page_title: Dunellen station
section_title: Construction (June 1952–1955)
hierarchical_section_title: Dunellen station / History / Construction (June 1952–1955)
caption_attribution_description: English: The closed Queen Tower in Plainfield, New Jersey on New Jersey Transit's Raritan Valley Line. The Central Railroad of New Jersey used this tower and it continued into Conrail and New Jersey Transit, who closed it in the mid-1980s.
context_page_description: Dunellen is an NJ Transit railroad station on the Raritan Valley Line, in Dunellen, New Jersey. It is the only Raritan Valley Line station in Middlesex County. There is a ticket office and small waiting area at this stop. A simple station, there are two tracks with two small side platforms. The station is located on a high embankment.
  Trains stop serving the station at midnight and resume by 5 in the morning. Automatic ticket vending machines have been installed along with an automated voice telling commuters when their train will arrive.
context_section_description: In approving the grade crossing elimination project, the Public Utilities Commissioners and the railroad assured that they had enough funds to pay the $6.7 million needed. As originally proposed, the state would fund 85 percent and the railroad would pay the final 15 percent. They noted that they had to decline a project in Passaic to do the same thing because it would have wiped their budget. The only concern would be a steel industry strike or military use for steel, which was an unknown. At the same time, the railroad abandoned the extra guards at the crossing that had been there since after the accident. In October, the CNJ demolished the roundhouse in Dunellen, constructed in the 1870s, due to the increased use of diesel engines by the railroad.
  In March 1953, the CNJ and the borough of Dunellen came together to work on selling the site of the railroad depot. The railroad wanted to sell the site for private development and let out bids in March. The high bid was $83,150 from William Piness of Plainfield. Representing a group of investors from Passaic, Piness wanted to use the site, right now a parking lot, for construction of a series of one-level commercial buildings. The land being offered also had a Sunoco gasoline station and a building for Dunellen Taxi. Roff and Collins met with the railroad on the land, given the right to refuse the offer. The borough officials felt the land would be better served for developers as the borough did not have enough money to purchase the land outright. 
  In late March, the state sent out bids for a new signal tower in Plainfield. With bids due by April 23, the new structure would be a three-story brick tower with dimensions of 17'x40'. The new tower's proposals would be available on March 30 to make bids with. In April, the city of Plainfield issued a permit to construct a new signal tower for the yard in Plainfield. Located at 411–413 Cottage Place, the new structure would cost $30,000 (1953 USD). The tower construction began in August, replacing the tower at Berckman Street in Plainfield.
  In July, J.F. Chapman and Son, Inc. began work to construct the grading and filling from Middlesex Borough to Plainfield for the new tracks of a temporary main line for the CNJ. This new mainline would be three tracks, with the contractor receiving 97¢ per cubic yard of filling and 79¢ per yard of excavating. In August, the Construction Service Company of Middlesex took the bids on constructing the new bridge over Richmond Street. The steel work was contracted out to Bethlehem Steel and construction would begin in September. By this point, the new grading was finished for the new passenger yard in Plainfield, which was nearing completion By September, the works for a new eastbound station depot in Dunellen were still in the design phase with the construction to begin around April 1954. No guarantees were made for a new station on the westbound side of the tracks.
  On January 5, 1954, Chief Schuyler noted that Washington Avenue would be closed to traffic that day and on January 6 between the Art Company and North Avenue for workers to install a temporary right-of-way for trains to get through. Joseph Morecraft, taking back over as mayor in 1954, fielded complaints about lack of parking with the construction, but stated that he expected patience with the construction going on as a temporary inconvenience. He also noted that the borough was looking at buying the lot on the south side of the tracks for a new parking lot. On February 23, the railroad got permission from Plainfield to begin construction of a new bridge over Rock Road, with a slated construction beginning in October 1954.
  On February 16, 1954, the New Jersey Superior Court heard the lawsuits of the Pangborn and Forner families versus the CNJ. The families were looking for $145,000 combined in their lawsuits. Testifying on behalf of the family included William Forner, who stated that his injuries affected his schooling. On February 18, Judge Ralph S. Smalley awarded $22,800 total to the two families for victim compensation, in favor of
caption: Queen Tower in Plainfield, the signal tower built in 1953
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