The trains that commuters used to ride mingled with those they currently board tell the story of rail history in New Jersey, and the state itself. They were on display Sunday at NJ Transit’s Heritage Festival, held at Hoboken Terminal. The assembly of trains on the Hudson River side of the station represented the locomotives and passenger cars that NJ Transit inherited when it was created in 1983 after Conrail got out of the commuter hauling business.
Railroads were credited with the states initial development in the 19th century and with developing the commuter suburbs in the mid-20th century, historians said. “What they did in its day was brilliant and it still works today,” said Kevin Phalon, president and executive director of the United Railroad Historical Society, URHS. “Historically they are how people got around, even more than now.
They are the reason our suburbs are where they are, the reason our towns are built where they are.” A mixture of railroad hobbyists of all ages and families attended to see exhibits of some of the trains operated by railroads that influenced how the state grew. For commuters, the older trains also represent something familiar that’s faded into the past, when they were replaced with newer ones.
The sight of one, such as, a towering General Electric U-34CH locomotive built for the state DOT can invoke memories of a particular time and place, Phalon said, “It’s is not the biggest or fastest or the most powerful or the first or.