New Jersey Southern Railroad - Southern Division, Central Railroad of New Jersey

Southern Division, Central Railroad of New Jersey

The last railroad related to the NJS, Atlantic Highlands route, was not built until after the CNJ took over operations. Atlantic Highlands was settled in 1881 as a Methodist camp meeting site, and by 1882 some of the Sandy Hook boats also stopped at the Atlantic Highlands pier. The railroad from Matawan on the New York and Long Branch was opened to Keyport by the Freehold and New York Railroad in 1880 and extended by the locally-financed New York and Atlantic Highlands Railroad to Atlantic Highlands in August 1889. The route crossed the old NJS line to Port Monmouth at Belford, and a track connection was made there. The record is no longer clear, but it appears that in addition to the primary service from Jersey City to Atlantic Highlands by rail, some trains also operated in connection with boats from New York, running from Atlantic Highlands pier down the old NJS to Red Bank and Eatontown. A notice from 1892 reports special trains to Monmouth Park Racetrack running this way. The Atlantic Highlands route was further extended along the shoreline to the Shrewsbury River in 1890. The Central Railroad of New Jersey acquired the entire route in 1889.

The connection between Atlantic Highlands and the New Jersey Southern routes was made in 1892 with the construction of a railroad bridge over the Shrewsbury River and the closing of the Sandy Hook boat docks. Sandy Hook was a military base, Fort Hancock, and more land was now needed for weapons testing, so the dock and railroad that had been allowed on the federal property now had to go. From May 1892, the boats now ran to Atlantic Highlands, only, and the shore trains ran from there, over the new bridge, and down the old route to East Long Branch. For more than forty years this routing via Atlantic Highlands continued to be known as the Sandy Hook Route. As explained only the portion along the shore was part of the NJS, and even that was not part of the original Raritan and Delaware Bay Railroad.

The bay route was shut down in the cold months by some date in the 1880s. Some all-rail trains to Atlantic Highlands continued on to East Long Branch, and in the off season they were the only train service.

However, from May to October the bay route was very busy indeed, with summer resident commuters, vacationers, and day visitors. For many years boats left Pier 10 North River, adjacent to the CNJ ferry slips at Liberty Street, at 04:30, 10:15, 15:45, and 17:00, taking about an hour to reach Atlantic Highlands. The service was operated by two boats, Monmouth, built in 1888, and Sandy Hook, 1889. As summer traffic continued to increase, a third boat, Asbury Park, was added in 1903, and a new stop was added at Pier 81 North River (42nd St) in 1905. Information available for the summer of 1915 shows nine round trips, and most boat trips connected at Atlantic Highlands with four boat trains: a Point Pleasant express, a Long Branch express, a Long Branch local, and a shuttle to Atlantic Highlands. Extra trains were sometimes added to accommodate crowds, particularly northbound on Sunday nights. A few Long Branch express trains continued to Eatontown to connect with trains to southern New Jersey.

Asbury Park, the largest boat, was sold after the 1916 season as no longer needed. The two older boats were kept running well into the automobile age, but Monmouth was retired after 1938 as worn out, leaving only Sandy Hook, which made the last run on the bay route in 1941. Sandy Hook went into war service in 1943 and was sold in 1946 for a hefty $75,000. Any hopes for a resumption of service after the war had been dashed when a hurricane in September 1944 destroyed both the Atlantic Highlands pier and parts of the railroad along the shore to the Shrewsbury River. The railroad along the shore was rebuilt, but did not last much longer. Passenger service from Highlands over the Shrewsbury River bridge and south to East Long Branch was eliminated in 1945. This ended passenger operations over the original Long Branch and Sea Shore Railroad and the original Long Branch branch of the Delaware and Raritan Bay Railroad, built in 1865 and 1860 respectively. Service was cut back to Atlantic Highlands in 1958 and eliminated (Matawan to Atlantic Highlands) in 1966. In the 1990s, most of the route from Matawan to Atlantic Highlands was made into the Henry Hudson Trail.

The portion of the old NJS from Port Monmouth to Red Bank was abandoned at a now obscure date in the early 20th century. A map and timetable from January 1910 no longer shows it as part of the railroad. The property may have been held together for some time longer. Although this section has been closed for over a century, it can still be traced easily in satellite images.

The most well-known trains on the NJS mainline were the fast trains between Jersey City and Atlantic City. "The first direct fast train ever run from New-York to Atlantic City" was inaugurated in January 1889, running down the New York and Long Branch Railroad to Red Bank, the Southern Division to Winslow Junction, and the Atlantic City Railroad, which was acquired by the CNJ in 1883 (and later transferred to the Reading Company). Atlantic City had long been a vacation spot for Philadelphia, while New Yorkers had gone to shore points on Long Island or the coast near Long Branch. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) operated through parlor cars from New York, but by way of Camden, where the cars were switched to Atlantic City trains on the PRR-owned Camden and Atlantic Railroad (the same road that once connected with the NJS predecessor, the Raritan and Delaware Bay Railroad). The PRR later started running through trains from New York. The CNJ management decided in 1928 to recover some of the luxury passengers with trains called the "Blue Comet", which started operating two round trips a day starting in February 1929. Trains covered the 136 miles (220 km) in 168 minutes, including running at 70 miles per hour (100 km/h) on the NJS from Red Bank to Winslow Junction. The service was rerouted to the former Camden and Atlantic Railroad line in 1933 when the Pennsylvania Railroad and Reading Company system's combined their southern New Jersey services as the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, and the "Blue Comet" was cut back in 1934 to one round trip a day except in the summer, because of economic conditions. Continuing decline in ridership led to cancellation in September 1941.

A timetable of May 1945 shows passenger service cut back to two round trips a day from Jersey City to Red Bank, down the NJS to Lakehurst, and the Toms River branch to Barnegat. The remainder south was for freight only. The last regular passenger service on the former NJS ended in 1957. The very last passenger train was probably a special run to Toms River in 1972.