The post World War II years marked an era of decision and change for the railroads for the northeastern part of the nation. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, railroads were forced to defer maintenance due to decreasing revenues. In order to maximize profits and operate more efficiently, they began to dieselize their motive power fleets; thus adding more red ink to the corporate ledgers. The march toward dieselization continued throughout the war years as eastern carriers were considered vital to the war effort in Europe and were given priority in purchasing new motive power.

As the war ended, a whole new set of problems arose. All of those GIs were buying cars and homes in new suburban communities. Who wanted to ride a train when you could drive there yourself? For those affluent enough for a trip to Miami Beach, airlines now had speedy four engine planes and the jet airliner was only a few years away! The Federal Government was beginning to pour money into the building of a nation-wide interstate highway system primarily to speed the shipment of goods by the expanding trucking industry. Thus, by 1954 it had become apparent that the railroad industry, falling apart from years of neglect, was about to derail.

Throughout 1954, the leaders of the major (and some minor) freight and passenger carriers in the northeast began informal talks on how to solve their mutual problems without doing anything that might run afoul of any laws or regulatory agencies that might scream "monopoly". At various times and locations, the carriers included the Pennsylvania, the New York Central, the Lehigh & New England, the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Line, the Reading and several smaller short lines. On the day of November 5, 1954, it all came together in a small central New Jersey resort town called Lakewood. On the shores of Lake Carasaljo stood a hotel that was a relic of the town's proud Victorian past, the Laurel in the Pines. As these princes of the rail took in the panoramic beauty of the lake, the clatter of horses pulling large buggies loaded with tourists around the lake and through the cathedral pines brought back memories of a bygone era. Just to the north of the hotel stood Georgian Court College, formerly the estate of Jay Gould's son. During the heyday of passenger service, Gould constructed a private spur off the Jersey Central tracks going through town to allow his wealthy visitors' own cars to be switched directly to the estate. About two miles to the east stood Ocean County Park, known to the locals as the "Rockies". Until his death, it had been the summer estate of THE John D. Rockefeller. While he didn't have much to do with trains, except to ship his oil, Rockefeller did build a bird-watching tower there so he could enjoy the area's aviary delights. How could Andrew Carnagie, the steel magnate, have called him "Wreckafellow"? But we digress.

Now back to the present. As the representatives of each railroad sipped their scotch, smoked their Havana cigars and discussed their mutual problems, it became clear that none of them was willing to give up control to form a "super" railroad. Besides, those liberal Democrats on the Supreme Court would surely see it as an attack on free enterprise and brand them all as communists. One thing they all did agree on was that they needed to cut costs to remain competitive and -- EUREKA -- why not pool their efforts in the one state in which every one of them had trackage - New Jersey! Not a merger, but a separate company that would coordinate shipping and maintenance of track and equipment from the eastern banks of the Delaware River to the western banks of the Hudson River. It would be a "bridge-line"--The Central Jersey Bridge Line because it cut across the center of the state with the western terminus in Camden and the eastern terminus in Elizabethport.

In less than a month, the larger partners had all the legalese worked out and had convinced the smaller roads of the benefits of joining. A date was set, a corporate color scheme selected and on January 1, 1955 the road went into operation. At about 8:00 AM, two freight trains rounded a curve somewhere west of Hightstown; one going east and the other going west. Both locomotives bore the herald of the Central Jersey Bridge Line - a map of the state with a double-pointed arrow going across it.

What had begun as an idea only two short months ago, was now the future of railroading in New Jersey.