Railway

Let me give you one reason to hop aboard the new Trenton-to-Camden light-rail line. It's called food. New Jersey's River Line, which opened Sunday after months of delays, can be the ticket to a wide world of exciting dining options. After a PATCO High-Speed Line trip to Camden, Pennsylvanians can transfer to the River Line and ride north for 34 miles through three Garden State counties, calling at any of 20 stops for a one-way fare of just $1.10. From Camden, the run to Trenton takes about an hour.

Curious neighbors who may be wondering about the half-ton of stone in Jack Proud's driveway might be equally surprised to find more than 300 feet of railroad track in his garage. Proud, 63, of Upper Providence, a lifelong lover of trains, is building a garden-scale railroad on his 3/4-acre property. "I've always loved trains. It started when I was about 4 and my cousin gave me a Lionel set," Proud said. "The HO trains were getting too hard to see, so I traded up to garden trains.

The set is a new $1.1 billion rail line. Mom-and-pop shops clustered near its 20 mosaic-tiled station stops are the backdrop. From Camden to Trenton, small business owners are waiting for the rail, as if cast in a play someone else has written with an ending they cannot clearly see. Mention the Southern New Jersey Light Rail Transit System and business owners, their employees and customers don't take it lying down. Jose Talavera finishes his plate of mussels in a Riverton restaurant and eats up the concept of a rail line with equal gusto.

You couldn't donate your refrigerator, but an obsolete army tank would be fine. Subway cars from Philly are already at the bottom of the sea off New Jersey, but the ones from New York have not passed muster - yet. While environmentalists worry that the ocean floor will look more and more like an underwater junkyard, the State of New Jersey is working on plans to expand and update its nearly 25 square miles of artificial reef. The artificial reef - a series of 14 offshore sites lying between Sandy Hook and Cape May that contain shipwrecks, concrete balls, tanks, pipes, railway cars, steel ships, barges, refinery parts, cable and rock - provides a home for fish, which in turn attracts fishermen and scuba divers.

It's a fact that many little boys love trains, as do big boys, as do girls, big and little. On track Saturday is a sale accommodating that affection. Auctioneer Ken Keeny has sold lots of trains over his years in the business - most of them about 12 inches long. But he's going to have to come up with a significantly larger auction block this week, as the 18 trains crossing the block are each about 45 to 60 feet long. Keeny will be conducting the going-out-of-business auction of train cars, supplies and tools of Northern Central Railway, of York County.

Lincoln University will host a two-day conference in August that will be dedicated to documenting and preserving Underground Railroad sites, many of which are in Chester County. U.S. Rep. Joseph Pitts (R., Pa.) and the Rev. Edward M. Bailey of Bethel AME Church in Lancaster made the announcement yesterday during a news conference at the building that housed the first school for Africans in central Pennsylvania. Pitts, whose Underground Railroad preservation efforts span a decade, and Mr. Bailey pledged their commitment to restoring local buildings linked to the Underground Railroad and using the conference to help the community become involved in its history.

The morning rush was short yet painful yesterday, and then the icy roads emptied. As it turned out, commuting across the region yesterday wasn't really a problem - unless, of course, you were one of the few people actually on planes, trains and automobiles: Philadelphia International Airport was closed for most of the day, Regional Rail riders faced delays of up to an hour, and cars spun and crashed on highways made slick by up to 10 inches of...

A gray morning haze shrouded the old Wayne Street Junction bridge as workers cut into its girders with torches that sent bright sparks cascading to the ground like fireworks. After 86 years, the rusty span in the city's Germantown section was being dismantled - all in one weekend - to make way for a new rail bridge that lay a few yards away. Thirty workers climbed over the 30-ton structure Saturday, painstakingly breaking it down for cranes to lift away the pieces. Then yesterday, the new span was slowly rolled into place - in time, officials said, for today's rush hour.

Charles J. Reutter Sr., 80, a retired special-investigations chief for a railway agency, died Tuesday of heart-related problems at his home in Middletown Township. During his 35 years with the Railway Express Agency, Mr. Reutter rose from patrolman to chief special agent with investigative responsibilities for the Eastern Seaboard, a post he held until his retirement in 1975. Over the years, he received more than 40 commendations from his department and other agencies. The FBI recognized him for helping to find someone who was involved with unauthorized plutonium shipments in the late 1950s, said a son, George Reutter, and he also was cited for his efforts by the New Jersey Police Chiefs Association and similar groups.

The township's first museum will be in a 107-year-old train station. Restored to its original design, the North Pemberton Train Station is scheduled to reopen next month. The museum, on Fort Dix Road near Arney Mount Road, will feature a display on the township's history and the Pennsylvania Railroad system, whose trains once ran through the station. The museum also will serve as an information center for the Pinelands - the state's million-acre wooded preserve - using brochures, posters and perhaps a story board chronicling the Pinelands' history.