Toms River Railroad

[NJsurf68]

I did some exploring on my lunch hour today. Our business is located on Rt. 37 in Toms River. Behind us, there is a lake and a trail which leads to the old abandoned Toms River Railroad tracks. I brought my camera and took some photos.

The ironic thing was the beautiful white duck I saw swimming in this lake filled with tires, concrete blocks, and other debris.

I'm not sure if this is a man-made lake, or part of an old tributary which fed the Toms River. There seems to be several of these lakes in the vicinity.

I also found 2 threaded nuts once used to hold the rails in place which I brought back to the office.

 

[Ben Ruset]

Those are the old Conrail lines. They led right through Heritage Minerals.

Rumor was that recently (as of a few years ago) they wanted to refurbish the line to carry the toxic waste they were cleaning up out of there.

 

[NJsurf68]

Oh! That would explain alot. I always wondered why they put a railroad crossing at the site of the old Germania station when they widened Rt37.
The track on both sides of 37 are covered with brush, and they look like they're ready to fall apart. I looked at Google Earth and it seems as if the tracks lead right into the Ciba Geigy property too.

According to Wikipedia, The TRRR was owned by the Toms River and Waretown RR, the Toms River and Barnegat RR, The Central RR of NJ, then Conrail. Did Conrail put down new track, or is this the original TRRR?

 

[NJsurf68]

From Wikipedia:

Toms River Railroad was established in 1866 with a stop at the county seat of Toms River. The line was extended to Waretown in 1872 by the Toms River and Waretown RR Co. In 1881 the Central Railroad of New Jersey purchased the road and in 1893 the property was transferred to the Toms River & Barnegat RR Co. at that time the branch was extended to Barnegat. In 1893, the Toms River & Barnegat RR Co. acquired ownership of the property, and service continued under the Central Railroad.

Passenger service was terminated in the mid 1950s, though freight service continued through the early 1970s before the line was taken out of service and eventually absorbed by Conrail.

Do you think the tracks are the originals, or were they installed by Conrail? I see on some old maps (tomsriver-barnegat-usgs-1884), the existence of a RR line in the same location along present-day Rt 37.
..just wondering. I'm intrigued.

 

[46er]

Take a look at the 1938 OC map. I doubt that those rails are the originals as spikes were used early on. That line, under various owners went south thru what is now South Toms River, the old rail station has recently been raised where the new bridge in downtown TR is located. It crossed the Penn RR line near there, that came out of Philly and down thru Beachwood, Pine Beach(with a switch there to the bridge over the Toms River to Island Heights), thru Ocean Gate and over the bridge across Barnegat Bay to Seaside Park, the station is now the municipal building. One of the spurs for the switch runs thru my backyard and the pilings for the bridges over the river and the bay are still in place. Forked River is trying to build a rail trail on the bed of the old railroad, Tuckerton is doing something similar.

The view of the bridge pilings from Ocean gate looking east across the bay.

 

[whitingrider]

I remember buying lumber here as a boy with my Dad.
It was called Trilco Terminal in South Toms River. There are tons of great old train pictures here: http://www.thebluecomet.com/cnjsoudiv.html

 

[tree huggin tracker]

best way i could think of to spend a lunch break! that poor duck..
nice photos!

 

[infinite sameness]

this looks like zarco woods ive hung out there all my life i do belive that there was a mining company there (before havnanian owned it) and one day while digging they hit the water table the rumor has it the hole filled up so fast with water the workers abandoned their machinery i love going back there and some spots are actually very clean and swimmable i have had picnics and many bon fires out there brings back a lot of memories i have also recieved a trespassing ticket but ive heard Havnanian has ceased having the police patrol the grounds i dunno they should make it public i would be more than willing to help clean up the place since there are a few sunken cars and lots of trash around

 

[infinite sameness]

Those are the old Conrail lines. They led right through Heritage Minerals.

Rumor was that recently (as of a few years ago) they wanted to refurbish the line to carry the toxic waste they were cleaning up out of there.

toxic waste? where in the old buildings???

 

[whitingrider]

this looks like zarco woods ive hung out there all my life i do belive that there was a mining company there (before havnanian owned it) and one day while digging they hit the water table the rumor has it the hole filled up so fast with water the workers abandoned their machinery i love going back there and some spots are actually very clean and swimmable i have had picnics and many bon fires out there brings back a lot of memories i have also recieved a trespassing ticket but ive heard Havnanian has ceased having the police patrol the grounds i dunno they should make it public i would be more than willing to help clean up the place since there are a few sunken cars and lots of trash around

1st off the police regularly patrol that area. 2nd off I love the names the kids give to it, it was originaly called "shifting sands" on old topo maps and the company thah mined ilmunite from there was ASARCO. When it was in operation it employed many people. There were always creeks running through there, but they became lakes from dredging. The dredge they used was beached alongside the lake for many years before it was cut up and removed. It was about the size of a Navy tugboat.
3rd off the hazardous material was the tailings (leftovers), piled up over the years which had some backround radiation which is present in all the sand in the area, to some degree. Ilmunite is the ingredient which replaced lead in paint when it was banned in the 60's.
There is another well known ilmunite mine in Jackson owned by Clayton Concrete where sand has been mined even after the end of ilmunite mining. It is known as Gliddens. The developer that owns ASARCO is K. Hovnanian
Tom

 

[james ungehajer]

1st off the police regularly patrol that area. 2nd off I love the names the kids give to it, it was originaly called "shifyting sands" on old topo maps and the company thah mined ilmunite from there was ASARCO. When it was in operation it employed many people. There were always creeks running through there, but they became lakes from dredging. The dredge they used was beached alongside the lake for many years before it was cut up and removed. It was about the size of a Navy tugboat.
3rd off the hazardous material was the tailings (leftovers), piled up over the years which had some backround radiation which is present in all the sand in the area, to some degree. Ilmunite is the ingredient which replaced lead in paint when it was banned in the 60's.
There is another well known ilmunite mine in Jackson owned by Clayton Concrete where sand has been mined even after the end of ilmunite mining. It is known as Gliddens. The developer that owns ASARCO is K. Hovnanian
Tom

Thank you for posting and sharing that info Tom.

Jim

 

[omega]

When I was a kid my buddy and I used to ride our bikes on the trails/dirt roads around the old Toms River Chemical Corp ( Ciba Geigy) site.(the days before fences) I remember one day in particular. We had just seen Dr. Who and the Daleks at the Dover Theatre and were out in the woods. We found this hill with some old thin concrete block and a clay like substance, which i always though was what some called "Gliddite" we made our own little Dr. Who set. LOL.

Looking back I sure am glad my kids were all born with 10 fingers and 10 toes each...LOL

 

[infinite sameness]

1st off the police regularly patrol that area. 2nd off I love the names the kids give to it, it was originaly called "shifyting sands" on old topo maps and the company thah mined ilmunite from there was ASARCO. When it was in operation it employed many people. There were always creeks running through there, but they became lakes from dredging. The dredge they used was beached alongside the lake for many years before it was cut up and removed. It was about the size of a Navy tugboat.
3rd off the hazardous material was the tailings (leftovers), piled up over the years which had some backround radiation which is present in all the sand in the area, to some degree. Ilmunite is the ingredient which replaced lead in paint when it was banned in the 60's.
There is another well known ilmunite mine in Jackson owned by Clayton Concrete where sand has been mined even after the end of ilmunite mining. It is known as Gliddens. The developer that owns ASARCO is K. Hovnanian
Tom

so thats where the name "sarcos" came from do you live near manchester is that how you know the grounds are still being patrolled becuase the grapevine has it that havnanians son got harassed riding out there and havnanian doent want manchester patrolling i dont know for sure i do find it hard to believe no patrolling i havent been out there in quite some time so you say that they were dredging for ilmunite interesting i wonder how much that affected the water in pine lake park??

 

[whitingrider]

do you live near manchester

Yes, Whiting is a part of Manchester Township. And they still patrol that area at each of the entrances. You don't want to get caught out there nowadays. It used to be a great place to bring your kids to swim and barbecue in the summer. Used to get kinda crowed, although there is miles of shoreline on two big lakes. I don't think the dredging affected the quality of the water, and it flows away from Pine Lake.

 

[whitingrider]

I lived near where the rail went through Pine Beach, tracks gone way before I moved there. I've been back in Johnsons for as long as I can remember,4 wheeling and also driving trucks for Johnsons. And as far as Fishers pit in Bayville, I have been all through there also, mostly on business. The Berkeley Historical Society has 2008 calenders featuring photos of the old NJ Pulverizing Co. It used to be the biggest employer in Ocean County until CIBA-GIEGY.This is a train going across Flint Rd and Surf Ave on the way to Toms River

 

[no1one]

Any update on the development there?

 

[Stork]

My grandfater and I go fishing in that lake