User:Mitchazenia/Monmouth Junction station

Monmouth Junction is a defunct commuter railroad station in the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey. A major stop on the Pennsylvania Railroad's Main Line, the station served as the junction for the Jamesburg Branch, which connected to the Amboy Division at Jamesburg Junction and for the Rocky Hill Branch, which was a small branch to Rocky Hill. All operations were made by the nearby Midway interlocking tower. On the Main Line, the next station to the northeast was Deans. The next station to the southwest was Plainsboro. For the Rocky Hill Branch, the next station west was Stouts Road. For the Jamesburg Branch, the next stop west was Dayton. Monmouth Junction station contained three platforms, two for the Main Line and one for the Jamesburg Branch.

Service on the Rocky Hill Branch ended on September 30, 1928 and replaced by buses. The former two-story wooden station depot at Monmouth Junction, built in 1880, came down in 1961 after being in disrepair. Jamesburg Branch passenger service at Monmouth Junction ended on May 29, 1962 along with nearby Plainsboro, with the final operation of a Trenton–Red Bank local train. The station closed for good on December 3, 1967.

Monmouth Junction has become a proposed stop for the Monmouth Ocean Middlesex Line as part of a service that would go to Lakehurst since 2005.

Station layout and services
At its peak, Monmouth Junction station contained numerous railroad facilities. The wooden, two-story passenger station measured at 68x23 ft. The freight house was a 25x40 ft structure, containing cattle pens. Monmouth Junction station had a reservoir and pump house, which included a coal bin and an oil house. There was also a separate oil house for the freight station. The station also contained a storehouse and tool house.

History
With the introduction of 40-hour work weeks for railroads on September 1, 1949, the railroad announced that the station depot at Monmouth Junction would close for services on weekends starting September 3, along with the ones at Stelton station in Raritan Township. As a result, commuters and other passengers would be required to purchase tickets on the train as no station agent would be available.

In August 1960, the Pennsylvania Railroad cut a section off the shelter overhang to help accommodate the delivery of a transformer choke. The choke, heading for the James Forrestal Research Center in Plainsboro, was too wide to accommodate the right-of-way between the trees and the station shelter, located between tracks, requiring the cut from the Jamesburg Branch side of the shelter.

New Jersey Transit acquired the rights to the closed station in June 1983 as part of a $407,664 acquisition of 16 railroad properties.