(.11 cu. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Library / Library Reference Materials, ca 1834-1963. Right-of-way agreements might be attached to or referenced in the chain of title (i.e. Post Conrail ownership and secondary lines. (1 cu. ft.), Franklin Railroad Company / Minute Books, 1836-1853, 1859-1865. ft.), Valley Real Estate Company / Minute Book, 1907-1922. Hurricane Agnes in 1972 damaged the rundown Northeast railway network, which put the solvency of other railroads including the LVRR in danger; the somewhat more solvent Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL) was also damaged by Hurricane Agnes. Other resolutions: 320 240 pixels | 640 480 pixels | 1,024 768 pixels | 1,280 960 pixels | 2,560 1,920 pixels. (297 cu. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Letter Press Books of George W.I. (.2 cu. (21 cu. The line is part of Norfolk Southern's Harrisburg Division and it is part of Norfolk Southern's Crescent Corridor, a railroad corridor. (.1 cu. Annual Report of the State Board of Assessors of the State of New Jersey, News Printing Co., 1889, p.85. Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Co. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Survey Books and Legal Papers of the Pennsylvania Canal Company, 1857-1922. (.15 cu. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Library /Publicity Photographs, ca 1830-1960. The company was a subsidiary of the Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company (LC&N), but for much of its lifetime leased by the Central Railroad of New Jersey.It was founded in 1837 to carry coal from the North Branch Division of the Pennsylvania Canal to the . (bridge still exists today. (2006) ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Reports on Coal and Coal Mines, 1861-1864. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. ft.), Susquehanna Coal Company / Leases, 1883-1939. ft.), PRR / VP of Operation / Chief of Motive Power / Miscellaneous Motive Power Blueprints and Related Materials, ca 1900-1968. (5 cu. ft.), PRR / VP Eastern Region / Letter Books, 1924-1926. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Notes for Centennial History of PRR Company, ca 1946-1949. In 1920, the LVRR sold its lake line company, the Lehigh Valley Transportation Line, to private interests due to new federal legislation which stopped the practice of railroads owning lake lines. . [30] As a result of its leases and acquisitions, the Lehigh Valley gained a near-monopoly on traffic in the Finger Lakes region. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Information Books, ca 1926-1954. Through neglect, the Reading allowed the charter to lapse, and it was acquired by the Lehigh Valley, which immediately constructed the Schuylkill and Lehigh Valley Railroad. (.1 cu. ft.), Northern Central Railroad / Mortgage of the Northern Central Railway to Wistar Morris and Josiah Bacon, Trustees, 1868. The Vosburg Tunnel was completed and opened for service on July 25, 1886. Today, this route continues as two lines, one that is considered the original line that served as the main line for the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the other that is considered a new line that was once part of the original line that served as the main line for the Lehigh Valley Railroad. Order #20 of ICC, 1916-1921. [42], Following the Great Depression, the railroad had a few periods of prosperity, but was clearly in a slow decline. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Lease and Agreement Book, 1858-1889. The majority of the Lehigh Line is now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and retains much of its original route in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, although it no longer goes into New York City. (9 cu. ft.), Williamsport and Elmira Railroad / Annual Reports, 1856-1858. The "T" intersection is also visible on the map where the trains would turn into the depot at the village of Hemlock. ft.), Northern Central Railroad / Committee Minute Book, 1875-1914. It also built a passenger terminal in Buffalo in 1915. Packer brought additional financing to the railroad, installed Robert H. Sayre as chief engineer, and renamed the company the "Lehigh Valley Railroad." 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. 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 . ft.), Valley Real Estate Company - Ledger, 1907-1922. A daily freight train was put into operation leaving Easton in the morning and returning in the evening. Size of this PNG preview of this SVG file: Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents. The first acquisitions were the Beaver Meadow Railroad and Coal Company, which included a few hundred acres of coal land, and the Penn Haven and White Haven Railroad. The Penn Haven and White Haven Railroad allowed the LV to reach White Haven. 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. 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 . of F. Thomson and A.J. Budd Rail Diesel Car service would continue on a branch line (Lehighton-Hazleton) for an additional four days. It was opened on June 11, 1855, between Easton, Pennsylvania, and Allentown, Pennsylvania, passing through Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. | Library of Congress Outline map of the middle Atlantic states showing the three major lines in different colors. 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. [1], The length of the line from Mauch Chunk to Easton was 46 miles of single track. [10] The LVRR recognized that its own continued prosperity depended on obtaining what coal lands remained. The Pennsylvania merged with the New York Central in 1968, but the Penn Central failed in 1970, causing a cascade of railroad failures throughout the East. [6], Through a connection with the Central Railroad of New Jersey, LVRR passengers had a route to Newark, New Jersey, Jersey City, New Jersey, and other points in New Jersey. It opened a hotel in Glen Summit, Pennsylvania, called the Glen Summit Hotel to serve lunch to passengers traveling on the line. The railroad then set its sights northward. President of the Lehigh Valley System Through War, He Recently Retired", Lehigh Valley Railroad Historical Society, Luzerne County PAGenWeb (One Hundred Years of The Lehigh Valley), Lehigh Valley pages on Western NY Railroad Archive, Beyond Steel: An Archive of Lehigh Valley Industry and Culture, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lehigh_Valley_Railroad&oldid=1141748396. (.3 cu. Lehigh Valley Terminal DL&W Train Shed Metro Rail Stations: Light Rail Rapid Transit System Miami Street Freight House / Franklin Terminals Belt Line Railroad: Daniel Zornick,, Beltline Railroad Illustrated essay Map: 1894 City of Buffalo Atlas map (online Sept. 2020) Miscellany: Robert Holder, History of Early Railroads in Buffalo ft.), North Penn Coal Company / Minute Book, 1913-1938. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Record of Expenditures Under Authority of Forms 1416, ca 1917-1926. In 1882, the LVRR began an extensive expansion into New York from Waverly to Buffalo. 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 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. [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. The 46-mile-long (74km) LVRR connected at Mauch Chunk with the Beaver Meadow Railroad. ft.), PRR / President / Presidential Correspondence of W.W. Atterbury, 1925-1935. In 1871, the LVRR leased the Morris Canal, which had a valuable outlet in Jersey City on the Hudson River opposite Manhattan. The Chandler Acts of 1938-9 provided a new form of relief for railroads, allowing them to restructure their debt while continuing to operate. [53] The only daylight New York-Buffalo train, the "Black Diamond", was discontinued in 1959. :-)). (.5 cu. (.02 cu. [1][19][bettersourceneeded][20]. 1906 Antique Lehigh Valley Railroad Map Vintage Lehigh Valley Railway Map Birthday Gift for Dad Anniversary 527 ad vertisement by plaindealing. [15] Asa Packer purchased additional land at the canal basin in support of the New Jersey West Line Railroad, which he hoped to use as the LVRR's terminal. Size of this PNG preview of this SVG file: 800 600 pixels. [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. (.1 cu. ft.), PRR / President / Clement / Eastern Region Coordinating Committee Files, 1933-1936. (.3 cu. Congress reacted with the 1906 Hepburn Act, which among other things forbade railroads from owning the commodities that they transported. Originally incorporated as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company. ft.), Manor Real Estate and Trust Company / Property Ledger, 1886-1916. (.4 cu. ft.), VP of Real Estate / Letter Press Books of W.H. 1835-1925]. ft.), Leechburg Company / Minute Books, 1937-1954. 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 CNJ, anticipating that the LVRR intended to create its own line across New Jersey, protected itself by leasing the Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad (L&S) to ensure a continuing supply of coal traffic. 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). Lehigh Valley Railroad 4-6-2 K-6B steam locomotive 2097 decorated for the railroad's centennial and leading the second section of train 9, the "Black Diamond," with ten cars past the interlocking tower at Treichler, a railroad location in North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, on April 20, 1946. The Reading, now out of receivership, purchased the company and brought the other coal railroads into the partnership, with the Reading owning 30%, the LVRR 23%, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 20%, CNJ 17%, Erie 6%, and New York, Susquehanna and Western 4 percent. ft.), Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad / Contract Books, 1864-1891. The 1880s continued to be a period of growth, and the LVRR made important acquisitions in New York, expanded its reach into the southern coal field of Pennsylvania which had hitherto been the monopoly of the Reading, and successfully battled the CNJ over terminal facilities in Jersey City. (1.5 cu. Its bankruptcy resulted in economic chaos, bringing on the financial panic of 1893 and forcing the LVRR to break the lease and resume its own operations, leaving it unable to pay dividends on its stock until 1904. ft.), Pennsylvania and North Western Railroad / Annual Reports, 1890-1901. (.25 cu. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Contract Book of George B. Roberts, 1869-1884. ft.), Finley Company / Minute Books, 1945-1959. [39], Following the defeat of its plan, the D&H sold its stock to the Pennsylvania Railroad. The LVRR operated several named trains in the post-World War II era. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. (1 cu. (.1 cu. (.02 cu. That southern field held the largest reserves of anthracite in Pennsylvania and accounted for a large percentage of the total production. Lehigh Valley Railroad System Map.svg. [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. ft.), Erie-Lackawanna Railway / General Correspondence Files, 1953-1967, Erie Railroad / Land Record Books,[ ca 1831-1915]. The Depression had been difficult for all the railroads, and Congress recognized that bankruptcy laws needed revision. By 1970, this had dwindled to 927 miles of road and 1963 miles of track. (4 cu. (.1 cu. (1 cu. (1.5 cu. 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 banking giant J. P. Morgan stepped in to refinance the LVRR debt and obtained control of the railroad in the process. ft.), Enola Realty Company / Ledgers, 1905-1932. (2.25 cu. [43] The terms of the restructurings precluded dividend payments until 1953, when LVRR common stock paid the first dividend since 1931. In 1892, the Reading Railroad thought it had a solution instead of attempting to maintain agreements among the coal railroads, it would purchase or lease the major lines and bring them into a monopoly. On June 21, 1970, the Penn Central declared bankruptcy and sought bankruptcy protection. :-) Disclaimers: The Lehigh and Susquehanna Railroad is a defunct railroad that operated in eastern Pennsylvania during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Coverage includes locations in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. w/ Val. Some lines were subsequently abandoned and even dismantled long before the expiration date came up. (.4 cu. 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. This page was last edited on 15 September 2020, at 21:11. Full Promotional Video: Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway Welcome to the Lehigh Valley Railroad Modeler! (3.5 cu. ft.), PRR / VP of Finance / Treasurer / Treasurer's Cash Books, 1847-1863, 1865-1925. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Minute Books of the Real Estate Committee, 1869-1918. [1], On May 17, 1879, Asa Packer, the company's founder and leader, died at the age of 73. Other good sources of detailed real estate depictions are the, The "Transportation" section of the State Archives', #544, U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Maps, 1942-1973, #567, T.M. 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? (2 cu. 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 . The Lehigh Valley Railroad's original and primary route between Easton and Allentown was built in 1855. 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. (.1 cu. (.25 cu. (.11 cu. Following Loomis' death in 1937, the presidency went to Loomis' assistant Duncan J. Kerr,[40] but in 1940 he was replaced by Albert N. Williams,[41] and the road came under the influence of the PRR. While researchers are welcome to come in and browse through the hundreds of boxes of rolled maps and drawings, Archives staff is not able to do research for non-visiting patrons in this series. ft.), PRR / VP of Operation / Chief of Motive Power / Letter Books, 1926. It passes through the approximately 5,000-foot Pattenburg Tunnel in West Portal, New Jersey, along its route. railroad archivist. ft.), Peoria and Eastern Railway / Annual Reports, 1928-1936, 1938-1961, 1963-1966, 1970-1973, 1976. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Board Files: BFA Series, ca 1905-1960. In 1880, the LVRR established the Lehigh Valley Transportation Line to operate a fleet of ships on the Great Lakes with terminals in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Duluth. ft.), Ridgeway and Clearfield Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. 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]. By the 1960s, railroads in the East were struggling to survive. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Pennsylvania Railroad and Long Island RR Directors' Inspection Trip Book, 1947. ft.), PRR / VP of Purchase / General Correspondence and Confidential Files of C.D. The remainder of the assets were disposed of by the estate until it was folded into the non-railroad Penn Central Corporation in the early 1980s. ft.), Berkshire Land Company / Cash Book, 1945-1953. (2.25 cu. For 25 years the Lehigh Canal had enjoyed a monopoly on downstream transportation and was charging independent producers high fees. File usage on Commons. (.6 cu. (.1 cu. ft.), Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad / Agreements, Leases and Mortgage, 1847-1886. In the war years 1914 to 1918, the Lehigh handled war materials and explosives at its Black Tom island facility, which had been obtained along with the National Docks Railroad in 1900. In 1883, Hartshorne retired to allow Harry E. Packer, Asa's 32-year-old youngest son, to assume the Presidency. (5.6 cu. The building shutdown in 1961 and was demolished. He was also an enthusiastic member of the Society's modeling committee . ft.), Valley Real Estate Company / Cash Book, 1907-1922. (.12 cu. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Poor's Railroad Manuals, 1923-1949. At Phillipsburg, New Jersey, the Belvidere Delaware Railroad connected to Trenton, New Jersey. East of the junction with the Reading Line in Allentown and in Bethlehem, the line serves as Norfolk Southern's main corridor in and out of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and the New York Metro Area at large, as Norfolk Southern doesn't currently use the eastern half of its Southern Tier Line, which follows the Delaware River from Port Jervis north to Binghamton, New York, and which is now (2022) operated by the Central New York Railroad. (.25 cu. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. (12 cu. how long the Rights-of-Way were for, when the track was laid, and when the time limit was or will be up. The coal railroads had begun in 1873 to form pools to regulate production and set quotas for each railroad. 1948: ALCO PA passenger diesels replace steam on all passenger runs. In 1870, the Lehigh Valley Railroad acquired trackage rights to Auburn, New York, on the Southern Central Railroad.[1]. (2 cu. Ended: Mar 02, 2023. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / General Correspondence Files, 1972-1976. ft.), West Lane Garage Company / Minute Book, 1934-1943. Oil and gas were supplanting coal as the fuel of choice. ft.), PRR / President / Presidential Correspondence of A.J. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Minute Books of the Road Committee, 1847-1948. Photograph by Donald W. Furler, Furler-12-021-01 . 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. Finally in 1887 the two railroads reached a settlement, and construction of the LVRR's Jersey City freight yard began. the succession of recorded deeds). The line and the rest of the Lehigh Valley Railroad was absorbed into Conrail in 1976 and was maintained as a main line into the New York City area. Maps of North America. (.16 cu. The LVRR began construction of a series of railroads to connect the Easton and Amboy line (Easton and Amboy Railroad) to Jersey City. The Geneva, Ithaca & Athens Railroad passed into the hands of the LVRR in September 1876, which extended from the New York state line near Sayre, Pennsylvania, to Geneva, New York, a distance of 75 miles. Across the river in Easton, Pennsylvania, the line interchanges with its Pennsylvania side branch line, the Portland Secondary, which extends from Easton to Portland, Pennsylvania, connecting to the Stroudsburg Secondary, which was originally part of the Lackawanna Old Road (or simply Old Road); the Stroudsburg Secondary goes under the Lackawanna Cut-Off and connects with the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad. These operators include: The Lehigh Line was the Lehigh Valley Railroad's first rail line and served as the main line. ft.), Philadelphia and Erie Railroad / Report to the Superintendant of the Tenth Census, 1880. [1] Operations continued until the LVRR's bankruptcy in 1976. Railroad Leader. Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, Pub.L. ft.), Erie Railroad / Miscellaneous Land Records, [ca. ft.), PRR / VP of Altoona Works / Record of Operating Expenses of the Juniata Shop, 1914-1918. (.03 cu. 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. plaindealing From shop plaindealing. ft.), Coxe Brothers and Company, Inc. / Appendix to Estimates of Coal on Properties Owned or Controlled, 1925. The line gave the LVRR a route into Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and the Schuylkill Valley coal fields.[32]. At the end of that time period, the use rights would have to be re-negotiated, or full use and control would revert to the current property owner. ft.), Germantown, Norristown, and Phoenixville Railroad / Minute Book, 1881-1886. [8] The purchasing of the North Branch Canal saw an opportunity for a near monopoly in the region north of the Wyoming Valley. [31], In Pennsylvania, the Lehigh scored a coup by obtaining the charter formerly held by the Schuykill Haven and Lehigh River Railroad in 1886. By controlling supply, the coal combination attempted to keep prices and profits high. The LVRR strove throughout the 1880s to acquire its own route to Jersey City and to the Jersey City waterfront. File. The Valuable Papers are arranged numerically by file number, and are indexed by 27 rolls of 16 mm microfilm (roll #s RRV 1073-1099) in a variety of ways: alphabetically by personal or corporate name of parties, alphabeticaly by name of geographical location, and numerically by file number. ft.), PRR / Comptroller / General Correspondence Files, 1924-1964. The Lehigh Valley Railroad remained in operation during the 1970 bankruptcy, as was the common practice of the time. The original maps were never transferred to the Archives, but a book by book inventory of the film exists. The two roads had entered a shared trackage agreement in this area in 1965 to reduce costs, as both had parallel routes from Wilkes-Barre virtually all the way to metropolitan New York, often on adjoining grades through Pennsylvania. (.2 cu. (.1 cu. No comprehensive finding aid exists for these records. ft.), Bell's Gap Railroad / Annual Reports, 1873-1889. Additional passenger trains ran from Philadelphia to Scranton and westward. Photo by Doug Lilly. 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}. 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. ft.), A publication by Thomas Townsend Taber (Thomas T. Taber III) entitled, PRR / Comptroller / Confidential Annual Reports of Affiliated Corporations, 1892-1959. 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. An sample frame of this film appears to the right of this paragraph, though not all frames show the names of property owners. ft.), Buffalo Creek Railroad / Valuable Papers Files, 1868-1967. ft.), PRR / V.P. Throughout that decade, expansions continued into New York by taking over smaller lines and building new railroad. (1 cu. [citation needed]. Conrail maintained the line as a main line into the New York City area. ft.), Girard Point Storage / Record of Deeds, 1881-1896. (1.25 cu. Some of the lines and branches covered in the series'twenty-four boxes include: For maps of the routes and land holdings of the Lehigh and New England Railroad, the series Map of Lehigh Valley Railroad's terminal at Jersey City Map of Lehigh Valley Railroad's Roselle and South Plainfield Railway In 1880, the LVRR established the Lehigh Valley Transportation Line to operate a fleet of ships on the Great Lakes with terminals in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Duluth.