[1], The LVRR's rolling stock was hired from the Central Railroad of New Jersey and a contract was made with the CNJ to run two passenger trains from Easton to Mauch Chunk connecting with the Philadelphia trains on the Belvidere Delaware Railroad. [13][35] Unfortunately, it overreached and in 1893 was unable to meet its obligations. ft.), Clearfield and Jefferson Railway / Annual Reports, 1886-1888. In 1892, the Lehigh Valley Railroad completed its main line and established a western terminus in Buffa-lo, New York.At the same time, Niagara Falls had begun to flourish as a tourist attraction. The existing tracks from Manville to Newark became a new rail line and Norfolk Southern along with CSX own it under a joint venture. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Water Company Files, 1905-1956. (92 cu. James Madison Porter was the first President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. (1.1 cu. (.15 cu. Conrail abandoned most of the route in New York State to Buffalo after 1976, considerably shortening the line. (.1 cu. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Record of Transportation Lines, 1877-1959. The Easton and Amboy Railroad was a railroad built across central New Jersey by the Lehigh Valley Railroad to run from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, to Bound Brook, New Jersey, and it was built to connect the Lehigh Valley Railroad coal-hauling operations in Pennsylvania and the Port of New York and New Jersey to serve consumer markets in the New York metropolitan area, eliminating the Phillipsburg connection with the CNJ that had previously been the only outlet to the New York tidewater; until it was built, the terminus of the LVRR had been at Phillipsburg on the Delaware River opposite Easton, Pennsylvania. 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. . The LVRR, which had built coal docks in Perth Amboy when it built the Easton and Amboy in the 1870s, desired a terminal on the Hudson River close to New York City. ft.), PRR / President / Clement / Eastern Region Coordinating Committee Files, 1933-1936. 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. ft.), Valley Real Estate Company / Cash Book, 1907-1922. The line became known as the Lehigh Line during Conrail ownership. (.1 cu. 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} . 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. (.21 cu. The railroad ended operations in 1976 and merged into Conrail along with several northeastern railroads that same year. It leased the CNJ and the LVRR, purchased the railroads' coal companies and arranged for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to cooperate with the combination, thereby controlling 70% of the trade. ft.), PRR / Secretary / One Hundredth Anniversary Historical Files, ca 1876-1946. 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. Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. The LVRR shareholders received shares of the now independent Lehigh Valley Coal Company, but the railroad no longer had management control of the production, contracts, and sales of its largest customer. Although the 1864 acquisition of the Beaver Meadow had included a few hundred acres of coal land, by 1868 the LVRR was feeling pressure from the Delaware and Hudson and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the northern Wyoming Valley coal field, where the railroads mined and transported their own coal at a much reduced cost. The section between Allentown and Mauch Chunk opened on September 12. ft.), PRR / VP Central Region / Blueprint Track Chart of Branch Lines, 1938. ft.), State Realty Company / Minute Book, 1907-1909. ft.), PRR / Comptroller / Cash Books for the Trust Created for Purchase of Securities, 1878-1939. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Library / Library Reference Materials, ca 1834-1963. The Lehigh Valley Railroad began providing service to Hemlock lake in 1895. The 1860s saw an expansion of the LVRR northward to the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, area and up the Susquehanna River to the New York state line. 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], Further rounds of acquisitions took place in 1868. 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. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Merger Testimony and Exhibits, 1962-1967. File history. The series listed below contain scattered information and/or maps of PRR and Penn Central real estate holdings in Manuscript Group 286. ft.), Philadelphia and Erie Railroad / Report to the Superintendant of the Tenth Census, 1880. (.1 cu. ft.), Bedford and Hollidaysburg Railroad / Minute Book, 1902-1911. [39], Following the defeat of its plan, the D&H sold its stock to the Pennsylvania Railroad. Someone in either of those two offices or perhaps in the County Planning Commission Office might also know the general status of the different rail lines in the county -i.e. [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. ft.), Enola Realty Company / Minute Books, 1905-1931. (.02 cu. 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. The 16 mile mountain cut-of, a rail segment of the line that extended from Fairview, Pennsylvania, to the outskirts of Pittston, Pennsylvania, was completed in November 1888. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Guide for the PRR with Extensive Map Including the Entire Route, 1855. ft.), PRR / VP of Altoona Works / Record of Operating Expenses of the Juniata Shop, 1914-1918. (29 cu. [28] LVRR subsidiary, Lehigh Valley Railway began constructing the main line's northern part from Buffalo to Lancaster, New York, in 1883, a total distance of ten miles. [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. Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway | Train Rides in Jim Thorpe, PA Visit RBMNRR-passenger.com to see train trips originating from our other locations. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Merger Studies, 1950-1970. The route across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Oak Island Yard remains important to the Norfolk Southern Railway and CSX Transportation today, the only two Class 1 railroads that are based in the Eastern United States. (3 cu. 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.), Peoria and Eastern Railway / Annual Reports, 1928-1936, 1938-1961, 1963-1966, 1970-1973, 1976. (1 cu. Full Promotional Video: Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway Morgan. Other RBMN Train Rides . The 23 miles between Mauch Chunk and White Haven through the Lehigh Gorge, now the D&L Trail, was opened in 1864. Passenger traffic on the LVRR's Easton and Amboy connected with the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) at Metuchen, New Jersey, and continued to the PRR'S Exchange Place terminus in Jersey City (that connection was discontinued in 1891 after the LVRR established its own route to Jersey City from South Plainfield). Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co. ft.), Germantown, Norristown, and Phoenixville Railroad / Minute Book, 1881-1886. Newly elected president Eben B. Thomas, formerly of the Erie, and his board of directors represented the combined interests of those railroads.[36]. Repository: Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections Collection Number: 3362 Abstract: Financial records, reports, schedules, blueprints, and other records of railway lines in central and western New York State. This primarily consisted of the main line and related branches from Van Etten Junction, northwest of Sayre, Pennsylvania) to Oak Island Yard, the Ithaca branch from Van Etten Junction to Ithaca, New York, connecting to the Cayuga Lake line and on to the Milliken power station in Lake Ridge, New York (closed on August 29, 2019) and the Cargill salt mine just south of Auburn; and small segments in Geneva, New York (from Geneva to the Seneca Army Depot in Kendaia); Batavia, New York; Auburn, New York, and Cortland, New York. The economic depression following 1893 was harsh, and by 1897 the LVRR was in dire need of support. ft.), Erie-Lackawanna Railway / General Correspondence Files, 1953-1967, Erie Railroad / Land Record Books,[ ca 1831-1915]. The Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway was a Lehigh Valley Railroad company organized in 1891 through the consolidation of the companies that formed the Lehigh Valley's route from South Plainfield through Newark to Jersey City via its bridge across Newark Bay.Until 1895, when the Greenville and Hudson Railway was constructed, the Lehigh Valley depended on the National Docks Railway to reach the . The LVRR operated several named trains in the post-World War II era. (2 cu. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Contract Book of George B. Roberts, 1869-1884. Finally, in 1889, the LVRR gained control of the Geneva, Ithaca, and Sayre Railroad and completed its line of rail through New York. [38] Through bonds issued by the D&H, he obtained 30% of the LVRR stock, and won the support of nearly half the stockholders. (.02 cu. In the years leading to 1973, the freight railroad system in the northeast of the U.S. was collapsing. [1] Operations continued until the LVRR's bankruptcy in 1976. ft.), A publication by Thomas Townsend Taber (Thomas T. Taber III) entitled, PRR / Comptroller / Confidential Annual Reports of Affiliated Corporations, 1892-1959. [46] It managed to acquire more than 85% of all outstanding shares, and from that time the LVRR was little more than a division of the PRR. Then in 1887 the Lehigh Valley Railroad obtained a lease on the Southern Central Railroad (the LVRR previously had trackage rights on the railroad starting in 1870), which had a route from Waverly northward into the Finger Lakes region. This microfilm, such as it is, is our best and most comprehensive source of PRR maps at this time. 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. ft.), PRR / President / Presidential Correspondence of W.W. Atterbury, 1925-1935. ft.), Suquehanna, Bloomsburg, and Berwick Railroad - Ledger, 1902-1904. Lehigh Valley Railroad Maps The maps on the following pages, based on the LVRR right-of-way as of September 24, 1936, were created by the ARHS: New Jersey Mainline - from Jutland to Jersey City M&H Area and Mainline - Mahanoy and Hazleton Division, as well as the mainline from Lizard Creek Jct. From the beginning, the LVRR's New York City passengers had used the Pennsylvania Railroad's terminal and ferry at Jersey City, but in 1913 the PRR terminated that agreement, so the LVRR contracted with the CNJ for use of its terminal and ferry, which was expanded to handle the increased number of passengers. In 1866, the LVRR purchased acquired the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad (originally the Quakake Railroad) and the North Branch Canal along the Susquehanna River, renaming it the Pennsylvania and New York Canal & Railroad Company (P&NY). of F. Thomson and A.J. The coal railroads had begun in 1873 to form pools to regulate production and set quotas for each railroad. (152 cu. As a result, the PC was relieved of its obligation to pay fees to various Northeastern railroadsthe Lehigh Valley includedfor the use of their railcars and other operations. Lehigh Valley Railroad; Discussion related to the Lehigh Valley Railroad and predecessors for the period 1846-1976. ft.), Leechburg Company / Minute Books, 1937-1954. The Beaver Meadow Railroad had been built in 1836, and it transported anthracite coal from Jeansville in Pennsylvania's Middle Coal Field to the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk. (.11 cu. (2 cu. (1.25 cu. Pennsylvania. (.1 cu. (.1 cu. So, its motto, Route Of The Black Diamond, was quite befitting and led directly to both its rise in prosperity and downfall into bankruptcy. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Statements of Additions and Betterments (GA-8), 1918-1929, 1931-1932. Language: The railroad also published a monthly magazine promoting travel on the train called the "Black Diamond Express Monthly". I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: (SVG file, nominally 800 600 pixels, file size: 447 KB), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JimIrwin, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lehigh_Valley_Railroad_System_Map.svg&oldid=460606778, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Lease and Agreement Book, 1858-1889. 93-236, 87 Stat. ft.), Riverfront Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. Parts. ft.), Pittsburgh and Lake Erie / Railroad Annual Reports, 1967, 1969, 1972-1974, 1976-1977. That southern field held the largest reserves of anthracite in Pennsylvania and accounted for a large percentage of the total production. ft.), Susquehanna Coal Company / Leases, 1883-1939. (.05 cu. ft.), VP of Real Estate / Letter Press Books of W.H. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / General Correspondence Files of the St. Lawrence Power Project, 1948-1954. the succession of recorded deeds). (17 cu. (.4 cu. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Annual Reports of Water Companies, 1914. 5 out of 5 stars (5,213) $ 19.50 FREE shipping Add to Favorites . [1] 1951: September 14: Last day of steam on the Lehigh Valley Railroad as. (43 cu. (.02 cu. ft.), Katharine Water Company / Minute Book, 1904-1925. (10 cu. Now under ownership of the Norfolk Southern Railway, the Lehigh Line's route is now from Port Reading Junction in Manville, New Jersey, to Penn Haven Junction in Lehigh Township, Pennsylvania. In addition, we now hold a physical volume entitled Real Estate Atlas of the Western Pennsylvania Railroad, Butler Division, [ca. ft.), PRR / VP of Operation / Chief of Motive Power / Letter Books, 1926. By 1869, the LVRR owned a continuous track through Pennsylvania from Easton to Waverly. Records vary as to scope and nature, including pipe and wire, trackage and crossing rights, real estate, physical facilities, financial obligations, operations with affiliated companies, governmental authorizations, purchases, and so forth. Although in 1870 the LVRR had invested in the 2-mile (3.2km) Buffalo Creek Railroad, which connected the Erie to the lakefront, and had constructed the Lehigh Docks on Buffalo Creek, it depended on the Erie Railroad for the connection from Waverly to Buffalo, New York.[9]. (143 cu. [42], Following the Great Depression, the railroad had a few periods of prosperity, but was clearly in a slow decline. (.11 cu. Customers naturally resented the actions of the cartel, and since coal was critical to commerce, Congress intervened in 1887 with the Interstate Commerce Act that forbade the roads from joining into such pools. 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. The LVRR strove throughout the 1880s to acquire its own route to Jersey City and to the Jersey City waterfront. (.1 cu. Please note: Not all of the Valuable Papers were deposited at the archives, so we may not hold all of the items referenced in the index. (.1 cu. (.3 cu. Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps forPennsylvania, Aerial Photographs and Index of the 1940 Aerial Survey of Pennsylvania, 1937-1942. 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. In 1901, Morgan arranged to have the Packer Estate's holdings purchased jointly by the Erie, the Pennsylvania, the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, the DL&W and the CNJ, all companies in which Morgan had interests. [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. The images on the film are arranged geographically, i.e. The State of New Jersey passed legislation that allowed the LVRR to consolidate its New Jersey railroads into one company; the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook and the Bound Brook and Easton were merged to form a new railroad company called the Easton and Amboy Railroad (or Easton & Amboy Railroad Company). The Lehigh Line still exists and still serves as a major freight railroad line that operates in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley Railroad was another of the many Northeastern carriers built to move anthracite coal from eastern Pennsylvania. In 1928, he attempted to seat a new president and board. (.1 cu. V2 en:Roselle and South Plainfield Railway. [29] At the same time, the LVRR organized the Buffalo and Geneva Railroad to build the rest of the 97-mile Geneva to Buffalo trackage, from Geneva to Lancaster. 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. Photos not available for this variation. A final attempt to establish a coal cartel took place in 1904 with the formation of the Temple Iron Company.