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Lackawanna Railroad in Northwest New Jersey, The by Lowenthal & Greenberg w/DJ
The Lackawanna Railroad in Northwest New Jersey by Larry Lowenthal & William T Greenberg Jr
Hard Cover w/Dust jacket
244 pages NOTICE the wear upper left corner of the dust jacket
Copyright 1987
CONTENTS
Introduction 4
THE WARREN RAILROAD
Introduction 9
Chapter 1: The Race to the Water Gap 10
Chapter 2: The War for the Warren Passes 20
Chapter 3: The Eight-Year Tunnel 30
Chapter 4: The Isthmus of Belvidere 56
THE NEW JERSEY CUTOFF
Chapter 1: The Railroad World Turned Upside Down 63
Chapter 2: A New Path Across the Land 69
Chapter 3: Concrete Superlatives 77
Chapter 4: Until the Glaciers Come 92
THE OLD MAIN
Chapter 1: Stonehenge at Changewater 101
Chapter 2: Recollections of Alvin Smith 119
THE SUSSEX RAILROAD: FROM MULES TO BUNNIES
Chapter 1: From Mules .... 129
Chapter 2: "A Long Pull, A Strong Pull" 134
Chapter 3: "The Great Epoch in Our Local History" 140
Chapter 4: "This Unhappy Road" 143
Chapter 5: Local Management 151
Chapter 6: The Man from Beaver Creek 156
Chapter 7: To the State Line 159
Chapter 8: "An Ornament to the Town" 171
Chapter 9: Years of Gold and Iron 178
Chapter 10: The Final Struggle 185
Chapter 11: "A Matter of Congratulations" 190
Chapter 12: A Holiday Decade 200
Chapter 13: The Music Dies 209
Chapter 14: ...To Bunnies 217
Poem: The Last Night Before Conrail 227
SUPPLEMENTS
Appendix I: Statistical Survey of Sussex RR in 1880 230
Appendix II: Sussex RR Motive Power and Rolling Stock 233
Footnotes 237
Bibliography 241
Indices 243
LIST OF MAPS
Warren Railroad and Connections 22
Oxford, New Jersey 40
Manunka Chunk 43
Port Washington - Circa 1894 66
Proposed Cutoff Routes, January 1, 1906 73
Hampton, New Jersey - Circa 1880 103
Delaware, New Jersey 107
Pequest Furnace 112
Washington, New Jersey - Circa 1894 121
Sussex Railroad 130
Waterloo, New Jersey 138
Existing and Proposed Routes in NJ - Circa 1856 141
Andover, New Jersey 145
Branchville Junction 165
Franklin, New Jersey 167
Newton, New Jersey 174
INTRODUCTION IT IS SAID COMMONLY that everyone has 20/20 hindsight. Most people wish their foresight were half as sharp. It would be pleasant to be able to state that this book was conceived in its present form from the beginning and moved smoothly, according to plan, to its conclusion. Rather than squander our credibility in the first paragraph, however, let us acknowledge that the development of this book was not so simple and that foresight was rather squinty. Perhaps, then, a brief explanation of how this book evolved will increase the reader's enjoyment and understanding.
Originally, a chapter on the Sussex RR (later the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western RR Sussex Branch) was included in drafts of Larry Lowenthal's earlier book, Iron Mine Railroads of Northern New Jersey. This made sense because the Sussex line shared a similar origin with the other iron ore carriers of the region. But as the Sussex RR developed, it outgrew its beginnings, and it became apparent that a meaningful history of that railroad would have to be much longer and more complex than the other rail lines covered in Iron Mine Railroads. The result would have been a considerably larger publication than we had anticipated, and an unbalanced one, with one chapter half as long as all the others combined.
Thus, in the second phase, we decided to make a separate book out of the Sussex RR, and this intention was stated for all to behold on the jacket of Iron Mine Railroads. Now, however, we were confronted with a smaller and narrower publication than we would have
liked. At the same time, thoughts were ripening of doing something with other former Lackawanna lines in New Jersey. Larry Lowenthal had already written a short article on the New Jersey Cutoff for the now unfortunately defunct Lake Hopatcong Breeze in 1979. From a historical standpoint, it was impossible to consider the Cutoff without mentioning the Warren RR, the "Old Main" of the DL&W, whose shortcomings made construction of the Cutoff appealing. Out of these various elements, the present book was built. The three main sections of railroad discussed are linked by a common ownership within the Lackawanna system and a historical and physical connection over the former Morris & Essex RR.
To summarize this history briefly, the Warren RR was opened in 1856 as the New Jersey link of the main line of the Pennsylvania-based Delaware, Lackawanna & Western RR. Its success had come at the expense of the Morris & Essex, but when the latter finally completed its extension to Phillipsburg in 1865, it created a potential interchange with the Warren at Washington, N.J. The Sussex RR was already on the scene, having formed a connection with the M&E at Waterloo in 1854. After a troubled decade of independence, it came to share an ownership similar to the DL&W. As the result of a major upheaval, the M&E itself was brought into the Lackawanna fold in 1868. Finally, in the early years of the Twentieth Century, the DL&W's New Jersey Cutoff was conceived in an attempt to make order out of the chaotic railroad history of north-west New Jersey. It is hoped that this book succeeds as well in a similar effort.
One fortunate consequence of the repeated expansions and extensions of this book is the opportunity it created for more people to come forward to assist us. This help took a variety of forms-locating and loaning photos and other memorabilia (often for longer periods than we all would have preferred,) responding to inquiries, drawing maps, sharing recollections and accompanying us on explorations of the local terrain. Without this aid, there might still have been a book, but it would have been a much poorer one.
Many of the individuals who helped us did so out of a deep feeling that a book on this subject was urgently needed and that it was important to preserve the memory of a time we could all see vanishing like the mist. In undertaking to write a book of this kind, we were conscious that we had accepted a serious obligation. We hope that those who supported and encouraged us are not disappointed by the result.
A note about spelling of proper names seems almost obligatory in a book about the kind of places and time period covered by this one. In adopting certain conventions we have probably achieved a greater consistency than did the owners of some of these names in the Nineteenth Century. Wherever possible we sought to retain the spelling used in contemporary official documents. For example, Ligett's Gap is the spelling on the company seal, while Van Nest Gap is the form that appears on the memorial erected by the men who conquered it. In dealing with several of the recurring names of contractors on the Warren RR, such as Welles, Piollet and Rutter & DuPuy, we have used the spellings that were employed in the company's business forms and signatures.
LARRY LOWENTHAL, WILLIAM T. GREENBERG, JR. March, 1987
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