Posted by the Asbury
Park Press on 08/31/06
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060831/NEWS02/608310461/1070
BY HARTRIONO B. SASTROWARDOYO
MANAHAWKIN BUREAU
STAFFORD — For the first time in decades, a passenger train arrived at the Manahawkin Train Station on Tuesday afternoon.
But rather than carry passengers across the region, the old train car will be used to transport students back in time as part of the Stafford Township Historical Society's museum on West Bay Avenue.
The 72 1/2-foot long car was last used as a classroom for the Naval Sea Cadets Corps at Earle Naval Weapons Station. Now the car will again be used in that capacity by the historical society, the first phase in the museum's expansion.
"We'll just about double the space of our current museum," Timothy G. Hart, 52, historical society president, said as he surveyed the interior of the 1920s car Wednesday.
The car, at one time, could transport 78 people, which is enough room to hold a class trip consisting of between 25 and 50 children as well as displays, Hart said. The Jackson-based United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey donated the car from its collection of rolling stock. The society collects and restores train cars, all for aonce-planned, Phillipsburg-based New Jersey Transportation Heritage Center.
"We've got two or three others like it," Walt Grosselfinger, 67, the group's president, said. "It's going to be great when it's restored."
Cleaning of the car's interior, which contains many of the original horsehair seat cushions, is scheduled to start Saturday. Among the decisions to be made: whether to paint the car in the green used by Central Railroad of New Jersey, the car's first owner, or the bright yellow of the Manahawkin and Long Beach Island Railroad, which served the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Hart said.
Also planned for the museum site is the construction of bathrooms, scheduled for the fall. As well, the society is seeking a donation of a boxcar, which would hold the model train layout now housed in the station, allowing more space for displays of artifacts and for presentations.
"It's going to be fun cleaning up (the car) and doing the research," Hart said.