The Dinky runs for a distance of approximately 2.5 miles. It serves to connect
Princeton to the
Northeast Corridor rail service that passes through
Princeton Junction via
New Jersey Transit and
Amtrak. It typically consists of a single NJ Transit electric
commuter rail car. Handily, it is scheduled to make all (well, most) relevant connections from the Junction going north or south.
Some useless goofy stuff about the Dinky...once, back when Princeton University was all-male, some fellows had dates arriving by train for formals. These enterprising young men procured cowboy outfits and horses, and stopped the Dinky in mid-run. Barging onto the train with cap pistols, they 'kidnapped' their dates and thundered off. Good fun was had by all.
The Dinky tends, once in a while, to completely annihilate some idiot who has decided that while waiting for the stoplight on Faculty road the signs saying KEEP TRACKS CLEAR don't apply to them. The last time I remember this was around 1990, when a lady's car was wrapped (semicircle, even) around the front of the Dinky when it was unable to stop as she drifted to a halt on the tracks, not looking. Miraculously, she walked away. I so wanted to go paint a little silhouette of a car below the motorman's compartment window...