The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a

Class I railroad In the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, st ...

with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States.

History

The earliest railroad ancestor of the CNJ was the Elizabethtown & Somerville Railroad, incorporated in 1831 and opened from

Elizabethport Elizabeth is a City (New Jersey), city and the county seat of Union County, New Jersey, Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1836. Horses gave way to steam in 1839, and the railroad was extended west, reaching Somerville at the beginning of 1842. The Somerville & Easton Railroad was incorporated in 1847 and began building westward. In 1849 it purchased the Elizabethtown & Somerville and adopted a new name: Central Railroad Company of New Jersey. The line reached Phillipsburg, on the east bank of the Delaware River, in 1852. It was extended east across Newark Bay to Jersey City in 1864, and it gradually acquired branches to Flemington,

Newark Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

Perth Amboy Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey. Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 55,436. Perth Amboy has a Hispanic majority population. In the 2010 census, th ...

, Chester, and Wharton. The New Jersey Southern (NJS) began construction in 1860 at Port Monmouth. The railroad worked its way southwest across lower New Jersey and reached Bayside, on the Delaware River west of Bridgeton, New Jersey in 1871. The NJS came under control of the CNJ in 1879. CNJ's influence briefly extended across the Delaware River in the form of the Baltimore & Delaware Bay Railroad, from Bombay Hook, Delaware, east of

Townsend Townsend (pronounced tounʹ-zənd) or Townshend may refer to: Places United States *Camp Townsend, National Guard training base in Peekskill, New York *Townsend, Delaware *Townsend, Georgia *Townsend, Massachusetts, a New England town ** Townsend ...

, to

Chestertown, Maryland Chestertown is a town in Kent County, Maryland, United States. The population was 5,252 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Kent County. History Founded in 1706, Chestertown rose in stature when it was named one of the English col ...

. That line became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) family in 1901. CNJ's lines in Pennsylvania were built by the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company as the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad (L&S). The main line was completed between Phillipsburg, New Jersey and

Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...

in 1866. A notable feature of the line was the

Ashley Planes Ashley Planes was a historic freight cable railroad situated along three separately powered inclined plane sections located between Ashley, Pennsylvania at the foot, and via the Solomon cutting the yard in Mountain Top over above and initially bu ...

, a steep stretch of line (maximum grade was 14.65%) operated by cables driven by stationary engines, which remained in service until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

(WWII). CNJ leased the L&S in 1871. The line was extended to

Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

in 1888 by a subsidiary of the L&S, the Wilkes-Barre & Scranton; L&S leased the line upon completion and assigned the lease to the CNJ. The bulk of the traffic on the Pennsylvania lines was anthracite coal, much of it produced by subsidiaries of the railroad, until the Commodities Clause of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1920 forbade railroads to haul freight in which they had an interest. New Jersey Central Railroad ad 1915

From 1883 to 1887 the CNJ was leased to and operated by the

Philadelphia & Reading Railroad The Reading Company ( ) was a Philadelphia-headquartered railroad that provided passenger and commercial rail transport in eastern Pennsylvania and neighboring states that operated from 1924 until its 1976 acquisition by Conrail. Commonly calle ...

, with which it formed a New York-Philadelphia route. CNJ resumed its own management after reorganization in 1887. In 1901, the Reading Company (RDG), successor to the Philadelphia & Reading, acquired control of the CNJ through purchase of a majority of its stock, and at about the same time

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the first common carrier railroad and the oldest railroad in the United States, with its first section opening in 1830. Merchants from Baltimore, which had benefited to some extent from the construction of ...

(B&O) acquired control of the RDG, gaining access to New York over RDG and CNJ rails. In 1929, CNJ inaugurated the ''

Blue Comet The ''Blue Comet'' was a named passenger train operated by Central Railroad of New Jersey from 1929 to 1941 between the New York metropolitan area and Atlantic City. Designed by Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) president R.B. White in 192 ...

'', a deluxe coach train operating twice daily between Jersey City and Atlantic City. It was painted blue from the pilot of its 4-6-2 to the rear bulkhead of its observation car, and its refurbished cars offered a level of comfort much higher than the usual day coach of the era. The train was the forerunner of the coach streamliners that blossomed nationwide in the late 1930s and the 1940s. It succumbed to automobile competition in 1941. Also in 1929 CNJ purchased a 30 percent interest in the

Raritan River Railroad The Raritan River Rail Road was a shortline railroad in Middlesex County, New Jersey U.S., Founded in 1888, it was based in South Amboy, from which it ran west as far as New Brunswick. It served both passengers and freight in its heyday and o ...

, a 12-mile (19 km) short line from Perth Amboy to New Brunswick. In 1931 it acquired total ownership of the Wharton & Northern Railroad and a partial interest in the Mount Hope Mineral Railroad from Warren Foundry & Pipe Corporation. The lines in Pennsylvania were organized as the Central Railroad of Pennsylvania (CRP) in 1946 in an effort to escape taxation by the state of New Jersey. CNJ resumed its own operation of the Pennsylvania lines at the end of 1952. The CRP continued in existence as owner of the Easton & Western, four miles of track in

Easton, Pennsylvania Easton is a city in, and the county seat of, Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city's population was 28,127 as of the 2020 census. Easton is located at the confluence of the Lehigh River, a river that joins the Delaware R ...

. When the

Lehigh & New England Railroad The Lehigh & New England Railroad was a Class I railroad located in Northeastern United States that acted as a bridge line. It was the second notable U.S. railroad to file for abandonment in its entirety, the first being the New York, Ontari ...

was abandoned in 1961 CNJ acquired a few of its branches and organized them as the Lehigh & New England Railway. In 1963 Lehigh Coal & Navigation sold its railroad properties to the RDG, but the lease to the CNJ continued. In 1965 CNJ and the

Lehigh Valley Railroad The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, ...

consolidated their lines along the Lehigh River in Pennsylvania and portions of each railroad's line were abandoned; the anthracite traffic that had supported both railroads had largely disappeared. CNJ operations in Pennsylvania ended March 31, 1972. Plainfield, NJ ca

CNJ maintained a small carfloat terminal in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. It was the site of the first successful Class 1 railroad diesel operation. Over the years CNJ maintained an extensive marine operation on New York Bay, including a steamer line to Sandy Hook. CNJ's last marine service, the ferry line between

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

and CNJ's rail terminal at Jersey City, made its last run on April 30, 1967. It was also the last day for the terminal itself; the next day CNJ passenger trains began originating and terminating at the PRR station in Newark via the

Aldene Connection The Aldene Connection is a connection between two railroad lines in the Aldene neighborhood of Roselle Park, New Jersey, United States, one formerly belonging to the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), the other formerly of the Lehigh Valley R ...

, where New York passengers could transfer to either PRR or

Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) Port Authority Trans-Hudson (PATH) is a rapid transit system in the northeastern New Jersey cities of Newark, Harrison, Jersey City, and Hoboken, as well as Lower and Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is operated as a wholly owned sub ...

trains.

Decline

The years after WWII were not kind to CNJ. Passenger traffic was almost entirely commuter business, requiring great amounts of rolling stock for two short periods five days a week. Three-fourths of CNJ's freight traffic terminated on line — the railroad was essentially a terminal carrier, which meant little profit was made, if any. In addition, heavy taxes levied by the state of New Jersey ate up much of CNJ's revenue. The state of New Jersey began subsidizing commuter service in 1964, and the tax situation changed in 1967. The merger between the Chesapeake & Ohio and

Norfolk & Western The Norfolk and Western Railway , commonly called the N&W, was a US class I railroad, formed by more than 200 railroad mergers between 1838 and 1982. It was headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, for most of its existence. Its motto was "Precisi ...

railways that was proposed in 1965 to counter the impending PRR-

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Mid ...

merger was to have included CNJ, but the bankruptcy of

Penn Central The Penn Central Transportation Company, commonly abbreviated to Penn Central, was an American class I railroad that operated from 1968 to 1976. Penn Central combined three traditional corporate rivals (the Pennsylvania, New York Central and the ...

killed that prospect. CNJ drafted elaborate plans for reorganization; they came to naught as neighboring railroads collapsed. Conrail took over freight operations of the CNJ on April 1, 1976; with passenger routes transferred to the

New Jersey Department of Transportation The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transporta ...

including the present

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

North Jersey Coast Line The North Jersey Coast Line is a commuter rail line running from Rahway to Bay Head, New Jersey, traversing through the Jersey Shore region. Operated by New Jersey Transit, the line is electrified as far south as Long Branch. On rail system m ...

and

Raritan Valley Line The Raritan Valley Line is a commuter rail service operated by New Jersey Transit (NJT) which serves passengers in municipalities in Union, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties in the Raritan Valley region in central New Jersey, United States. ...

. CNJ emerged from bankruptcy in 1979 as Central Jersey Industries (later CJI Industries), a corporate shell. It merged with the packaging company Triangle Industries, owned by

Nelson Peltz Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Fund Management, an alternative investment management fund based in New Yor ...

, in 1986.

Main initial corridors

CNJ had its northeastern terminus at Elizabethport, New Jersey. In 1864 CNJ extended its railroad across the bay into Bayonne, and north to the Jersey City terminus. It had used a succession of bridges over the years, the last being

Newark Bay Bridge The Newark Bay Bridge, officially the Vincent R. Casciano Memorial Bridge, is a steel through arch bridge that is continuous across three spans. It crosses Newark Bay and connects the cities of Newark (in Essex County) and Bayonne (in Hudson Cou ...

, demolished in the 1980s."Jersey Central: Coal, Commuters, and a Comet" ''Classic Trains,'' Winter 2011
archived
October 6, 2013, fro
the original
From Elizabethport, trains went to different corridors. One headed towards

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

and Plainfield and points west and southwest. The second went south towards Perth Amboy and today's North Jersey Coast Line and different southern New Jersey destinations. CNJ operated several trains into Pennsylvania and other points west or south, in association with the RDG. B&O also used CNJ tracks for the final approach to Jersey City."The Central Railroad of New Jersey, The Big Little Railroad" AmericanRails.com http://www.american-rails.com/central-railroad-of-new-jersey.html

Portions still operated

*Aldene-High Bridge (Main Line):

(NJT)

*Perth Amboy-Bay Head: NJT

*Elizabethport-Aldene; Elizabethport-Perth Amboy; Jersey City-Bayonne; Red Bank-Lakehurst:

Conrail Shared Assets Operations Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CSAO) is the commonly used name for modern-day Conrail ( reporting mark CRCX), an American railroad company. It operates three networks, the North Jersey, South Jersey/Philadelphia, and Detroit Shared Assets Area ...

*Lakehurst-Woodmansie:

Cape May Seashore Lines Cape May Seashore Lines is a short line railroad in southern New Jersey. It offers two excursion services: a round trip between Richland and Tuckahoe and a round trip between Rio Grande, Cold Spring Village, and Cape May City. The track is ...

*Winslow Junction-Vineland:

Southern Railroad of New Jersey The Southern Railroad of New Jersey is a small short-line railroad company based in Winslow Township, New Jersey. The railroad operates freight trains in two areas in Southern New Jersey. In the Winslow area, trains operate between Winslow Jun ...

*Dover & Rockaway Branch (Wharton-Rockaway);

High Bridge Branch The High Bridge Branch was a branch line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) that started in High Bridge, New Jersey at a connection with the CNJ main line and continued north to iron-ore mines in Morris County. The High Bridge Branch ...

(Kenvil-Flanders):

Morristown & Erie Railway Morristown & Erie Railway is a short-line railroad based in Morristown, New Jersey, chartered in 1895 as the Whippany River Railroad. It operates freight rail service in Morris County, New Jersey and surrounding areas on the original Whippany ...

Gallery

File:CRRNJ Terminal, Liberty State Park, Jersey City NJ.jpg,

Communipaw Terminal The Central Railroad of New Jersey Terminal, also known as Communipaw Terminal and Jersey City Terminal, was the Central Railroad of New Jersey's waterfront passenger terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey. The terminal was built in 1889, replacing ...

, Jersey City File:CRR NJ back.JPG, Communipaw Terminal, rear File:New York City Railroads ca 1900.png, Map of CNJ and other terminals in New York region, circa 1900 File:CRR NJ signs10.JPG, Reproduction of a tablet designator for the ''

'' File:Camelback.jpg, CNJ

camelback locomotive A camelback locomotive (also known as a Mother Hubbard or a center-cab locomotive) is a type of steam locomotive with the driving cab placed in the middle, astride the boiler. Camelbacks were fitted with wide fireboxes which would have severely ...

built by Baldwin in 1912. File:Elizabeth, NJ-1.jpg, Elizabeth Station File:CRRNJ Newark Lafayette Broad jeh.jpg, Lafayette Street Terminal, Newark

Predecessor railroads

*Buena Vista Railroad *Carteret & Sewaren Railroad *Carteret Extension Railroad *Cumberland & Maurice River Railroad *Cumberland & Maurice River Extension Railroad *Elizabeth Extension Railroad *Freehold & Atlantic Highlands Railroad *Lafayette Railroad *Manufacturers' Extension Railroad *Middle Brook Railroad *New Jersey Terminal Railroad *

New Jersey Southern Railroad image:New Jersey Southern Railroad.svg, New Jersey Southern RR and connections The New Jersey Southern Railroad was a railroad that started in 1854. It would continue under this name until the 1870s as a separate company and the lines that it had c ...

*Navesink Railroad *Passaic River Extension Railroad *Raritan North Shore Railroad *Sound Shore Railroad * Toms River Railroad *Toms River & Barnegat Railroad *Vineland Railroad *Vineland Branch Railway *West Side Connecting Railroad *West End Railroad

Named passenger trains

CNJ operated several named trains, most of which were interstate operations: *''

'': Jersey City, New Jersey- Atlantic City, New Jersey *''Bullet'': Jersey City-

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...

via Allentown, Pennsylvania *'' Crusader'': Jersey City-

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

(with RDG) *'' Interstate Express'': Syracuse, New York-Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (with the

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...

and RDG) *''Mermaid'': Sandy Hook, New Jersey-Scranton, Pennsylvania *''

Queen of the Valley The ''Queen of the Valley'' was a named train of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) that ran between Jersey City, New Jersey, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, via the Lehigh Valley and Reading. The train took about 4 hours to traverse the ...

'': Jersey City- Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (with RDG) *''Wall Street'': Jersey City-Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (with RDG) *''Williamsporter'': Jersey City, New Jersey-

Williamsport, Pennsylvania Williamsport is a city in, and the county seat of, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. It recorded a population of 27,754 at the 2020 Census. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a popul ...

Several non-CNJ trains operated over CNJ trackage north of Bound Brook, New Jersey to the Jersey City terminal: *''

Capitol Limited The ''Capitol Limited'' is a daily Amtrak train between Washington, D.C., and Chicago, running via Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Service began in 1981 and was named after the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's ''Capitol Limited'' which ended in 197 ...

'': Jersey City, New Jersey-Chicago, Illinois (B&O) *''

National Limited The ''National Limited'' was the premier train of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O) on its route between Jersey City, New Jersey and St. Louis, Missouri, with major station stops in Washington, D.C., and Cincinnati, Ohio. (Buses took passen ...

'': Jersey City, New Jersey-St. Louis, Missouri (B&O) *''

Royal Blue Royal blue is a deep and vivid shade of blue. It is said to have been created by clothiers in Rode, Somerset, a consortium of whom won a competition to make a dress for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III. Brightness The ''Oxford E ...

'': Jersey City, New Jersey-Washington, D.C. (B&O)

Heritage Units

As a part of Norfolk Southern's 30th anniversary in 2012, the company painted 20 new locomotives into predecessor schemes. NS #1071, an

EMD SD70ACe The EMD SD70 is a series of diesel-electric locomotives produced by the US company Electro-Motive Diesel in response to the GE Dash 9-44CW. Production commenced in late 1992 and since then over 5,700 units have been produced; most of these are t ...

locomotive, was painted into the Central Railroad of New Jersey orange and blue. GP40PH-2 4109 Maplewood

In 2019, NJ Transit unveiled locomotive 4109 painted in a heritage scheme based on that of the CNJ GP40P.