The Lehigh & New England Railroad (L&NE) was a defunct railroad that operated in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It was the second notable railroad in the United States to be completely abandoned.
The Lehigh & New England Railroad (L&NE) was a defunct railroad that operated in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. It was the second notable railroad in the United States to be completely abandoned.
Organized in 1895 as the successor to the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie & Boston Railroad, the L&NE had an incomplete route from Slatington to Pine Island in New Jersey. Instead of finishing this route, the L&NE used trackage rights over the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway from Hainesburg Junction to Swartswood.
On May 9, 1904, the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N) took control of the L&NE. The railroad primarily relied on transporting anthracite coal for revenue. However, after World War II, the anthracite industry began to decline due to increasing competition from cheaper bituminous coal and heating oil.
Operations on the L&NE ceased on October 31, 1961. Although the railroad was still profitable, the anticipated decline in the anthracite coal business led to the decision to halt operations. Traffic on the L&NE mainline had significantly decreased from a peak of 550 million net ton-miles in 1944 to 143 million net ton-miles in 1960, with only one coal train per week. The following year, trackage was removed, and by 1969, the bridges over the Lehigh River and Delaware River were dismantled.
The Lehigh and New England Railway was chartered by the Central Railroad of New Jersey to take over some of the L&NE’s lines in Pennsylvania. This included the main line east from Tamaqua, the old Lehigh and Lackawanna Railroad and Northampton Railroad from Bethlehem to Martins Creek, and the branch from Bethlehem west to Allentown. A short section from Pen Argyl to Wind Gap was taken over by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, connecting to the DL&W’s Bangor and Portland Railway at Pen Argyl.











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