Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad
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[edit] Early history
The Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad (M&NB) was built by the predecessor of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR), which was known as the New Jersey Rail Road and Transportation Company (NJRR), from a junction with the NJRR at Jersey Avenue in New Brunswick, New Jersey to East Millstone, New Jersey.
The M&NB opened in 1854, running west from the south end of the NJRR at Millstone Junction in New Brunswick to East Millstone. The M&NB served local industry in New Brunswick and East Millstone in the late 19th century. As industries closed in East Millstone around the turn of the 20th century the need for the M&NB branch line faded and the portion of the line that served East Millstone was eventually abandoned. The M&NB was bought on April 21, 1915 at foreclosure.
[edit] Brief Connection Westward
The M&NB was briefly connected to western points in 1874 via the ill fated Mercer and Somerset Railway, which was a short-lived line of the Pennsylvania Railroad in western New Jersey, built to delay completion of the proposed competitor railroad known as the National Railway.
The Mercer and Somerset Railway ran from Somerset Junction on the Belvidere Delaware Rail Road via Pennington and Hopewell to Millstone, with a connection to the Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad, via a bridge across the Millstone River, for a through route to New Brunswick.
The Mercer and Somerset Railway was sold in bankruptcy in 1879 and abandoned shortly thereafter, because the National Railway had won legal battles aimed at preventing its construction and was eventually built, negating the need for the redundant Mercer and Somerset Railway line.
[edit] Current Condition
The M&NB is now known as the Conrail Millstone Secondary or Branch. Portions of the line that are closer to New Brunswick are still operational in 2006 up to just west of Clyde Road in Somerset, New Jersey, serving local industry in the industrial sections of New Brunswick and Somerset. A nicely presented pictorial account concerning the current condition of the Millstone Branch is located at this railfan website.
