Ocean City Railroad (1884)

Ocean City Railroad

Overview
Parent company	West Jersey Railroad
Dates of operation	1884 (1884)–1885 (1885)
Successor	West Jersey Railroad
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in)
Length	11.25 miles (18.11 km)
Route map

The Ocean City Railroad was a railway company in the United States. It was incorporated in 1884 by the West Jersey Railroad to build an extension from Sea Isle City, New Jersey, to Ocean City, New Jersey. The line was completed in 1884 and the company was consolidated with the West Jersey Railroad in 1885. None of the line remains today.

History

The West Jersey Railroad began building east from its main line at Sea Isle Junction toward Sea Isle City, New Jersey, in May 1881. The line, 4.8 miles (7.7 km) long, opened on June 26, 1882.[1][a] It incorporated the Ocean City Railroad on March 1, 1884, to extend the line up the Atlantic Coast to Ocean City, New Jersey. The 11.25-mile (18.11 km) extension opened in December 1884.[4] The West Jersey Railroad consolidated the Ocean City Railroad on September 1, 1885.[5]

In the rationalization that followed the creation of the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in 1933, the former Ocean City Railroad line was abandoned between Sea Isle City and Ocean City in favor of the former Philadelphia and Seashore Railway route.[6][7]

Notes

1. Coverdale & Colpitts lists this branch with the Ocean City Railroad and not the West Jersey Railroad, despite the branch being completed two years prior to the Ocean City Railroad's incorporation.[2] The Interstate Commerce Commission valuation report lists the West Jersey Railroad as the builder.[3]

Footnotes

1. "Sea Isle City". Daily Republican. June 27, 1882. p. 4. Retrieved January 26, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
2. Coverdale & Colpitts (1946), pp. 204, 209.
3. ICC (1929), p. 824.
4. Coverdale & Colpitts (1946), pp. 208–209.
5. Coverdale & Colpitts (1946), p. 208.
6. Kramer (2011), p. 46.
7. Coverdale & Colpitts (1946), p. 209.

References

• Coverdale & Colpitts (1946). The Pennsylvania Railroad Company: The Corporate, Financial and Construction History of Lines Owned, Operated and Controlled To December 31, 1945, Volume IV Affiliated Lines, Miscellaneous Companies, and General Index. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott. OCLC 13172415.
• Interstate Commerce Commission (1929). Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Valuation reports. Vol. 22. U.S. Government Printing Office.
• Kramer, Frederick A. (2011). Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines: An Illustrated History of Southern New Jersey's Jointly-Owned Railroad. Palmyra, New Jersey: West Jersey Chapter, National Railway Historical Society.