Milltown Freight
Station
(Click on links for larger 800x600 pictures)
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown1.JPG
November 13, 2004
The Milltown Freight Station is one of the best known and
still existing landmarks of the Raritan River Railroad. The station is located in
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/sign.JPG
November 13, 2004
The station, and most of all, the huge sign, still exists
after all these years as a reminder of the great little railroad that used to
run through this town.
Maps
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/MilltownMap2.JPG
Location of Milltown Freight Station
Just off
Note all the spurs and tracks in the Milltown area. This was quite a busy place at one time.
Current Condition
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown9.JPG
November 13, 2004
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/DSC01771a.JPG
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www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/DSC01772a.JPG
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Years Ago
The station used to have a manual signal semaphore and a
passing siding in front of it, and box cars could be seen on front of the
station in the early 70s.
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown1971a.jpg
Winter 1971
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown1971b.jpg
Winter 1971
This is a great shot, as it shows the semaphore, as well as
a formally unknown “Milltown” sign on the side!
Milltown is full of RRRR history. The old Meyer, then Michelin, tire factory is
a huge complex of old buildings and rails that served many industries over time
once Michelin shut down in 1930, most receiving freight via the RRRR. I thought the old buildings are also on the
National Register of Historic Places.
This will hopefully preserve it, and keep the buildings and rails in
tact for years to come.
NJ DEP -
Historic Preservation Office
New Jersey
and National Registers of Historic Places
//www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/middlesex.pdf
Update: Milltown has a number of sites on the NJ
Register of Historic Places. The entire
Meyer/Michelin
Factory as well as the entire “
Meyer/Michelin property,
crossing
Check out page three of the above document!!!!!
This could preserve the RRRR forever, at least in Milltown!!!!!
The old Meyers Tire factory was served by a spur that left
the mainline about 1/10 mile before the freight station. This spur, at one time, had a branch that
broke off and continued south to the Fresh Ponds sand pits.
Maps
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/MilltownMap1.JPG
From Fred’s “Rails up the
The bridge that crosses a small stream that the spur uses to
get the Myer Tire Factory still exists behind the post office.
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/RRRRMiltownTrestle1995.jpg
1995 - The Post office trucks can be seen on the right side
of this photo.
In fact, to everyone’s surprise, the rails were re-laid on
The Freight station has seen many small owners over the
years. The last time I saw it used in
1995, a general contractor was using it as storage. Lately many people are questioning exactly
who owns the station. Apparently, many
people want to own it, and have different ideas on who actually owns it. It would be nice to actually see the station owned
and restored to its former glory. This
will need to be done soon, as the longer it sits and begins to leak, the harder
it will be to preserve.
Here is a great old shot of the RRRR working around the
Milltown Freight Station in the late 70’s.
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/rrrrmilltownsta2.jpg
Note that the semaphore is now gone.
Inside the
Station!!!!!
Here are some super rare, and never seen before pictures of
the INSIDE of the Milltown Freight Station.
Back on the RRRR Field Trip #3, as I was heading back to PA,
I stopped by Milltown and realized that the side Freight Door had a large hole
cut into it. Through this hole, I was
able to see INSIDE the station.
The pictures are really poor. The auto focus had a real hard time focusing
on the pitch black, so some of the pictures are fuzzy. But look at the dark red wood on the walls
and the ceiling. This would be an
amazing building to restore, I hope someone acts soon.
www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown5.JPG
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www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown6.JPG
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www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown7.JPG
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www.raritanriver-rr.com/MilltownStation1/Milltown8.JPG
November 13, 2004
The inside of this station is like none other that I have
seen. Even the ceiling is a beautiful
red wood!
I hope you have enjoyed my write-up of the Raritan River
Railroad Freight Station in
Other Fine Sites Dedicated to the
http://www.geocities.com/transit383/rrhist.html
http://jcrhs.org/raritanriver.html
Here is an entire forum
dedicated to discussions of the RRRR!
www.railroad-line.com/forum/forum.asp?forum_id=2
Composed by Tom Everett Reynolds, February 2005.
Tom_E_Reynolds at yahoo.com