The Old Road involves one railroad tycoon (
John I. Blair) and four railroads: the DL&W, the
Jersey Central (CNJ), the
Morris & Essex Railroad (M&E), and the
Warren Railroad. In 1853, construction began on the Warren Railroad, which would connect the CNJ at
Hampton, New Jersey, and the DL&W's mainline at the
Delaware River, in anticipation of an eventual merger between the two older railroads. Expensive to build, the Warren required three large bridges, two tunnels, and much excavation before it opened in 1856. In 1862,
Oxford Tunnel (also known as Van Nest Gap Tunnel) opened, relieving trains of a slow and arduous climb over Van Nest Gap. The new tunnel, however, did not prevent the collapse of the planned DL&W-CNJ merger. The M&E quickly emerged as the logical replacement for the CNJ, as it would give the DL&W direct access to the
Hudson River. But this time, there would be no bespoke connecting line between the merger partners. Instead, the DL&W forged a circuitous route out of existing lines, including of the
Phillipsburg Branch (Port Morris to Washington, New Jersey); of the Warren Railroad (Washington to Delaware, New Jersey); and of the
Bangor & Portland Railroad (Delaware, to Slateford, Pennsylvania). The speed limits on the sections varied: on the Phillipsburg Branch; and on the Warren Railroad and B&P. , creating a bottleneck eliminated by building the
Lackawanna Cut-Off Oxford Tunnel was double-tracked in 1869, and for a few decades, suffered no more serious problems than the intermittent water (and sometimes flooding) also seen in its sister tunnel at
Manunka Chunk. By the 1890s, the era's larger locomotives and rolling stock had trouble fitting through the tunnel. In 1901, the railroad installed
gauntlet track in the tunnel, effectively turning it into a single-track bottleneck — another reason to build the
Lackawanna Cut-Off. near
Slateford, Pennsylvania With the opening of the Cut-Off in 1911, the line became known as the Old Road, relegated to a
branch line for local freight shipments. It still saw the occasional through train when Cut-Off traffic was heavy and served as the main line in 1941 when a rockslide closed the Cut-Off. The effects of
Hurricane Diane caused record flooding along the
Delaware River and forced DL&W to reroute trains over part the Old Road. The storm also washed out the
Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR)
Bel-Del Railroad north of
Belvidere, New Jersey, leading the railroad to remove the section north to the junction of the Old Road at Manunka Chunk and end PRR service from
Trenton, New Jersey, to
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
Rockport wreck The Old Road was the site of the DL&W's most infamous train wreck. On June 16, 1925, a passenger train carrying German-American tourists from Chicago to Hoboken was slated to run over the Cut-Off, but in order to avoid freight trains on the line the special train was diverted onto the Old Road to
Port Morris. At
Rockport, New Jersey, the train struck
debris washed onto a road crossing by a heavy thunderstorm. The train derailed, and killed 47 passengers and three trainmen. In 1995, on the 70th anniversary of the wreck, a stone and plaque was erected at the Rockport crossing to remember the lives lost.
Decline In April 1970, the
Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL) abandoned the Delaware-Washington, New Jersey section.
Conrail assumed EL operations in 1976. In 1982,
NJ Transit assumed operation of the trackage between
Port Morris Junction and
Netcong for commuter service.
Port Morris Junction ceased to exist in 1984 when Conrail abandoned the Cut-Off.
Warren County removed remaining bridges and abutments over the next several years. Now that the
Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project is underway, Port Morris Junction is the connection point of the "Old Road" and the "Cut-Off" once again since 2011. ) and railroad (the
L&HR RR) with a single arch Some vestiges of the Warren Railroad remain: telegraph poles, tunnels, and a concrete viaduct spanning the
Pequest River and the abandoned
Lehigh and Hudson River Railway right-of-way near the intersection of
State Route 31 and
U.S. Route 46 near
Buttzville. The steel bridge across the Delaware River near Delaware, N.J., retains the eastbound track but is no longer in use. In October 1994, commuter rail service was re-established to Hackettstown by
NJ Transit, although the operation west of Netcong was under trackage rights granted by Conrail and then later
Norfolk Southern Railway. In 2011, Port Morris Junction was re-established to serve the
Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project. ==References==