After a series of computer issues, we’re back! And to celebrate this, we’ve posted below a just-acquired image depicting the Beachwood Train Depot, circa 1960. It was torn down just two years later, in Spring 1962, having outgrown its use as passenger trains no longer ran and the post office, which it previously housed, moved to their current location in November 1957. The photo comes from the estate of a former Central Railroad of New Jersey employee, and to our knowledge has not been seen publicly before.
Today, the station site, renamed Robert Guilmore Park in the mid-1960s, holds a small gazebo, gardens and a number of trees.
With the coming connection to Ocean County’s Barnegat Branch Rail Trail on the former Central Railroad of New Jersey line, however, the Beachwood Historical Alliance is actively pursuing the reconstruction and re-dedication of the station as a two-restroom facility for trail patrons that could possibly include an indoor borough and railroad history exhibit and could aid in the revitalization of downtown Beachwood.
Also, as part of a new project for 2010, the Beachwood Historical Alliance is looking to have a likeness of this station made into a special 2010 holiday ornament, for sale to the public. More information to come!
And here’s Edward Weber’s photo of the same station ten years earlier (and in much better shape):
Beachwood Train Depot, July 21, 1950, by Edward Weber.
And an even earlier shot, November 1915:
