Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Lackawanna Cut-Off

The Lackawanna Cut-Off was a 28.45-mile rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) between Port Morris, New Jersey, and Slateford, Pennsylvania. It was part of the 396-mile mainline connecting Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York.

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History

The Lackawanna Cut-Off was a 28.45-mile rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) between Port Morris, New Jersey, and Slateford, Pennsylvania. It was part of the 396-mile mainline connecting Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York.

When it opened in 1911, the Lackawanna Cut-Off was considered a state-of-the-art rail line. It was constructed atop large cuts, fills, and concrete viaducts to facilitate high-speed travel. The new alignment was 11 miles shorter than the old one, featured a gentler ruling gradient of 0.55% compared to 1.1%, had 42 fewer curves, and included no railroad crossings. ¹

The Lackawanna Cut-Off continued to operate through the DL&W’s merger with the Erie Railroad in 1960, forming the Erie Lackawanna Railroad (EL). It was later conveyed to Conrail in 1976. Conrail ceased operations over the Lackawanna Cut-Off in January 1979, and the track was removed in 1984. The right-of-way was subsequently sold to private interests.

In 2001, the state of New Jersey acquired the right-of-way within its borders, while the section in Pennsylvania was conveyed to the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority. Efforts are ongoing to restore service to part of the line from Port Morris to Andover, with further restoration of the remainder of the Lackawanna Cut-Off under study. ^{2 3}

Before the Cut-Off

The Lackawanna Old Road, part of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad’s original mainline, opened in 1856. It connected New Jersey and Pennsylvania until the Lackawanna Cut-Off’s construction in 1911. Renamed the Old Road, it then served as a secondary line for local freight and occasional through trains. In the 1970s, after the Erie Lackawanna Railway abandoned sections of the Old Road, New Jersey Transit reestablished commuter service on parts of the line, with ongoing restoration projects.

The 39-mile Old Road had numerous curves, limiting trains to 50 mph, and included the Manunka Chunk and Oxford Tunnels. The Oxford Tunnel, a significant bottleneck, was double-tracked in 1869 and converted to gauntlet track in 1901. ⁴ [8] When William Truesdale became DL&W president in March 1899, he mandated upgrades to the railroad, focusing on increasing freight capacity with larger locomotives and cars and strengthening bridges to handle heavier loads. [9][10]

Planning and Construction

In 1905, Truesdale authorized surveyors to map potential replacement routes between Port Morris, New Jersey, and the Delaware River to bypass the curvy, congested portions of the mainline. Over the next year, 14 routes were surveyed, including several requiring long tunnels.

On September 1, 1906, “Route M” was selected, running from Lake Hopatcong at Port Morris Junction to Slateford Junction, Pennsylvania. ¹ The Lackawanna Cut-Off would be 28.45 miles long, 11 miles shorter than the Old Road, with 15 curves compared to the Old Road’s 57, and a gentler ruling grade of 0.55% versus 1.1%. It would be built without at-grade crossings to prevent collisions.

Construction began on August 1, 1908, divided into seven sections, each managed by a different contracting company. DL&W chief engineer George G. Ray oversaw the project, while Assistant Chief Engineer F.L. Wheaton was on-site. Deserted farmhouses and tent camps housed the laborers, many of whom were immigrants. Unfortunately, around 30 workers lost their lives due to accidents and other hazards.

The Lackawanna Cut-Off required 266,885 cubic yards of concrete and 735 tons of steel to build underpasses, culverts, and two viaducts. ⁴ Significant cuts and fills were necessary, including the 130-foot-deep Colby Cut and the 110-foot-tall Pequest Fill, requiring the use of 2,300 tons of dynamite. The discovery of unstable anticline rock at a cut in October 1909 ⁵ led to the construction of the 1,040-foot Roseville Tunnel. ¹ Stations were built in Greendell, Johnsonburg, and Blairstown, and Interlocking towers were built at Port Morris Junction and Greendell, New Jersey, and Slateford Junction in Pennsylvania. ⁴ Sidings were built at Slateford, Hainesburg, Johnsonburg, Greendell, Roseville, and Port Morris.

The project cost $11,065,512 in 1911. ¹

Operations

The first revenue train on the Lackawanna Cut-Off operated on December 24, 1911, at 12:01 am, with the westbound No. 15 passenger train. ⁶ Most long-distance trains shifted from the Old Road to the Cut-Off, downgrading the former to secondary status. ⁴ Built for unrestricted speeds up to 70 mph, the Cut-Off saw around 50 trains daily, with freight trains often taking sidings or being rerouted to the Old Road. ⁷

Passenger trains included the Lackawanna Limited (later Phoebe Snow), Pocono Express, the Owl, and the Twilight. The Lake Cities, an Erie Railroad train, made its last run on January 6, 1970.

Freight trains on the Cut-Off required fewer engines for eastbound climbs and managed speed on westbound descents. Initially unrestricted, freight speeds were limited to 50 mph by the 1920s and increased to 60 mph in 1943 with the installation of 131-pound rail. ⁸

Roseville Tunnel faced snow, ice, and rockslide issues, with a detector fence installed in 1950 to alert of fallen rocks. ⁹ The most severe rockslide occurred in Armstrong Cut in 1941, closing the line for nearly a month and leading to trimming the cut’s north side. ¹

After Conrail’s takeover in 1976, the speed limit was reduced to 50 mph. ¹⁰

Decline and Abandonment

While the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) was highly profitable when it built the Lackawanna Cut-Off, ⁴ its profitability declined sharply after World War II, leading to a merger with the Erie Railroad in 1960.

In 1958, DL&W single-tracked the Cut-Off, removing the westbound track but leaving passing sidings at Greendell, Port Morris, and Slateford. Post-merger, most freight traffic shifted to the Erie’s mainline through Port Jervis, New York. ^{4 11}

With passenger service ending in 1970, the Cut-Off saw little use until the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) abandoned operations in Pennsylvania in 1972. This prompted through freights to run between Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Scranton via the Lackawanna Cut-Off and the CNJ’s High Bridge Branch, which continued until Conrail’s formation. ¹¹

By 1974, most EL freights had rerouted to the Scranton Division via the Lackawanna Cut-Off. ¹¹ After Conrail took over in April 1976, it improved the line’s condition. Eventually, it shifted all freight traffic to other routes, citing the Pocono Mountains’ grades and the early-1960s severing of the Boonton Branch near Paterson, New Jersey. Conrail ran its final through freights on the Cut-Off on November 16, 1978, and placed the line out of service in early January 1979, closing Port Morris Tower and ceasing routine maintenance and signal system operation.

Freights from Scranton to Slateford continued until 1980, when coal deliveries to the Metropolitan Edison power plant in Portland, Pennsylvania, shifted to the former Bangor & Portland Railway. ¹²

Restoration Efforts

Efforts to preserve the Lackawanna Cut-Off began soon after Conrail ceased operations. An Amtrak inspection train ran on November 13, and counties in New Jersey and Pennsylvania tried to acquire the line. However, Conrail removed the tracks in 1984 and sold the right-of-way to developers Jerry Turco and Burton Goldmeier.

In 2001, New Jersey acquired the right-of-way through eminent domain for $21 million, while the Pennsylvania section was conveyed to the Monroe County Railroad Authority, forming the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority. Federal studies indicated a need to restore passenger service.

In 2011, NJ Transit initiated the $61 million Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project, linking Port Morris Junction to Andover. By December, one mile of track had been installed from Port Morris Junction to Stanhope. By 2022, 4.25 miles of rail were laid between Port Morris and Lake Lackawanna, with the right-of-way cleared.

NJ Transit approved the restoration of the Roseville Tunnel on April 13, 2022, and announced a Notice to Proceed on September 8, 2022. ¹³ Commuter operations are expected to begin in 2026.

No definite plans exist to restore service west of Andover, though Amtrak has proposed restoring passenger service from New York City to Scranton. ¹⁴

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Sources

1. Taber, Thomas Townsend, and Thomas Townsend Taber. The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the Twentieth Century, vol. 1.
2. Scruton, Bruce A. “New culvert OK’d to put Andover rail station on track.” New Jersey Herald, 10 Aug. 2017.
3. Krawczeniuk, Borys. “New study drops cost of passenger train comeback.” The Citizens’ Voice, 2 Mar. 2020.
4. Lowenthal, Larry and William T. Greenberg Jr. The Lackawanna Railroad in Northwestern New Jersey. Tri-State Railway Historical Society, 1987. pp. 10–98, 101.
5. DL&W Presidents’ correspondence file, 28 Oct. 1909. Steamtown National Historic Site, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
6. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Employee Timetable, 24 Dec. 1911.
7. “Report of the Director of the Bureau of Safety in reinvestigation of an accident which occurred on the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad Near Greendell, New Jersey, on September 17, 1929.” Interstate Commerce Commission, 10 Jan. 1930.
8. “Investigation No. 3182. THE DELAWARE, LACKAWANNA AND WESTERN RAILROAD COMPANY, Accident near Slateford Jct., Pa., on May 15, 1948.” Interstate Commerce Commission.
9. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad employee timetable, 1950.
10. Grant, H. Roger. Erie Lackawanna – Death of an American Railroad, 1938–1992, Stanford University Press, 1994.
11. Zimmermann, Karl R. Quadrant Press Review 3: Erie Lackawanna East. Quadrant Press Inc., 1983.
12. Dorflinger, Donald. “Farewell to the Lackawanna Cut-Off (Parts I-IV).” The Block Line. Morristown, New Jersey: Tri-State Railway Historical Society, 1984-85.
13. “NJ TRANSIT ADVANCES LACKAWANNA CUTOFF PROJECT TO RESTORE RAIL SERVICE TO SUSSEX COUNTY.” NJ Transit, 13 Apr. 2022.
14. “Amtrak ConnectUS 2035 map.” Railroad & Railfan Magazine.