The Blue Comet was a named passenger train operated by Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) from 1929 to 1941 between the New York metropolitan area and Atlantic City.
Designed by CNJ president R.B. White in 1928, this train whisked passengers from Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City to Atlantic City, making the total trip from Manhattan (via ferry to the Jersey City terminal) to Atlantic City in three hours. The Blue Comet would travel via the CNJ-co-owned New York and Long Branch Railroad to Red Bank, then follow the CNJ Southern Division Main Line to Winslow Junction, where it would travel over the Atlantic City Railroad's tracks to Atlantic City.When the Blue Comet started service in 1929 the Atlantic City Railroad was wholly owned by the Reading Railroad. By 1933 the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines were jointly owned by the Reading Company and the Pennsylvania Railroad.
The colors chosen for the Blue Comets locomotive and passenger cars were ultramarine and Packard Blue, for the sea, cream, for the sandy coastal beaches, and nickel. The tickets for the train were blue, the dining car chairs were upholstered in blue linen and the porters were dressed in blue as well. The locomotive was capable of 100 miles per hour, and the railroad claimed the train itself was the first east of the Mississippi to be equipped with roller bearings for easy starting and stopping.
History Inaugurated on February 21, 1929, the Blue Comet was designed to provide coach passengers with deluxe equipment, accommodations and service at a regular coach fare. The first revenue passengers to board the CNJ's new flagship at Communipaw Terminal were Miss Beatrice Winter and Miss Helen Lewis of New York. As the Blue Comet made its way to Atlantic City, it was put on display for patrons, railfans, and local residents to see and inspect.
Thousands of spectators along the line came to see the new train. This was due in part to a clever ad campaign via radio and newspaper which spurred public interest. Following its first arrival in Atlantic City, a formal dinner was held for railroad officials at the Hotel Dennis. The Blue Comet was published in several periodicals and trade magazines such as Railway Age (March 1929), Fortune (the first issue in February 1930), The Modelmaker, and several advertisements for ELESCO superheaters and feedwater heaters. Periodic articles about the train appeared in The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and local papers such as the Red Bank Register.
It was featured in a British 1937 Gallaher Ltd. collection of tobacco cards entitled "Trains of the World". Billed as the "Seashore's Finest Train", it was dubbed a "Symphony in Blue". Lionel Trains founder Joshua Lionel Cowen was among those who frequently rode the Blue Comet. Inspired by the train's elegant beauty, speed and the sublime power of its towering locomotive, Lionel offered a standard gauge model of the train in 1930. This gave the train and Lionel an almost mythical quality.
There were three factors behind the creation of the Blue Comet: To eliminate passenger service south of Winslow Junction and replace rail service with bus connections To better compete with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) for Atlantic City passengers To eliminate a costly Pullman parlor car lease, from which the CNJ took a loss ten months of the year
The Blue Comet offered extra accommodations at the regular coach fare and assigned seats so passengers knew exactly where they would sit. The PRR charged extra for its all-parlor car Atlantic City Limited and the New York Limited. In addition, the railroad charged extra fees for parlor cars on the Nellie Bly. The Blue Comet ran on-schedule 97 percent of the time for its first five years. A billboard was installed on Routes 33 and 34 overpass at Farmingdale listing the times the train would pass that area.
The Blue Comet was initially a success but fell victim to the Great Depression. Service was reduced to a single daily round-trip by April 1933. Also, that year, the PRR and the Reading Company consolidated their southern New Jersey routes and formed the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines. After the merger, the PRR owned two-thirds of the trackage. Reports from travelers indicate that Blue Comet information was not readily available at the Atlantic City station. This had the Blue Comet service at a disadvantage, as PRR Atlantic City-New York information was readily available for passengers heading to points north.
Ocean County stops for the Blue Comet included Lakewood and Lakehurst. The Lakewood stop was to pick up and drop off passengers as well as Jolly Tar Trail bus service. The stop at Lakehurst was for people needing a connection for the Barnegat Branch, later replaced by Jolly Tar Trail service during off-peak hours in the early 1930s and for the locomotives to take on water. By the mid-1930s, service had picked up to a morning and an afternoon train in the southerly direction and an afternoon and an evening train in the northerly in summer 1936.Official Guide of the Railways, August 1936, Table 3
For residents of the more isolated sections of the Pine Barrens, the Blue Comets railroad crews dropped off newspapers. In Chatsworth, the train slowed as it went through the center of town on its return from Atlantic City to disperse a bundle of the daily papers, including The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, among other big-city publications, which had been provided for passengers to read while on board. This goodwill gesture offered a way for locals who did not have radios or electricity to stay informed on current events. Community lore has it that residents would show their appreciation by bringing baskets of freshly picked berries for the crew. However, this anecdote has been disputed by some who lived in the area at the time and insisted the express train did not stop in a location where such an exchange would have happened.
The Blue Comet made its final run on September 27, 1941, due to a decline in passenger travel and facing increased competition with the PRR.
Accidents On Friday, December 26, 1935, the Blue Comet experienced a small fire in the roof of the dining car Giacobini. The fire was discovered while the train was en route to Red Bank by the chef, who promptly alerted the steward Lewis Herring. The two men attempted to put out the fire themselves using fire extinguishers; however, the origin of the fire was inaccessible. An overheated flue from the coal stove had caused some of the roof structure to burn between the ceiling and the roof of the dining car.
Red Bank firefighters were summoned as the train pulled into the station and the fire was quickly put out. Damage was estimated at only $50.00. The passengers were unaware that there was any problem until they were politely asked to leave the dining car at the station. The Blue Comet was delayed for 39 minutes while the fire was put out and the dining car removed from service. The train arrived in Atlantic City only 22 minutes behind schedule.
On August 19, 1939, train No. 4218 was traveling eastbound with a consist of a combine Halley, a coach D'Arrest, a diner Giacobini, a second coach Winnecki and an observation car Biela. Engine No. 820, a 4-6-2 Pacific, was on point. Conductor Walsh and engineman Thomas was in charge of the train, which was carrying 49 passengers and crew. Extraordinarily heavy rains fell in the area throughout the day. It is estimated that roughly inches of rain fell, and about inches fell between 2 and 6 p.m.
The Blue Comet's crew had reduced speed from the usual 70 mph to between 3540 mph, as visibility was poor and the crew had been given a message at Winslow Junction to keep a lookout for sand on the crossings due to the heavy rains. Near milepost 86, about a mile west of Chatsworth station, the train hit a washout at 4:37 pm. The surface water had overwhelmed two 24-inch culverts and undermined the roadbed. The locomotive and tender made it across the damaged track, with the rear tender truck being derailed. The rear truck floating lever was damaged, rendering the tender brakes inoperative. The entire five-car consist had become uncoupled from the tender and derailed.
The cars came to rest in general line with the track and were leaning at various angles. Roughly 500 feet of track was destroyed. When the train failed to arrive at Chatsworth Station, personnel and local residents waded over a mile through the woods in water waist deep in parts to reach the wreck. Reports that 100 people were killed led to a flurry of ambulances from northern parts of the state. Actually, only 49 people were on board. The injured included 32 passengers, four dining car employees, a porter and a train service employee. The chef, Joseph Coleman, was crushed and badly scalded in the kitchen of the dining car when the stove fell on top of him as the car overturned. He later died from his injuries.
The majority of the injuries were minor, resulting from the flying wicker chairs in the observation car. The CNJ crews replaced about 600 feet of damaged track in approximately 48 hours. A relief train arrived a few hours later to transport the remaining passengers. An investigation concluded that the derailment was caused by the washout, which resulted from the unusually heavy rainfall. Today, the mainline track and wreck site are abandoned and very overgrown.
All of the Blue Comet equipment involved in the wreck was repaired and returned to service, except for the dining car Giacobini (which was also involved in the 1935 fire). Being a steel-clad wooden car, it was unable to withstand the forces of the wreck and was too badly damaged to repair. It was used as a rail yard freight office until it was eventually scrapped.
Crossing accidents On Friday, January 10, 1936, William Taylor, 42, a farmhand, was instantly killed when his produce truck was struck by the Blue Comet while crossing the tracks at Finkel's Lane, Shrewsbury. Mr. Taylor was employed on the farm owned by C. Borderson of Shrewsbury and had been transporting produce from one side of the farm to the other. The crossing was on private property and had no watchman. The engineer, William J. Smith of Elizabeth, was taken into custody for questioning and later released.
Engineer Smith stated that the bell of the Blue Comet had been kept ringing ever since the train pulled out of the Red Bank station. He said the whistle had been sounded. The truck was demolished and the locomotive badly damaged. A steam valve cap from the automatic safety control of the engine was damaged and the steam escaped. After a delay of about an hour, the train limped into Eatontown station, where an extra locomotive from Red Bank took up the interrupted journey.
Shortly before noon on January 14, 1936, a National Biscuit Company trailer-truck stalled on the tracks of the New York & Long Branch railroad at the Shrewsbury Avenue crossing and was struck by a southbound Pennsylvania train. The driver, Joseph Clark, 53, of Corona, Long Island, jumped from the cab of the truck before the train crashed into it. According to the driver, the motor of the truck stalled just as it reached the tracks. A wrecking crew removed the truck from the tracks so as to permit the Blue Comet, due at Red Bank at 10:04 o'clock, to pass.
At 6:10 p.m. on Monday, September 8, 1941, a mother and two of her children were killed when the Blue Comet crashed into a light delivery truck at an unprotected crossing not far from their home. They were Antionette Macciocca, of White Horse Pike Elm, and her two daughters, 13-year-old Gloria, and Joanne, who was four years old. The accident took place as Mocciocca was driving back to her home after visiting a neighbor to obtain advice on canning vegetables.