Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad
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[edit] Early history
The Millstone and New Brunswick Railroad (M&NB) was chartered in in the mid-1800s as a 7 mile long branch line from New Brunswick, NJ to East Millstone, NJ. Construction was completed and the line began operation on December 19, 1854. In 1871, under the order of the company's president Martin Howell, the M&NB signed a 999 year lease with the United Jersey Railroad Company, which would later become the Pennsylvania Railroad.
[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 abandoned in 1880 after filing for bankruptcy, and the connection over the Millstone River to the M&NB was removed.
[edit] Passenger Service
The Millstone Branch boasted 12 passenger trains a day from East Millstone to New York City. Passenger stations, which were merely small wooden shacks, were located at East Millstone, South Middlebush Rd, Clyde Rd, Vorhees (now Route 27), and Jersey Ave. All passenger service ended in 1929, except for service to Jersey Ave which is operated by NJ Transit. The last passenger station to survive was South Middlebush, which was razed in 1942. A telegraph pole can be found in the woods near the crossing. An empty patch of land still exists where the Clyde station stood. Although street signs and maps refer to it as "Clyde Road" the official name with the County Recorder's map is "Clyde Station Road" - an obvious reference to the once important railroad.
[edit] Current Condition
The Millstone Branch remained intact and active all the way to East Millstone to serve one customer located at the end of the branch until 1973 when the customer closed. In fact, the Penn Central wanted desperately to abandoned the money-losing branch by this time but was required by federal law to serve any customers who wanted rail service regardless of profitability.
In 1978 the track from South Middlebush Rd to East Millstone was removed when Amwell Rd was widened. Motorists complained that the poorly maintained grade crossing near Colonial Park was causing damage to their cars. As there were no active customers past the Route 27 crossing; the branch fell into disrepair and became overgrown with vegetation.
For the next 21 years the branch remained out of service until 1999 when a factory, located just past Clyde Rd, re-activated their rail spur and began receiving boxcars. Conrail replaced many ties, two switches, removed all overgrowth and laid new ballast.
The track actually continues past the last customer where it is severed by the back yard fence of a new residential home. The track continues on the opposite side of the back yard where two switches/spurs remain intact into factories. At South Middlebush Rd the track is removed, but the right-of-way all the way to East Millstone is very discernible. This includes Railroad Avenue (absent the former railroad tracks) that is still a street in the Middlebush section of Franklin Township. In 2001 three large luxury homes on the outskirts of East Millstone were built on top of the right-of-way that borders Colonial Park. The bridge pillar in the middle of the Millstone River which once carried the tracks to the Mercer & Somerset RR still stands 128 years after the last train passed. The engine house and wye track in East Millstone are now a grass field.
What remains of the Millstone Branch is currently owned and served by Norfolk Southern Corp. Service is provided by the Metuchen local that usually works the branch late at night (12am-2am) a few times per week. The branch is now referred to as the "Millstone Secondary" in the Amtrak, NJ Transit, and Norfolk Southern timetables.
A nicely presented pictorial account concerning the current condition of the Millstone Branch is located at this railfan website.
