MAINLINE

The mainline extended for 7.1-miles in a northwesterly direction from Aldene, New Jersey, where connection was made with the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), through the communities of towns of Roselle Park, Kenilworth, Union, and Springfield, to Summit, where connection was made with the Delaware, Lackawanna, & Western Railroad (DL&W).

The railroad’s original length between Aldene and New Orange (later Kenilworth) was surveyed in Summer 1897 by J. Wallace Higgins and Anthony Grippo. Contractor Frank H. Bailey of Elmira, New York constructed the initial two-mile stretch, from the Central Railroad of New Jersey connection in Aldene to the later location of the Rahway River Branch switch, between July 1897 and March 1898. 

J. N. Hayward Cornell made survey of the “new extension” or “new division” between New Orange and Summit. William D. Finkle assisted and laid out the curve above Baltusrol without the aid of surveying instruments. Louis Keller contracted Cornell’s firm, J. N. H. Cornell & Co. of New York, to construct the railroad.

Construction of the extension to Summit commenced in November 1904. On March 1, 1905, the Rahway Valley Railroad consolidated with the New Orange Four Junction Railroad, which shifted the designation of “the mainline” to the to-be completed length between Aldene and Summit. The railroad was opened to Springfield on May 25, 1905 and to Baltusrol on January 1, 1906. The railroad was declared completed to Summit on July 26, 1906. Connection was not made with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, at the end of the mainline, until March 22, 1930.

The section between Carter Bell in Springfield (MP 5.44) and end of track in Summit (MP 7.11) was embargoed in 1976, after the advent of Conrail warranted the consolidation of the railroad’s interchanges to Roselle Park. The last carload delivered to Carter Bell was in 1986. All track north of the Route 22 crossing in Union was embargoed in Winter 1991. The railroad operated its last train, between Kenilworth and Aldene, on April 21, 1992. The entire railroad was declared officially abandoned by the Interstate Commerce Commission on August 27, 1992.