To people
living in Sussex County today and under about thirty years of
age, the railroads, locally at least, mean just a series of freight
trains glimpsed now and then on various pikes around the county.
However, to folks who grew up in the [eighteen] Nineties
or the first two decades or so of the Nineteen hundreds, the railroad
was the King of the transportation agencies. When you traveled
anywhere beyond the few miles that people usually walked, or went
by horse and buggy, you boarded a passenger train at the nearest
station. Such trains were plentiful on the Sussex Branch of the
Lackawanna connecting Newark, Paterson and New York with Sussex
County communities on that pike, while the Susquehanna, the Lehigh
& Hudson and the Lehigh & New England roads ran passenger
trains and made money on them.
On the Susquehanna,
as I recall, there were three daily trains running through the
county between Jersey City and Wilkes-Barre, Pa., each way, while
the Lehigh & Hudson ran about the same number daily between
Easton, Pa., and Warwick and Greycourt, N.Y. There were some local
runs also on the Lehigh & New England between Maybrook, NY,
and Hazelton and Bethlehem, Pa.
Everybody
was "railroad" conscious in those days; the whole fascinating
atmosphere of the iron rails was a potent factor in the life of
the County. At the stations and on the trains were the meeting
places where old friends and acquaintances renewed their social
relations and discussed mutual friends. And if you lived in Newton
or Branchville or Franklin, or any other community of any size,
you walked to the depot to take or meet the train, whether you
walked a mile or several. No jumping into an automobile every
time you wanted to go a block or two.
The sight
of whole families walking to and from the stations or depots,
in all kinds of weather, winter or summer, was a common one. Folks
thought nothing of it. Nobody was in a hurry then on the streets,
or in a hectic rush to get to some other community. Life was leisurely
and far more tranquil. Sometimes it took two hours to travel fourteen
miles, where two railroads were involved, as in traveling from
Newton to Blairstown. One left Newton, for instance, on the 10:30
morning train that went up to Franklin; but if Blairstown bound,
you got off at Branchville Junction and then walked a quarter
mile down the track to the adjacent Warbasse Station on the New
York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad.
After a wait
there of perhaps half an hour, during which you visited with the
agent, who also ran the post office and little store next to the
station, or went across the track to watch operations at the creamery
which was then located there, the Susquehanna train came rolling
in from Sparta way, its 4-4-0 locomotive pulling two or three
passenger coaches, several milk cars, and a baggage and express
car, with maybe 60 to 100 passengers on board. After giving your
ticket to the conductor and passing the time of day with him,
for he knew most everybody along the line, you relaxed on the
cushioned seats and watched the countryside slide by. The speed
was probably about 35-40 miles per hour. Halsey and Swartswood
stations were passed in order, with brief stops; then came Stillwater
where the train halted perhaps ten minutes to unload milk cans
at the creamery; then on to Blairstown which was reached about
12:20. If your visit there was a social one, your friends had
walked to the station to meet you and you all strolled leisurely
back to their home. You could walk either on the side walks or
in the streets, as the latter were used only be a few scattered
and unhurried horse-drawn vehicles. Well, after a good dinner
and nice visit, you and your friends walked to the station about
4 p.m. and took the eastbound Wilkes-Barre to Jersey City train,
and after a ride to Warbasse Junction, marked by several stops
at several creameries and stations, you hit the grit up the Lackawanna
track to Branchville Junction where you waited about an hour,
reading or loafing, until the evening milk and passenger train
came down from Branchville and Lafayette, picked up passengers
from the Susquehanna and from the Franklin Branch , and then rolled
on to Newton which was reached about 6:30. There perhaps 40 or
50 passengers would get off and walk to their various destinations,
whether that was a half-mile or 3 miles distant. Of course if
you were headed for the Cochran House or Hotel Newton to spend
the night, you climbed into the respective horse-drawn buses which
met all trains from these hostelries. In the winter they ran big
open sleds with seat running lengthwise, and plenty of straw on
the floor to help keep your feet warm.
These
were the years when the Railroad was the King of transportation
agencies throughout the nation and most small boys went through
the period when they wanted to become locomotive engineers. Even
as late as 1926 passenger trains on the country's railroads were
heavily patronized -- and it was that way in Sussex County. Newton
enjoyed six daily trains each way between this community and Newark
and New York, and the Susquehanna and Lehigh & Hudson River
lines were still running passenger trains.
The Franklin Branch was still operating four passenger trains
each way daily between Franklin and Newton, continuing to do so,
in fact, up to about 1932.
However, the automobile, the new factor in transportation, was
growing steadily in use as each year passed, and soon began to
cut into the "short haul" railroad business.
Little by
little, the "Rails" began to curtail their passenger
service; the Susquehanna and the Lehigh & Hudson giving it
up entirely in the early Thirties. The Lackawanna has continued
much of its service from Newton to New York, but has dropped some
trains and discontinued the Franklin Branch altogether about 1936,
while Branchville now has but two trains each way daily. Local
freight business has also decreased a lot on all the Sussex County
lines, while milk shipments by rail have ceased except on the
Lackawanna which still hauls considerable of this commodity from
creameries at Ross' Corners and at Branchville. But in their heyday,
the Rails hauled milk from a host of creameries scattered throughout
the County, such as at Andover, Newton, Warbasse, Monroe, Ackerson,
Swartswood Station, Stillwater, Augusta, Sparta, Baleville, Vernon,
etc.
Now, though long freights pass through Sussex County daily on
its various railroads, it is Western freight, or New England commodities,
or coal from Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Most of the freight
that Rails carry today originating from within the County, comprises
zinc ore shipment from Franklin and Ogdensburg, and limestone
shipments from Limecrest, with some humus from Warbasse, some
factory products from Newton, and the milk shipments mentioned
heretofore.
Many youngsters of Sussex County today have never ridden on a
railroad train--perish the thought--while we even encountered
one Newton lad who didn't know where the station was. Shades of
John I. Blair, Jim Hill, and Commodore Vanderbuilt! What a contrast
was the picture thirty years ago when most any ten-year-old lad
of Newton could reel off the names of the engineers, conductors
and other trainmen of all the trains in and out of town and knew
the exact time of their arrival and departure as well as the number
and type of locomotive pulling each train. In those days, and
earlier ones, when Johnny did not show up at home about an hour
or so after school was out, it was a safe bet that he was hanging
around the railroad yard, and maybe having the privilege of riding
in the cab of the Yard switcher, or "goat" as it was
termed.
It is now a far cry to the wild enthusiasm for railroads that
prevailed back in 1854 when the first railroad line in Sussex
County was constructed from Waterloo on the Morris Canal, a busy
shipping point in those days, to the Andover iron mine and on
into Newton which was reached in November of 1854. Cooper&
Hewitt, of Newark, who had gotten control of the Andover mine,
and who had been hauling ore to the canal at Waterloo by a mule
railroad, decided to construct a real steam road. It was called
the Andover Mine Railroad. Newton people raised $100,000 in bonds
to have the railroad continued on to Newton, and the name was
then changed to the Sussex Railroad. The first locomotive pulled
into the Newton station on December 11, 1854, where a big crowd,
estimated at about 700 people, gathered to shoot off the canon,
and hear congratulatory speeches by various notables.
With the arrival of the railroad, the little town of Newton became
active and progressive. Within two or three years the old rookeries
that lines its few streets had been replaced with substantial
and valuable buildings and a number of new streets such as Trinity
and Hamilton, which had scarcely a building on them in 1854, became
lines with substantial residences. Newton became the shipping
center of the County, and in December of 1856 a news story commented
that for many months a continuous stream of farm wagons had rolled
into Newton, laden with pork, beef, butter and other farm products,
to be shipped from the freight station. On some days there was
a continuous line of wagons waiting to unload, extending from
the depot all the way up Spring street to the Court House. For
the size of its population, Newton was at that time said to be
one of the busiest towns in the entire country. For about seventeen
years, the Sussex Railroad was the only rail line in the County,
but it was extended beyond its original terminus at Newton in
1869 and 1870, reaching out to Lafayette and Branchville as well
as to Franklin, Hamburg and McAfee. Shipments of iron ore and
limestone from the three latter places gave the new railroad much
business.
For many years the Sussex Railroad operated as an independent
line with main offices in Newton, using the upper floor of the
station for this purpose. In the late Nineties the road was acquired
by the Lackawanna and around 1902 the new owner constructed the
Netcong Cut-off which left the old line below Jefferson Pond and
swung south to meet the Lackawanna's main stem at Netcong; the
old Waterloo terminal being abandoned. This new construction marked
the commencement of the running of through trains between Newton
and Newark and New York, instead of having to change cars at Waterloo
as had been necessary heretofore. At the turn of the century Newton
enjoyed six trains daily to New York and six returning from the
city, in addition to a number of local runs between Newton and
Franklin and Branchville. Freight traffic was steady and lucrative,
consisting of ore and limestone from Franklin; milk from a dozen
or more creameries along the line in Sussex County and a lot of
other agricultural as well as many industrial commodities.
Following the extension of the Sussex Railroad to Branchville
and Franklin around 1870, its reign as the only rail line in the
County drew to a close, About that time several previously planned
railroads combined to form the New Jersey Midland, and construction
was begun at Deckertown, now Sussex, on a line to Hamburg, Franklin
Paterson and Jersey City. It was also to be extended to Unionville.
On July 4, 1871, a big celebration was held at Deckertown to mark
the first train from Unionville to Franklin. Later that year,
the line reached Newfoundland, and in the next year or so it was
extended to Jersey City.
Enthusiasm for the new and quicker form of transportation, the
Railroad, was now running high throughout the County. As an evidence
of how much the people of Newton valued the services of the Sussex
Railroad was the fact that in the big snowstorm of January 24,
1857, when the line was blocked by huge snow drifts, some eighty-odd
men of the community gathered at the local station and began the
task of clearing the track; working southward to below Drake's
Pond, where they met the railroad gang working up from Andover.
Imagine the men of Newton doing this in 1950!
Several railroad lines had been planned for construction through
Sussex and Warren Counties, from the Hudson to the Delaware, even
before the Sussex built into Newton, and a charter was secured
for this purpose way back in 1832. However, nothing was done until
about 1880 when the Lehigh & Hudson River Ry. was constructed
from Belvidere to a connection with the Erie at Greycourt, N.Y.
This road has since become one of the more important short lines
in the railroad field, serving as a bridge route for much freight
traffic between the New England States and the West; also carrying
much coal from the Pennsylvania mines. All the ore shipments from
the Franklin and Ogdensburg mines of the New Jersey Zinc. Company
are made over the Lehigh & Hudson to the Zinc Company's smelting
plant in Palmerton, Pa.
Another railroad was constructed through Sussex and Warren Counties
around 1882 when the New Jersey Midland, now known as the New
York, Susquehanna & Western, built a branch or extension from
Beaver Lake on the old line, through Sparta, Warbasse, Halsey,
Stillwater and Blairstown, to Stroudsburg, Pa. This line was later
extended to Wilkes Barre, Pa., in order to get a share of the
rich coal traffic.
The Lehigh and New England Railroad Company, which operates in
Eastern Pennsylvania, Northern New Jersey and Southeastern New
York State, though little known to the average railroad traveler,
is a very important bridge route for freight destined to New England.
It is one of the country major anthracite and cement originating
railroads. Other originating commodities consist principally of
zinc products, steel, slate and alfalfa.
This railroad's main line extends from Hauto, Pa., in the heart
of the anthracite region, northeasterly to Campbell Hall, N.Y.,
a distance of 127 miles, including 35 miles of trackage rights
over the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad.
Its branch lines to Nesquehoning, Summit Hill, Palmerton; Catasqua,
Allentown, Bethlehem, Martins Creek and Bangor, all in Pennsylvania,
and to Sussex, N. J., total 59 miles, giving the L. & N. E.
a total of 272 miles of track owned.
As far as Sussex
County is concerned, this railroad was first known as the Pennsylvania,
Poughkeepsie and Boston RR Company. This line, with its five predecessor
companies, and the Campbell Hall Connecting R, R., built a railroad
form Slatington Junction, N. J. It had originally planned to build
its own line through Warren and Sussex Counties to Campbell Hall
and Maybrook in New York but instead secured trackage rights over
the New York, Susquehanna & Western from Hainesville Junction
in Warren County to Swartswood Junction in Sussex County. From
this latter point the L. & N. Y. has its own line through
to Maybrook, N. Y., where it connects with the New York, New Haven
& Hartford R. R., formerly the Central New England. The L.
N. & E. was completed 1890 as per the route just given. At
that time it was known as the P. P. & B., and facetiously
termed the Pickles, Pork, and Beans railroad by the folks of Sussex
and Warren Counties. Although entirely a freight carrier now,
and largely so since its inception, the L. N. & E. did maintain
limited passenger services in the Nineties and early Nineteen
Hundreds from Swartswood Junction, N. J., to Goshen and Campbell
Hall in New York State. This was in the days when creameries were
in operation along the line and such trains were operated as mixed
milk and passenger trains.
The Lehigh &
New England Railroad is mainly a single track line of substantial
construction, and well equipped. The grades are light on the main
line except in a few places. A rather heavy grade at Balesville
in Sussex County, was eliminated some thirty-odd years ago by
changing the line through that village. The old line with its
abandoned embankments and foundations still exists near the revised
route. The construction standards of the line are good and well
suited to the character and volume of traffic. Rail in the main
line is 130 pound, 115 pound, or 112 pound in weight, per yard.
All ties in all tracks are creosote-treated. Both the roadway
and equipment are well maintained and are in excellent condition.
The motive power
was dieselized within the past five years, in line with the trend
throughout the country. A distinct loss to rail fans has resulted
in the disappearance of beautiful chime whistles that the steam
locomotives used to pour forth as the former “Pacifics”
roared up or down the Paulinskill Valley towing long “drags”
of coal, cement and other valuable freight. These chime whistles
could be heard often as far as ten miles from the L. N. &
E. line in Sussex County, and were a distinct addition to the
lure and charm of the old-time railroad atmosphere.
The L. N. & E.
reaches many industries in the busy manufacturing centers in the
Lehigh Valley – at Bethlehem, the home of the Bethlehem
Steel Company, the large silk mills at Allentown, and the large
zinc production plants of the New Jersey Zinc Company at Palmerton.
A large tonnage of
bituminous coal moves from the West Virginia and Southwestern
Pennsylvania fields to New England States via the L. N. &
E. and the Poughkeepsie Bridge route, and through the Hainesburg
Jct. route to the Northern New Jersey and Southeastern industrial
areas. This tonnage is received from the Central R. R. of Pennsylvania
at Bethlehem, and from the Reading Company at Catasauqua.
The Lehigh &
New England Railroad this combines the functions of an important
originator or traffic and an important “bridge” line
for its connections on the southwest and northeast, principally
for traffic to or from New England through the Maybrook, N. Y.
gateway and connection there with the big New York, New Haven,
& Hartford Railroad.
The post-war years,
particularly 1948 and 1949, have wrought a revolution in railroad
motive power throughout the country and Sussex County shows no
exception to the trend. Ever since Stephenson invented the first
locomotive, steam has been the dramatic power that has turned
the wheels; now the diesel locomotive is on the scene and is rapidly
displacing steam from its throne. Already the Lackawanna has dieselized
its New York to Buffalo and Chicago trains, and its “hot-shot”
freights, although still using steam locomotives on it Sussex
Branch. The Lehigh & New England has gone “diesel”
for its long coal “drags,” and recently the Lehigh
& Hudson River Railway was trying out on of the Baldwin Locomotive
Works big diesels on Maybrook to Port Morris freight runs. The
Susquehanna went “diesel” some years ago, being one
of the first so to do.
How will dieselization
affect Sussex County’s railroad passenger service? The County’s
oft-expressed desire for faster and cleaner train service to and
from Newark and New York, may be realized if the Lackawanna can
be persuaded to offer such service. That is a matter for the local
Chambers of Commerce and like organizations to seriously consider.