The Supper Train ...

“Trains, like time and tide, stop for no one.”

                          ~ Jules Verne

                               ~ 1828-1905

A mid-April sunset reflects in the windows of The Blue Comet train car at Clinton Station Diner, Clinton, New Jersey. The windows face Interstate 78.

I shot this image when stopping for supper at the diner on the way home to Pennsylvania after a wonderful spring day trip to New York City. The meal was delicious and served in the cool, unique and historic train car.

Seating at the diner, which opened in February 2004, is offered in the authentic 1927 Blue Comet Train Car. The Blue Comet was one of the most luxurious and legendary trains in New Jersey history. It crashed August 19, 1939 in the then village of Chatsworth in the middle of the Pine Barrens.

The Blue Comet, called “The Seashore’s Finest Train,” was a passenger train operated by Central Railroad of New Jersey from 1929-1941 between New York and Atlantic City.

For more information on The Blue Comet and its history, visit the diner’s website, https://www.clintonstationdiner.com/train-car. The site includes a video of the train car being delivered to the diner many years ago.

Clinton is a town in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, located on the South Branch of the Raritan River.

The town is perhaps best known for its two mills which sit on opposite banks of the South Branch Raritan River. The Red Mill, with its historic village, dates back to 1810 with the development of a mill for wool processing. Across the river sits the Stone Mill, home of the Hunterdon Art Museum for Contemporary Craft and Design, located in a former gristmill that had been reconstructed in 1836 and operated continuously until 1936. In 1952, a group of local residents conceived of a plan to convert the historic building into an art museum, which is still in operation today.

Art Of The Rails ...

“Train I ride, sixteen coaches long

Train I ride, sixteen coaches long

Well that long black train got my baby and gone

Train train, comin’  'round, 'round the bend

Train train, comin’ 'round, 'round the bend

Well it took my baby, but it never will again

No, not again

Train train, comin’ down, down the line

Train train, comin’ down, down the line

Well it’s bringin’ my baby, 'cause she’s mine all, all mine

She’s mine, all, all mine

Train train, comin’ 'round, 'round the bend

Train train, comin’ 'round, 'round the bend

Well it took my baby, but it never will again

Never will again

Ooh, woah”

                          ~ “Mystery Train”

                       ~ written & recorded by
         American blues musician Junior Parker
                                     ~ 1953

          ~ recorded by the great Elvis Presley

                                  ~ 1955

       ~ Produced by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee it features Elvis Presley on vocals & rhythm guitar, Scotty Moore on lead guitar & Bill Black on bass. Mystery Train is now considered to be an “enduring classic.” It was the first recording to make Elvis Presley a nationally known country music star.

I captured my artistic depiction of this wonderful tribute to the Ironton Railroad on an early October evening along the Ironton Rail Trail.

It was an Eagle Scout project of Samuel L. Raub II, Troop 57, in 2012.

The Ironton Rail Trail loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township in Pennsylvania.

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

Train of Thought

Pond Reflects the Train

Evening Train in June

Train Rides Through April