South Mountain and Boston and successors: 1873-1882 Around 1868, serious proposals for the crossing of the
Hudson River at
Poughkeepsie began to appear. A charter for the Poughkeepsie Bridge Company was obtained in 1871, and the company was organized before the end of May. The charter was amended to allow placing piers in the river by 1872 (despite fierce opposition from navigation interests), and the company began raising funds. Through the influence of
Andrew Carnegie,
Pennsylvania Railroad president
J. Edgar Thomson was persuaded to invest in the project. This funding led to a surge of activity. The line was to be carried from
Harrisburg to the crossing of the Delaware River at
Portland by the
South Mountain Railroad. The South Mountain and Boston Railroad was chartered in
New Jersey on March 13, 1873, and also in
New York to continue the line via
Poughkeepsie and
Boston Corners to the
Massachusetts state line. At the state line, an extension of the planned
Massachusetts Central Railroad would connect, taking traffic to
Boston. Grading began on the various lines, known as the South Mountain and Boston Railroad, and the cornerstone was laid for a bridge pier at Poughkeepsie. However, the
Panic of 1873 and the death of Thomson in May 1874 and loss of his personal support brought the project to a halt. An attempt at revival was made in 1879. By this time the South Mountain Railroad had collapsed; a new railroad, the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and New England Railroad, was incorporated on May 6, 1879, to follow its route from Harrisburg to South Mountain and the Boston connection in Portland. This company too would be short-lived; the South Mountain and Boston's New Jersey Division was renamed on March 11, 1880, to the Pennsylvania and New England Railroad, and that company's Pennsylvania Division was incorporated on May 5, 1880. The property of the PP&NE was sold to the P&NE (PA Division) on October 13, 1880. This does not improve the fortunes of this segment of the line; a third company, the Delaware and Slatington Railroad, was incorporated on September 9, 1881, to run from the P&NE (NJ Division) at Portland to
Slatington on the
Lehigh River. P&NE's New Jersey Division merged with the Delaware and Slatington on June 22, 1882, to form the Pennsylvania, Slatington and New England Railroad.
Pennsylvania construction: 1880-1891 In the meantime, the P&NE (PA Division) was successful in laying one and one-sixth mile (2 km) of track to the east of
Wind Gap about 1880. However, it was foreclosed on July 25, 1881, and reorganized as the Susquehanna and Delaware River Railroad on August 23, 1881; it was foreclosed again and reorganized on July 13, 1886, as the Harrisburg and New England Railroad was supposedly reorganized as the Harrisburg and Eastern Railroad on July 31, 1891.
Pennsylvania, Slatington and New England Railroad: 1882-1887 The Pennsylvania, Slatington and New England Railroad was formed June 22, 1882, as a consolidation of the Pennsylvania and New England Railroad (NJ Division) and Delaware and Slatington Railroad, to build from
Slatington, Pennsylvania, to
Pine Island, New York. In December of that year, John L. Blair, who controlled the nearby
Bangor and Portland Railway, acquired control of the PS&NE, in order to give the B&P direct access to New England and other points. Additionally the
Central Railroad of New Jersey's
Lehigh and Lackawanna Railroad could no longer access points on the B&P. Construction was carried out through 1883, with grading finished in Pennsylvania and about 12 miles west from
Sussex, New Jersey. The bridge over the
Delaware River at
Portland was built, and rails were laid for about half of the length in Pennsylvania. In early 1883, a dispute erupted with the Wind Gap and Delaware Railroad over the tracks between
Pen Argyl and
Bangor, which the PS&NE wanted to use. Later that year the company went bankrupt and construction stopped.
Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and Boston Railroad: 1887-1895 The Pennsylvania, Slatington and New England Railroad was sold at foreclosure to William W. Gibbs, president of the Poughkeepsie Bridge Company, on July 12, 1887, and was reorganized as the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie and Boston Railroad, also known as the "Pickles, Pork, and Beans" Line). Construction was begun, but the company again went
bankrupt, and was sold at
foreclosure December 14, 1894. Around that time, various other companies were chartered to build the line over the
Poughkeepsie Bridge, and in 1889, the
Central New England and Western Railroad was completed. That part would be combined with the PS&NE in 1892 by the
Philadelphia and Reading Railway, but in 1893 the two parts were split. The eastern section later became part of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, and the western section stayed independent to the end. The Campbell Hall Connecting Railroad was chartered April 3, 1889, to obtain the right to operate the section in
New York. It was originally planned to extend beyond
Pine Island to
Campbell Hall, the west end of the existing Poughkeepsie Bridge line. The
Philadelphia and Reading Railway gained control of the
Central New England and Western Railroad in early 1892, and the PP&B soon after, giving it a route from
Reading via the
Schuylkill and Lehigh Railroad to
Slatington, and then to New England along its new acquisitions. The Reading Company's bankruptcy in 1893 ended this control, and led to the PP&B's bankruptcy.
Lehigh and New England Railroad: 1895-1961 The
Lehigh and New England Railroad (L&NE) was organized April 2, 1895, as the successor to the PP&B. The route from Slatington to Pine Island was accomplished but not completed. The L&NE was able to have a route from Slatington to Pine Island even though the route wasn't completed because the L&NE had obtained
trackage rights over the
New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway's
Sparta Junction to
Columbia/Delaware Junction main line between
Swartswood Junction (outside of
Swartswood) and
Hainesburg Junction; this line was built by the
New Jersey Midland Railway from Sparta Junction to
Blairstown, New Jersey, and by the
Blairstown Railway from Blairstown, New Jersey, to Columbia/Delaware Junction and today serves as the
Paulinskill Valley Trail. Despite that, a tunnel () was built under the fill for the
Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's
New Jersey Cut-Off (opened 1911) in case the L&NE ever decided to complete its own line. Additionally, the planned route from
Pine Island to
Campbell Hall was cancelled, and
trackage rights were obtained over the
Erie Railroad's
Goshen and Deckertown Railroad and
Montgomery and Erie Railroad. The
Lehigh and Lackawanna Railroad and its leased
Wind Gap and Delaware Railroad were operated by the
Central Railroad of New Jersey until February 1, 1905, when the two companies were merged into the L&NE. Around the same time the L&NE acquired the
Northampton Railroad. This gave the L&NE a branch to
Bethlehem, with a branch off that one to
Martins Creek. Part of the main line between
Benders Junction (the crossing of the original L&NE and the L&L) and
Pen Argyl was abandoned in 1905, with the new route using the L&L and WG&D. The
Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company (LC&N) gained control of the L&NE on May 9, 1904. A yard at
Maybrook, New York, opened in 1912, with L&NE trains terminating there via a section of the
Central New England Railway. On July 24, 1912, a new extension opened, splitting from the main line at
Danielsville, Pennsylvania, and running west to
Tamaqua to directly serve the LC&N. On December 14, 1913, the L&NE acquired the
Panther Creek Railroad, running east from Tamaqua to
Summit Hill, and with a connection to the
Central Railroad of New Jersey's
Hauto Tunnel for access to
Nesquehoning obtained in 1915. The
Catasauqua Branch, built in part by the
Crane Railroad, was completed in 1914. On June 4, 1926, the
Reading Company leased the L&NE, but other railroads objected, and the
Interstate Commerce Commission rejected the lease, preferring a lease by the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (which was never done). . NJ Route 94 uses the tunnel on the left). The tunnel is now an integral part of Knowlton's Tunnel Field, a sports and recreation area that spans the Cut-Off via this tunnel. The LNE Board of Directors decided to end all railroad operations on October 31, 1961. Although the LNE was still profitable, the rapid decline of the anthracite coal business was seen on the horizon and the decision was made to cease operations. By this date the LNE mainline saw only one coal train per week (which usually operated on Thursdays). Trackage was removed by the following year and the bridges over the Lehigh River and Delaware River were dismantled by 1969. While a never particularly profitable system because it paralleled the
Lehigh & Hudson River Railway and did not serve any large markets, the L&NE did have a profitable cement business from its lines around Bath, Pennsylvania; the trackage which served this commodity was taken over and operated by a subsidiary of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ), Lehigh and New England Railway until January 1975 and then by the
Lehigh Valley until April 1, 1976, when the trackage was absorbed by Conrail. To railfans, the L&NE is best remembered for its diesel motive power, which consisted almost entirely of models built by
Alco, excepting two
Whitcomb Center Cab switchers, numbers 601 & 602.
Lehigh and New England Railway: 1961- The
Lehigh and New England Railway was chartered by the
Central Railroad of New Jersey to take over some of the lines in Pennsylvania. Included in that sale was 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 and Western Railroad, connecting to the DL&W's
Bangor and Portland Railway at Pen Argyl. ==Notes==