Cutoff History

http://thealternativepress.com/articles ... g-marvel-1

When William Trusdale became president of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western in 1899, he began looking for a straighter route. By 1905, engineers had surveyed more than a dozen potential routes between Port Morris and Slateford, Pa., Because any east-west route in Northwest New Jersey would cross the north-south hills, some tunneling seemed inevitable. Some of the routes surveyed would have required much longer tunnels than the Oxford Tunnel.

The route that was chosen had no grade crossings and its longest tunnel, Roseville, was 1,024 feet. It reduced the curvature by 1,560 degrees and the average grade from 1.1 percent to .55 percent. It cut the distance by 11 miles. The entire 11 feet of rise and fall was on an east-west upgrade on the Pequest Fill east of Greendell, meaning the majority of the distance saw a grade of less than .1 percent.

The downside was it required construction of the world’s largest land bridge.

Still an engineering marvel after more than 100 years, the Paulinskill Viaduct is 115 feet high and 1,100 feet long. It was the largest reinforced concrete structure in the world, when it was built between 1908 and 1910.

Because it is hidden in the hills of Knowlton Township, the viaduct, also called the Hainsburg Viaduct for the nearby village, shocks first-time drivers who round a curve on Station Road off Route 94 and find themselves suddenly under a massive arch.

I often wonder if the cutoff was worth the cost. I am sure the DL&W expected it would be still an important railroad 50 years later
when the project was envisioned, but by 1960 the cutoff was no longer very important and by 1984 it was ripped up.

I keep thinking there would have been a less costly, less dramatic solution.

Of course, there are so many "what ifs." The bottom line is the two most important main lines, NY Central and Pennsylvania, are still very
active and busy.

No one could have seen the decline of anthracite in home heating, industry moving south, then off shore, the automobile, commercial aviation...........................,,................

Engineer Spike wrote:No one could have seen the decline of anthracite in home heating, industry moving south, then off shore, the automobile, commercial aviation...........................,,................

Not to mention commercial trucking and subsidized interstate highway systems. The government and Interstate
Commerce Commission didn't help the DL&W and other northeast railroads that were relying on the traffic that went
to the trucking industry. To a lesser degree, loss of bulk cement traffic to trucks helped hasten the DL&W's demise.

The cut-off was the right idea "at that time", but yes I am sure the Truesdale regime never would have thought that
less than 50 years later that the Lackawanna would be merging with the Erie (taken over is a better way to put it).

Charlie

Yes, an amazing time for the DL&W. By 1910 the company was the first railroad to pay of all
its debt. The shares were over $500 each, the highest of any railroad on the NYSE. The dividend
was $20 per share, likewise the largest of any railroad. They were just flush with cash and coal
was king.

http://books.google.com/books?id=sYUeAQ ... &q&f=false" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If this link works, check out page 103..."a rejuvinated Erie"

I happened to be in Morris County for Thanksgiving and saw an article in the local paper about the on-going resurrection of the cutoff beyond Hopacong. The article also included some history on the cutoff as well as efforts by NJT to buy back the old ROW from a developer. Apologize for not be able to give you a link to the article but it looks like some portion of the cutoff may eventually be back in service.

Poppyl

The first decade of the 20th century was the high-water mark for US railroads in terms of their relative power and prosperity.After that, populist legislation and politics somewhat reduced the railroads' tremendous profitability. (Enterprise Denied by Albro Martin is a discussion of the populist forces that came into play.) But in that first decade or so many railroads were flush with cash and optimistic about the future, and built massive engineering projects. The SP built the Lucin Cutoff. Even the generally-broke Erie built the Graham line and some other improvements.
No one could have foreseen the decline in the Lackawanna's fortunes 50 years later. But it made some bad financial decisions, such as paying way too much for some branches in NY State, that ended up costing it much more than the Cutoff in the long run. The Cutoff, and the line relocation between Scranton and Binghamton, were worthwhile investments at the time. If you want to question an engineering project, how about the suburban electrification? We are lucky to have it, but I bet in the fifties, with diesels available and their finances deteriorating, the Lackawanna would have liked the money back that it spent on electrification.

All anyone would ever wish to know about the history of the cut-off, including costs, photos, blueprints, etc., etc. is available at the archives at Steamtown. Also, the entire collection of 15,000 glass plate negatives has now been scanned.