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Reply to "Jersey Central"

My favorite road is the CNJ.  Always making do with so little.  I love the 1947 promotional film "The Big Little Railroad".   My first trip to NYC was on the CNJ from Little Silver to Newark om 1975 where we switched to the Penn Central under the rules of the Aldene plan.  I wouldn't have known any difference then, but power was a big brute of a GP40P which is a stretched out GP40 with a larger frame, a flat faced long hood, and SD45 style radiators.  I spent many years with them track side in 4 paint schemes growing up.  The coaches were still the steel coaches from the Blue Comet era with operable windows.  While seeing my first GG1 in Newark was the big memory, being on the CNJ is the one that really means more.

My grandfather on my mother's side was a semi regular commuter to NYC as a Westinghouse employee who often got called up to Bell Labs when they were short.  He hated Bell Labs as they were the degreed engineers and let all the non-degreed people know it.  Knowing my grandfather though, he likely ran circles around them when he was working there.  His mind was always thinking and he shared wonderful stories of his rail commuting days.  He was also not a fan of the PRR who also ran trains down the shore on the NY&LB.   He told me the PRR trains were always dirty while the CNJ took time to keep their trains clean.  This paid off the night he decided to take the train after the "Broker" when it derailed in Woodbridge.  He also was on the train the night the Matawan trestle burned in 1955.  Anyone who knows central NJ remembers all the agricultural roads that crossed back and forth across the state.  He told me how an adventurous crew used those agricultural roads that evening to get around Matawan Creek.  He got home many hours late, but he did get home.

As a result, I have been modeling the CNJ in one form or another since I repainted my first locomotive at 12.  I still have those juvenile attempts at custom painting from my HO days.  I later went on to collect most of the Bev-Bel Athearn CNJ cars, modify a Mantua B&O presidential Pacific into a CNJ Pacific, and repaint Varney cabooses for the CNJ.  Later I would move on to collect CNJ in N and 3 rail O before settling on doing the NY&LB in 2 rail O.  That layout has yet to come to fruition, but the ideas and the equipment to make it happen has finally started to fall into place.  A few photos although my CNJ is much more extensive than this:

_IGP9154_IGP9157_IGP9251_IGP9252_IGP9448_IGP9692IMGP3510_IMG2127_IMG2129CNJ-01CNJ-04

IMGP8171_ED

I still need to get good photos of my Sunset GP7Ps which are outstanding.  I also have a dozen All-Nation cars that need to be either fixed, repainted, or built for my CNJ passenger car fleet.  I'm in the process of converting a MTH Pacific to two rail as well.  All good projects for another day. 

Attachments

Images (12)
  • _IGP9154
  • _IGP9157
  • _IGP9251
  • _IGP9252
  • _IGP9448
  • _IGP9692
  • IMGP3510
  • _IMG2127
  • _IMG2129
  • CNJ-01
  • CNJ-04
  • IMGP8171_ED

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