A picture of a train on the Rahway Valley Railroad shown during its heyday delivering coal and other freight.
Historian and author Richard J. King recently took Maplewood residents back in time.
His presentation at Durand-Hedden House, “Three Miles to Maplewood: The Rahway Valley Railroad” attracted so many people, they added an additional lecture that day.
King took the audience on a fascinating journey; a look at the Newark Heights Branch of the Rahway Valley Railroad—a three-mile-long line that once ran from Union to a bustling industrial neighborhood in Maplewood’s Hilton Section.
King grew up in Union and said natural curiosity about the railroad got the best of him.
After years of rigorous research, interviews, and collecting, King is the author of three titles on the Rahway Valley Railroad.
He also serves as chairman and treasurer of the United States Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey and is president of the Tri-State Railway Historical Society.
The Rahway Valley Railroad operated in northern New Jersey from 1897 until its closure in 1992.
The line served Roselle Park, Kenilworth, Union, Springfield, Summit, and Maplewood.
Louis Keller incorporated the Rahway Valley Line on Aug. 4, 1914, to construct a three-mile-long railroad connecting the Rahway Valley Railroad’s mainline in Union to a terminus in the Hilton section of South Orange Township, which was later known as Maplewood.
When Keller died Feb. 16, 1922, of an intestinal illness at the age of 64, King said, “He left affairs in a muddled mess.”
It took judges and lawyers years of sifting through the contents of his estate, which fell to his nieces and nephews, as Keller was a lifelong bachelor.
Fifty-seven percent of the railroad’s freight was coal. There were no coal mines in New Jersey but it was used to heat most houses.
Some of the coal companies in the area were Jaeger Coal & Supply, Union; Falk Coal Co., Union; Carl Coal Co., Maplewood; and Woolley Coal Co., Maplewood.
“Coal is done by the early 1960s,” said King, explaining that by the 1950s people switched to fuel oil and natural gas.
Other industries serviced by the Rahway Valley Line included Holzapfel’s Compositions, which later became International Paint; Titanine, which produced finishes for the aircraft industry; Elastic Stop Nut Corporation of America, Union; and Menner Packing Corp., Maplewood.
In 1973, the segment of the line into Maplewood was abandoned due to a lack of customers and the track was removed. At the same time, Interstate 78 was under construction, said King.
After the Maplewood tracks were severed, just a few customers of the Rahway Valley Line remained, such as Monsanto in Kenilworth who was the
biggest customer, said King.
Durand-Hedden House is dedicated to telling the history of Maplewood and its community in new and engaging ways. It’s located at 523 Ridgewood Rd. in Grasmere Park. Parking is available on nearby streets.
To learn more about Durand-Hedden House visit:
https://www.durandhedden.org/
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