Queen of the Valley

Queen of the Valley

Queen of the Valley, circa 1930s, including mail car and passenger revenue cars
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Northeastern United States
First service	1911
Last service	1967
Former operator(s)	Central Railroad of New Jersey/Reading Railroad
Route
Termini	Jersey City, New Jersey Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Distance travelled	179.5 miles (288.9 km)
Average journey time	4 hours, 47 minutes, westbound; 4 hours, 18 minutes, eastbound
Service frequency	Daily, except Sunday (1936); daily (1961)
Train number(s)	199 (westbound) and 192 (eastbound)
On-board services
Seating arrangements	Coach
Catering facilities	Dining-Club car
Observation facilities	Parlor car (1936)
Other facilities	Mail car
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Jersey City Elizabeth Bound Brook Somerville Raritan North Branch White House Lebanon Annandale High Bridge Glen Gardner Hampton Phillipsburg NJ PA Easton Bethlehem Reading Wernersville Myerstown Lebanon Hershey Harrisburg

The Queen of the Valley was a named train of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) that ran between Jersey City, New Jersey, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, via the Lehigh Valley and Reading. The train took about 4 1⁄2 hours to traverse the 179.5-mile (288.9 km) route, the longest in the CNJ system, exceeding the Atlantic City-bound Blue Comet. First operated in 1911, it was the longest-running train of the CNJ when discontinued in 1967.

Route

From Communipaw Terminal in Jersey City, the Queen of the Valley traveled south to Bayonne, but did not have any stops until the train's later years, traversed the harbor at Elizabethport, headed west along the CNJ's Main Line. It continued past Elizabeth's CNJ station, Plainfield Station, to High Point station and Hampton, the end point for the regular NJ Transit Raritan Valley Line commuter service.

From there, the route continued to Phillipsburg's Union Station, Easton, Bethlehem's Bethlehem Station, and Allentown's Allentown Station.

From Allentown, the train traveled along the territory of the Reading Railroad, continuing west to Reading, stopping at the Reading Outer station, and then to Lebanon and terminating in Harrisburg.

History

In the mid-1930s the Queen of the Valley ran six days a week. In the early 1960s it was daily in operation.

In 1963, the route was shortened from Harrisburg and Reading to Allentown, owing to the loss of mail contracts. Following the creation of the new Aldene Connection in 1967 and the closure of the CNJ Terminal in New Jersey, the train was terminated. However, some commuter service on the Allentown to Newark via the new Aldene Connection continued.