New Jersey Museum of Transportation
The New Jersey Museum of Transportation is a museum dedicated to the collection, preservation, and operation of historic railroad equipment. The organization runs excursion trains on a narrow gauge tourist railroad named the Pine Creek Railroad. The museum is independently operated along with the Allaire Village and is located
in Allaire State Park in New Jersey. The museum runs Santa Special trains on the weekends in December.
History
The origins of the New Jersey Museum of Transportation began with the purchase of a Baldwin 0-4-0T engine from the Raritan River Sand Company in 1952 by a pair of railroad enthusiasts. This first engine was named the Pine Creek No. 1and was eventually sold to the Walt Disney company, where it was overhauled and renamed the #4 Ernest S. Marsh. The engine is still in use today at the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California.
Initially a plot of land on Route 9 in Marlboro was purchased where the railroad was run as a tourist attraction, but in 1952 when the organization was facing large property tax increases the not-for-profit Pine Creek Railroad Division of the New Jersey Museum of Transportation was formed and the operations were moved to its present-day location in Allaire State Park.
While the Pine Creek railroad loop runs adjacent to the abandoned Freehold and Jamesburg Agricultural Railroad that skirts the park, it was never part of that rail line right-of-way.
Collection
The following is only a partial listing of equipment that has been or is currently at the Museum.| Original Owner | Number | Wheel Arrangement | Builder | Acquired | Sold | Status | More |
| Raritan River Sand Co. | 10 | 0-4-0T | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 1950 | 1959 | ||
| Hope Natural Gas Company | 3 | 0-4-0T | H. K. Porter, Inc | 1956 | 1960 | ||
| Raritan Copper Works | 9 | 0-4-0T | H. K. Porter, Inc | 1956 | In storage | ||
| Ely-Thomas Lumber Co. | 6 | Two-Truck Shay | Lima Locomotive Works | 1955 | Under restoration | ||
| Chiriqui Land Co. | 46 | 2-6-0 | H. K. Porter, Inc | 1969 | Under restoration | ||
| Cavan and Leitrim Railway | 3 | 4-4-0T | Robert Stephenson & Co. | 1959 | In storage | ||
| Lehigh Valley Coal Company | 117 | 0-4-0T | Vulcan Iron Works | 2005 | On display | ||
| Jackson Model 4000 Track Tamper | 2005 | Under restoration | |||||
| Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway | 26 | 2-6-2 | Baldwin Locomotive Works | 2014 | In storage |
Additional equipment
According to recorded commentary heard in June 2018, the train being run consisted of: a small narrow-gauge diesel engine built in 1942 for the United States and originally operated in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, a passenger coach built in 1902 for the narrow-gauge Newfoundland Railway and marked for its last owner Canadian National Railway, an open car converted by the museum from a narrow-gauge flatcar built for the United States in the 1940s and also originally operated in Hawaii, and a caboose built for the standard-gauge Central Railroad of New Jersey and now riding on narrow-gauge trucks. Staff on site also identified the station building as the Allenhurst station moved to the museum site, and ten stone sleepers on the ground as artifacts rescued by a donor from the Camden and Amboy Railroad right of way.Sunken engines
In 1985, two steam engines were found side by side and in an upright position by charter boat Captain Dan Lieb in of water off the coast of Long Branch. Further identification of these engines occurred in 2004 when a team of diving and railroad enthusiasts working along with the History Channel production team investigated the engines. After viewing several digital images it was discovered, through the evidence of several artifacts on the engines, that they were Civil War-era Planet Class 2-2-2 locomotives from between 1850 and 1855.On September 25, 2004, the New Jersey Museum of Transportation was granted custody of the two engines by US District Judge Joseph Irenas. The museum hopes one day to raise the relics for display and interpretation at the museum.