Raritan River Railroad
The
Raritan River Railroad is one of the few railroads in New Jersey that can still be called
profitable. It began operating in 1888 and has grown between then and 1917 to
its present size which maintains a 12.6 mile long mainline between South Amboy
and New Brunswick.
During World I the railroad carried approximately 9,000 passengers with the
greater percentage of them being transported to the munitions plants in Parlin and Gillespie. Its passenger service was terminated
in 1938 having dwindled from a twenty car to a two car train. The Raritan River
Railroad once owned fourteen Baldwin steam
locomotives which were replaced by six Government Lima engines during World War
II. These were finally replaced in 1954 by six EMD SW900’s which were purchased
from the GM Corporation. These twenty year old engines are kept in fine
operating condition today at the engine house and shop in South Amboy. The
former turntable has been replaced. The line’s rolling stock consists of five
cabooses which were purchased from the New Haven Railroad, one crane, one
gondola, and one box car, all of which were rehabilitated in 1969. There are
two interchanges, one in Sayreville with the Penn Central’s Amboy secondary
track (the old Camden and Amboy Railroad), and the other with the Central
Railroad of New Jersey in South Amboy. The Raritan River Railroad does
sixty-percent of its freight interchange with the CNJ, and most of its drilling
and classification at Sayreville Junction. It handles a freight volume of four
to five thousand cars a year. Today the railroad has sixty employees, and has
its home office at 170 John
Street, South Amboy. There are eighteen miles of
track that have been augmented over the recent years by the arrival of new
industries. The many branches that feed off the main line include the Kearney spur, the Sayreville, Gillespie, South
River and East Brunswick Branches, and the Milltown spur, all of
which have numerous sidings. In the summer of 1969, the famed Metroliner made an historic trip over the Raritan River’s main line to a railroad
exhibition in Milltown. Today the railroad offers indispensable service to the
industries and communities along the Raritan
River.
Page153
Railroads of New Jersey
By Richard Hyer & John Zec
Copyright 1975