Digging Into the Past

The other day, I was trying to look up some information about an interurban trolley company in northwestern New Jersey.  As is often the case, the internet was of only a little use in this regards.  Popular interurbans, the well-known lines situated in metropolitan areas and were lucky enough to last past World War II, usually have a little bit about them online.  This was not one of those.

Online, I found one brief thread on a discussion forum, and a paragraph in an online preview of a recent print book about Phillipsburg, NJ.   Offline, I found a single paragraph in The Electric Interurban Railways in America by Hilton & Due.  A few sentences are interspersed into Morris County Traction Company by Lowenthal and Greenberg, which also contained a map of unstated origin that covered the line's actual and project map (though not in detail).  That exhausted the regular web searches and my printed secondary sources.

From all that I really gathered only a few facts.  The line lasted a little over a quarter century.  It operated between Phillipsburg, NJ on the west and Port Murray, NJ on the east.  Most of the route followed the Morris Canal.  The owners hoped to extend eastward to Netcong, NJ, to connect with the Morris County Traction Company, which never managed to build its extension to Netcong.  They hoped to expand west to Easton, PA by crossing the Delaware River, but contentious relations with the company operating streetcar service there and in Phillipsburg prevented it.  Ultimately, that company bought the interurban out.  The company changed names a few times along the way.

I'm leaving out a few dates and proper names, but those are the bare facts a couple hours of research gave me - roughly the same information I started with from Hilton & Due, except for the marginally-useful map and the fact that the line followed the canal.

Sigh.

Next up, reading what primary sources are available from hundreds of miles away: decades of railway journals scanned by Google and made available online.  Not so easily searchable as a simple web search, though, for a variety of reasons (poor OCR quality being one of them).  When I have a chance, I'll see if I can ferret out anything more.

Anyhow, after Sarah Hoyt's recent "Facts are Facts" post, I thought I'd mention my own attempt to dig up some facts from the not-so-distant past.  It hasn't been going so great.