Warren Railroad

Warren Railroad
Legend DL&W Delaware River BRW Delaware Manunka Chunk Bel-Del Manunka Chunk Tunnel Bridgeville L&HR Oxford Furnace Oxford Tunnel Washington M&E Changewater Hampton CNJ

The Warren Railroad was a railroad in Warren County, New Jersey that served as part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's mainline from 1856 to 1911.

History

The Warren Railroad was chartered on February 12, 1851, by special act of the state of New Jersey, to provide a connection from the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's (DL&W) terminus at the Delaware River to Hampton, New Jersey on the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), in anticipation of a merger between the two railroads. The railroad's date of organization was March 4, 1853, and construction began that June.

Terrain made the Warren expensive to build, requiring a large amount of excavation, three large bridges, and two tunnels.

DL&W began operating on the railway on May 28, 1856 from Delaware, New Jersey to Hampton, and continuing over CNJ to Jersey City. DL&W formally leased the Warren Railroad in October 1857.

The tracks were originally 6-foot gauge, continuous with the DL&W's Pennsylvania tracks. A third rail was added to CNJ's standard gauge track.

When the railroad opened in 1856, the Van Nest Gap Tunnel was not yet completed, and a temporary track was used. The tunnel was completed in September 1862, and the temporary track removed.

Merger talks between the DL&W and CNJ broke down and on December 10, 1868, the DL&W signed a lease for the Morris & Essex Railroad (M&E), effective January 1, 1869. The DL&W then shifted their mainline off of CNJ to the M&E with a new junction at Washington, New Jersey. While the Warren Railroad was straight from the DL&W's former terminus at the Delaware River to the CNJ, its route to the M&E was circuitous. Additionally, the section between the Washington and Hampton (later called the Hampton Branch) was deemed useless.

The M&E was originally built to a gauge of four feet 10 inches, but was converted to standard gauge (4 feet 8½ inches) in July 1866. After the DL&W lease, a third railed was added for 66 miles from Washington eastward to Hoboken from 1869-1870. DL&W's tracks from Scranton to Washington were converted to standard gauge on May 27, 1876. The unused third rail on the M&E was subsequently removed.

The Lackawanna Cut-Off was built to minimized grades and curves, and to avoid the operational problems of the Warren Railroad. The Cut-Off was completed in 1911, becoming the new mainline of the DL&W. This relegated the Warren Railroad and the M&E line west of Port Morris Junction to a branch line known as the Lackawanna Old Road, starting the railroad's decline.

In 1945, DL&W bought the Warren Railroad, and the Hampton branch south of Washington Junction was abandoned in 1958.

Storm damage in 1968 near Oxford, New Jersey led to the railroad's demise. All remaining trackage was removed by April 1970.

Connections

Two connections from other railroads were made to the Warren Railroad.

The Blairstown Railway opened in 1877, from a connection to the Warren Railroad in Delaware to Blairstown. While the Blairstown Railway was a partial thoroughfare for the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad and the Lehigh & New England Railroad, the section from Delaware to Hainesburg was just a vestigial branchline known as the Delaware Branch, which was abandoned in 1928.

The Belvidere Delaware Railroad (Bel Del) was extended north from Belvidere, New Jersey to form a junction with the Warren Railroad at Manunka Chunk, which opened on May 16, 1864. The Pennsylvania Railroad operated to East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania via trackage rights. Passenger service ceased in 1953, and the tracks north of Belvidere to the junction were washed out by Hurricane Diane in 1955.

The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway crossed beneath the Warren Railroad south of Bridgeville, without an interchange.

References

• John Drennan. "On the Six-Foot Gauge: Hiking the Original Warren Railroad Right-of-Way". Tri-State Railway Historical Society. 
• "Lackawanna Railroad". Erie Lackawanna Historical Society. 
• Richard Palmer. "The Day They Changed the Gauge on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad". Crooked Lake Review.