NEW BRUNSWICK – The Chamber Train pulls out of here, and there was Jim Keady towering in the center aisle of Car 11, and Essex County GOP Chairman Al Barlas, and Fanwood Mayor Colleen Mahr and Bill Pascrell 3 – and Dale Florio taking it all in with the wry smile of a veteran gambler who already knows how the game will go.

But sticks around anyway.

Keady looked confident as he heads into Saturday’s Monmouth County Democratic Convention.

“We’re going to win,” he told InsiderNJ, when asked.

He faces retired Navy officer Josh Welle.

Essex County Freeholders Rufus Johnson and Wayne Witherspoon were aboard.

So was Somerset County Democratic Chair Peg Schaffer – and Passaic County Freeholder John Bartlett.

“There is a lot of excitement in CD11, and a lot of attention to races up and down the line,” said Bartlett, who graduated from Harvard Law School – just like Republican CD11 hopeful Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-26).