The Dover and Rockaway Railroad was a section of railroad track completed in 1881 connecting Dover, NJ and Rockaway, New Jersey. It formed an important link in the developing U.S. railroad system, connecting major trunks to the New York harbor for freight and provided passenger service to central and southern New Jersey.
Much of the line is still active and is operated by the Dover and Rockaway River Railroad to serve local customers.
In the 1870s, Dover businessman George Richards sought the construction of a railroad to carry iron ore from New Jersey's Hibernia mines to the furnaces at High Bridge and in the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania for use with the Pennsylvania ores. Richards first suggested to Sam Sloan, the president of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad, that the DL&W build a spur to along the north side of the Rockaway River through Dover to the Hibernia mines. Sloan turned down the idea.
So Richards decided instead to build his own rail connection from his' Hibernia Mine Railroad the Longwood Valley Railroad, which was controlled by the Central Railroad of New Jersey. Along with fellow Dover businessmen Columbus Beach and Henry McFarlan, he incorporated the Dover and Rockaway Railroad in 1880. The Railroad was also built by other men from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts who were interested in the iron mines in the vicinity.
Richards negotiated with landowners to acquire right-of-way for his railroad.
The line required two major pieces of work :a tunnel under the Rockaway Road east of Dover and cut through solid rock in west Dover above the Mill Pond, next to Clinton Street.
The line opened in 1881.
On December 22, 1880, Mayor Richards headed a group that made the first trip from Dover to Hibernia. On April 7, 1881, an inspection run was made over the entire line. and the Dover and Rockaway Railroad was soon leased to the Central Railroad of New Jersey, completing a route from High Bridge to Hibernia. The Dover line proved to be a valuable addition since it now formed a fast freight service by connecting with every other trunk line reaching the New York harbor. Passenger service provided direct connection to points in central and southern New Jersey.
This project perhaps contributed to Dover's "Melting Pot"; about 50 Swedish immigrants were employed at the eastern end of the cut and Irish immigrants were hired to work the western end. In the meantime, a group of Italian immigrants worked laying track in the East Dover "meadows". The Swedish labor force was housed in the apartments and hotel buildings on North Sussex Street for the duration of the project.
After this link was completed the old farmhouse on North Sussex Street was converted into a train station to become the first Dover terminal, which operated there for over 50 years. Once the line was completed to High Bridge, the building was widely used as a departure and arrival station by the people of such towns as Long Valley, Flanders, Bartley, and Califon as well as nearby communities such as Rockaway, Wharton, and Hibernia.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. The railroad was authorized on April 21, 1846 for freight and transportation of passengers, goods, wares, merchandise and minerals in Pennsylvania and the railroad was incorporated and established on September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company. On January 7, 1853, the railroad's name was changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was sometimes known as the Route of the Black Diamond, named after the anthracite it transported. At the time, anthracite was transported by boat down the Lehigh River. The railroad ended operations in 1976 and merged into Conrail along with several northeastern railroads that same year.
The Central Railroad of New Jersey, also known as the Jersey Central or Jersey Central Lines, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s. It was absorbed into Conrail in April 1976 along with several other prominent bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States.
The Morristown Line is an NJ Transit commuter rail line connecting Morris and Essex counties to New York City, via either New York Penn Station or Hoboken Terminal. Out of 60 inbound and 58 outbound daily weekday trains, 28 inbound and 26 outbound Midtown Direct trains use the Kearny Connection to Penn Station; the rest go to Hoboken. Passengers can transfer at Newark Broad Street or Summit to reach the other destination. On rail system maps the line is colored dark green, and its symbol is a drum, a reference to Morristown's history during the American Revolution.
For the purposes of this article, the Jersey City area extends North to Edgewater, South to Bayonne and includes Kearny Junction and Harrison but not Newark. Many routes east of Newark are listed here.
The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) was the smallest of the six railroads that were merged into Conrail in 1976. It was a bridge line running northeast–southwest across northwestern New Jersey, connecting the line to the Poughkeepsie Bridge at Maybrook, New York with Easton, Pennsylvania, where it interchanged with various other companies.
The Morris and Essex Railroad was a railroad across northern New Jersey, later part of the main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.
The Lehigh & New England Railroad was a Class I railroad located in Northeastern United States that acted as a bridge line. It was the second notable U.S. railroad to file for abandonment in its entirety, the first being the New York, Ontario & Western Railway.
The Columbia Trail is a rail trail in rural northwestern New Jersey. It was created from portions of the former Central Railroad of New Jersey High Bridge Branch and stretches from High Bridge, in Hunterdon County, through Washington Township, in Morris County for a total of 15.1 miles (24.3 km). The trail surface is relatively flat and consists mostly of fine crushed stone.
The Northern Central Railway (NCRY) was a Class I Railroad connecting Baltimore, Maryland with Sunbury, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River. Completed in 1858, the line came under the control of the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in 1861, when the PRR acquired a controlling interest in the Northern Central's stock to compete with the rival Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (B&O). For eleven decades the Northern Central operated as a subsidiary of the PRR until much of its Maryland trackage was washed out by Hurricane Agnes in 1972, after which most of its operations ceased as the Penn Central declined to repair sections. It is now a fallen flag railway, having come under the control of the later Penn Central, Conrail, and then broken apart and disestablished. The northern part in Pennsylvania is now the York County Heritage Rail Trail which connects to a similar hike/bike trail in Northern Maryland down to Baltimore, named the Torrey C. Brown Rail Trail. Only the trackage around Baltimore remains in rail service.
The High Bridge Branch was a branch line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) that started in High Bridge, New Jersey at a connection with the CNJ main line and continued north to iron-ore mines in Morris County. The High Bridge Branch line followed the South Branch of the Raritan River for much of its duration.
The Hibernia Mine Railroad was a mine railroad in Morris County, New Jersey that operated between Hibernia and Rockaway from 1863 to 1946.
The Sussex Railroad was a short-line railroad in northwestern New Jersey. It replaced its predecessor, the Sussex Mine Railroad, in 1853 and operated under the Sussex Railroad Company until 1945 when it was fully merged into the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) system. The Sussex Railroad was important in the economic development of Sussex County as it supplied a route for early local industries, such as dairy farms and ore mines, to export their products. It was the last independently operated New Jersey railroad to be incorporated into the DL&W system. The last train travelled on the Sussex Railroad tracks on October 2, 1966. The tracks were removed soon after and the right-of-way was transformed into a rail trail known as the Sussex Branch Trail.
The Hocking Valley Railway was a railroad in the U.S. state of Ohio, with a main line from Toledo to Athens and Pomeroy via Columbus. It also had several branches to the coal mines of the Hocking Valley near Athens. The company became part of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway system in 1910, and the line between Toledo and Columbus continues to see trains as CSX Transportation's Columbus Subdivision. Portions of the main line south of Columbus are now operated by the Indiana and Ohio Railway and Hocking Valley Scenic Railway.
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 Hudson River terminal.
National Docks Secondary is a freight rail line within Conrail's North Jersey Shared Assets Area in Hudson County, New Jersey, used by CSX Transportation. It provides access for the national rail network to maritime, industrial, and distribution facilities at Port Jersey, the Military Ocean Terminal at Bayonne (MOTBY), and Constable Hook as well as carfloat operations at Greenville Yard. The line is an important component in the planned expansion of facilities in the Port of New York and New Jersey. The single track right of way comprises rail beds, viaducts, bridges, and tunnels originally developed at the end of the 19th century by competing railroads.
Morristown & Erie Railway is a short-line railroad based in Morristown, New Jersey, chartered in 1895 as the Whippany River Railroad. It operates freight rail service in Morris County, New Jersey and surrounding areas on the original Whippany Line between Morristown and Roseland, as well as the Morris County-owned Dover & Rockaway Branch, Chester Branch, and High Bridge Branch. The M&E also operated the Maine Eastern Railroad from November 2003 to December 31, 2015.
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. Administratively, it is part of Norfolk Southern's Keystone Division and is part of the Crescent Corridor. As of 2021 the line is freight-only, although there are perennial proposals to restore passenger service over all or part of the line.
The Dover & Rockaway River Railroad is a short-line railroad operating in Morris County, New Jersey. On July 1, 2017, it took over operation of three Morris County owned rail lines previously operated by Morristown and Erie. The DRRV is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chesapeake and Delaware, LLC.
