Iron Rails in the Garden State Tales of New Jersey Railroading

Iron Rails in the Garden State is a sampler of unique and fascinating stories about railroading in New Jersey, culled from archives and independent research. It is a collection of historical vignettes, and because it is not tied to a particular time or railroad line, Anthony J. Bianculli is free to move from one story to another, entertaining the reader with anecdotes of New Jersey railroad pioneers, sacred sites, and expensive mistakes. Included in this book are tales from railroad literature that have not been told at length until now.

"Ideal for the casual reader who likes snatches of serious history without slogging through piles of specialized works [on the subject] or articles dating back to who remembers when. I give this book a thumbs up." --Herbert H. Harwood, Jr., author of Invisible Giants: The Empires of Cleveland's Van Sweringen Brothers Indiana University Press Indiana University Press Indiana University Press

Fascinating stories of New Jersey's rich railroading history

Anthony J. Bianculli is a retired mechanical engineer and author of Railroad History on American Postage Stamps as well as a series of four books called Trains and Technology. He lives in Rocky Hill, New Jersey.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Colonel Takes to the Rails (1825)

From Camden to Amboy by Rail in Seven Hours: Fare, $3 (1833)

Isaac Dripps and the John Bull (1831)

Ashbel Welch: Railroad Man (1836-1874)

Locomotives: From New Jersey to the World (1837-1926)

Piercing the Palisades (1838-1910)

The Final Barrier - Crossing the Hudson River (1838-Present)

A. Ferryboats

B. The Hudson and Manhattan Railroad (Hudson Tubes)

C. The Pennsylvania Railroad Tunnels

The Railroad And The New Jersey Bedroom Communities (1840-2006)

A. From New Jersey to the Sidewalks of New York

B. New Jersey Commuting...Southern Style

New Jersey's Railroad...The Jersey Central (1849-1976)

The Blue Comet: Coach Travel at Its Best

The PJ&B, a Really Short Short Line (1865-200?)

The Rascals at Bay in "Fort Taylor" (1868)

Henry Drinker and the Musconetcong Tunnel (1872-1875)

The Railroad King of Blairstown (1876)

The Great Frog War at Hopewell (1876)

Frog Wars Redux (1879)

Thomas Edison and Leo Daft: Electric Locomotive Pioneers (1880-1883)

A Railroad Bicycle and a Bicycle Railroad (1880 and 1892)

Death of a President at Elberon (1881)

William Allen and the "Day of the Two Suns" (1883)

The "Hoodoo" Trolley Car and Other Street Car Tales (1887-1940s)

A Pair of Majestic Railroad Terminals (1889 and 1905)

A Cape May Speedster (1895)

The (Not So) Fast Line (1901-1937)

Catastrophe at the Thoroughfare (1906)

Making Tracks in New Jersey (1914- Present)

The Outlaw Railroad Strike and the "Indignation Specials" (1920)

Modern Light Rail in the Garden State (1929-Present)

The Dirigible Railroad at Lakehurst (1932-1937)

Tragedy at Woodbridge (1951)

NJ Transit: Railroad Renaissance in the Garden State (1979-Present)

Preserving the Railroad...A Little Paint, Some Elbow Grease,

and a Lot of Love (1980-Present)

Reliving the Past: Riding the Golden Oldies (Present)

And, in closing

Bibliography

Index