Misplaced Pages

Upper Hack Lift

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

Upper Hack Lift is a lift bridge carrying the New Jersey Transit Main Line across the Hackensack River at mile 6.9 between Secaucus, New Jersey and Lyndhurst .

#231768

108-618: It was built by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1958 and completed in March 1959 to serve the Boonton Branch and replaced an older swing span from 1901 on the site, which had been damaged by shifting currents. The new single-track lift bridge cost $ 5.5 million, financed through a five-year bank loan. Following a 1963 route realignment, Erie Main Line service began using

216-685: A 1,664 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) gauge of five Portuguese feet – close enough to allow interoperability in practice. The new high-speed network in Spain and Portugal uses standard gauge. The dual-gauge high-speed train RENFE Class 130 can change gauge at low speed without stopping. The 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) gauge was first used in Great Britain in Scotland for two short, isolated lines,

324-684: A Radisson hotel ) in Scranton the following year. A new terminal was constructed on the waterfront in Buffalo in 1917. The "Lackawanna Railroad of New Jersey", chartered on February 7, 1908, to build the Lackawanna Cut-Off (a.k.a. New Jersey Cutoff or Hopatcong-Slateford Cutoff), opened on December 24, 1911. This provided a low-grade cutoff in northwestern New Jersey. The cutoff included the Delaware River Viaduct and

432-707: A century about the practicability of third rail operation, and numerous devices have been promoted to overcome the problem, especially at turnouts, including the "Brennan Switch". This gauge was once used by the United Railways and Electric Company and the MTA Maryland and is now used only by the Baltimore Streetcar Museum . As finally established, the Iberian gauge of 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in )

540-564: A cost of $ 2 million, including a massive machine and erecting shop measuring 582 by 342 feet. To handle the increasing roster of coal and other freight cars, new car shops were built outside Scranton at Keyser Valley in 1904. A passenger car shop was added in Kingsland, New Jersey, nine miles from New York City, in 1906. The company built a Beaux-Arts terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey , in 1907, and another Beaux-Arts passenger station (now

648-496: A division of the Livonia , Avon , and Lakeville Railroad). Shorter main line remnants are Groveland -Greigsville (Genesee & Wyoming) and Lancaster - Depew (Depew, Lancaster & Western). The Richfield Springs branch was scrapped in 1998 after being out of service for years; much of the right of way was purchased in 2009 by Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley LLC of Richfield Springs, New York, which as of 2022 operates

756-627: A gauge of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) but Luas , the Dublin light rail system, is built to standard gauge. Russia and the other former Soviet Republics use a 1,520 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 27 ⁄ 32  in ) (originally 5 ft ( 1,524 mm )) gauge while Finland continues to use the 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) gauge inherited from the Russian Empire (the two standards are close enough to allow full interoperability between Finland and Russia). Portugal and

864-481: A large passenger traffic for the Lackawanna. All of this helped justify the railroad's expansion of its double-track mainline to three and in a few places four tracks. Changes in the region's economy undercut the railroad, however. The post- World War II boom enjoyed by many U.S. cities bypassed Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and the rest of Lackawanna and Luzerne counties. Fuel oil and natural gas quickly became

972-467: A law stating "The width of the track or gauge of all roads under this act, shall be four feet ten inches between the rails."  When American railroads' track extended to the point that they began to interconnect, it became clear that a single nationwide gauge was desirable. Six-foot-gauge railroads ( 6 ft [ 1,829 mm ]) had developed a large regional following in New York State in

1080-679: A merger agreement with the Erie Railroad , the DL&;W's longtime rival (and closest geographical competitor), forming the Erie Lackawanna Railroad . The merger was formally consummated on October 17, 1960. Shoemaker drew much criticism for it, and would even second-guess himself after he had retired from railroading. He later claimed to have had a "gentlemen's agreement" with the EL board of directors to take over as president of

1188-533: A modified Siemens Velaro High Speed Train on its flagship St Petersburg to Moscow service at 250 km/h (160 mph) and can run at 350 km/h (220 mph) on dedicated track. The country is planning to build its portion of the Beijing to Moscow high speed railway in broad gauge. Finland uses a modified Alstom pendolino on the Allegro service to Helsinki at 220 km/h (140 mph). Uzbekistan uses

SECTION 10

#1732783680232

1296-642: A modified Talgo 250 on the Tashkent–Bukhara high-speed rail line at 250 km/h (160 mph). South Asia primarily uses the broad gauge for its passenger rail services and the fastest broad gauge train presently in the region is the Indian Railways' Vande Bharat Express (a.k.a. Train 18) . During one of the trial runs, the Vande Bharat Express achieved a peak speed of 180 km/h (110 mph). The sustained speeds of this train

1404-637: A narrow-gauge tourist railway Richfield Springs Scenic Railway on a portion of the line and a walking trail on another section. The Cortland- Cincinnatus Branch, abandoned by Erie Lackawanna in 1960, was partially-rebuilt for an industrial spur about 1999. As of 2018, the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern operates the former Keyser Valley branch from Scranton to Taylor, as well as the former Bloomsburg branch from Taylor to Coxton Yard in Duryea . The Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway operates

1512-578: A period of 36 hours, tens of thousands of workers pulled the spikes from the west rail of all the broad-gauge lines in the South, moved them 3 in (76 mm) east and spiked them back in place. The new gauge was close enough that standard-gauge equipment could run on it without difficulty. By June 1886, all major railroads in North America were using approximately the same gauge. The final conversion to true standard gauge took place gradually as track

1620-621: A short segment of the Boonton Branch by Garret Mountain in Paterson, New Jersey , was sold off to the state of New Jersey to build Interstate 80 . Ultimately, the west end of the Boonton Branch was combined with the Erie's Greenwood Lake Branch, while the eastern end was combined with the Erie's main line, which was abandoned through Passaic, New Jersey . Sacrificed was the Boonton Branch, a high-speed freight line thought to be redundant with

1728-513: A tremendous financial drain on the Lackawanna and other railroads that ran through the state: a situation that would not be remedied for another two decades. To save his company, Lackawanna president Perry Shoemaker sought a merger with the Nickel Plate Road , a deal that would have created a railroad stretching more than 1,100 miles (1,800 km) from St. Louis, Missouri and Chicago, Illinois to New York City and would have allowed

1836-418: Is a compromise between the similar, but slightly different, gauges first adopted as respective national standards in Spain and Portugal in the mid-19th century. The main railway networks of Spain were initially constructed to a 1,672 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 13 ⁄ 16  in ) gauge of six Castilian feet. Those of Portugal were initially built in standard gauge, but by 1864 were all converted to

1944-455: Is considerably lower, with a peak operational speed of 160 km/h and an average speed of 95 km/h, due to track limitations. Indian Railways has plans to introduce a higher speed Vande Bharat sleeper train that is capable of 200 km/h, but the project has encountered delays stemming from bids for rolling-stocks with poor local sourcing. A number of semi high speed railway projects using broad gauge tracks are being planned or built in

2052-783: Is still used on the streetcars in New Orleans , and the Pittsburgh Light Rail system. This gauge was also used for the now defunct Pittsburgh Railways , West Penn Railways , and trams in Cincinnati . Similar 5 ft  2 + 1 ⁄ 4  in ( 1,581 mm ) gauge is used in Philadelphia on SEPTA routes, 15 , the Media–Sharon Hill Line , the Subway–Surface Trolleys and

2160-687: Is the dominant track gauge in Spain and Portugal . Broad gauge of 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ), commonly known as Indian gauge , is the dominant track gauge in India , Pakistan , Bangladesh , Sri Lanka , Argentina , Chile , and on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) in the San Francisco Bay Area . This is the widest gauge in common use anywhere in the world. It is possible for trains on both Iberian gauge and Indian gauge to travel on each other's tracks with no modifications in

2268-843: Is the dominant track gauge in former Soviet Union countries ( CIS states , Baltic states , Georgia , Ukraine ) and Mongolia . Broad gauge of 1,524 mm ( 5 ft ), commonly known as Five foot gauge , is mainly used in Finland . Broad gauge of 1,600 mm ( 5 ft 3 in ), commonly known as Irish gauge , is the dominant track gauge in Ireland , the Australian state of Victoria and Adelaide in South Australia and passenger trains of Brazil . Broad gauge of 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in ), commonly known as Iberian gauge ,

SECTION 20

#1732783680232

2376-501: Is the second most widely used gauge in the world, and spans the whole of the former Soviet Union/ CIS bloc including the Baltic states and Mongolia. Finland uses 1,524 mm ( 5 ft ). The difference is clearly lower than the tolerance margin, so through running is feasible. Care must be taken when servicing international trains because the wear profile of the wheels differs from that of trains that run on domestic tracks only. When

2484-656: The Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum (Dutch Railway Museum) in Utrecht. These replicas were built for the 100th anniversary of the Dutch Railways in 1938–39. The erstwhile Great Indian Peninsula Railway introduced a broad gauge of 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) for the first passenger railway line in India, between Bori Bunder and Thane . This was later adopted as the standard throughout

2592-533: The 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) broad gauge was officially adopted as the standard gauge for the Province of Canada , becoming known as the Provincial gauge and government subsidies were unavailable for railways that chose other gauges. This caused problems in interchanging freight cars with northern United States railroads, most of which were built to standard gauge or a gauge similar to it. In

2700-715: The Central Railroad of New Jersey abandoned all its operations in Pennsylvania (which by that time were freight-only), causing additional through freights to be run daily between Elizabeth, NJ on the CNJ and Scranton on the EL. The trains, designated as the eastbound SE-98 and the westbound ES-99, travelled via the Lackawanna Cut-Off and were routed via the CNJ 's High Bridge Branch . This arrangement ended with

2808-1069: The DL&;W or Lackawanna Railroad , was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York , and Hoboken, New Jersey , and by ferry with New York City , a distance of 395 miles (636 km). The railroad was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853, and created primarily to provide a means of transport of anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeast Pennsylvania to large coal markets in New York City . The railroad gradually expanded both east and west, and eventually linked Buffalo with New York City. Like most coal-focused railroads in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including Lehigh Valley Railroad , New York, Ontario and Western Railroad , and

2916-582: The Dundee and Arbroath Railway (1836-1847) and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (1838- ). Both the lines were subsequently converted to standard gauge and connected to the Scottish rail network. Later this gauge was adopted as a standard for many British colonies such as Province of Canada and British India . In 1851, the 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) broad gauge was officially adopted as

3024-610: The Erie Lackawanna Railroad that would be taken over by Conrail in 1976. Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was first incorporated as Leggett's Gap Railroad on April 7, 1832, though it was dormant for several years following its incorporation. The company was chartered on March 14, 1849, and organized on January 2, 1850. On April 14, 1851, its name was changed to Lackawanna and Western Railroad . The line opened on December 20, 1851, and ran north from Scranton, Pennsylvania , to Great Bend, Pennsylvania , just south of Pennsylvania 's border with New York state . From Great Bend,

3132-594: The Kearny Connection , opened in 1996. This facilitates part of NJ Transit's popular Midtown Direct service. Formerly, the line ran solely to the DL&W's historic terminal in Hoboken and a transfer to underground rapid transit was required to pass under the Hudson river into Manhattan, or a ferry. This is the only section of former Lackawanna trackage that has more through tracks now than ever before. Since

3240-543: The Lehigh & New England Railroad , the DL&W was profitable during the first half of the 20th century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining Pennsylvania coal traffic, especially following the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster and competition from trucks following the expansion of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960, the DL&W merged with rival Erie Railroad to form

3348-537: The Market–Frankford Line . Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system in the San Francisco Bay Area was opened in 1972 with 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) gauge. The system has been extended multiple times since then, using new railcars custom built with this non-standard gauge. The use of a non-standard gauge precludes interoperability of rolling stock on railway networks. On

Upper Hack Lift - Misplaced Pages Continue

3456-557: The North Jersey suburbs to Hoboken on the Boonton , Gladstone , Montclair and Morristown Lines. Early publicity for the passenger service featured a young woman, Phoebe Snow , who always wore white and kept her clothing clean while riding the "Road of Anthracite", powered by the clean-burning coal known as anthracite . The most profitable commodity shipped by the railroad was anthracite coal . In 1890 and during 1920–1940,

3564-677: The Paulinskill Viaduct , as well as three concrete towers at Port Morris and Greendell in New Jersey and Slateford Junction in Pennsylvania. From 1912 to 1915, the Summit-Hallstead Cutoff (a.k.a. Pennsylvania Cutoff or Nicholson Cutoff ) was built to revamp a winding and hilly system between Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania , and Hallstead, Pennsylvania . This rerouting provided another quicker low-grade line between Scranton and Binghamton. The Summit Cutoff included

3672-601: The "Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad", on March 11, 1853. On the New Jersey side of the Delaware River, the Warren Railroad was chartered on February 12, 1851, to continue from the bridge over the river southeast to Hampton , on the Central Railroad of New Jersey . That section got its name from Warren County , the county through which it would primarily run. The rest of the line, now known as

3780-466: The 1870s (mainly between 1872 and 1874), Canadian broad-gauge lines were changed to standard gauge to facilitate interchange and the exchange of rolling stock with American railroads. Today, almost all Canadian railways are standard-gauge. In the early days of rail transport in the US, railways tended to be built out from coastal cities into the hinterland , and systems did not initially connect. Each builder

3888-606: The 1960s. Finland retained the original gauge with no re-standardisation. As part of the railway gauge standardisation considered by the United Kingdom Parliamentary Gauge Commission, Ireland was allocated its own gauge, Irish gauge. Ireland then had three gauges, and the new standard would be a fourth. The Irish gauge of 1,600 mm ( 5 ft 3 in ) is used in Ireland and parts of Australia and Brazil. A problem with

3996-673: The 1999 breakup of Conrail, the former DL&W main line from Scranton south-east to Slateford in Monroe County has been owned by the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA). The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad and Steamtown National Historic Site operates freight trains and tourist trains on this stretch of track, dubbed the Pocono Mainline (or Pocono Main). Under a haulage agreement with Norfolk Southern,

4104-585: The British Great Western Railway the 7 ft  1 ⁄ 4  in ( 2,140 mm ) gauge was supposed to allow high speed, but the company had difficulty with locomotive design in the early years, losing much of the advantage, and rapid advances in railway track and suspension technology allowed standard-gauge speeds to approach broad-gauge speeds within a decade or two. On the 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) and 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) gauges,

4212-693: The D-L runs unit Canadian grain trains between Scranton and the Harvest States Grain Mill at Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania and wood deliveries to Bestway Enterprises in Cresco . Other commercial customers include Keystone Propane in Tobyhanna. Excursion trains, hauled by visiting Nickel Plate 765 and other locomotives, run from Steamtown to Moscow and Tobyhanna (with infrequent extensions to East Stroudsburg or Delaware Water Gap Station, both on

4320-409: The DL&W main line portion between Scranton and Binghamton (which includes the Nicholson Cutoff ) bought by the Delaware and Hudson Railway . The D&H was purchased by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1991. CPR continued to run this portion of the DL&W main line until 2014, when it sold it to the Norfolk Southern . The Syracuse and Utica branches north of Binghamton were sold by Conrail to

4428-405: The DL&W shipped upwards of 14% of the state of Pennsylvania's anthracite production. Other profitable freight included dairy products, cattle, lumber, cement, steel and grain. The Pocono Mountains region was one of the most popular vacation destinations in the country—especially among New Yorkers—and several large hotels sat along the line in Northeastern Pennsylvania , generating

Upper Hack Lift - Misplaced Pages Continue

4536-451: The DL&W, which owned a substantial block of Nickel Plate stock, to place one of its directors on the Nickel Plate board . (The Nickel Plate would later merge with the Norfolk and Western Railroad .) Shoemaker next turned, in 1956, to aggressive but unsuccessful efforts to obtain joint operating agreements and even potential mergers with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Delaware and Hudson Railway . Finally, Shoemaker sought and won

4644-503: The Delaware Otsego Corp., which operates them as the northern division of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway . In 1997, Conrail accepted an offer of purchase from CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway . On June 1, 1999, Norfolk Southern took over many of the Conrail lines in New Jersey, including most of the former DL&W. It also purchased the remnants of the former Bangor & Portland branch in Pennsylvania. Norfolk Southern continues to operate local freights on

4752-469: The Dutch state, but soon by the Nederlandsche Rhijnspoorweg-Maatschappij (NRS), for its Amsterdam–Utrecht–Arnhem line. But the neighbouring countries Prussia and Belgium already used standard gauge, so the two companies had to regauge their first lines. In 1855, NRS regauged its line and shortly afterwards connected to the Prussian railways. The HSM followed in 1866. There are replicas of one broad-gauge 2-2-2 locomotive ( De Arend ) and three carriages in

4860-471: The EL's decline. By 1976, it was apparent that the EL was at the end of its tether, and it petitioned to join Conrail : a new regional railroad that was created on April 1, 1976, out of the remnants of seven bankrupt freight railroads in the northeastern U.S. The EL's rail property was legally conveyed into Conrail on April 1, 1976. Labor contracts limited immediate changes to the freight schedule, but in early 1979, Conrail suspended through freight service on

4968-466: The Erie's main line, was abandoned in favor of joint operations, while the Lackawanna Cut-Off in New Jersey was single-tracked in anticipation of the upcoming merger. On the other hand, the Erie's Buffalo, New York and Erie Railroad was dropped from Corning to Livonia in favor of the DL&W's main line. Most passenger service was routed onto the DL&W east of Binghamton, with the DL&W's Hoboken Terminal serving all EL passenger trains. In addition,

5076-477: The Erie's mainline. This would haunt EL management less than a decade later (and Conrail management a decade after that). Soon after the merger, the new EL management shifted most freight trains to the "Erie side", the former Erie Railroad lines, leaving only a couple of daily freight trains traveling over the Lackawanna side. Passenger train traffic would not be affected, at least not immediately. This traffic pattern would remain in effect for more than ten years—past

5184-399: The Erie. These included the Walkill Valley, the Albany and Susquehanna (later part of the Delaware and Hudson); the Elmira, Jefferson & Canandaigua (later the Northern Central, becoming part of the Pennsylvania Railroad); the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western mainline (which also had a significant amount of trackage in Pennsylvania); predecessor lines of the New York and Oswego Midland (later

5292-460: The Finnish rail network was founded in 1862, Finland was the Grand Duchy of Finland , an autonomic state ruled by the Imperial Russia . The first border crossing railway to Russia was opened in 1870, while the first to Sweden was not until 1919, so railways were built to the broad Russian track gauge of 1,524 mm ( 5 ft ). In Russia, this gauge was re-standardized to 1,520 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 27 ⁄ 32  in ) during

5400-416: The Irish Gauge in Australia is that it is only 165 mm ( 6 + 1 ⁄ 2  in) wider than the standard gauge used in other parts of Australia, principally New South Wales . Therefore, it is not considered advisable to use a third rail to allow dual-gauge operation on mainline sections of track, because of the danger of material lodging between the two rails. There has been argument for well over

5508-412: The Lackawanna side. Indeed, as very little on-line freight originated on the Erie side (a route that was more than 20 miles longer than the DL&W route to Binghamton), once the Gateway was closed (eliminating the original justification for shifting traffic to the Erie side) virtually all the EL's freight trains were shifted back to the Lackawanna side. After the New England Gateway closed, EL's management

SECTION 50

#1732783680232

5616-401: The Lackawanna side. The railroad removed freight traffic from the Hoboken-Binghamton mainline and consolidated the service within its other operating routes. Railroad officials said the primary reasons were the EL's early-1960s severing of the Boonton Branch near Paterson, New Jersey , and the grades over the Pocono Mountains. The Morristown Line is the only piece of multi-track railroad on

5724-494: The Lackawanna to retain the 200 miles (320 km) of double-track mainline between Buffalo and Binghamton, New York . The idea had been studied as early as 1920, when William Z. Ripley , a professor of political economics at Harvard University , reported that a merger would have benefited both railroads. Forty years later, however, the Lackawanna was a shadow of its former financial self. Seeing no advantage in an end-to-end merger, Nickel Plate officials also rebuffed attempts by

5832-424: The Lackawanna, however, were dealt by Mother Nature . In August, 1955, flooding from Hurricane Diane devastated the Pocono Mountains region, killing 80 people. The floods cut the Lackawanna Railroad in 88 places, destroying 60 miles (97 km) of track, stranding several trains (with a number of passengers aboard) and shutting down the railroad for nearly a month (with temporary speed restrictions prevailing on

5940-437: The M&E lease came several branch lines in New Jersey, including the Boonton Line , which opened in 1870 and bypassed Newark for through freight. The railroad acquired the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad in 1869 and leased the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad on February 13, 1869. This gave it a branch from Binghamton north and northwest via Syracuse to Oswego , a port on Lake Ontario . The "Greene Railroad"

6048-567: The New York and Erie would operate passenger cars up to 11 feet (3.4 m) wide. Building westward from the Hudson River, it eventually reached Lake Erie, establishing a mainline longer than 400 miles (640 km) providing a shortcut to the American Midwest region from the New York City vicinity, and helping spawn a regional network of six-foot-gauge railroads almost exclusively within New York State. Many early New York railways were Erie railroad-built branch lines, while others were independent railroads that wanted to partner and interchange with

6156-429: The New York, Ontario, and Western); and the Canandaigua and Niagara Falls (later becoming part of the New York Central railroad's Peanut Route along the shoreline of Lake Ontario). However, by the late 1870s, the trend was inevitable, and conversion to standard gauge began, some lines first becoming "dual gauged" with the addition of a third running rail. Between 1876 and 1880, most of the remaining six-foot gauge trackage

6264-424: The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority to accelerate the resumption of passenger train service between New York City and Scranton. Most of the main line west of Binghamton in New York State has been abandoned, in favor of the Erie's Buffalo line via Hornell . The longest remaining main line sector is Painted Post -Wayland, with shortline service provided by B&H Railroad ( Bath & Hammondsport ,

6372-438: The Pocono Mainline). The D-L also runs Lackawanna County 's tourist trolleys from the Electric City Trolley Museum , under overhead electrified wiring installed on original sections of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad that was also purchased by Lackawanna County. It also runs trains on a remnant of the DL&W Diamond branch in Scranton. In 2006, the Monroe County and Lackawanna County Railroad Authorities formed

6480-401: The Southern Division, opened on May 27, 1856, including the Warren Railroad in New Jersey . A third rail was added to the standard gauge Central Railroad of New Jersey east of Hampton to allow the railroad to run east to Elizabeth via trackage rights (the CNJ was extended in 1864 to Jersey City ). On December 10, 1868, the company acquired the Morris and Essex Railroad unit 1945 it

6588-525: The Spanish Renfe system use a gauge of 1,668 mm ( 5 ft  5 + 21 ⁄ 32  in ) called Ancho Ibérico in Spanish or Bitola Ibérica in Portuguese (see Iberian gauge ); though there are plans to convert to standard gauge . In Toronto , Canada, the gauge for TTC subways and streetcars was chosen in 1861. Toronto adopted a unique Toronto gauge of 4 ft  10 + 7 ⁄ 8  in ( 1,495 mm ), an "overgauge" originally stated to "allow horse-drawn wagons to use

SECTION 60

#1732783680232

6696-408: The additional costs of train procurement, due to the essential modifications of the rolling-stock for the broad gauge, from European rolling-stock manufacturers such as Alstom or Siemens would be softened through a large minimum order size of at least thirty train sets. A considerable debate has continued about the suitability of the high speed rail on standard gauge for the Indian travel demands and

6804-445: The bridge, with Erie Lackawanna, NJDOT and later NJ Transit Main Line commuter service continuing to use the route. It was repainted in 1994 to its current turquoise blue color. Upper Hack is the only single-track lift bridge in New Jersey (excluding the Arthur Kill Vertical Lift Bridge connecting to Staten Island ). It is visible to motorists on the New Jersey Turnpike 's western spur between Interchanges 15W and 16W. Remnants of

6912-508: The company began operating the Erie and Central New York Railroad , a branch of the Oswego line from Cortland Junction east to Cincinnatus . That same year, it also began to control the Bangor and Portland Railway . By 1909, the company controlled the Bangor and Portland Railway . This line branched from the main line at Portland , southwest to Nazareth , with a branch to Martins Creek . The primary locomotive and car shops were located in Scranton . In 1910 they were enlarged and upgraded at

7020-492: The cost of construction led to the adoption of 1,000 mm ( 3 ft  3 + 3 ⁄ 8  in ) gauge and then 2 ft 6 in ( 762 mm ) and 2 ft ( 610 mm ) narrow gauges for many secondary and branch lines. In the later part of the 20th century, due to interchangeability and maintenance issue, the railways in each of the countries in the Indian Subcontinent began to convert all metre-gauge and narrow-gauge lines to this gauge. Today,

7128-401: The cost of new trainsets. A 7.3-mile section of the Cut-Off between Port Morris and Andover, New Jersey , which was under construction, was delayed until 2021 due to environmental issues on the Andover station site ; the Cut-Off between Port Morris and Andover is slated to re-open for rail passenger service no earlier than 2025. In 1979, Conrail sold most of the DL&W in Pennsylvania, with

7236-436: The country, as it was thought to be safer in areas prone to cyclones and flooding. The 1,676 mm ( 5 ft 6 in ) gauge is now commonly referred to as Indian gauge . While some initial freight railway lines in India were built using standard gauge , most of the standard and narrow gauge railways have since been dismantled and relaid in broad gauge. Ireland and some states in Australia and Brazil have

7344-412: The creation of Conrail on April 1, 1976. During its time, the EL diversified its shipments from the growing Lehigh Valley and also procured a lucrative contract with Chrysler to ship auto components from Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania . The EL also aggressively sought other contracts with suppliers in the area, pioneering what came to be known as intermodal shipping. None of this could compensate for

7452-423: The damaged sections of railroad for months), causing a total of $ 8.1 million in damages (equal to $ 92,128,696 today) and lost revenue. One section, the Old River line (former Warren Railroad), was damaged beyond repair and had to be abandoned altogether. Until the mainline in Pennsylvania reopened, all trains were canceled or rerouted over other railroads. The Lackawanna would never fully recover. In January, 1959,

7560-461: The decline in coal shipments, however, and, as labor costs and taxes rose, the railroad's financial position became increasingly precarious although it was stronger than some railroads in the eastern U.S. The opening of Interstates I-80 , I-380 , and I-81 during the early 1970s, which in effect paralleled much of the former Lackawanna mainline east of Binghamton, New York , caused more traffic to be diverted to trucks. This only helped to accelerate

7668-436: The discontinuation of passenger service on January 6, 1970—and was completely dependent on the lucrative interchange with the New Haven Railroad at Maybrook, New York . The January 1, 1969 merger of the New Haven Railroad into the Penn Central Railroad changed all this: the New England Gateway was downgraded, and closed on May 8, 1974 by fire damage to the New Haven's Poughkeepsie Bridge, causing dramatic traffic changes for

7776-451: The entire 900-mile Lackawanna system that has not been reduced to fewer tracks over the years. It was triple-tracked nearly a century prior , and remains so today. The Lackawanna Cut-Off was abandoned in 1979 and its rails were removed in 1984. The line between Slateford Junction and Scranton remained in legal limbo for nearly a decade, but was eventually purchased, with a single track left in place. The Lackawanna Cut-Off's right-of-way, on

7884-457: The extra width allowed bigger inside cylinders and greater power, a problem solvable by using outside cylinders and higher steam pressure on standard gauge. In the end, the most powerful engines on standard gauge in North America and Scandinavia far exceeded the power of any early broad-gauge locomotive, but then met limits set by other factors such as the capacity of manual stoking, the axle (and total) locomotive weight that would trigger upgrades to

7992-573: The final nail was driven in the Lackawanna's coffin by the Knox Mine Disaster , which flooded the mines along the Susquehanna River and all but obliterated what was left of the region's anthracite industry. The Lackawanna Railroad's financial problems were not unique. Rail traffic in the U.S. in general declined after World War II as trucks and automobiles took freight and passenger traffic. Declining freight traffic put

8100-554: The first part of the 19th century, due to the influence of the New York and Erie , one of the early pioneering railroads in America, chartered in 1832, with its first section opening in 1841. The builders and promoters decided that a six-foot track gauge would be needed for locomotives to be larger and more powerful than were in general use at the time, for pulling very large trains. Also the six-foot gauge provided greater stability, and

8208-707: The former Morris & Essex Railroad to Gladstone and Hackettstown. In 2002, the transit agency consolidated the Montclair Branch and Boonton Line to create the Montclair-Boonton Line . NJ Transit also operates on the remaining portion (south of Paterson) of the original Boonton Line known as the Main Line . NJ Transit's hub is at Hoboken Terminal. Trains on the Morristown Line run directly into New York's Pennsylvania Station via

8316-528: The former Bloomsburg branch from Duryea to Kingston . The North Shore Railroad (Pennsylvania) operates the former Bloomsburg branch from Northumberland to Hicks Ferry. Broad gauge A broad-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge (the distance between the rails) broader than the 1,435 mm ( 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ) used by standard-gauge railways . Broad gauge of 1,520 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 27 ⁄ 32  in ), more known as Russian gauge ,

8424-629: The gauge with the greatest mileage. Railways which had already received their enabling Act would continue at the 7 ft gauge. Ireland, using the same criteria, was allocated a different standard gauge, the Irish gauge , of 5 ft 3 in ( 1,600 mm ) which is also used in the Australian states of South Australia and Victoria. Broad-gauge lines in Britain were gradually converted to dual gauge or standard gauge from 1864 and finally

8532-703: The high speed rail on the standard gauge over the broad gauge, for cost sensitive rail markets in South Asia, especially in India. This gauge is used by the Toronto streetcar system and the Toronto subway This gauge was first used in the United Kingdom and the United States before it became the standard gauge for most railways in the former Soviet Union. Russian gauge or CIS gauge 1,520 mm ( 4 ft  11 + 27 ⁄ 32  in )

8640-573: The last of Brunel's broad gauge was converted over a weekend in 1892. In 1839, the Netherlands started its railway system with two broad-gauge railways. The chosen gauge of 1,945 mm ( 6 ft  4 + 9 ⁄ 16  in ) was applied between 1839 and 1866 by the Hollandsche IJzeren Spoorweg-Maatschappij (HSM) for its Amsterdam–The Hague–Rotterdam line and between 1842 and 1855, firstly by

8748-549: The lines. In 2014, it purchased the former DL&W main from Taylor, PA to Binghamton, NY from the Canadian Pacific Railway, which it continues to operate to this day. NJ Transit Rail Operations took over passenger operations in 1983. The State of New Jersey had subsidized the routes operated by the Erie Lackawanna, and later Conrail . NJ Transit operates over former DL&W trackage on much of

8856-436: The locomotive wore out in 1913. The gauge initially proposed by Brunel was 7 ft ( 2,134 mm ) exactly but this was soon increased by 1 ⁄ 4  in (6 mm) to 7 ft  1 ⁄ 4  in ( 2,140 mm ) to accommodate clearance problems identified during early testing. George Stephenson was to add an extra half inch to his original 4 ft 8 in ( 1,422 mm ) gauge for

8964-438: The massive Tunkhannock Viaduct and Martins Creek Viaduct . The Lackawanna's cutoffs had no at-grade crossings with roads or highways, allowing high-speed service. The railroad ran trains from its Hoboken Terminal , its gateway to New York City , to its Scranton , Binghamton, Syracuse , Oswego, and Buffalo stations and to Utica Union Station . Noteworthy among these were: The railroad also ran commuter operations from

9072-527: The nationwide rail network in Pakistan , Sri Lanka and Nepal is entirely on this gauge, whereas India , under Project Unigauge , and Bangladesh are still undergoing gauge conversion. This gauge is the widest gauge in regular passenger use in the world. Some railways in the United States were laid with a gauge of 6 ft ( 1,829 mm ). The Gualala River Railroad operated 5 feet 8 + 1 ⁄ 2  inches (1,740 mm) tracks for

9180-502: The nearby New York, Ontario and Western Railroad and Lehigh & New England Railroad out of business in 1957 and 1961, respectively. Over the next three decades, nearly every major railroad in the Northeastern US would go bankrupt . In the wake of Hurricane Diane in 1955, all signs pointed to continued financial decline and eventual bankruptcy for the DL&W. Among other factors, property taxes in New Jersey were

9288-465: The new railroad. After he was pushed aside in favor of Erie managers, however, he left in disillusionment and became the president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey in 1962. Even before the formal merger, growing ties between the Erie and Lackawanna led to the partial abandonment of the Lackawanna's mainline trackage between Binghamton and Buffalo. In 1958, the main line of the DL&W from Binghamton west to near Corning , which closely paralleled

9396-523: The older swing span are visible just to the north of the current lift span, as concrete abutments and piers remain. The current drawbridge schedule at Upper Hack (as stated by U.S. Coast Guard, 33 CFR 117.723) allows the bridge to open on signal unless the bridge tender is at the nearby HX Draw on the Bergen County Line upstream. Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad , also known as

9504-457: The other hand, was purchased by the state of New Jersey in 2001 from funds approved within a $ 40 million bond issue in 1989. (A court later set the final price at $ 21 million, paid to owners Jerry Turco of Kearny, New Jersey and Burton Goldmeier of Hopatcong, New Jersey.) NJ Transit has estimated that it would cost $ 551 million to restore service to Scranton over the Cut-Off: a price which includes

9612-523: The possible exclusion of the existing rail network in India. The recent discussions around the Kerala semi-high speed rail has highlighted the limitations of high speed rail on broad gauge. Since most of the global high speed rail infrastructure is built using the standard gauge, the cost benefits of using off-the-shelf rolling-stocks with minimal customizations and the availability of extensive, well proven technical know-how, are significant factors in favor of

9720-470: The preferred energy sources. Silk and other textile industries shrank as jobs moved to the southern U.S. or overseas. The advent of mechanical refrigeration squeezed the business from ice ponds on top of the Poconos . Even the dairy industry changed. The Lackawanna had long enjoyed revenues from milk shipments; many stations had a creamery next to the tracks. Perhaps the most catastrophic blows to

9828-503: The railroad obtained trackage rights north and west over the New York and Erie Rail Road to Owego, New York , where it leased the Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad to Ithaca on Cayuga Lake on April 21, 1855. The C&S was the reorganized and partially rebuilt Ithaca and Owego Railroad , which had opened on April 1, 1834, and was the oldest part of its system. The whole system was built to 6 ft ( 1,829 mm ) broad gauge ,

9936-600: The rails and bridges, the maximum wheelbase and/or boiler length compatible with an individual route's curves. In the 1930s German engineering studies focused on a Breitspurbahn system of railways of 3 meter gauge to serve Hitler's future German Empire. Spain uses standard gauge track for its high speed railways in order to provide cross-border services with France and the rest of Western Europe, but runs high speed trains on its legacy broad gauge network at 200 km/h (120 mph) and are developing trains to travel at speeds in excess of 250 km/h (160 mph). Russia uses

10044-445: The rails" on the horse-drawn streetcar lines of the day but with the practical effect of precluding the use of standard-gauge equipment in the street. The Toronto Transit Commission still operates the Toronto streetcar system and three heavy-rail subway lines using this unique gauge. The light metro Scarborough RT and two light rail lines under construction ( Eglinton Crosstown line and Finch West ) use standard gauge. In 1851,

10152-509: The region, with sustained speeds of 200 km/h with future-proofing for 250 km/h. India's current high speed railway project is being built on the standard gauge due to limitations imposed by the Japanese consortium funding the project, however the feasibility reports by both the French and German consultants preferred a broad gauge high speed railway. These European reports stated that

10260-730: The same as the New York and Erie, although the original I&O was built to standard gauge and converted to wide gauge when rebuilt as the C&;S. The "Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad" was chartered December 4, 1850, to build a line from Scranton east to the Delaware River . Before it opened, the Delaware and Cobb's Gap and Lackawanna and Western were consolidated by the Lackawanna Steel Company into one company,

10368-602: The same reason. While the parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was initially prepared to authorise lines built to the broad gauge of 7 ft ( 2,134 mm ), it was eventually rejected by the Gauge Commission in favour of all new railways in England, Wales and Scotland being built to standard gauge of 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ), this being

10476-427: The standard gauge for the Province of Canada , becoming known as the Provincial gauge , and government subsidies were unavailable for railways that chose other gauges. In the 1870s, mainly between 1872 and 1874, Canadian broad-gauge lines were changed to standard gauge to facilitate interchange and the exchange of rolling stock with American railways. Today, all Canadian railways are standard-gauge. In US, this gauge

10584-430: The vast majority of cases. In Great Britain , broad gauge was first used in Scotland for the Dundee and Arbroath Railway (1836–1847) and the Arbroath and Forfar Railway (1838–1848). Both short and isolated lines, they were built in 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ). The lines were subsequently converted to standard gauge and connected to the emerging Scottish rail network. The Great Western Railway

10692-501: The whole system was re-gauged to standard gauge in one day. The New York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was chartered on August 26, 1880, and opened on September 17, 1882, to continue the railroad from Binghamton west and northwest to Buffalo. The main line ran to the International Bridge to Ontario , and a branch served downtown Buffalo. A spur from Wayland served Hornellsville (Hornell). On December 1, 1903,

10800-430: Was adopted for many lines, but soon fell out in favour of standard gauge. Today, only California's Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) uses this gauge. In British India , some standard gauge freight railways were built in initial period, though they were dismantled later. Later, in the 1850s, the gauge of 5 ft 6 in ( 1,676 mm ) was adopted as standard for the nationwide network. Attempts to economize on

10908-554: Was converted. In 1886, the railways in the Southern United States agreed to coordinate changing gauge on all their tracks. After considerable debate and planning, most of the southern rail network was converted from 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ) gauge to 4 ft 9 in ( 1,448 mm ) gauge, nearly the standard of the Pennsylvania Railroad , over two days beginning on 31 May 1886. Over

11016-443: Was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838 with a gauge of 7 ft  1 ⁄ 4  in ( 2,140 mm ), and retained this gauge until 1892. Some harbours also used railways of this gauge for construction and maintenance. These included Portland Harbour and Holyhead Breakwater, which used a locomotive for working sidings . As it was not connected to the national network, this broad-gauge operation continued until

11124-507: Was forced to downgrade the Erie side, and even considered its abandonment west of Port Jervis. In the meantime, the EL was forced to run its long freights over the reconfigured Boonton Line, which east of Mountain View in Wayne, NJ meant running over the Erie's Greenwood Lake Branch, a line that was never intended to carry the level of freight traffic to which the EL would subject it. In 1972,

11232-617: Was free to choose its own gauge, although the availability of British-built locomotives encouraged some railways to be built to standard gauge. As a general rule, southern railways were built to one or another broad gauge, mostly 5 ft ( 1,524 mm ), while northern railroads that were not standard gauge tended to be narrow gauge. Most of the original track in Ohio was built in 4 ft 10 in ( 1,473 mm ) Ohio gauge , and special "compromise cars" were able to run on both this track and standard gauge track. In 1848, Ohio passed

11340-583: Was fully merged into the DL&W. This line ran east–west across northern New Jersey, crossing the Warren Railroad at Washington and providing access to Jersey City without depending on the CNJ. The M&E tunnel under Bergen Hill opened in 1876, relieving the Morris and Essex Railroad and its owners, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, from having to use the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway 's tunnel to reach Jersey City. Along with

11448-410: Was maintained. Some North American tram (streetcar) lines intentionally deviated from standard gauge. This may have been to make the tram companies less tempting targets for takeovers by the steam railways (or competing tram companies), which would be unable to run their trains over the tram tracks. Pennsylvania trolley gauge of 5 ft  2 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,588 mm ),

11556-502: Was organized March 3, 1869, to connect the end of the original line at Great Bend, Pennsylvania , to Binghamton, New York , avoiding reliance on the Erie. The new line opened on October 1, 1871. By 1873, the company controlled the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad , a branch from Scranton southwest to Northumberland with trackage rights over the Pennsylvania Railroad 's Northern Central Railway to Sunbury . On March 15, 1876,

11664-504: Was organized in 1869, opened in 1870, and was immediately leased to the company, providing a short branch off the Oswego line from Chenango Forks to Greene . Also in 1870, the company leased the Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley Railway , continuing this branch north to Utica , with a branch from Richfield Junction to Richfield Springs (fully opened in 1872). The "Valley Railroad"

#231768