Paulinskill Viaduct

The Paulinskill Viaduct is an open-spandrel concrete arch bridge in Morris County, New Jersey, that carried the Lackawanna Cut-Off, a 28.45-mile rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) between Port Morris, New Jersey, and Slateford, Pennsylvania.

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The Paulinskill Viaduct is an open-spandrel concrete arch bridge in Morris County, New Jersey, that carried the Lackawanna Cut-Off, 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.

The Viaduct was constructed between August 1908 and 1910 by John Goll & Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with Reiter, Curtis & Hill of Philadelphia serving as the subcontractor. Lincoln Bush was the Chief Engineer overseeing the project. The first revenue train operating over the bridge on December 24, 1911. [17]

While the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) was highly profitable when it built the Lackawanna Cut-Off, ^{1 2} its profitability declined sharply after World War II, leading to a merger with the Erie Railroad in 1960. ² In 1958, DL&W single-tracked the Cut-Off, removing the westbound track. Post-merger, most freight traffic shifted to the Erie’s mainline through Port Jervis, New York. ^{2 3}

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. ³

By 1974, most EL freights had rerouted to the Scranton Division via the Lackawanna Cut-Off. ³ 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.

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.

Amtrak has proposed restoring passenger service from New York City to Scranton, which would include a rehabilitation of the Paulinskill Viaduct. ⁴

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Details

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Sources

1. DL&W Presidents’ correspondence file, 28 Oct. 1909. Steamtown National Historic Site, Scranton, Pennsylvania.
2. Lowenthal, Larry and William T. Greenberg Jr. The Lackawanna Railroad in Northwestern New Jersey. Tri-State Railway Historical Society, 1987. pp. 10–98, 101.
3. Zimmermann, Karl R. Quadrant Press Review 3: Erie Lackawanna East. Quadrant Press Inc., 1983.
4. “Amtrak ConnectUS 2035 map.” Railroad & Railfan Magazine.