The Southern Railroad of New Jersey is a small

short-line railroad :''Short Line is also one of the four railroads in the American version of the popular board game Monopoly, named after the Shore Fast Line, an interurban streetcar line.'' A shortline railroad is a small or mid-sized railroad company that opera ...

company based in

Winslow Township, New Jersey Winslow Township is a township in Camden County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 39,499, reflecting an increase of 4,888 (+14.1%) from the 34,611 counted in the 2000 census. Winslow Township was incorpo ...

. The railroad operates freight trains in two areas in Southern New Jersey. In the Winslow area, trains operate between Winslow Junction and Pleasantville, and between Winslow Junction and the Winslow Hot Mix asphalt plant in Winslow Township. In Gloucester County, the company operates on the

Salem Branch The Salem Branch is a rail freight line in the southwestern part of New Jersey in the United States between the Port of Salem and Woodbury Junction where it and the Penns Grove Secondary converge with the Vineland Secondary, approximately sout ...

between

Swedesboro, New Jersey Swedesboro is a borough in Gloucester County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the borough's population was 2,584,Woodbury Woodbury may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Woodbury Glacier, a glacier on Graham Land, British Antarctic Territory Australia * Woodbury, Tasmania, a locality in Australia England * Woodbury, Bournemouth, an area in Dorset *Woodbury, East Devo ...

Ownership history

JP Rail, Inc., a Pennsylvania corporation doing business as SRNJ,U.S. Surface Transportation Board, Washington, D.C. (2012-02-29)." JP Rail, Inc. d/b/a Southern Railroad Company of New Jersey—Operation Exemption—Rail Line in Salem County, N.J. ''Federal Register,'' operates tracks in the Winslow area that originally belonged to the

New Jersey Southern Railroad 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 constructed or run continued to be run i ...

, and which were later acquired by the

Central Railroad of New Jersey The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines , was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of ...

(in the 1880s) and subsequently

Conrail Conrail , formally the Consolidated Rail Corporation, was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeastern United States between 1976 and 1999. The trade name Conrail is a portmanteau based on the company's legal name. It continues to do busin ...

(1976) and 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 transportat ...

(NJDOT; 1984).U.S. Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), Washington, D.C. (1987-09-18). "The Shore Fast Line Inc., Operation, NJDOT 'Winslow Branch' Rail Properties; Modified Rail Certificate." Finance Docket No. 31051. SRNJ acquired operating rights to the Winslow-Vineland route, known as the Winslow Branch, from The Shore Fast Line, Inc. (SFLR) in 1991.ICC (1991-12-12). "JP Rail, Inc.; Modified Rail Certificate." Finance Docket No. 31976. . (SFLR, a freight carrier, is not to be confused with the ''Shore Fast Line,'' an

interurban The Interurban (or radial railway in Europe and Canada) is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 a ...

passenger railroad that was operated by the

Atlantic City and Shore Railroad The Shore Fast Line was an electric interurban railroad running from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Ocean City, New Jersey, by way of the mainland communities of Pleasantville, Northfield, Linwood and Somers Point. The line of about ran from 1907 ...

from 1907 to 1948.) In the 1991 transaction SRNJ also obtained rights from SFLR to operate freight on of the

Atlantic City Line The Atlantic City Line (ACL) is a commuter rail line operated by NJ Transit (NJT) in the United States between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Atlantic City, New Jersey, operating along the corridor of the White Horse Pike. It runs over trackage ...

owned by

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 ...

, from Winslow to Pleasantville; and took ownership of several short sections of connecting branch lines and junctions. The Salem-Swedesboro route, known locally as the Salem County Branch Line, was originally part of the Salem Railroad (later the

West Jersey and Seashore Railroad The West Jersey and Seashore Railroad (WJ&S) was a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary in the U.S. state of New Jersey with a connection to Philadelphia. It was formed through the merger of several smaller roads in May 1896. At the end of 1925 it ...

), and subsequently became the Salem Secondary Track on the

Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines The Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines was a railroad that operated in South Jersey in the 20th century. It was created in 1933 as a joint consolidation venture between two competing railroads in the region: the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Rea ...

(PRSL). PRSL was acquired by Conrail in 1976, and the Salem branch was sold by Conrail to the Salem County government in 1985.Salem County Planning Board, Salem, NJ (June 2012)
"Salem County Traffic and Transportation Plan Element."
p. 21. SRNJ contracted with the county in 1995 to take over operations on the route (plus a one-mile spur in Salem) from the West Jersey Railroad Co. which was awarded the initial contract by the county in 1988.ICC (1995-10-10). "JP Rail, Inc., d/b/a Southern Railroad Company of New Jersey--Notice of Exemption--Operation of Salem Branch Rail Line in Salem County, New Jersey." Finance Docket No. 32700. . Between 2009 and 2012 U.S. Rail Corporation operated the Salem line. In 2012 the county reassigned the contract to SRNJ, which ended in 2022.Salem County, New Jersey (2012-02-01)
"Re-Assignment of Contract for Operating the Salem County Branch Line for the County of Salem."
/ref>

Operations

Winslow Junction operations

The railroad serves local businesses and interchanges freight cars with

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 ...

(CSAO). SRNJ maintains an interchange yard at Winslow Junction, connecting with the Atlantic City Line and CSAO Beesley Point Secondary Track.SRNJ
"Winslow Operations."
Accessed 2012-12-24. The Winslow branch route was restored after it was damaged by floods in 2003. As of 2022 the Winslow Junction-Vineland section of track is not in use outside of yard limits in Winslow Junction. The railroad also has trackage rights over NJT's Atlantic City Line, to

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

, where they can access their branch line to

Pleasantville, NJ Pleasantville is a city in Atlantic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 20,629, which was an increase of 380 from the 2010 census count of 20,249, which reflected an increase of 1,237 ...

Salem Branch operations

In 2018, the SRNJ leased the

between Swedesboro and

Woodbury Woodbury may refer to: Geography Antarctica *Woodbury Glacier, a glacier on Graham Land, British Antarctic Territory Australia * Woodbury, Tasmania, a locality in Australia England * Woodbury, Bournemouth, an area in Dorset *Woodbury, East Devo ...

from Conrail. In Woodbury, the SRNJ maintains a yard and connects with

. The railroad also maintain a yard in Swedesboro for interchange with

SMS Rail Lines SMS Rail Lines is a shortline railroad based at Pureland Industrial Park in Bridgeport, New Jersey. The company handles all freight car delivery to businesses located within the industrial park. It also operates lines in Morrisville, Pennsylvan ...

Roster

The SRNJ owns a diverse variety of

locomotive A locomotive or engine is a rail transport vehicle that provides the Power (physics), motive power for a train. If a locomotive is capable of carrying a payload, it is usually rather referred to as a multiple unit, Motor coach (rail), motor ...

equipment including an

EMD GP9 The EMD GP9 is a four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division between 1954 and 1959. The GP9 succeeded the GP7 as the second model of EMD's General Purpose (GP) line, incorporating a new sixteen-cylind ...

EMD GP10 The EMD GP10 is a diesel-electric locomotive that is the result of rebuilding a GP7, GP9 or GP18. The Illinois Central Railroad had three separate rebuild programs to upgrade their old EMD GPs and GPs that they had purchased from equipment de ...

and

MLW M-420 The MLW M-420 was a diesel-electric locomotive manufactured between 1973 and 1977 in Montreal, Canada by the Montreal Locomotive Works. A total of 88 units were built for Canadian railways, including eight B units built for the British Columbia Ra ...

References

External links

TrainWeb.org: images of SRNJ equipment

Profile of SRNJ by CSX Transportation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Railroad New Jersey New Jersey railroads Companies based in Camden County, New Jersey Transportation in Salem County, New Jersey Winslow Township, New Jersey