The Old Road where it passes under the Delaware River Viaduct in Pennsylvania. The tracks have been shifted to the center of the underpass to give greater overhead clearance, a common practice after a multi-tracked railroad line is reduced to single-track operation. |
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| Extent | Northwestern New Jersey–Northeastern Pennsylvania |
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| Dates of operation | 1856–1968 |
The Lackawanna Old Road was the main right-of-way of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) in New Jersey from 1856 until the DL&W opened the Lackawanna Cut-Off in 1911. After it lost mainline status, the Old Road was used mostly as a branch line for local freight shipments until it was washed out in a 1968 storm.
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The Old Road ran southwest from Boonton through Hackettstown to Washington, then turned sharply northwest. It ran through the Oxford and Manunka Chunk tunnels, and crossed the Delaware River at Delaware, New Jersey, and continued to Portland, Pennsylvania.
After 1911, it was a backup route and served businesses on the line until 1968 after a section of track was washed out during a heavy rainstorm. In April 1970, the Erie Lackawanna Railway abandoned the line and removed the tracks between the towns of Delaware and Washington.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Warren County removed the line's remaining bridges and abutments spanning roads and highways between Delaware and Washington. Still, many vestiges remain: telegraph poles, tunnels, a concrete viaduct spanning the Pequest River, and the abandoned Lehigh and Hudson River Railway right-of-way near the intersection of State Route 31 and U.S. Route 46 near Buttzville. The iron bridge across the Delaware is still used by coal trains serving the PPL power plant on the river in Portland.
On June 16, 1925, a passenger train carrying German and American tourists from Chicago to Hoboken derailed in in Rockport, New Jersey. The train struck debris that had washed into a road crossing during a heavy thunderstorm. The wreck killed 47 passengers and three trainmen. The train was initially scheduled to travel via the Lackawanna Cut-Off, but was ahead of schedule when it arrived at Slateford Junction, Pennsylvania. In order to avoid freight trains on the line, the passenger train and was diverted to the Old Road to Port Morris.[1] In 1995, on the 70th anniversary of the wreck, a stone and plaque was erected at the Rockport crossing to remember the lives lost.