Train’s a Coming This Year, Promises Macrie

RIO GRANDE — A.C. “Tony” Macrie is waiting for the train; not as a passenger, but as president and general manager of Cape May Seashore Lines, Inc.
“Trains will be running to Cape May this year,” said Macrie without equivocation.
With the zeal of a youngster who awaits Christmas, and unswerving faith of an evangelist, Macrie anticipates the day when his beloved collection of six vintage locomotives and 10 coaches will again rumble along the rusted, but solid, rails from Tuckahoe into Cape May.
“We’ve had three years of bad luck, that’s all,” Macrie said.
It was his lifelong love of railroads that led Macrie into the Cape May Seashore Lines venture that has captivated the imaginations of railroad aficionados and incurred the wrath of some local officials.
Macrie stood in the fenced railroad yard here where a blue and white observation car rests on a siding at the Route 47 grade crossing to discuss his plans and problems. He was accompanied by Paul Mulligan, a West Cape May resident and Seashore Lines volunteer and supporter.
“We are working on bringing the trains back,” said Macrie. “We cut brush into Cape May at the railroad’s expense,” he added.
Estimated cost of that latest venture, in which Macrie took a physical role, was $15,000.
“We get no subsidies to do anything. We do it on our own,” said Macrie.
“It is what it is,” said Macrie, sporting a black baseball cap and shirt with railroad logos.
Not only does Macrie cut brush from the railway links the Nation’s Oldest Seashore Resort to points north, he’s also well versed in “beating the bushes” seeking transit grants to help fund upgrades to the tourist attraction.
It irks Macrie when people sneer and accuse him of getting rich from those grants.
Yes, he agreed, it would take about $30 million in grants to get the track into shape to support regular rail service, but after such improvements are made, the state Department of Transportation, “Not Tony Macrie,” he stressed, would benefit from the upgrade. That’s because the ballast, ties and rails belong to that state transit agency, not his railroad company.
“If it was not for me, there wouldn’t be trains to Cape May,” said Macrie. “That’s how close the state was to removing the tracks.”
The same state contract that demolished the Crook Horn (railroad) Bridge into Ocean City also had the Cape May Canal Bridge listed for demolition, Macrie said.
He unveiled his vision of a railroad into Cape May to the state agency, which spared the swinging bridge.
Macrie termed Cape May Seashore Lines as a “nice fleet” of classic, vintage cars from the 1940s and 1950s.
Some of that rolling stock makes 40-minute, 15-mile Saturday runs between Richland in Atlantic County and Tuckahoe.
According to the railroad’s Web site, the next such trips will be made July 11 and 25.
He estimated that on average, between 150 and 250 take those Saturday rides, pulled by a red Lehigh diesel engine. During Santa Express runs, numbers swell to between 400 and 500, Macrie said.
Macrie pointed to some experience running trains between the Cape May County Park and Zoo, 4-H Fairgrounds, and points south to Historic Cold Spring Village as how popular rail transit was for those who took the ride.
“We ran two cars, and there were not enough seats,” said Macrie.
When he was presented a $13,000 bill by the County Park for taking riders there on a shuttle from the nearby station, he paid the sum, and ended the service. He contended it bolstered park and zoo attendance by 350 to 500 per day while adding nothing to its parking woes.
“The irony of that is that, in the past year, Cape May County instituted a traffic study for the zoo,” Mulligan added.
The most serious need of the railroad is track repair in the Dennisville marsh area, Macrie said.
Still, he believes every dollar invested on the rail line would add seasonal dollars to local economies.
Macrie sees such a train as feeding small businesses along the route with passengers who would stroll the nearby streets, eat in local establishments, and buy merchandise and other souvenirs.
Cape May Seashore Lines is one of 13 such small railroads in the state. Each expects some funding from dwindling state funds, thus government aid is limited, Macrie said.
Macrie and Mulligan estimated a dozen people put life into the Tuckahoe-based railroad.
Macrie said that the equipment just received a three-year safety certification, something he takes seriously and personally, since he feels that is of utmost importance.
“This is not a failed project, it’s just three years of bad luck,” he reiterated.
Macrie’s quest to get train service rolling from Cape May County’s north to south began in 1984, when the dream hatched.
Then, in 1986, he entered formal negotiations with the state for rights to use the tracks.
The first train ran on those rails in 1996. Three years later, on June 12, 1999, at about 10:30 a.m., the first Cape May Seashore Lines train, with an engine pulling silvery Budd cars, crossed Cape May Canal on its way into Cape May.
In the ensuing decade, Santa Express and Halloween “ghost” runs were made, but they have not taken place within the past three to four years.
Time has been kind to the rails, which Macrie noted are “okay, they’ve been there since 1922, and surprisingly, they show very little wear.”
About 76,232 wooden ties atop rocky ballast, are another story, all need replacement, according to a 2007 report prepared by Mullligan entitled, “The Cape May Branch, an important New Jersey transportation asset,” prepared for the New Jersey Association of Railroad Passengers.
He estimated 39,000 bolts need tightening, with some needing replacement along that route.
Keeping it all in place would be about 43,000 tons of clean ballast, then raised two inches and align to proper elevation.
Mulligan estimated track and switch rehab of the Cape May Branch would be $14 million for 10 miles between Woodbine and Court House, for ties, and upgrading four small bridges.
From Court House to Cape May, 13 miles, $7 million. From the Cape May Canal Bridge capital renewal and Woodbine to Tuckahoe, five miles, $7 million.
Municipal leaders in Woodbine and Buena Vista Township have voiced support for train service, Macrie said.
If a “groundswell of support” could take place, Macrie believes funding could happen, and those aging ties could be replaced.
With a 27-mile ribbon of revitalized steel rails placed through the backbone of the county, Macrie said one, two and five-car trains could run to Cape May.
That, he said, would alleviate at least some of the crush of traffic and parking in seashore resorts.
Macrie, never short of hope, is heartened by the fact that President Obama rode the rails from Philadelphia to Washington for his inauguration in January, and Vice President Biden regularly traveled between Wilmington and the capital aboard an Amtrak train.
He believes if railroad coaches were good enough for the President and Vice President, why not residents and vacationers to Cape May County?
Macrie can hear the locomotive’s horn and click-clack of the coaches on the tracks as he awaits that train, he just can’t wait to hear those magical words, once again, “All aboard!”
Contact Campbell at (609) 886-8600 ext 28 or at: al.c@cmcherald.com