Armstrong Cut

Last updated March 11, 2019

Armstrong Cut is one of the largest cuts on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. Located between approximately mileposts 61.4 and 62.3 in Frelinghuysen Township, the cut was constructed between 1908 and 1911 by contractor Hyde, McFarlan & Burke. The cut, which was created by removing fill material obtained by blasting with dynamite or other methods, is 0.89 miles (1.4 km) long, has an average depth of 52 feet (16 m), and a maximum depth of 104 feet (32 m). The fill was created as a result of the removal of 852,000 cubic yards of fill material from this section of the right-of-way. Armstrong Cut is located on a tangent (straight) section of track, permitting 80 mph (129 km/hr).

The Lackawanna Cut-Off was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) between 1908 and 1911 and it ran from Port Morris Junction in Port Morris, New Jersey, to Slateford Junction in Slateford, Pennsylvania.

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Northeastern United States. It is a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, particularly along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by the Delaware Bay and Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 9 million residents as of 2017, and the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states; its biggest city is Newark. New Jersey lies completely within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia and was the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2017.

Hyde, McFarlan & Burke was a construction firm that operated in the early 20th century from offices at 90 West Street in New York City and Madison, New Jersey. The company did much work for the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, including the construction of miles 60.8 to 65.8 of the landmark Lackawanna Cut-Off, which required the movement of millions of tons of fill material using techniques similar to those used on the Panama Canal.

Part of the north side of Armstrong Cut collapsed in 1941, completely blocking the Cut-Off, and causing all traffic to be diverted to the Lackawanna Old Road for a month while the embankment was excavated back. Legend has it that the collapse occurred in the middle of the night and that the freight agent at the freight station (the passenger station had closed the previous year) heard the embankment give way and raised the alarm.^[1]

The Lackawanna Old Road was part of the original mainline of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W). Opened in 1856, it was for a half-century a part of the line connecting the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. In 1911, the DL&W cut 11 miles (18 km) off the route by opening the Lackawanna Cut-Off, which branched off from existing track at the new Port Morris Junction and Slateford Junction. The 39.6-mile (63.7 km) stretch of existing track between these junctions was relegated to secondary status and became known as the "Old Road".

Armstrong Cut is named for W.C. Armstrong, who was the principal owner of the land that was acquired for this cut.^[2]

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Port Morris Junction is the railroad connection between NJ Transit's Montclair-Boonton Line and the Lackawanna Cut-Off. Opened in 1911 by the Lackawanna Railroad, it is in the Port Morris, New Jersey section of Roxbury Township, New Jersey, south of Lake Hopatcong.

Roseville Tunnel is a 1,024-foot (312 m) two-track railroad tunnel on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in Byram Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. It is on a straight section of railroad between mileposts 51.6 and 51.8 (83 km), about 6 miles (9.7 km) west of Port Morris Junction. The tunnel was built between 1908 and 1911 by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) as part of the Lackawanna Cut-Off, an immense, spare-no-expense project intended to create the straightest, flattest route practicable for its main line through the mountains of northwestern New Jersey. The contractor was David W. Flickwir of Roanoke, Virginia.

The Pequest Fill is a large railroad embankment on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwestern New Jersey, touted at its 1911 completion as the largest railroad fill in the world.

McMickle Cut is the longest cut on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. It was built between 1908 and 1911 by contractor Timothy Burke between mileposts 47.1 and 48.1 where Stanhope and Byram Township meet. Some 600,000 cubic yards of material was removed by dynamite and other methods to make the cut, which is 1.04 miles long, has an average depth of 29 feet, and a maximum depth of 54 feet.

Waltz & Reece Cut is the deepest cut on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. The cut is 0.68 miles (1.1 km) long, has an average depth of 37 feet, and a maximum depth of 114 feet.

Bradbury Fill is one of the embankments on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. It was built in 1908–11 by Waltz & Reece Construction Company and sits between mileposts 49.1 and 49.8 in Byram Township, just west of Waltz & Reece Cut and east of Lubber Run Fill.

Lubber Run Fill is a fill on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. Located between mileposts 50.1 and 50.5 in Byram Township, it was built between 1908 and 1911 by contractor Waltz & Reece Construction Company. It is 0.40 miles (0.64 km) long, has an average height of 64 feet, and a maximum height of 98 feet. Most of its 720,000 cubic yards of fill material was excavated from the surrounding low-lying area.

Wharton Fill is one of a number of fills (embankments) on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. Located between mileposts 51.1 and 51.6 in Byram Township, the fill was constructed between 1908 and 1911 by contractor David W. Flickwir. The fill, which was created by placing fill material obtained by blasting with dynamite or other methods, is about 0.5 miles (0.64 km) long. Most of the material that was used to create Wharton Fill was excavated from the surrounding low-lying area through which Pumpkin Run runs; several of the borrow pits have since flooded and become ponds.

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Greendell is one of three original train stations built by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad (DL&W) along its Lackawanna Cut-Off line in northwestern New Jersey. The station, which stood in Green Township at milepost 57.6 on the Cut-Off, began operations on December 23, 1911, one day before the line itself opened and the first revenue train arrived.

Andover station (NJ Transit) rail station

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Jones Cut is one of the cuts on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey.

In this location, which is the tallest part of this embankment, a stream was rechanneled under the road, which itself was realigned with the construction of the Cut-Off. This was done in several locations along the Cut-Off where a road and a stream crossed the right-of-way at approximately the same location.

The Nicholson Cutoff is a railroad segment of the Sunbury Line rail line and formerly a railroad segment of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad main line and the Delaware and Hudson Railway South Line. The Nicholson Cutoff and the rest of the Sunbury Line is owned by Norfolk Southern Railway. The Nicholson Cutoff was once a rail line until it became part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western main line.

Mountain View was a station on the Boonton Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. Located in the Mountain View section of Wayne Township, New Jersey, the station was at the Parish Drive bridge over the tracks. The station was 20.8 miles (33.5 km) away from its terminus at Hoboken Terminal on the shores of the Hudson River, where connections would be made to New York City via ferry and the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad. The western terminus. Denville, was 12.8 miles (20.6 km) away, where connections with the Morris and Essex Railroad were available. Just west of the station was Mountain View junction, where a connection was made to the Erie Railroad's New York and Greenwood Lake Railway was made.

References

↑ Taber, Thomas Townsend; Taber, Thomas Townsend III (1980). The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the Twentieth Century 1, p. 35. Muncy, PA: Privately printed. ISBN 0-9603398-2-5.
↑ 1906 Survey Map of the Delaware Valley Cut-Off, September 1, 1906.

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[1] Taber, Thomas Townsend; Taber, Thomas Townsend III (1980). The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the Twentieth Century 1, p. 35. Muncy, PA: Privately printed. ISBN 0-9603398-2-5.

[2] 1906 Survey Map of the Delaware Valley Cut-Off, September 1, 1906.