The Kamino Railroad was founded originally as the Kamino, Stevensville, and Zucal Railroad (KS&Z) in 1890 and was the fastest link from the fast growing city of Stevensville to the new interchange with the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad. The road started off as a freight line but quickly began passenger services. With this growing new line both the West Jersey and Seashore Railroad (WJ&S) and the Altantic City Railroad (ACRR) began to offer to acquire the new line ,but the Board of Directors shot every offer down. As the road began to find its place among two larger railroads. In 1898, President of the Board, Leon Mcfinch resigned from his postion after he was caught mismanaging the company's finances from 1896 - 1898. In fall of 1898, the board began its election of the new president. In January of 1899, James Ward (25) was elected as President of the Board and began his plan of reconstruction. Ward's plan was simple: rebuild existing infrastructure/equipment and begin an expansion to points along the shoreline. Ward renamed the line from the Kamino, Stevensville and Zucal Railroad to the Kamino Railroad (KRR) in 1900 and began the massive repainting of all Kamino Railroad equipment. As the Kamino Railroad prospered from 1900 to 1917, until Uncle Sam began his conflict in Europe. The Kamino Railrod was now leading in moving essential supplies and troops from Stevensville to the interchange at Zucal. After the war in 1919, the Kamino Railroad began its expansion to the small seaside town of Sea Point. Ground was broken in 1920 and was completed in 1928. When the U.S. entered the Great Depression, the Kamino Railroad began a set of new passenger services to boost revinue. The new services were called "The Penny Saver" and "The Sea Saver" which cost $5.25 for a one-way ticket. The new services took effect in 1930 ,but did become popular until 1933 with the introduction of President Roosevelt's New Deal. The Kamino Railroad was able to ride out the economic recovery with ease. In September 1939, the U.S. entered World War II and the Kamino Railroad began to get new locomotives to power the american war machine. The line was an essentail assest to moving troops to bases located in Stevensville and Sea Point. After the war, the railroad began to see a growing market of eager americans ready to relax on the New Jersey shore. Now, the line offered express services to the shore to compete with the Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines (PRSL) and their high-end express services. In 1956, the road took it's first major blow when President James Ward died at 80 years old of a sudden stroke. The board had to install a new president and voted in John Grant. Grant continued the Ward policies until his resignation in 1975.  In 1974, PRSL and her parent company Penn Central became part of the Considated Rail Company (Conrail). The Kamino Railroad in fear of becoming part of the vast Conrail System, it began to tear up the entirety of the Sea Point branch and  sold 18 of their 20 locomotives to local scrap dealers. With Grant's resignation, the board began the election for president in January 1976. The board had a tie vote for the president for weeks until the majority were swayed. In February 1976, Tony Marker (30) was elected as President of the Board. He quickly began to assess the company and removed all the old board members and filled in the spots with new members. His recovery plan named "Saving Grace" consisted of using the line for tourism during the summer months and during weekends for the other months. This plan took effect Memorial Day, 1976. After years of success with his line, President Marker present the board his plans for expansion into the new decade. His plan was to completely rebuild the Seapoint Branch, which was destroyed in 1974 after the formation of Conrail and to rebuild the station at Zucal, where it used to connect to mainline passenger trains. The board was concerned of the cost being too much for them to pay for. Marker told the board that the money from ticket sales and donations could cover the cost without breaking the bank.  With the board not seeing anymore problems and after several route revisions, the board unanimously voted to move forward with the project. in 1982, the Seapoint project broke ground in Kamino, where the original branch part away from the mainline. The project took longer than expected and on Memorial Day, 1993, the Sepoint Branch was officialy opened to regular passenger/ frieght service. Unfortunately, the board could not complete the station at Zucal after a second vote on the Z.E.P. (Zucal Expansion Project) showed that the board would not support the project until the early 2000's. With the new connection to Seapoint, the road began to bring steam  back, with the aquisition of CPR Royal Hudson #2859 in 1998. This was the first steam locomotives to run on the KRR since the end of steam in 1957. With the end of the millennium, the board took the third vote on the Z.E.P. and by a slim margin the project was passed and was ready to move forward. In April of 2000, the project began with NJT (New Jersey Transit) allowing access on their line. In December 2005, the last lightbulb was screwed in and the last major project for the KRR was completed. In the years to come the road aquired new equipment, expanded their Maintence of Way, and began to run year round as a fully functional passenger and frieght railroad, just like in good old days of years gone by. The Kamino Railroad is still under the control of Tony Marker and his board, but Tony is looking to retire in 2020. The future looks bright for this line and we will continue to please railfans from far and wide for many more years to come. 

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