Perth Amboy
 next stop to theup  Woodbridge 
 next stop to thedown  South Amboy 
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Perth Amboy is a historic train station with Romanesque Revival architecture built in 1928 with A.E. Owen as the engineer as the result of a grade separation project through downtown Perth Amboy. It was built by the CNJ into an open-cut with grassy walls and station houses along each platform. The station originally (and still has space for) four tracks and is the most northern station on the New York and Long Branch Railroad that was jointly owned by the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Pennsylvania Railroad. The junction between the Penn RR and CNJ (the single in operation track remains is Conrail's Chemical Coast Secondary) is located at the Wood Interlocking 1 mile north of this station. The stop served as a transfer point between local and express trains and starting in 1936 diesel and electric trains when the electrification was extended through Perth Amboy to South Amboy (and this remained the end until the 1980s). The station had fallen in disrepair by the 1980s with both station houses and the overpass closed (National Register of Historic Information). A restoration project in February 2000 reopened both levels of the station house on the New York-bound platform along with the overpass through a tiny portion of the large two story 'shelter' on the Bay Head-bound platform. The stop is in an open cut between the also historic overpasses of Smith Street and Market Street.

The stop originally had four tracks but only the middle two (with a fence between them) still exist. The original outside tracks have been paved over and are the current low-level platforms. They are bare with modern green lampposts and low silver fencing dividing the modern platforms from the original platforms. All access is from just a few openings in this fencing in the middle of the new platforms. The original side platforms are still behind the current platforms and have the station signs and plenty of advertisement panels. A single low chain at beyond the end of the station houses and after all gap in the fences entrances is all that closes off the ends of the original platforms.

The New York-bound platform has the main station house and most of it has reopened unstaffed, although no hours are posted. This building is a two story brick structure with Spanish tile roofs along station's 175 space parking lot. At the northern corner of the parking lot along Smith Street is a small kiosk in the same design of the station house. This houses a hot dog stand. An attached Spanish roofed canopy provides the only shelter to waiting passengers, covering only the original and not the current side platform. Access to the street from this platform is provided in two places, just south of the station house is an outdoor staircase up to the parking lot. This is near doors into an open lower waiting room, a long and narrow space with wooden benches on each side of a green lower tile and white ceiling room. An internal staircase leads up to the main ticket office at street level. This waiting room has brick walls, wooden benches and a blue wooden ceiling. A cafe concession occupies the northern wing of it (probably where the baggage office might have been). There is a single closed off ticket window and old lettering for Eastbound (above the staircase down to the New York-bound platform) and Westbound above the door that leads out to the Green Overpass.

This original overpass is fully enclosed has a few steps leading up to it at each end and green metal walls and plexiglass windows. It leads to a much smaller 'shelter' house in the same style as the main station house. With two levels, one along the street and one at platform level. This building has the same spanish tile roofs and attached canopy. All of the windows and doors are boarded up and locked except for a tiny through opening to a set of green doors to provide access out the end of the of the overpass. This leads only to a few steps down to a small drop off plaza along Elm Street (parallel to the station). All access to the Bay Head-bound platform is via a staircase along the northern side of the shelter house.
All Photos taken on 3 April, 2013

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Stepping off a Long Branch-bound train
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Exit Platform to the Right
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MLV #7042 heads south towards Long Branch
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The chained off end of the original platform and canopy of the shelter
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Comet V #6049 leads a New York-bound train
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A train comes to a stop in the historic station
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One of the platform exits and only canopy behind
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At the end of the platform, its a long way to exit to the left
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ALP46 #4635 pushes a northbound train
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The two station houses off in the distance
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The uneven, closed original platform when the line still had 3 tracks
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Looking up at a kiosk at a corner of the station, a food stand
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The chained off end of one of the original platforms
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The original waiting shelter along the Bay Head-bound platform boarded up windows with red boards
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Waiting benches beneath the nice attached canopy to the shelter house
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Last Updated: 8 April, 2013
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