Raritan River

Company History: The RR opened in 1888 and ultimately built a 12 mile line between South Amboy and New Brunswick, New Jersey. Branches were later built to reach sand and clay pits in the area. Ownership of the RR was split between the Jersey Central (with a 60% stake) and the Pennsylvania Railroad (with a 40% stake.) The First World War brought a huge increase in traffic to the line as first a tire plant and later explosive factories opened on the line. The RR fleet expanded to 15 engines. 14 passenger cars were acquired secondhand from Lackawanna. At the peak in 1918, RR was dispatching 22 passenger trains and loading 4,000 tons of cargo per day. Traffic declined after the war and collapsed during the Depression. The tire plant closed and the sand and clay traffic disappeared. Passenger service ended in 1938. RR dieselized in the ‘50s with a fleet of six SW900’s. There was a resurgence of the sand business with the construction of the New Jersey Turnpike. RR attracted new industrial customers in the early ‘70s just as their parents were falling into bankruptcy. Raritan River was at first expected to be rolled into Conrail along with Jersey Central and Penn Central but RR management sued to gain their independence. In 1979, RR had their biggest year providing dependable rail service to National Lead, Hercules Chemical, Sunshine Biscuits, C&E, Continental Baking, Cel Fibe, Personal Products, H&F, NJ Steel, Squibb, Premium Plastics and DuPont. Despite the recent success, Raritan River was finally merged into Conrail in April of 1980.

Successor/Parent History: The Consolidated Rail Corporation, commonly known as Conrail (reporting mark CR), was the primary Class I railroad in the Northeast U.S. between 1976 and 1999. Conrail is a portmanteau of "consolidated" and "rail" from the name of the company.

The U.S. federal government created Conrail to take over the potentially profitable lines of multiple bankrupt carriers, including the Penn Central Transportation Company and Erie Lackawanna Railway. With the benefit of industry-wide regulatory requirements being reduced (via the 4R Act and the Staggers Act), Conrail began to turn a profit in the 1980s and was turned over to private investors in 1987. The two remaining Class I railroads in the East, CSX Transportation and the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS), agreed in 1997 to split the system approximately equally, returning rail freight competition to the Northeast by essentially undoing the 1968 merger of the Pennsylvania Railroad and New York Central Railroad that created Penn Central. Following Surface Transportation Board approval, CSX and NS took control in August 1998, and on June 1, 1999, began operating their portions of Conrail.

Brief History: The U.S. is a country of 50 states covering a vast swath of North America, with Alaska in the northwest and Hawaii extending the nation’s presence into the Pacific Ocean. Major Atlantic Coast cities are New York, a global finance and culture center, and capital Washington, DC. Midwestern metropolis Chicago is known for influential architecture and on the west coast, Los Angeles' Hollywood is famed for filmmaking.