New Jersey Museum of Transportation & Pine Creek Railroad Museum
The Ely-Thomas Lumber Company No. 6 train
New Jersey Museum of Transportation is located in Monmouth County, New Jersey
New Jersey Museum of Transportation
Location within Monmouth County, New Jersey
Established1952 (1952)
LocationWall Township, New Jersey
located within Allaire State Park
Coordinates40°09′36″N 74°07′47″W / 40.160130°N 74.129861°W / 40.160130; -74.129861
TypeRailroad museum
CollectionsSee "Collections" for list
FounderJames Wright
Jay L. Wulfson
Pierre "Pete" Rasmussen
Nearest parkingOn-site
Websitewww.njmt.org

The New Jersey Museum of Transportation is a museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, and operation of historic railroad equipment. The organization runs excursion trains on a 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge tourist railroad named the Pine Creek Railroad. The museum is independently operated as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization[1] along with the Allaire Village and is located in Allaire State Park in New Jersey.[2] The museum runs Easter Bunny Express trains in April, Haunted Halloween trains in October, and Santa Special trains on the weekends in December.

History

The origins of the New Jersey Museum of Transportation began with the purchase of a Baldwin 0-4-0T engine from the Raritan River Sand Company in 1952 by a pair of railroad enthusiasts. This first engine was named the Pine Creek No. 1 and was eventually sold to the Walt Disney company, where it was overhauled and renamed the #4 Ernest S. Marsh. The engine is still in use today at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.

Initially a 2.5-acre (1.0 ha) plot of land on Route 9 in Marlboro was purchased where the railroad was run as a tourist attraction, but in 1952 when the organization was facing large property tax increases the not-for-profit Pine Creek Railroad Division of the New Jersey Museum of Transportation was formed and the operations were moved to its present-day location in Allaire State Park.

While the Pine Creek railroad loop runs adjacent to the abandoned Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad that skirts the park (now known as the Edgar Felix Bikeway), it was never part of that rail line right-of-way.

Collection

The following is only a partial listing of equipment that has been or is currently at the Museum.[3]

Original OwnerNumberType Date BuiltBuilderAcquiredSoldStatusNotes
Steam Locomotives
Raritan River Sand Co.100-4-0T ?Baldwin Locomotive Works19501959Off Roster [4]
Hope Natural Gas Company30-4-0T ?H. K. Porter, Inc19561960Off Roster [5]
Raritan Copper Works90-4-0T 1924H. K. Porter, Inc1956N/A In storage[6]
Ely-Thomas Lumber Co.6Two-Truck Shay 1927Lima Locomotive Works[7]1955N/A In Storage[8] One of the last narrow gauge Shays left in the world
Chiriqui Land Co.462-6-0 1914H. K. Porter, Inc1969N/A In Storage[9]
Cavan and Leitrim Railway34-4-0T 1887Robert Stephenson & Co.1959N/A In storage[10]
Lehigh Valley Coal Company1170-4-0T 1925Vulcan Iron Works2005N/A On display[11]
Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway 26 2-6-2 1920 Baldwin Locomotive Works 2014 N/A In storage [10]
Diesel Locomotives
Plymouth Locomotive Works (?) 1 B ? Plymouth Locomotive Works ? N/A In Storage [10]
Pouch Terminal Co. 2 B 1929 Mack Trucks Inc. 1982 N/A In Storage [10]
Marcus Sand Company 5 B 1920 (?) Plymouth Locomotive Works ? Operational [12]
Jackson Model 4000 Track Tamper12 B ?Jackson 2005N/A Under Restoration[13]
US Steel 39 B-B 1955 General Electric 1991 N/A In Storage [12]
41 Parts Only [12]
45 Operational [12]
Alcoa 701 B 1920s Davenport Locomotive Works ? N/A In Storage [10]
United States Army 7751 B 1942 General Electric 1977 N/A Operational [12]
Rolling Stock|
United States Navy ? Flat car 1942 (?) United States Navy (?) 1977 (?) N/A In Storage [12]
Raritan River Railroad 7 Caboose ? Raritan River Railroad (?) 1920s (?) N/A Used as Office [14]
Newfoundland Railway 502 Coach 1902 ? 1960s N/A Operational [12]
509 In Storage [12]
East Broad Top Railroad 824 Hopper ? American Car and Foundry Company 1967 (?) N/A Static Display [14]
Central Railroad of Pennsylvania (CNJ) 22866 Boxcar Early 1940s Association of American Railroads 1983 (?) N/A Not Operational [15]
23193 [15]
24343 [15]
United States Navy 331787 Flat car / Excursion 1942 United States Navy (?) 1977 N/A Operational [12]
Central Railroad of New Jersey 91155 Caboose 1874 New Jersey Southern Railroad 1972 N/A Operational [10]
91245 ? ? N/A In Storage [12]

Grounds

Buildings on the grounds include the Allenwood Station (built by the Pennsylvania Railroad in the early 1940s for use in Allenwood, NJ), the Freneau Station (built by the Jersey Central in the early 1900s on the CNJ Freehold Branch), a Union Newsstand (built circa 1910 in Manasquan, NJ, purchased in 1969), a crossing shanty, a maintenance shop, a heavy equipment building, a car barn (used for storage of rolling stock), as well as an office (Raritan River Railroad #7).

Sunken engines

In 1985, two steam engines were found side by side and in an upright position by charter boat Captain Dan Lieb in 90 feet (27 m) of water 5 miles (8.0 km) off the coast of Long Branch.[16] Further identification of these engines occurred in 2004 when a team of diving and railroad enthusiasts working along with the History Channel production team investigated the engines. After viewing several digital images it was discovered, through the evidence of several artifacts on the engines, that they were Civil War-era Patentee Class 2-2-2T[lower-alpha 1] locomotives from between 1850 and 1855.[17][18]

On September 25, 2004, the New Jersey Museum of Transportation was granted custody of the two engines by U.S. District Judge Joseph Irenas. The museum hopes one day to raise the relics for display and interpretation at the museum.[18]

Notes

  1. ↑ Planet Class were actually 2-2-0, 2-2-2 was the enlarged successor Patentee class.

References

  1. ↑ "About Us". The New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  2. ↑ New Jersey Museum of Transportation web site, retrieved December 19, 2011
  3. ↑ "Projects". New Jersey Museum of Transportation. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "Raritan River Sand Company No. 10". Projects. New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Hope Natural Gas Co. No. 3". Projects. New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "Raritan Copper Works No. 9". Projects. New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  7. ↑ Shop Number 3314
  8. ↑ "Ely-Thomas Lumber Co. No. 6". Projects. New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  9. ↑ "Chiriqui Land Co. No. 46". Projects. New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 4 5 6 ""Alcoa Mill Products" [Alcoa Kasei]", Hawley's Condensed Chemical Dictionary, Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007-03-15, doi:10.1002/9780470114735.hawley00375, ISBN 978-0-470-11473-5, retrieved 2020-11-10
  11. ↑ "Lehigh Valley Coal Company No. 117". Projects. New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "The New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc". njmt.org. Retrieved 2020-11-10.
  13. ↑ "Jackson Model 4000 Track Tamper". Projects. New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Inc. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  14. 1 2 "United States of America on Behalf of Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, Canadian Car and Foundry Company, et al. v. Germany". American Journal of International Law. 33 (4): 770–772. October 1939. doi:10.2307/2192895. ISSN 0002-9300. JSTOR 2192895. S2CID 246013181.
  15. 1 2 3 "Designing Operational NWP Systems", Operational Weather Forecasting, Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, pp. 109–148, 2012-12-27, doi:10.1002/9781118447659.ch5, ISBN 978-1-118-44765-9, retrieved 2020-11-10
  16. ↑ Shiffman, John (19 September 2004). "Old trains discovered off N.J. coast are called 'real archeological find'". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  17. ↑ LuBrant, James (4 July 2007). "The Holy Grail of Railroading - A Most Unusual Find" (PDF). Retrieved 25 March 2015. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  18. 1 2 Boyd, Ellsworth (July 2005). "Train Wrecked". Sport Diver. 13 (6): 12. ISSN 1077-985X. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
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