Lehigh Valley Railroad Station was a beautiful building that dated back to 1890. (17 cu. permission to lay track, run trains and do needed maintenance along a long, narrow swath. The 46-mile-long (74km) LVRR connected at Mauch Chunk with the Beaver Meadow Railroad. [14] A year later, Harry Packer died of illness, and Asa's 51-year-old nephew Elisha Packer Wilbur was elected president, a position he held for 13 years.[27]. The line became known as the Lehigh Line during Conrail ownership. Post Conrail ownership and secondary lines. In some cases (yards, stations, repair facilities, etc.) (.6 cu. A pair of ALCO FA-2 FB-2 car body diesel-electric locomotives were also purchased to augment the PAs when necessary. Although the heavy wartime traffic had left the railroad's plant and equipment in need of repair, the damage was partly offset by new equipment that had been purchased by the government. Since 1896 the LVRR had run an important and prestigious express train named the "Black Diamond" which carried passengers to the Finger Lakes and Buffalo. Condition: Used. Although the roads effectively ignored the Act and their sales agents continued to meet and set prices, the agreements were never effective for long. - Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway . The Easton and Amboy was used as a connection to the New York metropolitan area, with a terminus in Jersey City, New Jersey. [4] All this changed in October 1851, when Asa Packer took majority control of the DLS&S. By 1869, the LVRR owned a continuous track through Pennsylvania from Easton to Waverly. railroad archivist. A long series of antitrust investigations and lawsuits resulted, culminating in a 1911 Supreme Court decision that forced the LVRR to divest itself of the coal companies it had held since 1868. Photograph by Donald W. Furler, Furler-12-021-01 . [31], In Pennsylvania, the Lehigh scored a coup by obtaining the charter formerly held by the Schuykill Haven and Lehigh River Railroad in 1886. Asa Packer was elected President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad on January 13, 1862. ft.), PRR / President / Clement / Eastern Region Coordinating Committee Files, 1933-1936. Ended: Mar 02, 2023. Lehigh Valley Trail Facts States: New York Counties: Monroe, Ontario Length: 16.4 miles Trail end points: W. River Road/County Road 84 (Scottsville) and Lehigh Crossing Park at Shallow Creek Trail and Victor Mendon Road (Victor) Trail surfaces: Crushed Stone Trail category: Rail-Trail ID: 6015034 Activities: [16] After the LVRR opened its line, the Lehigh & Susquehanna extended to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, and connected with the CNJ and the Morris and Essex Railroad in 1868. The banking giant J. P. Morgan stepped in to refinance the LVRR debt and obtained control of the railroad in the process. Fowler's Panoramac Bird's Eye Maps, 1884-1905, recently added railroad maps that may not be included in the old topical sections (search for the word "rail" or "railroad"). ft.), PRR / Comptroller / General Correspondence Files, 1924-1964. ft.), Erie-Lackawanna Railway / General Correspondence Files, 1953-1967, Erie Railroad / Land Record Books,[ ca 1831-1915]. Map of the Pennsylvania, Reading, and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and their connections. ft.), West Chester Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. At first the incident was considered an accident; a long investigation eventually concluded that the explosion was an act of German sabotage, for which reparations were finally paid in 1979. (4 cu. (.4 cu. Indicates major drainage, cities and towns, and names the railroads along the lines. Paper or digital copies of the items on the list can then be ordered. The San Jos to Merced project section of the California high-speed rail system will provide a critical rail link between Silicon Valley and the Central Valley. Annual Report of the State Board of Assessors of the State of New Jersey, News Printing Co., 1889, p.85. For 25 years the Lehigh Canal had enjoyed a monopoly on downstream transportation and was charging independent producers high fees. The line was laid with a rail weighing 56 pounds per yard supported upon cross ties 6 x 7 inches and 7-1/2 feet long placed 2 feet apart and about a quarter of it was ballasted with stone or gravel. The 23 miles between Mauch Chunk and White Haven through the Lehigh Gorge, now the D&L Trail, was opened in 1864. The Lehigh Valley Railroad's original and primary route between Easton and Allentown was built in 1855. ft.), Downingtown and Lancaster Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. Lehigh Valley Railroad; Discussion related to the Lehigh Valley Railroad and predecessors for the period 1846-1976. The LVRR had built coal docks in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, when it built the Easton and Amboy in the 1870s, but desired a terminal on the Hudson River close to New York City. (.1 cu. ft.), Valley Real Estate Company - Ledger, 1907-1922. The Anthracite Railroads Historical Society maintains this website in the memory of Ed Schaller, a kind man with a wonderful personality, who served many years as treasurer on the Board of Directors. a railroad company might have purchased and owned land outright, but in the case of laying track from destination to destination, most simply purchased or otherwise secured a "Right of Way" through the property of private owners - i.e. The line gave the LVRR a route into Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and the Schuylkill Valley coal fields.[32]. Summary Outline map of the middle Atlantic states showing the three major lines in different colors. The company controlled 30,000 acres (120km2) of coal-producing lands and was expanding rapidly into New York and New Jersey. ft.), Philadelphia and Erie Railroad / Record of Track Material Loaned for Construction of Lumber Branches, 1895-1906. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Statements of Additions and Betterments (GA-8), 1918-1929, 1931-1932. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Printed Abstracts of Title, 1869, 1875. Railroad Leader. For land and trackage owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, the State Archives holds a series of 49 microfilm rolls, filmed in 1976 by the Penn Central, entitled: Real Estate Maps and Atlases (#RRV 1101 through 1148) {#286m.423} . (1 cu. The followingarethe primary series of railroad map records that are processed and readily available for use: For track maps of the Erie and D, L & W lines,seeTrack Maps of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, circa 1917-1976, Series {#300m164}. In the following year, the LVRRa standard gauge railroadcompleted arrangements with the Erie Railroad, at that time having a six-foot gauge, for a third rail within the Erie mainline tracks to enable the LV equipment to run through to Elmira and later to Buffalo. Lehigh Valley Railroad System Map.svg. In 1866, two years after the purchase of the Penn Haven and White Haven, the extension from White Haven to Wilkes-Barre opened.[1]. VDOMDHTMLtml> Map of the Pennsylvania, Reading, and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and their connections. Construction from Waverly to Buffalo was split into two projects, Waverly to Geneva, New York, and Geneva, which is located at the northern end of Seneca Lake), to Buffalo. Conrail integrated former CNJ main line leased trackage into the line and kept the line in continuous operation (since 1855); however, it downsized the line in the northwest from the Buffalo area of New York State: first to Sayre Yard in Sayre, Pennsylvania; then to Mehoopany, Pennsylvania; and finally to Penn Haven Junction in Lehigh Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. ft.), which was maintained by the Secretary's office. (.0 cu. By 1931, the PRR controlled 51% of the LVRR stock. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Imprint File, 1904-1968. (.3 cu. ft.), Manor Real Estate and Trust Company / Journals, 1903-1925. During the early years, the line served as the body of the Lehigh Valley Railroad until the railroad either built, acquired, or merged other railroads into its system. Budd Rail Diesel Car service would continue on a branch line (Lehighton-Hazleton) for an additional four days. ft.), PRR / President / Presidential Correspondence of Samuel Rea, 1913-1925. Originally incorporated as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company. The original maps were never transferred to the Archives, but a book by book inventory of the film exists. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Merger Testimony and Exhibits, 1962-1967. The LVRR, wanting to capitalize on the tourist appeal of the cataract and to extend its anthracite coal business to the Midwestern United States, entered an agreement with the New York Central to use . (.25 cu. [39], Following the defeat of its plan, the D&H sold its stock to the Pennsylvania Railroad. how long the Rights-of-Way were for, when the track was laid, and when the time limit was or will be up. (1.34 cu. The line later expanded past Allentown to Lehigh Valley Terminal in Buffalo and past Easton to New York City, bringing the Lehigh Valley Railroad to these metropolitan areas. (5 cu. ft.), Columbia and Port Deposit Railway / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. The line makes notable connections with other Norfolk Southern lines such as the Reading Line and independent shortline railroads. ft.), Coxe Brothers and Company, Inc. / Appendix to Estimates of Coal on Properties Owned or Controlled, 1925. The best place to find out the current status of a particular piece of land would be the Recorder of Deeds and/or Tax Mapping office in the relevant county's courthouse. These tracks were laid and the Easton and Amboy Railroad was opened for business on June 28, 1875, with hauling coal. (.03 cu. And the County Tax Assessment Office would have current information as to ownership of each geographic parcel if that is in question. The Lehigh Valley Railroad (reporting mark LV) was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. ft.), Susquehanna Coal Company / Leases, 1883-1939. Lehigh Valley Railroad Tracings and blueprints for buildings, bridges, and track routes of the Land and Tax Department for the Wyoming, Jersey City and Buffalo Divisions of the Lehigh Valley Railroad are included in Series {#274m.568}, Track and Structures Drawings, 1870-1976 . ft.), PRR / VP of Operation / Chief of Motive Power / Condition of Frt. (.1 cu. The first such combination occurred in 1873, followed by others in 1878, 1884, and 1886. Free shipping for many products! Winning bid: US $15.00. It opened a hotel in Glen Summit, Pennsylvania, called the Glen Summit Hotel to serve lunch to passengers traveling on the line. The railroad also published a monthly magazine promoting travel on the train called the "Black Diamond Express Monthly". In 1896 the very early film Black Diamond Express was produced by Thomas A. Edison's company Kinetoscope. These operators include: The Lehigh Line was the Lehigh Valley Railroad's first rail line and served as the main line. (5 cu. Map showing the Lehigh Valley Railroad system in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania Names Von Rosenberg, Leo (Creator) Lehigh Valley Railroad Company (Publisher) Collection. ft.), Enola Realty Company / Minute Books, 1905-1931. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Corporate Histories Prepared in Accord. These locomotives were also used in freight service during and after the era of LVRR passenger service. (3 cu. The series listed below contain scattered information and/or maps of PRR and Penn Central real estate holdings in Manuscript Group 286. [47][note 1]. ft.), Baltimore and Potomac / Blueprint Book of Proposed Revision of Line and Grades in Washington, D.C., undated. ft.), Franklin Railroad Company / Minute Books, 1836-1853, 1859-1865. Most of the rail equipment went to Conrail as well, but 24 locomotives (units GP38-2 314-325 and C420 404415) went to the Delaware & Hudson instead. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / General Correspondence Files of the St. Lawrence Power Project, 1948-1954. The section between Allentown and Mauch Chunk opened on September 12. The Chandler Acts of 1938-9 provided a new form of relief for railroads, allowing them to restructure their debt while continuing to operate. The LVRR strove throughout the 1880s to acquire its own route to Jersey City and to the Jersey City waterfront. (.1 cu. The line's being downsized three times created two new rail lines: the Lehigh Secondary and the Lehigh Division, which was later sold to the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad (RBMN) in 1996; the RBMN would later cut back the Lehigh Division from Mehoopany to Dupont, Pennsylvania. Construction of a rail line to the New York state line started immediately and, in 1867, the line was complete from Wilkes-Barre to Waverly, New York, where coal was transferred to the broad gauge Erie Railroad and shipped to western markets through Buffalo, New York. (.25 cu. See original listing. [34] The LVRR obtained a 5-year agreement to use the CNJ line to access the terminal, which opened in 1889. (.1 cu. [10] The LVRR recognized that its own continued prosperity depended on obtaining what coal lands remained. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Survey Books and Legal Papers of the Pennsylvania Canal Company, 1857-1922. The Lehigh Line is a railroad line in central New Jersey, Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania.It is owned and operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway.The line runs west from the vicinity of the Port of New York and New Jersey via Conrail's Lehigh Line to the Susquehanna River valley at the south end of the Wyoming Valley Coal Region. The Penn Haven and White Haven Railroad allowed the LV to reach White Haven. A long segment west from Van Etten Junction to Buffalo was included in the Conrail takeover, but was mostly torn-up not long afterward. At Catasauqua, the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad transported coal, ore, limestone and iron for furnaces of the Thomas Iron Company, the Lehigh Crane Iron Company, the Lehigh Valley Iron Works, the Carbon Iron Company, and others. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Guide for the PRR with Extensive Map Including the Entire Route, 1855. [3], Little occurred between 1847 and 1851, save some limited grading near Allentown, Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley Railroad remained in operation during the 1970 bankruptcy, as was the common practice of the time. [6] To accommodate the 4ft 10in (1,473mm) gauge of the Belvidere, the cars were furnished with wheels having wide treads that operated on both roads.[7]. ft.), PRR / President / Subject Index to Presidential Corr. The line had a descending or level grade from Mauch Chunk to Easton and with the exception of the curve at Mauch Chunk had no curve of less than 700 feet radius. In order to handle the additional new ocean traffic, the LVRR created a large new pier at Constable Hook, which opened in 1915, and a new terminal at Claremont which opened in 1923. [1], Throughout the 1920s the railroad remained in the hands of the Morgan / Drexel banking firm, but in 1928 an attempt was made to wrest control from it. In 1916, a horrendous explosion occurred at the facility, destroying ships and buildings, and breaking windows in Manhattan. (43 cu. (.25 cu. To support the expected increase in traffic, the wooden bridge over the Delaware River at Easton was also replaced by a double-tracked, 1,191-foot (363m) iron bridge.[23]. ft.), Susquehanna and Clearfield Railroad / Annual Report to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. ft.), Nescopec Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. ft.), Berkshire Land Company / Cash Book, 1945-1953. [25] While the third rail on the Erie Railroad main line between Waverly and Buffalo gave the LVRR an unbroken connection to Buffalo, the road's management desired its own line into Buffalo. Although government-funded Amtrak took over intercity passenger service on May 1, 1971, railroad companies continued to lose money due to extensive government regulations, expensive and excessive labor cost, competition from other transportation modes, declining industrial business and other factors;[49] the Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of them. At Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the North Pennsylvania Railroad which was completed during the Summer of 1856, provided a rail connection to Philadelphia and thus brought the LVRR a direct line to Philadelphia. Most of the traffic along the line consists of intermodal and general merchandise trains going to yards such as Oak Island Yard in Newark, New Jersey, and Croxton Yard in Jersey City. In the years leading to 1973, the freight railroad system in the northeast of the U.S. was collapsing. ft.), PRR / VP of Purchase / General Correspondence and Confidential Files of C.D. (5 cu. It also built a passenger terminal in Buffalo in 1915. (.1 cu. Engineering Drawings, [ca.1886-1940 (bulk: 1915-1930)]{#311m.284} will be of interest. (.3 cu. The owners still owned the property, but the railroad was allowed to conduct agreed-upon activities on the swath in question. ft.), Erie Railroad / Miscellaneous Land Records, [ca. Finally in 1887 the two railroads reached a settlement, and construction of the LVRR's Jersey City freight yard began. Also, in 1914 the Panama Canal was completed, and the LVRR gained an important new market with ores shipped from South America to the Bethlehem Steel company. (3 cu. Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, Pub.L. (.1 cu. Although the decade began with the completion of its terminals at Buffalo and Jersey City, and the establishment of a trunk line across New York, the company soon became entangled in costly business dealings which ultimately led to the Packer family's loss of control. (.1 cu. ft.), Kensington and Tacony Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. The majority of passenger equipment is believed to have been scrapped some time after February 1961. ft.), PRR / VP of Operation / Chief of Motive Power / Letter Books, 1926. This company became an important factor in the movement of anthracite, grain and package freight between Buffalo, Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, Superior and other midwestern cities. (.02 cu. The lists were constructed by doing word searches of the narrative series descriptions for the designated words: maps, tracks and real estate. (2 cu. In order to document their corporate valuations to the ICC, American railroad companies had to submit detailed maps of their real estate holdings. (.1 cu. In 1927, Leonor Fresnel Loree, president of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad, had a vision for a new fifth trunk line between the East and West, consisting of the Wabash Railroad, the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway, and the LVRR. File usage on Commons. The Lehigh Valley Railroad began providing service to Hemlock lake in 1895. V2A en:Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway; V2B en:Greenville and Hudson Railway; V2C en:National Docks Railway; V2D en:National Docks and New Jersey Junction Railway; V2E en:Irvington Railroad; Short lines . Lehigh Valley Railroad System Maps RAILFAN GUIDES HOME RAILROAD SIGNALS HOME More info at: http://www.lehighvalleyrr.com/ http://www.marjum.com/niagjct/index.html http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=128&t=1907 I wonder what it is with the name CHUNK that "they" wanted to use it twice? Digitized content from the collections of Cornell University Library (.2 cu. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Abstract and Opinion of the Acts of the Legislature and Casesin reference to the Title of the North Branch Division of the Penna. At Phillipsburg, New Jersey, the Belvidere Delaware Railroad connected to Trenton, New Jersey. The project section runs from the city of Santa Clara, through San Jos at Diridon Station to Gilroy, across the Pacheco Pass, and including the Central Valley Wye extending north to . ft.), Manor Real Estate and Trust Company / Property Ledger, 1886-1916. Congress reacted with the 1906 Hepburn Act, which among other things forbade railroads from owning the commodities that they transported. In the early part of October 1855, a contract was made with Howard & Co. of Philadelphia to do the freighting business of the railroad (except coal, iron, and iron ore). 985, Last edited on 26 February 2023, at 16:09, Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad, Pennsylvania and New York Canal & Railroad Company, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railway, New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway, Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad, Lehigh Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, "Lehigh Valley Railroad to Retires $2,489,000 in 66-Year-Old Bonds", "Pennsylvania Railroad Seeking all the Stock of Lehigh Valley", http://www.parailfan.com/NS/ns_lehigh_line_ett.pdf, "Last of the Railroad - Era Passes Tonight as Lehigh Ends Service", "E. E. Loomis is Dead. The Association of American Railroads, which opposed nationalization, submitted an alternate proposal for a government-funded private company. The production of the entire Middle Coal Field came to the LVRR over feeders to the Beaver Meadow: the Quakake Railroad, the Catawissa, Williamsport and Erie Railroad, the Hazleton Railroad, the Lehigh Luzerne Railroad and other smaller lines. The first leg of the construction to Jersey City was the Roselle and South Plainfield Railway in 1888 which connected with the CNJ at Roselle for access over the CNJ to the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City. The LVRR found that the route of the Morris Canal was impractical for use as a railroad line, so in 1872 the LVRR purchased the dormant charter of the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook Railroad which had access to the Perth Amboy, New Jersey, harbor, and added to it a new charter, the Bound Brook and Easton Railroad. (.1 cu. ft.), Riverfront Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. ft.), State Realty Company / Minute Book, 1907-1909. These maps, bridge and structure drawings remains unprocessed. [5], At Easton, the LVRR interchanged coal at the Delaware River where coal could be shipped to Philadelphia on the Delaware Division Canal or transported across the river to Phillipsburg, New Jersey, where the Morris Canal and the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) could carry it to the New York City market. Language: Additionally, a segment from Geneva to Victor, New York, later cut back to Shortsville, New York, to Victor, remained with the Lehigh Valley Estate under subsidized Conrail operation. The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad (DLS&S) was authorized by the Pennsylvania General Assembly on April 21, 1846, to construct a railroad from Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, now Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to Easton, Pennsylvania.