Robert
A.
Stanton

ROBERT A. STANTON- Bob to his friends, grew up on Park Boulevard in Camden's Parkside section, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1940. His second cousin, Robert S. Hart, was killed in an aircraft accident during World War II, his uncle, John Stanton, was desk sergeant at one of the Camden Police Department's district stations for many years.

In his own words: "As a child I fell in love with just about anything that ran on tracks and have spent a lifetime accumulating pictures and historical facts surrounding the early trolleys and trains which operated in the Camden-Philadelphia area."

In recent years he has become well known for a series of books he has published about trolley car transportation in Camden and Philadelphia, and about life and times in Camden during the 1930s and 1940s.

Bob has contributed a series of essays about Camden to this website, which can be read at A PARKSIDE BOY REMEMBERS CAMDEN- Essays by Bob Stanton.

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Top photo is from 1940 Woodrow Wilson HS Yearbook.

From the February 1940 Woodrow Wilson H.S. yearbook- "The Wilsonian"

Bob's Books
works by Robert A. Stanton

NEW!!!!
Life In Camden, New Jersey 
Before 1946

by Robert A. Stanton

One man's story of what it was like to grow up in Camden between the two World Wars, this is a companion book to PARKSIDE: The Story of a Neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey Before 1946. This book will have anyone who was there at the time heading down memory lane in a hurry!

Price: $6.00 plus $1.75 USA postage.

Trolley Days in Camden New Jersey

by Robert A. Stanton

Full of vintage photographs and lively text, this book covers the trolley era in Camden and its suburbs from horse cars to the end in 1937. The history of the operating companies of the seven city lines and the six suburban lines along with the cars, car number series and assignments, and carbarns, are all documented. Also included are the ferries, amusement parks, notable wrecks, the special car CAMDEN, and the trackless trolleys. Softcover, 100 pages, 8 1/2"x11" format. Three maps and over 110 vintage photographs, including one in color.

This book contains covering all of the city and suburban lines before 1937.  Included are:  carbarns, ferries, maps, and even some old busses.  Price: $15.00 plus $1.75 USA postage.

PHILADELPHIA TRACTION
AS SEEN FROM
THE NEW JERSEY SIDE

by Robert A. Stanton

Early memories of a Camden boy who loved the Philadelphia Trolleys.

Price: $5.00 plus $1.75 USA postage.

PARKSIDE: The Story of a Neighborhood in Camden, New Jersey Before 1946

by Donald W. Stanton & Robert A. Stanton

An interesting history of Camden's Parkside section, containing an interesting collection of great and small memories of growing up there in the 1930s and 1940s. 

Price: $5.00 plus $1.75 USA postage.

HOW THE 
EARLIEST STREETCARS
WERE BUILT AND MARKETED

by The Brownell Car Company
     St. Louis, Missouri, 1897.

Not about Camden per se, but still of great interest. This book is a complete reproduction of the original, with Mr. Brownell's candid analysis of quality problems in the new industry.   The original book had 171, 6"x9" pages, which have been combined into 97 full-size pages.  Included are three pictures of preserved Brownell cars and the author's comments.  Price:  $6.00 plus $1.75 USA postage.

In preparation:

“Streetcar to the Jungle” – Trolleys in the streets of St. Petersburg , Florida .  March 2006 (?)

“The Railroads of Camden New Jersey ” – And the impact they had on the growth and development of the city. First quarter 2006.

If you would like to purchase a copy of any of these books, or have any further questions concerning them, please contact Bob Stanton at the address below, or e-mail me.

Phil Cohen

Camden Courier-Post - January 4, 2008

Our friend in Seminole, Fla., is at it again. Camden native Robert A. Stanton has published another book about his beloved city.

Stanton, a retired chemical engineer, has been writing books about old Camden since the 1990s. His newest addition is "The Railroads of Camden, New Jersey," a 26-page, soft-cover book loaded with information about railroads and their impact on Camden.

He put the book together in a year -- "but three years to find decent pictures," Stanton said. "There were too few good shots showing people using the trains."

"After I finished my book on the Camden trolleys, I thought it might be useful to do one on the railroads of Camden," he said.

"I had noticed that many current histories were wildly inaccurate and that few people realized how the railroads caused the city to grow in the first place."

Stanton's mission was simply to set the record straight and show how railroads opened a new door to Camden. The need for a ferry

"When the pioneering Camden & Amboy Railroad's trains reached Camden in 1834, there was an immediate need for a terminal and ferry to Philadelphia," he writes. "Camden began to grow, and the presence of regular ferry service suddenly made its reasonably priced ground desirable for everything from houses to factories."

A retired DuPont employee, Stanton writes that it wasn't long before tracks stretched from Trenton to Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River.

"However, new opportunities for railroad business began to develop in South Jersey itself," the book explains. "The Camden & Amboy eventually became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad."

Stanton then takes the reader on a tour of railroads in Camden through the ages and discusses the life of specific rail lines.

It offers information on the Camden & Amboy Railroad, the Camden & Atlantic Railroad, the Philadelphia & Atlantic City Railroad, the West Jersey Railroad and the Camden Gloucester and Mount Ephraim Railroad. It also mentions the Camden Terminal, Cooper's Point Yard, elevated railroad tracks, electric trains and what remains today. Lived in Parkside

Stanton was born in Camden in 1922 and his father, William, owned Stanton's Owl Garage on Chestnut Street, across from Park Boulevard, in the Parkside section.

"I loved Parkside and Camden," Stanton said, "and I was a Courier-Post newspaper boy and worked at many jobs while going to Woodrow Wilson High School and Camden County Vocational School."

He was wounded in Germany during World War II, and the government paid his way through Drexel University, where he received a degree in chemical engineering.

"Nobody believes how old I am, including me!" Stanton exclaimed. "At 85, I am old enough to have seen and ridden the busy excursion trains to the seashore, pulled by powerful steam locomotives and later replaced by diesel engines."

Stanton, who moved to Florida in 2003, recalls listening to the great plans to replace the commuter trains with rapid transit to the suburbs, and he finally saw all of the old passenger trains stop running out of Camden.

"I try to include my own experiences in the histories, without making it an autobiography," Stanton says. Besides "The Railroads of Camden, New Jersey," some of his other books include:

"Trolley Days in Camden, New Jersey"

"How The Early Streetcars Were Built And Marketed"

"Philadelphia Traction As Seen From The New Jersey Side," which are memories of a Camden boy who loved the trolleys that were across the Delaware River.

"Parkside: The story Of A Neighborhood In Camden, New Jersey Before 1946"

"Life in Camden, New Jersey Before 1946 -- Memories Of The Years Between The Two World Wars"

Stanton says he collected pictures and data for 60 years for his books, including newspaper clippings from the Courier-Post. Writes for enjoyment

"The real pleasure is in doing my own publishing and distributing," he points out, "and it is not a money-making project. "I enjoy giving them (the books) to libraries and historical societies and friends."

In 1992, Stanton purchased his first word processor and, for 10 years, published a monthly eight-page newsletter for a small group of narrow-gauge-railroad operators. The print shop he used showed him how easy it was to self-publish, so he decided to produce a small book on the Salem line.

"That book came out in 1998," he recalls. "The result was so pleasant that I produced two smaller volumes of local interest."

He's been writing ever since.

Thomas A. Bergbauer is a retired Courier-Post copy editor and can be reached at (856) 346-0371, tbergbauer@verizon.net, or through Communities, Courier-Post, P.O. Box 5300, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034.