Historic Station Damaged
By Lisa Martins - Herald Staff Writer
Branchville-- The weight of heavy snow and ice
claimed a historical landmark in the borough, collapsing the pre-turn-of-the-century
railroad station on Broad Street, a local historian said Tuesday.
Wayne McCabe of the Culver Brook Restoration Foundation
said the damage was noticed in the past week. The building, once
part of the Sussex branch of the Lackawanna Railroad Line, will
be demolished by the end of the week, he said.
"It is shot," McCabe said, adding the building
is unstable.
The last train at the broad street station was
in 1966, McCabe said. The borough was the end of the line which
began in Morris County and also made stops in Newton and Lafayette,
he said.
The decline in the amount of people commuting,
fewer freight shipments and a declining agriculture business led
to the end of the Branchville stop. The shipping of mail by mail
trucks instead of railroad car also contributed to the decline of
railroad revenues, McCabe said.