Before the Cut-Off (1851–1905) The line's origin involves two men who most likely never met:
John I. Blair and
William Truesdale. Blair built the DL&W's
Warren Railroad, chartered in 1851 and completed in 1862, to provide a connection between the mainlines of the DL&W in Pennsylvania and the
Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) in New Jersey. But when the Lackawanna-CNJ merger fell through and the Lackawanna merged with the
Morris & Essex Railroad in New Jersey instead, the Warren Railroad became part of a circuitous patchwork of rail lines connecting two unanticipated merger partners. Truesdale became DL&W president on March 2, 1899 with a mandate to upgrade the entire railroad. Early on, the railroad focused on increasing freight capacity by using larger locomotives and cars, as well as strengthening bridges to handle these larger loads. Although Truesdale recognized early on that the Old Road needed to be replaced, it really wasn't until after 1905 that the railroad was in a position to take up the project in earnest. This led Truesdale to authorize teams of surveyors to map out potential replacement routes westward from
Port Morris, New Jersey, to the
Delaware River for what would be the railroad's largest project up until that time.
Planning and construction (1905–1911) looking east from atop
Roseville Tunnel, ten months into construction During 1905–06, 14 routes were surveyed (labeled with letters of the alphabet), including several that would have required long tunnels. On September 1, 1906, a route without tunnels was chosen. This New Road (Route "M") would run from the crest of the
watershed at
Lake Hopatcong at
Port Morris Junction to south of the
Delaware Water Gap on the Pennsylvania side of the
Delaware River at
Slateford Junction. At 28.45 miles (45.9 km), the line would be about shorter than the Old Road. The new route would have only 15 curves42 fewer curves than the Old Road, the equivalent of more than four complete circles of curvaturewhich increased speeds and decreased running timemore so for freight, but for passenger trains as well. The
ruling grade was cut in half from 1.1% to 0.55%. The new line would also be built without
railroad crossings to avoid collisions with automobiles and horse-drawn vehicles. leading to a decision to abandon the cut and to blast what would become a tunnel instead. Adjusted for inflation, this sum would be $ today. But to build such a project today would cost far more; one 1987 estimate put the modern pricetag at $1 billion or more.
Heyday (1911–1958) The first revenue train to operate on the Cut-Off under the new timetable that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on December 24, 1911, was No. 15, a westbound passenger train that passed through Port Morris Junction at about 3:36 a.m. Most
long-distance trains that traversed the Old Road shifted to the Cut-Off, effectively downgrading the older line to secondary status. towermen often ordered freight trains to take a siding or even be rerouted over the Old Road. As traffic decreased, Hainesburg, Johnsonburg and Roseville sidings were altered or removed. The remaining sidings remained in use until 1979. Roseville Tunnel posed occasional problems, especially during the winter with snow and ice buildup. Rockslides were a constant threat west of the tunnel, in Colby Cut. In recognition of this, a detector fence was installed west of Roseville Tunnel in 1950 to change trackside signals to red if rocks fell. The most serious rockslide to ever occur on the line, however, would take place within Armstrong Cut (just west of Johnsonburg) in 1941, closing the line for nearly a month, and causing trains to be rerouted via the Old Road. The north side of Armstrong Cut was trimmed back to prevent further rockslides. The Phoebe Snow would run for 11 years as a DL&W train and then as an Erie Lackawanna train from 1963 until November 1966. The
Lake Cities, ironically a former Erie Railroad train, became the last regularly scheduled passenger train on the Cut-Off, making its last run on January 6, 1970. The only station on the Cut-Off at which mainline passenger trains would stop was Blairstown. Blairstown was also the first stop on westbound trains where passengers were permitted to disembark (i.e. westbound passengers boarding and detraining east of Blairstown were required to use suburban train service instead). This explains why Blairstown was the first stop listed on the destination board at the boarding gate at Hoboken for trains travelling via Scranton. In later years, Blairstown had a somewhat unusual facet of operation: any trains arriving after the station agent went home for the night would automatically activate the station platform lights as the train entered the signal block. This practice was abandoned after passenger service ended.
Freight Besides cutting travel time, the Cut-Off required fewer engines to pull eastbound freights up to the summit at Port Morris. For westbound freights, the challenge was keeping trains from going too fast. Initially, no speed limit existed on the Cut-Off, with engineers (both freight and passenger) being expected to exercise "good judgment". By the 1920s, however, most freights were restricted to or less, depending on the priority of the train and the type of locomotive and rail cars. By 1943,
rail had been installed on the Cut-Off, which permitted fast freights to run at through the Erie Lackawanna years. After Conrail took over operations in 1976, the speed limit was decreased to 50 mph. Local freights served customers at all three stations on the Cut-Off. Over the years, Blairstown handled the most local freight. The Johnsonburg creamery, built in anticipation of the opening of the line, served local dairy farmers for years. Another creamery, an
ice house, and a stock yard were built at Greendell. The final local shipment was shipped in 1978 by Conrail: cattle feed for a customer in Johnsonburg that was delivered to Greendell, as the siding at Johnsonburg no longer existed.
Accidents There were two accidents on the Cut-Off: • On September 17, 1929, at 6:31 a.m., an eastbound extra freight consisting of 47 cars and a caboose was rammed from behind by a
deadhead freight of 24 empty express refrigerator cars and a coach. The engineer at fault was reportedly eating his lunch as his train passed a "restricted speed" signal. He also missed two
track torpedoes that exploded as his engine ran over them, and then missed the red signal near the west portal of Roseville Tunnel. His train emerged from the tunnel at and rear-ended a freight train traveling about . The impact derailed the trailing locomotive and its coal tender, the caboose of the leading freight, and two express cars in the trailing freight. The two cars immediately in front of the caboose were also damaged. Four employees were injured. • On May 15, 1948, at 11:27 p.m., a westbound passenger train, No. 9, derailed at the curve at Point of Gap while going faster than . It was a misty night and the train had left Hoboken 38 minutes late and had made up 14 minutes on the schedule by the time it was recorded as having passed Slateford Tower, suggesting that the train may have exceeded the speed limit during the trip.
Decline (1958–1979) , just north of Slateford Junction, in a summer of 1977 photo taken from
Mount Tammany The DL&W was one of the most profitable corporations in the U.S. when it built the Cut-Off. That profitability declined sharply after
World War II, leading to the 1960 merger with the
Erie Railroad. DL&W single-tracked the Cut-Off in 1958 in anticipation of the Erie merger. The westbound track was removed, leaving a passing siding at Greendell and shorter sidings at Port Morris and Slateford. After the merger, most freight traffic shifted to the Erie's mainline through
Port Jervis, New York. With the cessation of passenger service in 1970, the Cut-Off became relatively quiet for several years. In 1972, the CNJ abandoned operations in Pennsylvania, causing through freights to be run daily between
Elizabeth, New Jersey, and Scranton, using the Cut-Off and the CNJ's
High Bridge Branch. (This arrangement with the CNJ would end on April 1, 1976, with the creation of
Conrail). Commuter operations are expected to begin no earlier than 2026. ==See also==