The Lackawanna Cut-Off (also known as the New Jersey Cut-Off, the Hopatcong-Slateford Cut-Off and the Blairstown Cut-Off) was a rail line built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W). Constructed from 1908 to 1911, the line was part of a main line between Hoboken, New Jersey, and Buffalo, New York. It ran west for from Port Morris Junction in Port Morris, New Jersey, near the south end of Lake Hopatcong about west-northwest of New York City, to Slateford Junction in Slateford, Pennsylvania near the Delaware Water Gap.
When it opened on December 24, 1911, the Cut-Off was considered a super-railroad, a state-of-the-art rail line, having been built using large cuts and fills and two large concrete viaducts, allowing what was considered high-speed travel at that time. It was shorter than the Lackawanna Old Road, the rail line it superseded; it had a much gentler ruling gradient (0.55% vs. 1.1%); and it had 42 fewer curves, with all but one of those remaining permitting passenger train speeds of or more. It also had no railroad crossings at the time of its construction. All but one of the line's 73 structures were built of reinforced concrete, a pioneering use of the material.The only exception was the steel-on-concrete-abutments bridge over the Morris Canal near Port Morris; it was removed and the gap filled in after the canal was abandoned in 1924. The Hopatcong-Slateford Cut-Off, C.W. Simpson, Resident Engineer, Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, Railway Age Gazette, Vol 54, No. 1, January 3, 1913. The construction of the roadbed required the movement of millions of tons of fill material using techniques similar to those used on the Panama Canal.
Operated through a subsidiary, Lackawanna Railroad of New Jersey, the Cut-Off remained in continual operation for 68 years, through the DL&W's 1960 merger with the Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad and the EL's conveyance into Conrail in 1976. Conrail ceased operation of the Cut-Off in January 1979, removed the track in 1984, and sold the right-of-way to private developers.
In 2001, the state of New Jersey acquired the right-of-way within its borders; the short section in Pennsylvania was eventually conveyed to the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority. A project to restore service on the east end of the Cut-Off to Andover, New Jersey, is to be complete in 2026. Amtrak is studying the possible restoration of passenger service over the route to Scranton, Pennsylvania.
History 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.The six-foot-gauge Warren Railroad ran from the junction with the CNJ at Hampton, New Jersey, through Washington and Oxford, and connected with the DL&W at the Delaware River near Delaware, New Jersey, and Portland, Pennsylvania. 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.
The route (later known as the "Old Road" after the New Jersey Cut-Off opened) had numerous curves that restricted trains to . The bigger operational problem, however, was caused by the two tunnels on the line: Manunka Chunk Tunnel, a twin-bore tunnel whose eastern approach occasionally flooded with heavy rains; and the single-bore Oxford Tunnel, which was double-tracked in 1869 and reduced to gauntlet track in 1901. As more and more traffic moved over the line, Oxford Tunnel became the Lackawanna Railroad's worst bottleneck.
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)
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.
Uncertain national economic conditions in 1907 delayed the official start of construction until August 1, 1908. The project was divided into seven sections, one for each contracting company. Sections 3–6 were each; Sections 1–2 and 7 were of varying lengths. (Theoretically, to divide the line evenly, the seven sections should have been just over four miles each, but that would have placed the Pequest Fill entirely within Section 3 and the two viaducts within Section 7.) The amount of work per mile varied; the largest share apparently went to David W. Flickwir, whose Section 3 included Roseville Tunnel and the eastern half of the Pequest Fill. DL&W chief engineer George G. Ray oversaw the project, although given the size and remote location of the project, Assistant Chief Engineer F.L. Wheaton was assigned the task of overseeing the construction in person.
To accommodate the labor gangs, deserted farmhouses were converted to barracks, with tent camps providing additional shelter. These workers, many of whom came from Italy and other foreign countries or other parts of the U.S., were recruited and would move on to other projects after their work on the Cut-Off was completed. These workers were viewed with suspicion by the local populace in Warren and Sussex counties, with the town of Blairstown going as far as hiring a watchman at $40 per month for the duration of the project. Supervisory personnel and skilled laborers stayed in local hotels, boarding houses, or local farmhouses, usually at exorbitant rates ($1–2 per day) during the years of construction.
With several thousand men working on the project for over three years, the area all along the Cut-Off, and as far west as Portland, Pennsylvania, benefitted financially.
As many as 30 workers may have lost their lives building the Cut-Off. Most of their names remain unknown because they were registered with their contractor by number only. In 1910, for example, five workers were killed in a single blasting mishap near Port Morris, one of several deadly accidents that involved dynamite. Other workers died in machinery or cable car accidents, or landslides. At least one worker is known to have died of typhoid fever.
Sections FeaturesLength (ft)Max. height or depth (ft)Avg. height or depth (ft)Concrete used (yds3)Fill material used or removed (yds3)NotesSection 1: Timothy Burke, miles 45.7–48.2 (Port Morris Jct. – cut west of CR 605 bridge)Port Morris Junction Tower–––––Reinforced concrete, closed in 1979.McMickle Cut5,5005429–600,000Located west of Musconetcong RiverSection 2: Waltz & Reece Construction Co., miles 48.2–50.2 (Cut west of CR 605 bridge – Lake Lackawanna)Waltz & Reece Cut3,60011437–822,400Crossed by Sussex County Route 605 overhead bridgeBradbury Fill4,0007824–457,000Located in front of large cliffLubber Run Fill2,1009864–720,000At Lake LackawannaSection 3: David W. Flickwir, miles 50.2–55.8 (Lake Lackawanna – center of Pequest Fill)Wharton Fillabout 2,600––– Just east of Roseville TunnelRoseville Tunnel1,040–––35,000Unstable rock made tunneling necessary instead of cut; track moved to center of bore in 1974.Colby Cut2,80011045–462,342Rockslide detectors installed in 1950.Pequest Fill (eastern half)16,50011075–6,625,648Numbers are totals; Pequest Fill was divided equally between two contractorsSection 4: Walter H. Gahagan, miles 55.8–60.8 (Center of Pequest Fill – Johnsonburg station)Pequest Fill (western half)–––––World's largest railroad fill when built.Greendell station / tower–––––Reinforced concrete, closed ca. 1942–43; tower closed in 1938; a flag stop for many yearsSection 5: Hyde, McFarlan & Burke, miles 60.8–65.8 (Johnsonburg station – 1 mile west of Blairstown station)Johnsonburg station / creamery–––––Reinforced concrete, located on Ramsey Fill; closed in 1942–43; station razed in 2007.Ramsey Fill2,8008021-805,481Location of Johnsonburg stationArmstrong Cut4,70010452–852,000Largest cut on line; north side of cut collapsed and trimmed back in 1941Blairstown station / freight house–––––Reinforced concrete, located within Jones Cut; closed in Jan 1970Jones Cut––––578,000Location of Blairstown stationVail Fill1,70010233–293,500Located on 1 degree curveSection 6: Reiter, Curtis & Hill, miles 65.8–70.8 (1 mile west of Blairstown station – west end of Paulinskill Viaduct)Paulins Kill Viaduct1,100115–43,212–Reinforced concrete bridge over Paulinskill and New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad; world's largest reinforced concrete structure when built.Section 7: Smith, McCormick Co., miles 70.8–74.3 (west end of Paulinskill Viaduct – Slateford Jct.)Delaware River Viaduct1,45265–––Reinforced concrete; originally planned as a curved structure. Smith, McCormick Co. built the viaduct and sub-contracted the grading of Section 7 to James A. Hart Co. of New York.September 1, 1906, Map of Delaware Valley Cut-Off, Commissioned by DL&WSlateford Junction Tower–––––Reinforced concrete, closed in Jan 1951
The Cut-Off's reinforced concrete structures (73 in all), which consumed of concrete and 735 tons of steel, include underpasses, culverts, and the two large viaducts on the western end of the line.
Some of dynamite were used to blast the cuts on the line. A total of of fill material was required for the project, more than could be obtained from the project's cuts. This forced the DL&W to purchase of farmland for borrow pits. Depending on the fill size, material was dumped from trains that backed out onto track on wooden trestles or suspended on cables between steel towers. During construction, several foreign governments sent representatives on inspection tours to study these new techniques.