTR) to support the North Jersey Coast Line (NJCL) “engine change”, closed in 1988 when the engine change was eliminated following extension of electrification to Long Branch that year.
ABOVE: Penn Central GG1 4874 heads a westbound train over RIVER Bridge on October 19, 1974, as viewed from a popular photo spot. Both Pennsylvania Railroad and PC typically operated slightly more trains over the New York & Long Branch than joint-owner Central Railroad of New Jersey did. —Rich Taylor photo
Presently, the site of the engine terminal is a Transit Oriented Development residential housing complex called “Station Bay,” walkable to the NJT station. The “South Amboy Reach,” former pier for both coal dumpers, is intact and is now the location of the NY Waterway Ferry Terminal. Surprisingly, the former receiving and storage coal yards remain a large tract of undeveloped land. The Camden & Amboy line also connected with the New York & Long Branch Railroad (NY&LB) at South Amboy Junction, located at the west end of the Raritan River Bridge.
A passenger station was later constructed by PRR in February 1911 at that location. It was replaced by “SA” Tower, the original wooden structure burning in 1938, then replaced by the familiar brick structure on January 7, 1943. It was later re-designated Essay on October 29, 1972. After becoming remotely-controlled in 1982, the structure remained in use by NJTR signal personnel, but was razed on August 29, 2023, as part of the new Raritan River Bridge construction project.
ABOVE: Pennsylvania Railroad Baldwin BP-20 5774 shares the engine terminal with an Alco RS-1 and four General Electric E-44 electrics on April 28,1963. With A-1-A trucks, PRR was the only purchaser of Baldwin “passenger Sharks”, a roster which included eighteen A-units and nine B-units. —Rich Taylor photo
Passenger service on the C&A route itself ended October 23, 1959 when PRR Trains 2500 and 2509 made their final trips between Jamesburg and Perth Amboy. During the time that the coal dumpers were being closed, a new operation, McCormick Sand & Gravel, provided hope that South Amboy would continue to be a “railroad town.” Located near the NJCL M.U. yard, the company began using Penn Central to deliver unit sand trains of up to 100 cars from a sand pit along the PC mainline in Plainsboro, N.J. The sand was dumped for trans-shipment to trucks and barges.
After the sand pit closed, McCormick tried various ways to dredge sand from Raritan Bay, which raised citizen complaints on quality of life issues and related environmental hazards. The company subsequently shut down its South Amboy operations and relocated. Their EMD SW-1 switcher, 26, built in 1939 as Canton Railroad 26, continued to have an interesting career, winding up on the Towanda-Monroeton Shippers Lifeline as its 26, before earning a well-deserved retirement at Steamtown in Scranton, Pa., in 2015. Later, a leased Baltimore & Ohio Alco S-2 9076 closed out the operation.
ABOVE: Former Pennsylvania Railroad MP-54 441 survives in Tuscan red among a group of Penn Central green cars on June 19, 1971, in the South Amboy M.U. yard. Of the 236 MP-54 cars operated by PC, 55 cars were assigned to North Jersey. —Rich Taylor photo
Conrail took over Penn Central operations on April 1, 1976, and local freight service continues to be provided out of Browns Yard in Old Bridge, on the old C&A mainline, now known as the Amboy Secondary Track. While still an active local crew base, Browns Yard in its prime had a capacity of 1,700 cars.
On November 10,1986, a new connection was initiated from Browns Yard to the former Raritan River Rail Road (RRRR) Gillespie Branch, which enabled abandonment of the original RRRR line from Sayreville to South Amboy and its interchange with the CNJ on the NY&LB in South Amboy. Prior to Conrail, the twelve-mile Raritan River Rail Road, while jointly controlled by the CNJ and PRR since the 1930s, continued to be operated independently until being fully absorbed by Conrail on April 24, 1980. The Raritan River general offices, located on John Street adjacent to the North Jersey Coast Line were then closed. The unused structure gradually deteriorated and was demolished in August 2024.
ABOVE: Two’s Company, Three’s A Crowd: A typical weekday in March 1980 shows a westbound train for Bay Head departing behind E-8 4253. The GG1, which was just removed, heads towards ESSAY, while an Arrow M.U. train loads passengers from the eastbound station platform. On the right is the M.U. Track “hold out” signal. —Geoff Hubs photo
Conrail local freight SA-31 operated from Browns Yard over the original C&A to South Amboy and then proceeded south on the NJTR North Jersey Coast Line to Red Bank, destined to the primary customer Woodhaven Lumber in Lakewood on the Southern Secondary Track. After new short line Delaware & Raritan River Railroad (DRR) began operating the Southern Secondary trackage west of Red Bank, a new interchange was established in Jamesburg on February 22, 2024, and SA-31 no longer plies the C&A to South Amboy and over the North Jersey Coast Line…
