I live in Princeton and use the Dinky very often. The best part it is that it runs well past midnight upto 1:45 am and starts very early from 5 am. So you can always rely on this service to pick you on your late night return from day excursions to NYC.
You are lucky there was an other dinky, Ames, Iowa to Kelley, Iowa on the Fort Dodge Des Moines and Southern RR. Look that up on google. It's gone a long time. Like 1955. It had wooden cars.
@@dexterlambert5740 I know the feeling...in the late Eighties and early Nineties, the bus system where I grew up (about 30 miles east of Chicago) was a mess, especially with the two routes serving the most eastern parts of the city.
@@BruscoTheBoar The whole bad boy crime living part wasn’t as common as people say it is, cowboys were mainly just people who use the guns and ropes to move cattle across the country, usually by scaring them to a certain direction with the gun or roping the lead cow to the right way
I drove the Dinky once as a child with the engineer. That was in 1969! I'll never forget it. I think the cars were red or green and it had a like a stool that he sat me on. He stuck his hand on mine on the throttle and off we went. What a wonderful man I hope he's happy in heaven and he was given an extra star and all the train sets he wanted to play with for making this kid feel absolutely fantastic.
It was called the Great Dinky Robbery.and was back when Princeton was an all male school and their dates would take train into to town for their big night out. A group of men rode horses dressed as cowboys on the tracks and boarded the train luring women on board to ride off with them. Thats a short summary of what happened but yea it is definitely an interesting part of Princeton's history for sure.
My Dad was on the dinky that day. Before Princeton was co-ed young ladies would arrive on the dinky Friday afternoon. A VW was parked on the Faculty Road crossing to block the dinky. Princeton students (almost certainly) mounted on horses and with bandanas covering their faces stopped the train and carried the ladies off into the sunset. My father who was otherwise very conservative LOVED IT. Classic cool.
Here's an article about The Great Dinky Robbery -- In May 1963, the Princeton campus erupted in a riot that ended up on the front pages of national newspapers. To the nation, the riot looked like a bunch of bored rich kids randomly destroying property. Life magazine attributed the wantonness in part to the spectacular high jinks executed a few days before, a caper known now as The Great Train Robbery. Late afternoon on Friday, May 3 - Houseparties weekend -the P. J. & B., now known as the Dinky shuttle from Princeton Junction, was packed with the usual spring-suited commuters and college women traveling to campus. The shuttle rumbled along on its 10-minute journey back from the Junction. Suddenly, the engineer spotted a driverless convertible straddling the rails, and braked. From out of the woods appeared a horse at full gallop, its masked rider brandishing a six-shooter. As the train ground to a halt, the engineer threw up his hands. Three other horsemen appeared, all wearing cowboy garb and bandanas over their faces. They dismounted and boarded the train. “Stay in your seats, everyone!” the leader yelled, firing his pistol with a deafening percussion. Several women screamed. Some men in business suits looked amused, but others fumbled for their billfolds. One held out his gold watch. The intruders sauntered down the center aisle. “That’s the one I want!” the leader shouted, and he grabbed a young woman in a blue dress. The young man beside her put up a fight, then watched the woman being pulled toward the train door, down the metal stairs toward the horses. The three other cowboys followed, each grabbing a wrist and hauling a primly dressed college student down the aisle. Outside, the riders and the four women struggled onto the backs of the horses and rode into the woods. The convertible already had been removed, and the train lurched forward and slowly resumed its journey to Princeton Station. When it arrived, the campus platform was swollen with undergraduates expecting their dates. “We were just held up,” a young voice shouted. Word spread. A legend had begun. The spectacular ploy was carried out by three Cap and Gown seniors - George Bunn ’63, now a respected New York attorney but then a well-known prankster who shared his room with an illegal pet ocelot, broke the then-famous cohabitation rule with impunity, and attacked rival Cottage Club with a bulldozer; Sam Perry ’63; and John Williams ’63. Walt Goodridge ’64, an architecture student and cheerleader, did much of the legwork. Two of the kidnapped women were undergraduates from Smith College. Randol Foote Haffner recalls sitting with her friend Susie Wolfe that Friday when Goodridge, Bunn, and Perry explained the plan and recruited them. A couple of men were planted on the train with the women. Goodridge rented horses from the stable by Lake Carnegie, and a party with the costumes and guns met the riders in the woods. A team was assigned to drive the convertible onto the tracks and off. The horses balked along the shore of Lake Carnegie; Goodridge remembers getting off and leading his skittish horse on foot. “Fortunately,” he says, “the others followed.” Haffner remembers: “George came into the car with his gun drawn and looked at me and yelled, ‘There’s the one I want!’ My date (Phil Ringo ’64, Haffner’s future husband) and I faked a little protest, but allowed him to pull me off the train and onto his horse. It’s sort of embarrassing how I was dressed every inch a Smithie, in a powder-blue Villager shirtdress that I can still picture. Suddenly I was on the back of this wild man’s saddle, hanging on for dear life.” After robbing the train, the horsemen, each with a woman rider, headed toward campus. “The horses were really into it,” Goodridge recalls. “Mine wanted to gallop, and you have to remember that none of us was an experienced horseman. When we got near Brown Hall, I remember all the freshmen coming out and cheering us as we passed. That’s when my horse rose up on his hind legs, like in a Western.” The riders proceeded up Prospect Street. Bunn rode up the Colonial Club walkway and onto the porch. The other three riders headed over to Cap and Gown, where Bo Diddley was playing out front. Bo and his musicians seemed amused. It was approaching dark when the horsemen rode back to the stable. The horses were overdue and highly lathered. “The stable owner was furious,” remembers Williams, a retired president of the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. “He had no idea that his horses had just taken part in the creation of a legend.” The train robbery on that spring afternoon would never be tolerated today. But no disciplinary action was taken against the perpetrators. Thinking back, we who were there find ourselves filled with nostalgia and a twinge of adolescent pride. “We just wanted to raise a little hell,” recalls Bunn. In the simpler life of 1963, a well-executed prank was a tour de force, a source of admiration and campus awe, a way of tweaking the nose of staid tradition and yet staying within it. “In that safe and predictable environment of Princeton,” observes Goodridge, now a wood craftsman in Conway, Massachusetts, “you could go right to the brink. You could appear to be taking a big risk and get a high return - something you’d never feel safe doing in the outside world.” The train robbery was a last stand; in just a few months, that outside world would be ours. By Selden Edwards ’63 www.princetonianamuseum.org/artifact/f457dbef-3d48-44b1-88d7-b1314870dc98
I drive 5km to my railway station every workday and from there 25km by train in Germany, i love it, i can actually do stuff while in the train and even sleep instead of having to focus on the traffic
And now guess why there is none. If everyone like you would use the train, it would lead to LESS car sales, so this is bad for the economy. Also by using lots of gas, the oil company makes lots of money and the state collects taxes. So now it is obvious that in a car county one simply drives a car.
@@CAESARbonds Couldn't possibly be because Americans prefer the convenience of having a car that takes them directly from point A to point B on their schedule in a private cocoon not to mention the ability to haul groceries and such? Nope, it's all a big bad conspiracy by the oil companies.
I don't know how this slow Caramelldansen theme tune is supposed to make me feel about Conrail, but I do know that it just makes me feel irrationally upset about everything.
I was a student at Princeton in the 70's and one year I lived in Blair Hall, the dorm with the big arch, steps, and tower you see at 6:00. Those trains were new then, and they looked pretty much the same. Many years the ago the Dinky terminated in that courtyard, so this is not the first time the station has moved.
There's a few more branches than the ones you mentioned in the US: - Danbury Branch (Metro North line that goes off the Northeast Corridor) - New Haven-Springfield Line (an Amtrak shuttle line that branches off the Northeast Corridor; though also used by CTRail and the one round trip-a-day Vermonter most of the time this is a branch) - all the branches of the LIRR (they branch off the Main Line) - Meadowlands Rail Line (which branches off NJ Transit's Pascack Valley Line) - Cynwyd Line (SEPTA Regional Rail) - Airport Line (SEPTA Regional Rail) - BART's Oakland Airport Connector (which technically counts since Amtrak serves the Coliseum station; this branches off the Capitol Corridor) - Beverly Branch (branches off Metra's Rock Island District) - Frederick Branch (branches off MARC's Brunswick Line) - Foxboro branch (branches off MBTA's Franklin Line) - SPRINTER (a North County Transit District service that branches off the Pacific Surfliner) - South Chicago and Rock Island branches of Metra Electric District (which branches off their Main Line) And what's a shame about the Dinky is the fact that it was truncated, which makes it less convenient for those who live in Princeton to use it. And this in turn boosts the car industry because when trains aren't convenient, they turn to cars
Ya know that meme where one guy says "oh, so you like planes? Name every one" and the guy does. I got this kind of energy from this. Props to your knowledge on these trains. Personally I'm into streamliners (I cannot name ever one, unfortunately)
Yeah, the Dinky has been shortened twice in it's history! As someone who grew up in downtown Princeton, walking to the Dinky is taking longer and longer -- relevant when you're bringing luggage.
If airport lines count, then I would argue the MSP airport trains are a very good example of a branch line. They connect to the Metro Blue Line LRT downstairs and both the MSP airport lines and LRT run 24/7 in the airport, completely free for anyone to use. Even if it's just an airport peoplemover, the interconnection it has with the rest of transit network makes it easily usable by most people
Like decent cities, good rail service, good roads and good drivers. But we don't want to live in such a way to enable them and the politicians spend our tax money on useless vanity projects like tRump's Wall and boondoggles like the F-35.
America is a complex place. Those of us who live in apex cities like NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, etc., are used to high density and accompanied well established rapid transit, commuter rail, and regional rail, as well as good bus service and good bike and walking accessibility. Some cities (like Chicago) are designed in a radial fashion to limit the need for branch rail service. As for high speed rail, that's a whole other can of worms, as Acela is BARELY defined as high speed rail and only in certain sections. California's HSR is always 15+ years from completion and everyone else's chances to get planning and finding are spoilt by ROW, NIMBY, and low capital availability for highly unprofitable infrastructure projects as private lenders don't care about the long term economic benefits such a system can bring to a region with high speed connections. Also, the US has cities in clusters as opposed to a more continuous density like you'd find outside the US which makes it hard to support HSR as the only money making stops would be between one large city to the next. (example, here in Chicago you have the.metro area ranging from Milwaukee to Chicago to even parts of NW Indiana but beyond that is rural areas and wilderness) Not having intermediate stops hurts the bottom line and feasibility quite a bit. I have confidence that we will fix our rail woes in the future, but it will take time and will require at least one project to be a success. For this reason counting on Brightline and Texas Central to do well. Not sure how Cali HSR will turn out, but given Biden's recent $1bn blessing, it may also work out. Hopefully it does. But yeah, I guess my point is, the US is not a post apocalyptic commuter rail nightmare as much as you europeans think. Long distance yes, but rapid transit and commuter rail is a different story. Depends on where you are. And I'll also point out that the domestic airline industry will need to back down it's lobbying efforts against HSR as well. They have proven to be quite a large barrier as well. I hope they come to realize that most domestic flights exceed 1000+ mi (~1600km) and that most HSR trips are less than 600mi (~950km), as well as also being limited by extreme terrain. For instance, taking an HSR from NYC to LA would not only cross 2-3 mountain ranges, but it'd also take 20+ hours even if you were able to manage to keep an average speed of 150+ mph (~240kph) with stops included. I doubt many people would opt for that over a flight. Even from here in Chicago I would rather fly to LA, but maybe I would take a train to Texas, Missouri, Ohio, NY, perhaps pushing it, but maybe even Florida. My point is, less for you but more for fellow Americans and the US domestic airline industry, that people will still take planes even if there is high speed rail. We shouldn't freak out about that, and not to mention that trains (usually) remain domestic, whereas aircraft can easily change routes, fly anywhere with a lot more flexibility than high traffic Intercity routes. Air travel for Intercity is one of the least efficient ways you can get to intercity destinations right now and flies in the face of trying to reduce emissions. Anyone who cares about polluting less should vehemently push for high speed Intercity rail - and yeah, the formula for the US will be different form Europe and that's okay, we need to design it to figure it out though, or we'll never bring ourselves the dawn of intelligent and efficient HSR intercity commuting.
For what it’s worth, the term “dinky” seems to be generic local term for a small local passenger train. My family lived in Hopewell NJ for several generations. Hopewell was served by the Reading Railroad’s line from West Trenton to Bound Brook. In the steam era, the Reading ran a local train from West Trenton to Bound Brook that was known to locals as the dinky. From what my family described., certain runs may have used a gas electric motor car.
3:00 Old style interiors are just fine! I'm sick of the new buses that have about an inch of foam for the seats, instead of the old ones that were super comfy.
Reminds me of the local train lines here in Stockholm. Grew up on along a local line that splits into two branches here in Stockholm Sweden, it too runs through mainly the most wealthiest places (Saltsjöbaden) in the country, from which it got its name "Saltsjöbanan". To this day they still use the classic C10 EMU rolling stock manufactured by ASEA (later known as ABB) in the 1970s. Interestingly, contrary to many other cities, wealthier population lives on the east side of the metropolitan region, there's even a larger local train network (Roslagsbanan) in Northeast Stockholm that also runs through the wealthiest municipalities, same manufacturer yet this network uses the special Swedish three foot gauge (891mm) and a different rolling stock.
Branch line air service and bus services are maintained by the government across the country. Unlike rail that has been cut every chance they had. The Northeast Corridor is a busy...(because it has trains to ride) but small piece of the National Rail Network. ( If you can call the few now 3 day a week train system a network.) It's only 466 miles. Out of 20,000.
Branchlines are a thing of the past; especially for freight railroads. But considering how expensive cars are becoming to drive, having them to commute around town wouldn't be a bad idea!
I live right by the Waterbury branch line. I didn't realize it was so uncommon. it uses diesel power while the NEC is electric. I'd love to see you come up here for content. These old NEC tracks can be super weird.
Basically the Princeton Dinky is the real-life Little Engine (or just train in this case) that could the branch may be small but its history, significance and the impact it has on the Princeton community is ginormous
We had so many of these in Britain before the Beeching Axe! In what later became my hometown of Milton Keynes, there was the Wolverton-Newport Pagnell line, only 4 miles long and served by a steam engine known as "Newport Nobby".
Would you ever consider doing a video that covers NJ transit as a whole? I think it is a topic worth covering as there aren't many other states that have large train systems
Agreed, more attention should be paid to the Northeast as a whole. The three NY commuter railroads, NJT LIRR and MentoNorth carry more than half of all the rail passengers in the US. All of the things that get talked about nationally happen here. We must be doing something right. Also here we spend money just to keep up with demand not to try to create it. Also you might want to look at our busses, at least NJT, another vid noted about a bus line from North Bergen NJ that during rush runs 40 yes 40 busses into the Port Authority on the Lincoln Tunnel HOV bus lane and they are full.
Its not a legacy operation, but the Coaster Sprinter from Oceanside to Escondido would count as well. TriMet WES sorta counts too but it feeds a light rail line which is backwards. Now that the FRA has finally dropped some of it crash regs the Oceanside Coaster Sprinter would be a good model for adding branchline services across the country. Alot of branchlines still exist but just as freight shortlines, if using "off the shelf" DMUs (Yes, diesel...) is permitted then with track upgrades it wouldnt be too hard to implement passenger service on these again.
I was lucky enough to be interviewed when they opened the Sprinter, I might move back to SD some day if I can afford it just because they actually have trains there.
Good coverage. southshore line commuter rail in Northwest indiana is currently building a branch line from Gary to merriville IN also now. (I believe those are the locations). Also Metra Electric district out here in Chicagoland has had at least 2 branch lines on it for many years too.
@theodoretaylor5228 I'll hold off on the usual NWI bluster as to why it took so long, but only say it's about freaking time NICTD extended. Heck, the last time I set foot there (2015), I was surprised to see GPTC buses serving Southlake Mall and the adjacent complexes that grew up in the Nineties .
These old branch lines would have been perfect for light metros (like at airports and in Miami FL, Scarborough ON and Vancouver BC) but NIMBYS would kill it saying it would attract "those people" 😣😡
The Dinky was opened around 1865 and used to be a two track line between Princeton and Princeton Jct. Trains from either the north or south could go directly to Princeton as the layout was a "Y" (the southern part of the "Y" is gone leaving only the northern end connecting to the main line). As Princeton University football became popular (late 1800's), the original track layout at the Princeton station was modified from 2 to 3 then 4 tracks. As demand increased, more trackage was added creating (west to east) the Upper Yard (near the station), the Middle Yard (9 tracks), the New Yard (9 tracks) and the Lower Yard (10 tracks). Each yard was within walking distance to the various athletic venues; Brokaw Field and Palmer Stadium (built in 1914). when the line was electrified, GG1's would pull trains into the various yards where passengers alighted and walked to the field. While the game was played, the engines were moved to other end of the train ready for departure at the end of the game.
I rode the Dinky all the time as a little kid with my parents! We'd take the Dinky out to the Princeton station, sit and watch the trains for a bit, then ride it back
one thing about branch lines that is especially important is that it gives you so much independence as a kid. Sure wasn't the most convenient but with access to a branch line where Im from it gave me access to the whole rail network in my country and therefore meant that without driving I could get to any major city. it also meant as a kid I could go on trips with my freinds to major cities
Lines like this would be great with new 2 car trains. Here in the netherlands i took a minor train line to pick something up from dutch craigslist and it turns out that they were running 15 minute service on a single track with electric stadler GTW 2 or 3 car trains. Awesome. I'd love to see more of these.
Great video as always! I used to go to Princeton Junction often and I am very familiar with the Dinky along one of of not the shortest branch line in the U.S. I would suggest longer branch lines in the area, such as Trenton to Philipsburg, which would connect with main lines while accessing more communities, thus making rail transport more efficient.
You are so right about the value of branch lines. Devon and Cornwall make much use of their branch lines to link into the Cornwall/Plymouth to London/Caerdydd-Cardiff/Birmingham/Edinburgh service and provides links to rural towns and coastal communities. They plan to re link the Tamar Valley Line and Okehampton line to create a link from city to national park and vice versa
Great to see a video about the Dinky! I was at Princeton while they were overhauling the Dinky station and the current station/Wawa is so much nicer than what was there before. Great for a midnight study hoagie run. Also, love the Vulfpeck samples in all the vids!
Very nice! Love seeing the old Arrow IIIs running the "Dinky". Speaking of branch lines, I hear SEPTA will be extending their R3 Line back to West Chester once the new terminus at Wawa is completed. SEPTA also still owns passenger rights to the ex. Pennsylvania Railroad Octoraro Branch between Wawa and Sylmar (East Penn Railroad, LLC operates freight trains between Chadds Ford, which is the Wilmington & Northern connection, and Sylmar, PA). Hopefully in the near future SEPTA plans to expand commuter services in these areas in an effort to reduce the amount of car dependency in Chester County. I suppose only time will tell. Once again, great video!
I'd love to see you do some videos on English trainlines. I get the Avocet Line to work, which I assume is a branch line. It's such an invaluable service, I can't imagine my city without it.
Also, they didn’t have the foresight to build the new dinky terminal UNDER the new Arts Center, thus keeping it roughly the same distance from downtown, instead they moved it farther away ☹️
Thanks for telling us about The Dinky! I've been under that bridge over the canal, BTW. I used to go biking and kayaking down there, so it's cool to learn about what that train was... :)
I am glad that I live in a country that has a vast passager train network. You can cycle to a station nearby, park your bike in a bike parking garage, take a train, at the destination station you can rent a Public Transport Bike for 4 bucks, for 24 hours. And you cycle to your final destination. The country is the Netherlands. So cycling and PT does the job.
Nice video. Your explanation of branch lines makes me realize that the CTA's Yellow Line, aka "Skokie Swift" is s branch line. It absolutely makes ridership on the main line stronger.
It's so surreal seeing a little-known but beloved feature of my hometown being shown on a youtube channel I really enjoy watching! Loved the beautiful shots of the university at the end, although some footage of the shiny new Princeton station and the (non-Stroad) streets of the town would have been awesome as well
Came here to say this - the Skokie Swift (a.k.a. Yellow Line) functions as a branch line off of the North Side Main Line that carries the Red Line and the Evanston Express (a.k.a. Purple Line).
They run the same equipment on the New Haven non-electrified branches - Waterbury & Danbury (yes Danbury should be included in the branch line list - even tho they run thru am/pm peak service to GCT, most of the time it terminates in Norwalk).
@@sideshowbob fun fact, apparently at some time history the Danbury branch was electrified. You can see the steel overheads in parts of Bethel that at one time held overhead wires. apparently from 1925 to 1961 it had lines and then they were torn out and the line switched to diesels.
This video was awesome. The perfect amount of humor and knowledge at the right time nothing felt forced and was very informative definitely subscribed.
This video also extends why Thomas always says:” My branchline is the most important line of the whole railway.” While Edward has loads of trucks to shunt in a small yard and the line has two stations I believe
You forgot to mention NJT still runs those 1970's Arrow EMU's on the NEC between NY Penn & Trenton (and on some other lines). The way this country cheaps out on PAX rail, does anyone think the Dinky would still exist if it weren't connected to $$$ Princeton UNI ?? LOL
The US has quite a few branch lines, the only difference between the others and the ones you highlighted is the way they are served. unless there is not enough space on the main line(like the north-east corridor) it makes more sense to send trains to a terminal station of some kind so they don't have to change trains as often especially on a commuter railroad. That being said we also have examples like the diesel portions of MTA railroads(excluding the west of Hudson lines, Oyster Bay branch and the mentioned Waterbury line) where diesel locos run from end of electrification to the terminus and back with some trains going to a further termini like Penn Station, Grand Central, Long Island City, or Jamaica.
A similar but not so scenic or long branch in the UK is the Stourbridge Junction to Stourbridge Town Line. It is only 1.3km (0.8 mile) long and is operated by highly efficient Parry People Mover single car trains (LPG fuelled with flywheel energy storage) with a service frequency of up to 6 trains an hour. Not as fast as the Dinky, but they have increased ridership.
In Sweden there are two short branch lines in the Stockholm commuter system. One if from the Western main line in Södertälje as the main line does not pass through central Södertälje as the town has a terminus station instead the trains have to reverse and drive down there from the main line. Today most trains are reversed but in the past there was most often a shuttle train going between Södertälje S and Södertälje C. Also on Saltsjöbanan which is an isolated commuter railway from Slussen in Central Stockholm to Saltsjöbaden there is a branch line with a shuttle train between Igelboda and Solsidan that people that synch up with the train on the main line there. Saltsjöbanan might be using rebuilt subway stock but it is a full railway built to railway standards but today it is isolated since the harbor tracks connecting it with the main railway network was closed off after 9/11 as the harbours beefed up security which made running the occasional rail transport too much of a hazzle. The line was built for rich people to have big houses in the archipelago outside the city and be able to commute into Stockholm easilly on clean electric trains. The original rolling stock was actually used until the mid 70's as this is one of the lines who survived the switch to busses
There's a similar commuter branch lines in the Sydney area known as the Carlingford Line that is being converted to light rail/trams ( known as Pramratta Light Rail) because it would be more efficient to handle the current amount of passengers than the full-size Electric Multiple Unit. There are also some commuter lines in other American cities that aren't branch lines but are shorter than the surviving branch lines you mentioned.
Update: Those Sydney trams lines and trams we’re built, commissioned and ran and were found faulty so it’s about a years delay fixing the trams. Melbourne wins again!
oot but my country's Transport ministry considered restoring some branch lines that have been closed in the 70's and 80's. One of them is finished which is a Branchline to Garut from Cibatu on the Southern Main Line in West Java , which was closed in 1983 and was famous for using mallet locomotives for most of it's final years documented
Good video. When I read the title though I immediately thought of Los Angeles' Angel Flight. This is a short funicular railway that used to connect residences on Bunker Hill to a section of downtown LA. With the houses gone and the landscape significantly altered it now climbs a hill a short distance from its original location. Its length is measure in feet, not miles. It is a stand-alone line, not a branch with anything else.
the skokie swift/cta yellow line would be a really good example of a branch line. only a few mile long but feeds into the red line with 15 min all day service so
Years ago , my friend Ron fought the ticket agent in Philadelphia to buy a ticket to Penns Neck. I still have mine bought that day. He knew they didn't want to sell them. Being a Erie agent himself. So he would try to buy them on his days off for fun! We once asked for a round trip ticket to Ferry Street Newark. At the CNJ . The agent said " We only sell one ways there!" We asked why? He said " No one has ever come back from there! '
NJ Transit should run a branch line or BRT or something between New Brunswick and all the corporate offices in Bridgewater and the downtown's of Somerville and Bound Brook. Connecting the NEC with the Raritan Valley Line while avoiding one of the worst bottlenecks on I-287.
Confirmed. You know of music from DiRT Rally. Also, thank you for this nice little documentary about a nice little branch line I didn't know about. :-)
New Jersey has the most unique collection of passenger rail systems: Princeton Dinky, PATCO, River Line which is a DMU, PATH, two light rail lines, and the ALP-45DP locomotive which can run under diesel or electric power, plus we get all the goodies on the NE corridor.
I know its another "surprised you didn't mention x" comment, but I would like to say that Metra Electric's South Chicago branch is really nice. Whilst it isn't grade-separated, and thus has tons of crossings and makes it limited to around 25-30 mph average, being able to have that vital link to downtown, and likewise get plopped off in the middle of the South Side's commercial areas with shops, restaurants and et cetera is something I wish our Chitown rail had more of. Yes, I'm looking at _you,_ Milwaukee North Line.
There's also the Blue Island Branch on Metra Electric. I know that not too long ago, the towns in the Illinois River Valley were considering running a DMU service between LaSalle-Peru and Joliet (using the CSX New Rock Sub), allowing commuters to connect to Metra-Rock Island or Metra-Heritage Corridor services into Chicago, as well as the Lincoln Service to St. Louis and Amtrak's Texas Eagle. If the plan were put into action and they extended the route just a little further west to Princeton, IL, passengers could connect to long-distance routes to Oakland and Los Angeles, as well as state-sponsored routes to Quincy and eventually the Quad Cities. A double-ended branch line as it were.
We are lucky in the UK in that dispite the "Beeching Holocaust" of the 1960's when vast numbers of branch lines were closed with little or no thought about future requirements. Several branch lines have survived. I noticed that that the three quarter of a mile Stourbridge Town branch has already been mentioned. This line is now worked by the Parry People Mover Class 139 4wheeled LRT vehicles. My favourite branch line however is the Bognor Regis branch. Which was built in the 1860's to link the growing seaside resort town of Bognor (It gained the 'Regis' suffix during the reign of King George V as he was keen on the town. It is said that his last words were "Bugger Bognor" in response to his Dr who told him that he would soon return to the town to recover) to the Brighton to Portsmouth main line at Barnham. The main line dates from the mid 1840's. Luckily both Barnham and Bognor Regis stations have not been subjected to "modernisation" with the latter being one of the most attractive small terminus stations surviving in the UK. Like virtually all of south east England the branch (Which has no intermediate stations) is electrified using the 3rd rail system at 750v DC. The branch is served by a shuttle service which at present is a 3-Car Class 313 unit cascaded from north London. Dating from the 1970's they are now the oldest surviving units in service in the UK. The branch is also served by direct services from Brighton and London using Class 377 4-car units.
I live at the end of a old branch line in upstate new york. You can still see old rail road bridges and walk in the right of way for some parts. Wish it was not closed
I took the Dinky on one occasion when I was visiting my sister in Elbaron. I took this line so I could visit my wonderful Great Aunt in Skillman where the only way I could get from Elbaron to Skillman was take NJT from Elbaron to Rahway change to the NJT train heading for Trenton but, I got off at Princeton Junction, took the Dinky to Princeton then I took a taxi the rest of the way. It's very difficult to get to Skillman. The travel time took longer than my visit with my Great aunt. The day I did this whole trip rained all day.
I live in Jersey, never heard of this line in my entire life. 15 minutes after watching this video I go on my transit app and see “Princeton Shuttle (Dinky) has resumed service…” The universe is speaking.
My city is linked to the country's rail network by a small branch line from around 1832. It's got one train per weekday, and it runs at an ungodly hour to satisfy the needs of DC commuters, but it's there, thanks to efforts to save it and restore passenger service in the 90s.
The Union Pacific founded Greyhound as part of their master plan to implement widespread public transit in the rural West. Greyhound busses would pick up passengers in tiny towns that weren't worth their own branch line and take them to one. Then small lightweight cheap DMU streamliners would run on the branch lines and connect with the major cities. Why didn't this ever happen? The government shut it down because a railroad owning a bus line was too monopolistic. Sounded good at the time but if only they hadn't done that, who knows what public transit would look like in America today.
My dad took the Dinky from the early 1980s until 1999 when the Hamilton Train Station was built. My favorite part is they still run the old Arrow IIIs on it
hey Hey HEY! No Chicago branch line love? We have the blue island branch of the metra electric line, the south chicago branch of the the metra electric line, and the Beverly Branch of the Rock Island line. Not to mention a few more oddities of the metra system...
in the UK our branch lines were pruned back by Dr Beeching we still have one or two springs to mind the Waterloo and City line on the London underground. to change the carriages for maintenance they have to be winched up a hole from track level
Branch lines are being undermined in most western countries by the parkway concept whereby instead of taking a train to the mainline railway station you drive to it and park in a huge unsightly car park next to the rail station.Of course this assumes everyone partakes of the right to bear cars.It also far from solving the problem of cars just removes it from the longest part of the trip.
Many branch lines were closed on the pretext that people could use cars to get to the mainline instead, but if you're using cars to get to the mainline you might as well drive anyway. Rail planners in the post-war era had this conception that the car had the monopoly on convenience & couldn't be bested on it, & so they ought to focus on speed & comfort. What is called the "Great Dinky Robbery" was technically an abduction, not a robbery, but likely got conflated with the Great Train Robbery, in which a mail train in England was held up, 3 months LATER. That's right, not earlier, later. We usually hear of current events inspiring student pranks, but not this time.
Great video. I love that they named it the Dinky very funny. Branch lines and regional commuter rail in general was never really a thing here on the west coast as the cities and suburbs only started to grow in the 1970s and a real jump forward in the 2000s and until today. Here in Seattle we gained over 1/4 of the population since 2010 alone so the growth here is all pretty new. The bus network is slow usually double the time of driving even in rush hour traffic, although it is free of charge inside the city of Seattle. The light rail was built north-south in the 2010s and now new lines are being built to the suburbs. Due to the complexity and size of the suburbs the solution is to run a loop of light rail around various major suburbs and build free parking garages as a "park and ride" which already exists for buses but now being added for light rail too. With adoption of electric cars being really big out here it is not the best environment for public transit but students, kids, elderly are the majority of riders and a few office commuters. As the population keeps growing I am sure the ridership too.
When Ilived in Princeton, I took the Dinky/NJT to NYC and back hundreds of times. The service during the rush hour is actually great. It was then 48 minutes from Princeton Junction to Penn Station NYC. That 's 52 miles. This is a commuter train,.
"There's no other train that makes me feel like I'm riding in a wood panelled basement in a suburban home" As a transplant from South Bend, IN to East Central PA, you'll have to ride the South Shore sometime!
Up until the late 90's there was a small railroad, like less than 100 miles, that went between Port Angeles, WA and Port Townsend, WA. Both cities had and still have big paper mills, and I guess they just really wanted to share paper. Anyway, what was cool was that it was totally separate from all the other lines. It was just tiny and isolated. I imagine it would've been really neat too because it is a crazy drive from PT to PA. What would be even better is a train from Port Angeles to Seattle.
I took that branch probably before it was called the Dinky, in 1960. It was a senior trip for our high school, and the one-car train we were on looked so antique that we thought of the then-current Twilight Zone episode, "Willoughby," where the train took people back in time.
"There is no other train in existence that makes me feel like I'm riding in a wood paneled basement from a suburban home." South Shore Line: "Am I a joke to you?"
DINKY!!! Oh, I miss living in Princeton. My boyfriend used to take the Dinky to his job in Newark. I didn't have to swing by Princeton Junction in my car to pick him up. It was great.
