Queen of the Valley
The Queen of the Valley was a named train on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Operating from 1911 to 1967 it was the longest continuing operating train of the CNJ. Also, its route was the longest in the system, operating on a 179.5 mile route, exceeding the CNJ's Atlantic City-bound Blue Comet.
The train left the Jersey City CNJ Communipaw Terminal, traveled south to Bayonne, 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, Pennsylvania, 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 and finally to Harrisburg. In the mid-1930s it ran six days a week. In the early 1960s it was daily in operation.
In the train's waning years in the mid-1960s the route was shortened 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 continued.
