Lackawanna Cut-Off
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The Lackawanna Cut-Off (also known as the New Jersey Cut-Off) was a 28-mile high-speed, double-track mainline constructed by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad between 1908-1911 and which ran from Port Morris, New Jersey to Slateford, Pennsylvania. Considered an engineering masterpiece, the Cut-Off pioneered the use of reinforced concrete on a grand scale, as well as the use of massive cutting and filling that would become not only standard practice in railroad construction but, later, highway construction as well.
With the creation of Conrail in the 1970's, the new railroad saw no use for the high-speed cutoff. The tracks were ripped up in 1984 and the cutoff has remained a trail for motor-sport and hiking enthusiasts a like ever since. In the late 1990's, the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania purchased the cutoff with plans of reviving commuter service between Scranton and Northern New Jersey to Hoboken Terminal to help relieve congestion along parralel Interstate 80.
Currently New Jersey Transit and the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority (PNRRA) own their respective portions of the Lackawanna Corridor and are in the planning stages for reviving service. It looks to be seen that NJ Transit will operate these trains while the PNRRA will fund for service in Pennsylvania, similar to how NJ Transit operates in New York State on its Pascack Valley and Port Jervis lines.
Current NJ Transit trains from New York Penn Station terminate at Dover, about five miles from Port Morris where electric service ends. With Dover yard operating at full capacity and NJ Transit opening an I-80 park and ride at Mount Arlington in the near future, the possibility of electric service being extended five miles to Port Morris yard seems highly likely. Like the New Jersey Cutoff, much of the right-of-way constructed by the DL&W railroad was designed with limited grade crossings with high-speed standards. Before the age of diesel locomotives engineers are said to have had their steam locomotive powered trains traveling at speeds in excess of 100 mph on the Cutoff.
Coupled together with the state of New York's plan in reviving passenger rail service between Scranton, Binghamton, and Syracuse. This makes the Cutoff part of a much larger high-speed Lackawanna Corridor serving New York City, Newark, Morristown, East Stroudsburg, Scranton, Binghamton, and Syracuse.
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[edit] Planning (1905-1908)
The Lackawanna Cut-Off was built to replace the Lackawanna's "Old Road", a circuitous route on an alignment significantly south of where the Cut-Off would be built; the Old Road was built in anticipation of a merger with the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), a merger which never took place. The Old Road was also built to a standard that by the beginning of the 20th Century was already obsolete. As such, the Old Road had become an operational bottleneck, with Oxford Tunnel, which had been converted to gauntlet track, due to low overhead clearances, being the biggest headache of all. President William Truesdale, who became president of the Lackawanna in 1899, foresaw the need for replacing the Old Road early on, and the New Jersey Cut-Off was born.
Starting about 1905, more than a dozen potential routes between Port Morris, NJ and Slateford, PA were surveyed. Several of these routes would have required significantly more tunneling than already existed on the Old Road. (The Cut-Off as built was not amongst the earlier surveyed alignments.) Given that any east-west route in northwest New Jersey would cross the hilly terrain at a right angle, the need for tunnels on the new route seemed inevitable, in spite of the fact that one of the major reasons for building the new route was to eliminate the tunnels on the old route.
As planning continued, a new route — the northernmost of all the potential routes — emerged. This route would have no tunnels and would cross the valley of the Pequest River on the world's largest railroad embankment: the Pequest Fill. Indeed, the "as built" version of the Cut-Off was not initially pursued because it was deemed impractical due to the projected scale of the fill that would be needed to cross the valley of the Pequest River.
As built, the Lackawanna Cut-Off would run from Slateford, Pennsylvania on the Delaware River, two miles south of the Delaware Water Gap, to the crest of the watershed at Lake Hopatcong (Port Morris, New Jersey). It is 28.5 miles in length, as compared to the Old Road's 39.6 miles, saving the Lackawanna 11 miles between the two points. This, however, was but one element of the improvement, for it reduced the maximum grade of 1.1% to less than 0.6%. (A grade of exactly 1% is a rise or fall of 52.8 feet per mile.) Although reducing the "ruling grade" by 0.5% (26 feet per mile) doesn't seem like much, the difference to an operating railroad operations is significant.
The building of the Cut-Off also eliminated a total curvature of 1,560 degrees (over four complete circles) and did away with the two tunnels at Oxford Furnace, New Jersey and Manunka Chunk, New Jersey, with the 1,024 foot tunnel at Roseville, New Jersey on the new line, which except for occasional ice build-up during the winter and "tripping" of the rockslide sensors in the rock cut just west of the tunnel anytime during the year, was a relatively minor impediment to operations. The speed limit through the tunnel would be 70 mph.
[edit] Construction (1908-1911)
The Cut-off required exceptionally heavy cuts and fills totaling over 15 million cubic yards (11.8 million m³). Where it was found impossible to obtain enough material from the cuts at either end of the fills, great as they were to build these monstrous embankments, the Lackawanna Railroad was obliged to purchase outright some 760 acres (3.1 km²) of farmland for "borrow pits" (see photo below). The earth and gravel was scooped out to a depth of twenty feet and hauled up on the embankments, leaving in some places good-sized lakes where there was formerly level ground.[citation needed]
Reinforced concrete served as the material for the construction of stations, signal towers, and the overhead highway crossings. There were no at-grade crossings on the Cut-off when it was constructed.
During the construction of the Cut-off, a suspended aerial cableway was employed in making the fills. By aid of cables and towers, movable bridges capable of supporting dump cars were constructed and when the work was in progress, presented the astonishing spectacle of a locomotive and train of cars suspended from a cable at an elevation of 100 feet (30 m) or more. At one time, ten steam shovels were at work on one fill alone, resembling work on the Panama Canal. Five million pounds (2268 metric tonnes) of dynamite were consumed in rending apart the hills.[1]
During construction, several foreign governments sent their representatives on tours of inspection to the Cut-off, since it stood as the most notable example of modern railway construction from its inception.
[edit] Significant structures
The deepest cut on the cut-off is 130 feet (40 m) deep; the largest is 100 feet (31 m) deep and one mile (1,600 m) long, mostly through solid rock. The largest of the fills is the one across the Pequest River valley, extending westward from a point one mile east of Andover, New Jersey. It is 110 feet (34 m) in height and over three miles (4.8 km) long and was the largest railroad fill in the world at the time, with over 6.5 million cubic yards of fill needed to reach the proper grade in this area.
There are seventy-three concrete bridges and culverts and two concrete viaducts at the west end of the Cut-off. The western terminus of the Cut-Off is at Slateford, PA on the banks of the Delaware and within view of the Gap.
The second viaduct is over the Paulins Kill and was the largest reinforced concrete viaduct in the world at the time of its completion (see photo at top of page). The bridge is 115 feet (35.4 m) high (approximately the height of the Statue of Liberty from crown to foot) and has a total length of 1,100 feet (307 m). It is also called the Hainesburg Viaduct, after the nearby town of Hainesburg.
Three concrete towers were built at Port Morris, NJ Greendell, NJ and Slateford Junction (PA). Greendell Tower, which controlled the long passing siding and short freight siding there, operated only until about 1934, when its operation was transferred to Port Morris Tower. Slateford Tower, which controlled the junction with the Old Road, remained in operation until the late 1950s when its operation was transferred to East Stroudsburg Tower. Port Morris ("UN") Tower, which controlled the junction with the line to Washington, New Jersey, remained in operation until the end of freight operations on the Cut-Off in 1978.
[edit] Operations (1911-1984)
The Cut-Off opened to rail service on Christmas Eve, 1911. It was the last railroad mainline built in New Jersey and is arguably the most scenic route in the state as it travels through the New Jersey Highlands, high above the surrounding terrain.
The opening of the Cut-Off had the immediate effect of downgrading the Old Road to secondary status. Long-distance trains, such as the Lackawanna Limited, which travelled from Hoboken, NJ to Buffalo, NY, and which provided sleeping car service onto Chicago and St. Louis, now stopped at Blairstown instead of Washington, NJ.
The Cut-Off was built for speed, as no curve on the line had a speed restriction of less than 70 mph. As a result of the superelevation of curves, the overall speed limit on the line was later raised to 80 mph. Although no official record exists of overspeed operations on the Cut-Off, "making up time" on the schedule when trains were late during the steam era is reported to have occurred, with speeds in excess of 100 mph having been attained on occasion. Ironically, the coming of diesel operation during the 1940s and 50s restricted the top speeds of trains to 85 - 90 mph, depending on the type of locomotive. (When freight locomotives were employed during the 1960s, top speeds dropped to 65 mph.)
At the outset, however, the Lackawanna's woman in white, Phoebe Snow, advertised the New Jersey Cut-Off in posters that showed the Pequest Fill and proclaimed the Lackawanna as the "Shortest Route" [to Buffalo]. Later, when Phoebe Snow became a streamlined train, the Cut-Off, with its wide vistas from atop its immense fills, was considered a scenic highlight of the trip to Buffalo. Although few trains stopped at Johnsonburg or Greendell, except on flag, Blairstown was considered a major stop on the railroad and virtually all of the named passenger trains, Phoebe included, stopped there. (The station at Blairstown even sold commutation tickets.)
Clearly, the Cut-Off in New Jersey was a testing ground for even greater engineering feats with the Pennsylvania Cut-Off — mostly notably the Tunkhannock Viaduct — in Pennsylvania. The Tunkhannock Viaduct remains to this day the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world. The Pennsylvania Cut-Off, which was built 1912-1915, is still heavily used today and is owned by Canadian Pacific Railway.
The story of the Cut-Off, unfortunately, is typical of American railroading in general, with the route being single-tracked in 1958 in anticipation of a merger with the Erie Railroad in 1960, forming the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. The management of the new company quickly moved most freight trains to the so-called "Erie side" from the "Lackawanna side", which meant that far fewer trains travelled over the Cut-Off. This traffic pattern remained in effect for over ten years, past the discontinuation of passenger service in January 1970, but was changed during the early 1970s when virtually all EL traffic was moved back to the Lackawanna side. This continued through the Conrail merger in 1976. However, Conrail, who was displeased with the heavy grades in New Jersey east of the Cut-Off and the Pocono grades west of the Cut-Off, discontinued all service over the Cut-Off in 1978 when this traffic was shifted over to the former Penn Central lines.
By 1979, the Cut-Off had been placed out of service, which meant that all routine maintenance on the line was discontinued. Ironically, Conrail had replaced numerous crossties on the Cut-Off in 1976, so the line was in better shape than it had been in nearly 15 years. Typically, however, placing a line out of service was the first step to abandonment. On November 13, 1979, Amtrak ran an inspection train over the line in an attempt to elicit support for Hoboken-Scranton service.[citation needed] But with no funding available, the idea faded. This would be the last passenger run on the Cut-Off during the 20th Century. From 1980-1984 various proposals were made in an attempt to purchase the line. Both Sussex and Morris Counties in New Jersey and Monroe County in Pennsylvania, together with several private entrepreneurs, pursued funding to pay for the $6.5 million price-tag that Conrail had set for the line from Port Morris to Scranton (operating costs would be separate). In the end, the Monroe County Railroad Authority would block Conrail's complete removal of the track in Pennsylvania (only one track would be removed, including the Cut-Off in Pennsylvania), but the entire trackage on the Cut-Off in New Jersey would soon be removed.
[edit] Death and Current Revival Efforts (1984-Present)
The apparent death of the Cut-Off would play out during the summer of 1984, with a Conrail rail train slowly but surely removing the tracks from west to east: the same direction in which they were originally laid. The final spike would be removed from the Lackawanna Cut-Off at Port Morris on October 24, 1984.
In the aftermath of the removal of the tracks on the Cut-Off, in 1985 Conrail sold the now empty right-of-way (only the ties and rock ballast remained) for about $1 million to two land developers, one of whom, Gerald Turco, proposed to use the Cut-Off as a massive construction landfill. (The second developer, Burton Goldmeier, who purchased the short section of the line in Morris County, was rumored to want the right-of-way as an access road.) The Turco proposal, however, became a rallying point in preserving the Cut-Off and was a direct catalyst for a $40 million state bond issue for acquiring abandoned rail rights-of-way in New Jersey. The bond issue was approved by the voters in November 1989 and the New Jersey Department of Transportation subsequently initiated condemnation proceedings against the corporations that Mr. Turco and Mr. Goldmeier had set up in New Jersey for the Cut-Off. (Mr. Turco established separate corporations for the sections of right-of-way in each municipality that the Cut-Off ran through — Knowlton, Blairstown and Frelinghuysen Townships (Warren County); and Green, Byram, Andover and Stanhope Townships and Andover Borough (Sussex County). A separate corporation had been set up for the Paulins Kill Viaduct.)
In the late 1990's, the state of New Jersey and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania purchased their respective portions of the Cut-Off for a total of $21 million. Today, New Jersey Transit is conducting studies to restore passenger service between Scranton, Pennsylvania, the Poconos, East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, western New Jersey, and Hoboken/New York City via its Morristown Line.[2] However, this project has been delayed repeatedly due to financing issues and lack of interest on the New Jersey side; yet, the project remains on NJ Transit's list of System Expansion Projects during a recent clean-up when many other projects were removed from the list.[3] It remains to be seen if Amtrak or a successor will plan to revive the Phoebe Snow or operate medium-haul trains from Binghamton, New York over a restored Cutoff.
Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, in the 2000s have advocated the restoration of passenger rail service between Scranton and Hoboken, and has secured federal funding for initial steps toward that restoration.[4]
In late July 2006, New Jersey Transit informed interested parties that the final environmental review has been submitted to the Federal Transit Administration for approval and review.[5] Assuming the project is approved soon, funding for the project's construction can be expected to appear in the following fiscal year's budget.
In addition, the Lackawanna County and Monroe County Railroad Authorities merged in 2006 to form the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority to help speed up resumption of passenger service on the Pennsylvania side of the Lackawanna Cutoff project.[citation needed]
Officials in New York State have proposed high speed rail linking Scranton, Pennsylvania, to Potsdam, New York. Such a service would reach the New York cities of Binghamton, Syracuse, and Watertown. This could potentially mean high-speed direct, one-seat service from Potsdam to New York City through the Southern Tier of New York much of which would be over former Lackawanna trackage which is still intact except for the Cutoff in New Jersey.
In October of 2006, developers pitched the idea of Wall Street West, an office complex to serve as a backup for New York City firms in the event of another terrorist attack. The site is located near East Stroudsburg which is located in a different watershed and power grid than New York City. It remains to be seen whether Wall Street West can help revive the Lackawanna Cutoff.
[edit] Trivia
- The original Tranquility schoolhouse is buried under the Pequest Fill in Green Township. The DL&W paid for a second schoolhouse to be built a short distance away.[6]
- The Cut-Off was so expensive to build--$11 million--that a new corporation, the Lackawanna Railroad of New Jersey was created. The LRRNJ remained a separate corporate entity until 1941, when it was merged into the Lackawanna Railroad.
- The Lackawanna Cut-Off in New Jersey has been known by several different names: the Delaware Valley Cut-Off, the Hoptacong-Slateford Cut-Off, the New Jersey Cut-Off, the Stanhope-Slateford Cut-Off, the Blairstown Cut-Off, and the Lackawanna Cut-Off.
- About 20% of the Cut-Off was triple-tracked, with several miles having four tracks.
- As construction fell behind schedule during the summer of 1911, crews resorted to the use of torch light (there was no electricity available) to continue work 24/7.
- Although the Cut-Off is generally thought of as an all downgrade railroad east to west, there is, in fact, a very short stretch of upgrade westbound (less than 0.1%) on the Pequest Fill east of Greendell. This accounts for the entire 11 feet of "rise and fall" on the Cut-Off.
- The Cut-Off played an indirect role in the Rockport Wreck of June 16, 1925. The Rockport Wreck, which occurred when an eastbound passenger special bound for Hoboken derailed at Rockport Road, south of Hackettstown, New Jersey on the Old Road, killing 47 people. The passenger special had initially been scheduled to travel over the Cut-Off but because of freight traffic on the Cut-Off, and the fact that the train was hours ahead of the departure time for the transatlantic portion of the passengers' trip, was detoured over the Old Road. An earlier storm had washed loose debris onto the grade crossing at Rockport (there had been road work up the hill from the grade crossing earlier that day), which caused the locomotive to derail and to end up adjacent to one of the passenger cars with steam escaping, scalding numerous passengers to death. Reportedly, the Tower at Slateford had made the decision to reroute the special. Had the special travelled over the Cut-Off, the Rockport Wreck would have never occurred.
- Greendell Station, which was closed in 1931, never had electricity.
- Johnsonburg Station, which was closed in 1940, was reopened temporarily in 1942 and was used as a command post following a massive landslide that closed the line about a mile west of the station for about a month.
- Although the station at Johnsonburg was closed for nearly twenty years, EL train #41 (ex-DL&W #47), the westbound mail train, did stop at Johnsonburg to drop and pick up mail until the early 1960s.
- Although the right-of-way has been mostly impervious to wash-outs over the years, the Cut-Off has occasionally been beset by sink holes that formed from the settling of the underlying fill. This settling occurred for a time even after the line was opened to operations. The most recent sink holes, however, occurred just east of Roseville Tunnel during the early 1980s, which caused the tracks to buckle at that location.
- The most notable runaway to have occurred on the Cut-off was in 1958 when a string of boxcars got away on the wye at Port Morris and started to drift westbound on the Cut-off. A freight engine was immediately dispatched to try to catch the cars, but was unsuccessful. The cars, which reportedly reached a speed near 80 mph, wrecked at Point of Gap, about 30 miles away. An eastbound local freight, which detected the westbound move by signal indications, took the siding at Greendell in an attempt to avoid the runaway. The first car of the string hit the markers on the back-end of the caboose on the train, but no other damage was incurred.
- Four railroad lines crossed under the Cut-Off (none crossed over it): from east to west, the DL&W's Sussex Branch, the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway, the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (twice - once under the Paulins Kill Viaduct and once under the NJ side of the Delaware River Viaduct), and the Old Road of the Lackawanna. Of the four railroad lines, the Old Road crossing is the only one that still has tracks on it, although most of the Old Road in NJ has been abandoned since 1970. The trackage in the accompanying photo is used by the Delaware-Lackawanna RR. Note that the tracks have been realigned to the center of the underpass to increase the overhead clearance. This section was originally double-tracked. Prior to the building of the Cut-Off, Oxford Tunnel, double-tracked for its 2200 feet, presented a similar problem as is seen here, although on a much larger scale, necessitating that the tracks be overlapped through the tunnel near the center of the tunnel bore, resulting in a gauntlet track. Such an arrangement was never necessary at this location since after the Cut-Off was opened, the amount of traffic on the Old Road dropped significantly.
- A fifth rail line was to have crossed under the Cut-Off, the Lehigh and New England Railroad, which was in the planning stages at the time of the Cut-Off's construction. The rail tunnel is adjacent to NJ 94; after the Cut-Off was in operation, the L&NE decided against building its own railroad in northwest New Jersey and instead continued to exercise trackage rights over the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad's right-of-way to Hainesburg Junction, just south of the Paulins Kill Viaduct. As a result, the only trains to have operated through the L&NE's tunnel were the Cut-Off's dinky construction trains. In the accompanying photo, the Paulins Kill Viaduct is about 1/2 mile (1 km) east (left) and the projected connection with the L&NE's line to Pennsylvania is about 1/2 mile south through the tunnel. While vestiges of the L&NE's never-used route can be found if one knows where to look for them, the most endurable remnant will always be the tunnel under the Cut-Off, which now acts as an access road to the recreational activities held at Tunnel Field in Knowlton Township.
- The first revenue train over the Cut-Off on Christmas Eve 1911 is thought to have been powered by Engine #952, a 4-4-0 Camelback, an engine which is presently displayed at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri.
- The opening of the Cut-Off decreased the distance on the DL&W Railroad's mainline between Hoboken, NJ and Buffalo, New York from 407 to 396 miles. As a result, in addition to the 28 new mile markers that were needed on the Cut-Off itself, all mile markers on the mainline west of the Cut-Off were replaced.
- Easements owned by the Lackawanna Railroad for right-of-way about a mile south of Hope Township, New Jersey (about 5-6 miles south of the Cut-Off) were discovered in the 1950s. This would have been for one of the potential alignments for the Cut-Off.
- One of the developers who bought the Cut-Off right-of-way, Gerald Turco, also refurbished the stations at Johnsonburg and Greendell.
- Mr. Turco only became aware of the availability of the Cut-Off for purchase after he contacted Conrail regarding the acquisition of an adjacent parcel of land for the expansion of his nursing home complex in Andover, New Jersey. Conrail refused to allow Turco to buy an isolated parcel of the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway in Andover (an north-south right-of-way — also abandoned, although it still had tracks — that crossed under the Cut-Off at Tranquility a short distance from Turco's nursing home), causing Turco to buy the entire L&HR RR from Sparta Junction to Belvidere. Conrail reportedly offered Turco a "package deal" that included both rights-of-way.
- Shortly after the end of passenger service in 1970, the station at Blairstown Township was sold to a local radio station, which operated out of the building until the 1990s.
- Presently, the right-of-way is unobstructed in New Jersey, although Slateford Road in Pennsylvania was temporarily filled in during the 1990s to replace an aging overhead bridge (see photo above). Two road crossings have since been created on the cutoff – one just west of Port Morris, New Jersey in the 1980s and another at Greendell station in the 1990s.
- The single-lane overhead bridge for County Route 521, just east of the Blairstown Station, was declared inadequate (although structurally sound) during the late 1980s. Recently, a second single-lane concrete bridge, based on the original DL&W design, was completed just east of the original bridge. Together, the two bridges now carry CR 521 over the Cut-Off right-of-way at that site.
- The line is currently traversed by dirt bikes and four-wheelers although the state of New Jersey has set up fencing and No Trespassing signs along the cutoff.
- The Paulins Kill Viaduct for a while became a popular spot for bungee jumpers (until about the mid-1990s), although the bridge has since been fenced off in the center.
- The Paulins Kill Viaduct has been featured in Weird NJ as being a purported site for Satanic cult rituals and sacrifices. Although the viaduct is somewhat remotely located and is heavily marred by graffiti (some of which does include Satanic symbology) it appears that much of the alleged Satanic connection is hyperbole.
- The line west of the Cut-off was to be ripped up in the Poconos, but the presence of the Tobyhanna Army Depot and the Chrysler facility at Mt. Pococno helped keep that part of the line in service between Scranton and Mt. Pocono. The state of Pennsylvania stepped in and prevented any track from being ripped up in Pennsylvania. (In a somewhat bizarre footnote, the use of a privately-owned World War II tank was threatened at the time.) In 1996, Conrail operated the first train between Scranton and Slateford due to flooding on other lines. Since then freight service has been growing on the Pocono Main with operator Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad handling freight on the line.
- Steamtown operates steam and/or diesel excursions from Scranton to destinations including Moscow, Tobyhanna, East Stroudsburg, and occasionally Slateford just south of Delaware Water Gap.
[edit] Stations and landmarks on the Cut-Off (and corridor into Pennsylvania)
| Milepost | Town | Station/Landmark | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45.7 | Roxbury Township | Port Morris Junction | Junction with NJT Morristown Line to Hoboken Terminal and Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan (via Midtown Direct service) – nearest station at Lake Hopatcong (MP 45.5). NJT's Port Morris rail yard is also located here. |
| 53 | Andover | Andover | Proposed NJT station - new station on Cut-Off |
| 57.6 | Greendell | Greendell | Station closed about 1934. Potential future station stop on Cut-Off. |
| 60.7 | Johnsonburg | Johnsonburg | Station closed in 1940. Potential future station stop on Cut-Off. |
| 64.8 | Blairstown | Blairstown | Proposed NJT station |
| 71.6 | Hainesburg | Paulinskill Viaduct | No station |
| 73 | Stateline (NJ/PA) | Delaware River Viaduct | No station |
| 74.3 | Slateford | Slateford Junction | Junction with Old Road - no station |
| 77.2 | Delaware Water Gap | Delaware Water Gap | Proposed Park & Ride station. Station vacated in 1967. |
| 81.6 | East Stroudsburg | East Stroudsburg | Proposed station |
| Analomink | Analomink | Proposed station | |
| 100.3 | Mount Pocono | Mount Pocono | Proposed station |
| 107.6 | Tobyhanna | Tobyhanna | Proposed station. Station closed January 1958. |
| 133.1 | Scranton | Scranton | Proposed station |
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
- ^ New Jersey Historic Bridge Data (PDF), accessed June 25, 2006
- ^ New Jersey Transit – Lackawanna Cutoff
- ^ New Jersey Transit: System Expansion Projects, accessed June 25, 2006
- ^ SENS. SPECTER AND SANTORUM ANNOUNCE APPROVAL OF FEDERAL FUNDING FOR THE SCRANTON-NYC PASSENGER RAIL SERVICE PROJECT: Transportation Funding as Part of FY03 Omnibus Appropriations Bill, press relase dated February 14, 2003
- ^ Lackawanna Cutoff Passenger Service Restoration, dated July 27, 2006
- ^ Touring the Lackawanna Cutoff "During the Cut-Off's construction, the railroad chose to purchase the structure and build the town another one farther away rather than changing the alignment of the rail line. As the construction progressed, the old school house was buried under tons of rock, to the sound of cheering school children who watched from a distant hillside."
