24-12-25 PHOTOS: Hammonton

It's getting harder and harder to find interesting railroad signals these days. On Christmas Day 2024 I followed the NJT Atlantic City Line all the way into Atlantic County to check out ( mirror ) three locations around Hammonton, NJ, the self styled Blueberry Capitol of the World.

The first location was the Milepost 28.5 intermediate signal just south of the Old Forks Road crossing. I arrived in time to catch a northbound ACL train with NJT GP40PH-2B #4216 pass by.

This location is just south of the more popular railfan spot of WINSLOW JCT, with the old tower and Ocean City Branch flyover visible in the distance. The arrow straight southern end of the Atlantic City Line provides numerous locations where the next signal location is visible from the previous one.

Hammonton, NJ is one of the larger towns in the area with good regional connectivity. Getting its start in what I have to assume was the pork industry, it later became a center of blueberry production with "high bush" cultivars having been developed by notable Pine Barrens naturalist Elizabeth White. The extra wide right of way through downtown Hammonton, NJ once saw a parade of trains taking vacationers from the Philly metro area to the consumption free air of the Atlantic City Boardwalk. As indicated by the milepost Hammonton is 30 miles from the line's junction with Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, which makes it about the halfway point of the service.

While the ACRL might seem straight and level from a rider's perspective, it actually undulates quite a bit. Here is the Hammonton Station as seen looking northbound from the milepost 31.9 signal location.

The new NJT Hammonton Station was built on what used to be a layover yard for local commuter services to and from Philadelphia. Up through the 1950's one could catch photos of 3 Reading G3 or PRR K4 Pacifics side-by-side. The new high level platform and parking lot replaced the PRSL era downtown station when the line was reactivated in 1989.

23-12-23 PHOTOS: Woodstown Central

For many years South Jersey's SMS Lines (which I have to assume stands for Switching Management Service) has been playing the part of a smaller "Class 3" version of the larger Reading and Northern right down to the Reading theming. Run by railfans and for railfans, SMS Lines is best known for being the last home of Baldwin locomotives in daily service, going as far as to raid museums for parts donors to keep its fleet operational. SMS has expanded to handle the switching at an industrial park near Albany and, most recently, took over the contract to run the Salem County portion of the old PRSL Salem Branch between Swedesboro and Salem, after the line was substantially reconstructed. With the line in good condition, SMS decided to jump into the tourist train market with 2024 being the first year in full operation running between stations in Woodstown and Swedesboro under the name "Woodstown Central". Seeing as I would be driving in that general vicinity on my way home for the holidays, I got a ticket to see what all the fuss was about ( mirror ).

With its 0-6-0 steam locomotive #9 still under construction, GP38-3 #2003 was the star of the show. About a decade ago SMS purchased the unit and sent it to Albany before realizing it was actually one of the 10 GP38's purchased by the PRSL in its final years in operation. By 2024 SMS was finally able to get #2003 back to home rails and put it to work on the new tourist service.

The service consisted of a caboose, a coach and a table car, all of of which were former Reading in origin.

A station, passing siding and parking lot were constructed from scratch in a farm field south of Woodstown proper.

When I purchased the ticket only table car seating was left. The service features reserved tables and food service. I unfortunately failed to fully grasp that a special holiday train actually meant a Santa train oriented towards the kids.

Fortunately the staff was nice enough to offer me the chance to get photos and video of the #2003 run-around at Swedesboro. While there is technically a station at Swedesboro, it currently consists of a set of stairs to serve the brewery train service running to Swedesboro Brewing, which I would have much preferred.

23-05-18 PHOTOS: Elkins Park

In May of 2023 I was invited to give my PRR Main Line signaling talk to the Philly Chapter NRHS which has their meetings in the SEPTA Elkins Park station building on the Reading side trunk line. In this set of photos I will feature my travel up via Amtrak and SEPTA followed by some unrelated NJT Atlantic City Line photos and a visit to the 30th St parking deck to check out the growing stash of Acela II's in the Penn Coach Yard. The full gallery can be found here ( mirror ).

I actually started my trip in Silver Spring after a dinner with friends. Here is my inbound 2k series Metro train with #2024 on the rear.

Approaching Union Station I passed K TOWER along with a rather dreary looking MARC GP40WH-2 #68 that is currently used in work, switching and rescue service.

I was catching an Acela up to Philly that day because Amtrak's price structure makes it pretty affordable. Here we see power cars #2019, #2015 and #2029 lined up on tracks 17, 18 and 19.

A first class upgrade took care of dinner and drinks. This was described as Italian stuffed chicken.

MARC MP36PH-3C #27 at Baltimore Penn Station.

SEPTA Silverliner IV #127 arriving 30th St and PATCo car #1017 at 8th and Market.

To be fair I spent a night in South Jersey before the presentation. Here is PATCO Car #1032 at Westmont as I head back to Center City to connect with SEPTA.

As I was heading out during the evening rush were were a lot of express trains in play like SEPTA Silverliner IV #155 leading an express to Norristown and Silverliner IV #165 another express to Doylestown.

The parade of 300 series Silverliners IV continues with #361, #313, #345 and #357 all leading various trains.

There were a few Silverliners V like #715 and #733 shown here.

Here a 4-car train of Silverliners IV departs the SEPTA Market East station northbound on track #1. The consist includes #361, #362, #457 and #458

23-02-18 PHOTOS: WINSLOW Exposed

Winslow Junction makes a frequent appearance on my visitation schedule, but since the Southern Railroad of New Jersey changed ownership in the 2010's, there has been far less to see and do as the yard full of old passenger cars, F-Units and Alcos has dwindled after successive waves of scrapping. However the bones of the old high speed railroads to the boardwalk are still in place if one knows where to look and over President's Day in 2023 I took one of my DC area railfan friends down to show him this gen of South Jersey rail history and make use of our expiring Amtrak companion coupons. Although much of Winslow was unchanged, we were treated to a few unexpected surprised. The full set of photos ( mirror ) includes both those Winslow surprises and other content from the Amtrak journey to Philly and back.

I'll start things off with this view of Amtrak Acela power car #2036 departing the BWI Airport station. Not sure why I was there, but this was a few days before heading up to Philly.

I recruited the same friend to be a reserve on my local pub trivia team. To avoid the horrendous DC area traffic he catches the MARC Cemden Line to Dorsey where I can pick him up. When his train is on time he will meet a westbound train from Baltimore and arriving a few minutes early I found the track #1 signal at DORSEY interlocking displaying Clear for said westbound move led by MARC split level cab car #8058.

The eastbound train from Washington arrived with cab car #8051 on the end. Ridership on the line has been growing, but is still well below pre-COVID levels.

Heading up to Philly on the 7am Acela with power car #2022 leading. With the BOGO coupon this premium service only cost us each about $25.

Completing the cross town transfer from 30th St Station to South Jersey with SEPTA Silverliner IV #184 and PATCO car #1104 (see departing for 15th/16th.).

Winslow Junction was hosting the same quartet of MLW M420 locomotives, #3517, #3519, #3578 and #800, which still in the NYO&W paint job that indicated the personal railfan interests of the former owner.

Our first surprise of the day was CMSL GP38-2 #2661 switching cars on the Conrail interchange up on the former Atlantic City RR (Reading) main line. For some reason I thought Conrail still delivered the cars to Tuckahoe, but I guess this makes sense what with the passenger operations at Richland.

21-03-21 PHOTOS: BROWN Berlin

Rebuilt in 1934 to help join the former PRR and Reading networks in South Jersey after the PRSL merger, BROWN interlocking was located at the crossing of the former Reading owned Atlantic City Railroad and the PRR owned West Jersey and Seashore Railroad main lines in Camden, NJ. Controlled by BROWN tower until the 1980's, the interlocking was drastically simplified under Conrail, although the PRR style position light signals remained until 2002. Even with Conrail signals in place, increases in South Jersey freight traffic brought about a second re-building with new signals and a new interlocked connection to the former Reading Bulson St yard around 2018.

The area can be generously described as rough, but it is an interesting location when one is lucky enough to catch a train, which I was not. Unfortunately the southbound PRR signal bridge was removed about 15 years ago, but the footings can be seen behind the southbound mast signals.

The Berlin, NJ train station was built for the PRR controlled Camden and Atlantic in 1856 and served as a stop on later PRSL and NJDoT train services to Atlantic City until 1983. Today the station building houses a historical society.

When When NJT restored Atlantic City Line service, the old Berlin station stop was moved to a large Park-and-Ride facility about a mile south of town in the town of Atco. Unfortunately the expected Park-n-Ride traffic never emerged and lightly used trains, like this southbound with Comet V cab car #6050 and GP40PH-2B #4215, now pass by the Berlin station without stopping.

Originally a high speed double track main line, the the NJT ACL was restored as a single track line with a number of short, 1 mile passing sidings. The Lucas siding is one of two between Winslow Jct and Lindenwold and show off the very rural nature of the line despite being only about 15 miles from Center City Philadelphia.

Despite NJT's best efforts to discourage such actions, use of the railroad right of way for personal wheeled transport is pretty common.

With protracted Covid headways I had plenty of time to set up for and catch the next northbound train with NJT GP40PH-2B #4209 and Comet V cab car #6008

19-01-12 PHOTOS: Station Sidetrips

Not much was going on in January 2019 so I patched together a couple of trips to DC area MARC stations and to the SRNJ short line base at Winslow Jct, NJ during the NJT Atlantic City Line hiatus. You can find the full set of photos here (mirror).

The Garrett Park Brunswick Line MARC station, located on the former B&O railroad Metropolitan Sub, is situated between the two prongs of the WMATA Red Line north of the city. It consists of a small inbound shelter and low level platforms for the peak direction weekday service.

Parking is highly limited and the station primarily serves walking distance neighborhoods on both sides of the tracks.

The old mill town of Kensington has been subsumed by suburban housing developments, but the old town core still features a vintage B&O railroad station.

Although largely converted into a coffee shoppe, the station still features a waiting room and ticket vending machines. 

The falling snow would soon start to accumulate making condition a bit treacherous. 

Moving to Winslow Jct, despite some recent scrappings, the SRNJ still has three MLW (Alco) M420 locomotives on the ready service tracks. These consisted of CNJ painted numbers 3578, 3519 and 3517 and NYO&W painted #800.