Rockaway Valley Railroad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Rockaway Valley Railroad opened in April 1890. The line was affectionately known as the Rock-A-Bye Baby Railroad.
It was built from a connection with the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) mainline in White House Station, New Jersey to Watnong, New Jersey, two miles from the center of Morristown, New Jersey, a total distance that was approximaely 25 miles. The railroad had plans to connect with the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in Morristown, but those plans never materialized. The line passed very close to the end of the Passaic and Delaware division (now Gladstone Branch) of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in Peapack-Gladstone, New Jersey.
The railroad was constructed predominantly to ship peaches from peach orchards that were abundant in the region, although it also saw other freight and passenger traffic. The Rockaway Valley Railroad was sold in 1913 and abandoned in 1917. A portion of the former railbed is now a rail trail, part of the larger Patriots Path trail network in the Morristown area.
