Winslow Junction could be considered the nexus of railroading in South Jersey. Although of lesser importance today when compared to Pavonia or the Delair Bridge complex, at one time in the early 20th century it featured some of the highest traffic densities in the world as high speed steam train shuttled the middle and working classes between Philadelphia and the shore points. Created in it's final form with the PRSL merger in 1934, Winslow joined the PRR Camden and Atlantic main line with the Reading line to Ocean City and other points south with the CNJ Southern Division also making an appearance on the lower level.
Today, as in 2005, Winslow is the home base of the Southern Railroad of New Jersey short line, although 13 years ago it was home to a distinctly more eclectic mix of locomotives and rolling stock as the former owner was still alive enough to indulge his various personal railroading interests.
In this photo set we'll take a quick tour of what was hanging out at Winslow Jct in the summer of 2005 along with some other random photos from a trip to Washington, DC via MARC and the Metro Orange Line.
The former owner of the SRNJ had a thing for Alcos and the New York, Ontario and Western and while the latter interest eventually manifested in some special paint schemes, the former was exercised via the purchase of a small fleet of
Montreal Locomotive Works M-420 locomotives. These were a wide cab copy of the Alco century series C420 built in the 1970's after Alco had shut its doors in 1969. Here we see SRNJ #3579 and #3519 still in their Canadian National livery.
Here we see a non-CN painted #3517 coupled to CN #3578 on the ready service track. Much of this collection would eventually be scrapped after the indictment and death of the long time SRNJ owner in the early 2010's.
The SRNJ cast its net far and wide, harvesting this M-420 (#802) from the Iowa Interstate railroad.
The SRNJ had a pair of GE 44-ton locomotives and in 2005 this example was getting rebuilt to operating condition. I forget the exact details, but after the death of the old owner I believe both the 44-tones were either scrapped or sold. GE 44-ton switchers featured two 8 cylinder diesels in the 150hp range. The model was popular as at the time any locomotive weighing under 90,000 lbs did not have to run with a fireman in the cab.
Lehigh Valley painted Alco C420 #414 was a mainstay at Winslow Jct until it was moved to Scranton and used in Delaware Lackawana service that may have also involved a change of paint scheme.
Of course the EMDs were the most economical units to run and GP10 #102 was sitting on the main line awaiting the next call to duty. This unit had an oil fired burner installed in place of a plug-in block heater.
Up on the NJT Atlantic City line Comet IV cab car #5014 passes Winslow Tower.
WINSLOW tower was built after the 1934 merger to control the new wide ranging interlocking plant. You can learn more about it in another of my posts. The tower was closed with the end of NJ DoT RDC operations in 1983 and now serves as an NJT radio base.
