Abandoned 2-track bridge over Deleware River north of P'burg

Just cruising live maps. If you go south of Portland, PA along River Rd the NS tracks pass some type of industrial facility that has an abandoned network of tracks. Then there is a double track bridge over the deleware. Tracks gone and no tracks on NJ side of the river.

Any history on this bridge? And what's that industrial complex? Looks like quite an extensive amount of trcks once existed. Now just rusty.

The industrial plant is one of PP&L's generating plants; the bridge was part of the DL&W Old Road, which was the main line before the Cutoff was completed in 1912.

EDM5970 wrote:The industrial plant is one of PP&L's generating plants; the bridge was part of the DL&W Old Road, which was the main line before the Cutoff was completed in 1912.

That generating station was sold by PP&L years ago. It is presently owned by GenOn Energy (the same large independent generating company that owns the Holland, NJ Generating Station on the Bel-Del). I believe that the Portland Generating Station will be permanently closed within a year or two as it is too costly to install the required emissions control equipment.

That bridge is the 3rd one at that location. There was a wooden bridge built in 1855, an iron through truss in 1871, and the present one, built in 1914. The cutoff was open, but they still must have had enough heavy traffic on the old road to need a new bridge.

There is an interesting story behind the 1871 bridge. When DL&W built the present one they sold the 1871 bridge, just south of the 1914 bridge, to an enterprising "man of the cloth," Henry Darlington. He opened it as a toll bridge for autos, and it remained in use until newer bridges were built, demolished in 1954.

The following link has a picture of the 1871 bridge after being converted to highway use. You can see the 1914 bridge in the background on the right.

http://books.google.com/books?id=dDDDUl ... CGkQ6AEwCw

In the early 1970's there would still be occasional hoppers parked on the Jersey side of the present bridge, although the rest of the old road on the NJ side was gone.

Up until the late 80's / early 90's there were also 2 bridges over route 46, one to carry the old road, lining up with the present bridge, and a 2nd road bridge, slightly south, lining up with the 1871 bridge.

Found this shot of the bridge in question:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=276125

The comment on it from 2009 says trains use the bridge when servicing the power plant... is that still the case?

They may back up on it a bit to do a runaround, but that's about all that it could be used for....if in service at all.

transit383 wrote:Found this shot of the bridge in question:

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=276125

The comment on it from 2009 says trains use the bridge when servicing the power plant... is that still the case?

AFAIK that was the case, but don't know if that is any longer the case, as the Power Plant was supposedly transitioning away from coal, and will now apparently be shut down.

The Powerplant was down for a while, but are now receiving shipments of coal again. But the shipments are not as large as they were in the past. The people I was talking to from NS did not know how long they were going to get shipments for, but were certain it was going to be for a while.