CAPE MAY SEASHORE LINES
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Coming Soon: New CMSL Web Site

The folks at CMSL have moved their web site to a new address and are currently updating the site. Expect the new site at the following address sometime in June: www.capemayseashorelines.org/

Read the CMSL Schedule

See the Official CMSL Web Site for details.

What's Inside?

• CMSL Equipment Roster , (last update: May 12, 1997), includes photographs of the equipment.

• A Map of CMSL , includes photographs of Cold Spring Station.

• Books for more about the history of today's CMSL.

• A list of Historical & Technical Societies for South Jersey Railroads.

• Read CMSL's Safety Tips

• Visit the NJ-ARP web site for the latest developments in New Jersey passenger rail service.

It is easy to forget that it has been less than 100 years since marshlands and wild animals were as common as the condominiums and giant beachfront homes that make up the shore we know today. Long before the sandbars on which many spend our summers became tourist meccas for big city vacationers, the railroads brought our parents, grandparents, great uncles and aunts to the shore for the first times. Without the West Jersey & Seashore, the Atlantic City Railroad, the P-RSL, and the railroads that proceeded and followed we may never have "discovered" the shore.

There was little chance that this would happen, as the railroads encouraged the development of the shore communities in order to expand their business. However, before the railroads could reap the rewards of their work bridges and highways made travel to Cape May County by automobile fast and easy. Thus, in the same manner that railroads once made ferry service to and from the shore unnecessary, the highways paved the way for the demise of the P-RSL. The P-RSL's parents - the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads - and later, the state of New Jersey, kept trains running along rails in Cape May County into the early 1980's, but the minimal volume of traffic could no longer justify the sizeable subsidies necessary to keep the railroad running.

It appeared that we had seen the last of passenger railroading in Cape May County until Tony Macrie and a group of dedicated employees brought the Cape May Seashore Lines to life. Right now, the railroad runs between the rail and bus terminal in Cape May and the Cape May County 4-H Fairgrounds - adjacent to the County Park & Zoo (in the town of Cape May Court House). In the near future, service will be extended to the North to reach Tuckahoe and may once again reach Winslow Junction where a passenger could connect with New Jersey's Transit's Atlantic City line.