Speaker Series Presentation – Tony Macrie to Present “Railroads of Hammonton”

Tony Macrie, owner of the Seashore Lines R.R., will focus on the railroads that built Hammonton as we know it.  His mother’s back yard on Washington St. was just feet away from the Reading Railroad line, where “The Seashore’s Finest Train”, the famous Central of N. J. RR Blue Comet, with its unique low-pitched steamship whistle, caused children to race to the tracks on their bicycles and “children young and old” to step outside along the line to take in the wonderous site.  The train brought vacationers back and forth from New York and points in between, crossing 12^th St. in each direction twice a day in its early years, stopping at the beautiful Reading Station on West End Ave.  It’s gone now, torn down after 1933, but concrete traces next to Mazza’s Antique Marketplace parking lot are silent reminders. 

Tony had trains in his blood early on, visiting the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL) staging yards where multiple steam engines would idle all night waiting for their morning assignments.  Signs of these yards are still very recognizable today, including the paved expanse behind the 12^th St. Wawa, the New Jersey Transit Station parking lot, and the strip between N. Egg Harbor and Railroad Ave.  Tony witnessed the 1950’s arrival of the PRSL rail diesel cars (RDC’s) that changed the face of rail service in the area.  His Tuckahoe-based Seashore Lines owns all nine surviving PRSL RDC units, and many other historic railroad treasures.

This month’s presentation will also pay tribute to the Camden and Atlantic Railroad, the rail line that originally transformed Hammonton in the 1850’s, literally moving the ‘center of town’ for a third time in less than fifty years, this time from the present super Wawa site on White Horse Pike, then called Main Road.  The railroad brought hundreds of thousands of travelers to enjoy the new resorts of Atlantic City and the Jersey Shore.  For Hammonton, the railroad opened up Philadelphia, New York, Baltimore, Boston, Albany and Portland and far beyond to the region’s agricultural and manufactured goods.  Commuting became much easier too.

Two parallel lines would soon follow, each competing for the fastest service, with speeds of 90 mph common.  At peak times, over 30 passenger trains a day would pass through town, plus multiple extras and freight trains.  The two lines were merged in 1933 for safety and economic reasons.  Previously, as more automobiles plied the byways, crossing the two high-speed lines passing through town, barely two blocks apart, and both double-tracked, was extremely dangerous, and crossings expensive to man.  Americas’ new automotive freedom began the railroads’ struggle to attract passengers that continues to this day.  The streets, lands, buildings, and forests around Hammonton uncover so much about this incredible period of history that built “our world” as we know it.