Lackawanna Cut-Off - Part 19: Roadways Under and Over the Cut-Off

Lackawanna Cut-Off - Part 19: Roadways Under and Over the Cut-Off

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Hi. Welcome. To port. 19, and the lack want to cut off, roadways. Under, and over the cutoff, hi. I'm Chuck Walsh and. I'm president of the North Jersey rail commuter Association. And. We're here at the. Station in Lake, apat calm landing. New Jersey, and. We're, going to do a trip. Not. Exactly over, the cutoff but, these zagging, under, and over it from. Here, all the way. To slate. Four Junction. Now. Via, the right-of-way, that's. Distance, about 28 and a half miles, twenty, eight point four five to be exact miles. Our. Trip though because, of the fact we're going to need to, go along, roadways that. For. The most part goes north and south it means that our, trips can be a bit longer than that. Now. What, we're going to do is and, I'm going to narrow it as we go along because. You're. Gonna get not only a sense of the. Different, crossing so it's not just about, bridges. And underpasses and. In a couple of cases great, crossings, let's. Also get an idea of what the area looks like and also because. The. Fast majority, of people see. The cut off from the perspective that we're going to see it not. Where, you're, up on the right-of-way that's. What we're trying to do ultimately. Where you'll be able to ride a train on that cut off and you'll be able to see it from that perspective but at this point you of course you can't unless, you drive on it but it's still not the same so what. But what we're doing is we're going to take a trip so. I'm going to pull out of here instead, of going right or. And from. Your perspective left, off. On to the cut off I'm going, to be going in this direction and, we're actually going to start, our track which. Will bring us up. To where the cutoff is the cutoff starts about a quarter mile west, of here we're like, a pack on station is just east of the beginning, of the cutoff and so. With. That I guess we'll just put it in gear and off. We go. Now, here at Lake Capac I like to talk about this because. I've. Talked about this before that the station. Early capac um was originally. Built. An anticipation, of the way the cutoff would be built, expansion. And from, two. To four tracks here, because. Of the situation. With the. The. New. Line. That was starting. And, I've pulled out here and this is this whole, intersection. This. Building. On the left here is going to come down the the, the. Old concrete. Bridge that. Goes over the station area, this is landing road we're now going on to Lakeside Boulevard.

That's. Going to come down there'll be a new bridge so, that there's, a lot, of new changes that are going to be happening here the lake a pack on is right here you when I talk about it being a stone's throw from the station. There. It is it's literally to a right. Now. What we're going to do is. And, at this point out that we're, probably, roughly. Even. With the the tower port, more so the cutoff is what. The sense already started, westbound. But, the thing is though because. The some of these roads. We're gonna have to do some, you. Turning, and going. Around in, indirect. Ways because there's no other way to do it but. We're gonna basically. Show. You, the area now this is. Landing. Landing. New jersey that like. A pack on is offshore right once. Again the cutoff is off to our left we're going to go and, take. A look right, near Port Morris. We're. Going to go. And. Actually. Go. Under, the white rack and then go. On. To the mainline as well. And we'll sneak. Into port Morris briefly. Not. Going to do a tour port Mars per se port Morse is actually a town as a, small town is part of Roxbury Township. Now, when. The, cutoff was sold back, in 80. Spending. 86. By, conrail. It. Was, picked. Up by two different, developers. And one of them was, Burton Gould Meyer who picked up the I'll. Call it the eastern section, of the. Cutoff flow over a mile and a half and. That. He. Was going to build and I guess he did build some sort of development, and that's I believe off to the right here. And. He was going to wanted to use to cut off as some sort of access. Road. That, never happened, fortunately. The, cutoff was required so. This. Is a short, distance away here going to see both first, the cut off the, main line of the. Cut off you see the first, bridge the overhead bridge here. And you. Can see there's a mist sign for port Mars. And. Here. Comes the Y track. Bridge a single. Track here but, why, it was only a single track and. Then we're, going to do a Yui here. To. Get. Back in the direction in which we want to go. And. We'll just pause as we do this because we. Will be passing by. New. Jersey Transit's. Entrance. Here to port, Morris yard it's, just off on the right here. There. Are employee entrance important. Wash yard is up on the right here but the Y comes or now we're going the opposite direction obviously, and. Now. We're, leaving port more so you can see 1910. Up on the. Now. We're leaving port Morris and going into, landing, back in the landing. So. There's a short part. Of the cut off which is actually a Morris County the vast majority of the, cut off is in Sussex, and Warren County, and then. Little. Short. Section in Pennsylvania, that's and just. Open Northampton, County and. Pennsylvania. So, it's kind of a residential, area I guess you could say I think. That's safe to say, characterize, it in those terms. Okay. So. I make a left here on the Lakeside Boulevard. And the obvious reason why it's called lakeside Boulevard, because we're like. Sides of like a patcon, and. Lake, apat calm. Feeds. The. Must, connect Kong river which passes under the cut-off will also see it as. We. Pass. On our way off to. Route. 602. Which. Will be our. Next. Crossing, on. The cutoff. There's, a pack, on State Park which is a big. Swimming. Area that this time of year. September. I wouldn't. Expect I'm, not even sure if it's even open but. During. The summer time when it's nice and hot that there. They actually have to put signs on Route 80 and they when, it gets. Full they actually put signs and say that it's closed because it's they've run out of room. Because. It gets so, crowded. Ok, here we go. Back, on state park let's connect on rivers is this bridge here at the just, before the traffic light a. Fish. A quote, Brooklyn. Stanhope, road, but. It's County. Road 602. This, I guess would because since it Brooklyn, Brooklyn. New. Jersey, and then, the other opposite, end of the road is in Stanhope's, are there for Brooklyn Stanhope, Road. Cutoff, us in front of us now we when we get to the the. Crossing. I'm. Going to point out the fact that there the, road has been reconfigured it, was reconfigured, back in. 1990. It's been a long time. And, what happened is that the old. Underpass. Has been replaced by what. Is will. Be a great crossing or. Crossing, at grade. The. And I don't even know if we can see it with all the. Undergrowth. But there. The. The roadway. The old 602, that. Has been abandoned. Has. Is. Still there but in the weeds but and the. The. Underpass, is still there but it's. It. Hasn't been used for the, better part of 30 years now. But, it had a very very low clearance I'm gonna say around 8:00. Between. Eight nine feet so it was. Short. That, was one problem with the other one was that it was on a hairpin, turn. And. It was also a one, lane underpass. So therefore it had basically, three strikes against it. And made, it basically.

When The the, cutoff was abandoned. Before. That. The. I, guess. You can say the county planners jumped on it and made sure they were able to replace. The road because, or, reconfigured. So that you, didn't have the admittedly. The problems that were associated with that particular setup. They, figured that when the the, cutoff was built. The. Single. Passenger car was just, starting, now there was so, that there. Was still a horse-drawn. Buggies. And such cutoff, is immediately to our left it's you can't, really see it but it's down. Below us but it's it's very close and we'll, be crossing, it very shortly. The old road used to 602. One down below and into, there you can't even really see it here, comes the cutoff where it crosses will be a great crossing, here. And. They'll, have quad gates in other words of the gates on all. Four. Sides of the road to prevent people from possibly, trying to go around the gates when they come to hell it rains coming. That. Will also allow it to be a quiet zone so they don't have to blow the horn, is. It a warning that. The train is coming so that the. Flashing, lights and the gates will be considered, to be sufficient. Okay. Now we're going on to County Road 605, which is called well they call it Sparta road but that just. Sparked. A stay in Hope Road, we're. In stand hold now so we're on the opposite end but. We're. To continue the end would end up in, Sparta. So. In, this case the cutoff is off. To, our right. But. We're heading towards it. We're about the past, Lenape, Valley High School. That's, that's very close to the cutoff. I'm gonna coming up here on the left-hand side right. Here. Homie the Patriots. Now. The 6:05. Setup. Was quite, a bit different than one time was a single lane bridge off to the left. This. Has also been reconfigured, but not a great crossing because the cutoff is down in the cut below us so it's actually. The. Road here's been built on this massive fill. On top, of a bridge and, the. Bridge goes over the cutoff we've. Been under this and part. 16 where, you would see this. You. Can see the bridge sides, of the bridge here but all this is a, dirt. Or whatever they use underneath it and then the old bridge is off too far to the left well. Not far enough this right there basically. Okay. So that's. 605. That. Was, redone. Back in the oh, boy. I'm. Gonna say the two thousand told us put it that way and, I can't remember the exact date but it's it's a little bit more recent I believe than. The great crossing. So. The cutoff is to our left, and. Down in a cut. And we're gradually going to be. For. The time being well, above it you can't, see, it. In. In, the day you could run, before the reforestation, of, the whole area occurred. Here's. The sussex county library the branch here and this considered, Byram, believe. Cut, off goes through a total of nine. Municipalities. And we. Will believe, go through each and every one of those I'm, talking about in New Jersey now. I get, an idea this is surely. World. Here. We're. Still the cutoff is below. Us. And then it's going to be curving, away from us but we're going to turn towards it.

And We'll be catching. Up with a. But, they've been photos have been taken off of this. Area. Off on the left back when the cutoff, was under construction, and, you, could see the cutoff and. Maybe. If the trees if, if. This were wintertime. And the, trees. Were without leaves you, maybe, be able to see through a little, bit but there's. Just so many trees now it's it's basically, impossible. Now, when the cutoff was built it wasn't built with the intent of. Connecting. The dots in other words connecting, this city with that city or that town with that town, in. Fact of anything it, was. Built with the intent of avoiding, towns. Really. The only town that actually came, close to a nacho there was a station was Greendale, which. Will of course we'll go through but. What. Happened, was and this wasn't an intent but what would if, you were to try to chase a train. Chasing. The sense that you would want to take a photo of the train at let's say yep let's, say port Morris and maybe try to get one of that I, don't know Greendale, look Blair's down basically, impossible to. Try to get. There. In. Time to set, up and have to catch. The train because, not. Only were the trains be going fast but the roadways, don't enable you to. Basically. Parallel, and catch. Up. So. What we're doing. Here. Is basically having. To go. Westward. By actually, going north-south. You, know in some cases right, now we're literally going due north for, them be, going west make a turn up here at the. This, stop, sign. And that we go on to County Road 607. You like that so we've kind of working. Our way up, the. Numbers. Moment. We're, gonna go over lubbers, run. Le. Ubber, s. There. Might have been a apostrophe. And there sometime you. Know but lubbers. Run and. That. Would be, right. About, somewhere. Underneath here, it is. We. Might have just passed under, it. Now the question what's, the significance of Weber's run. Well. You'll see the significance, of lovers run in a couple. Minutes. But I've pointed this out and I'll keep referencing at. Least for the until we get to and over to port 16 because a lot of the things that we're, going to see from here, are going to be the same. Thing. That's been written from a different perspective and. Lepers. Run is one of the things I mentioned in, that particular, part. Because. That. Creates. Both. Dallas pond and Lake Lackawanna, which are, interconnected. Lovers, run together they've already figured out as a stream it's just, a there. Are a couple of runs in this area at once pumpkin, run which I'll probably. Talk about a little bit but lubbers, run is the the one which. Creates. These two. Contiguous. Ponds. I guess you would say or once a pond wants a lake I mean weak like one is a pretty large lake. I don't. Know if we're gonna be able to see Dallas Pond with. All. The trees. We. Will be able to see like like one I can guarantee, you that. We're going to be going underneath the cutoff this is a Lackawanna, Drive that we're on. The, Dallas pond is just off to the left I can kind, of see it it's a it's it, would be difficult to see it through the trees though. So, I'm not gonna fault my videographer for, not turning to capture. That but. We will be coming up here on Lake Lackawanna, and. There's, actually a dam, right at the. Underneath, the cutoff and that separates, the two attached it creates Dallas pond and then, the the spillover creates, Lake Lackawanna, which is off to our left but. You can see through perhaps see through the trees. And, that's a fairly, large lake and there's actually another dam. That. Creates. That. Neither its holds the water back. You can see more of it here. And there are a bunch of houses that surround. The lake. So, this, intersection. We're coming up to we're, going.

To Be making a right you see what kind of weaving around the perimeter. Of the lake. And. This, is a Roseville, Road and. Roseville. Road and, if you think of Roseville Tunnel yes are they related yeah absolutely. They. Most certainly are. So, we're now kind of becoming we're not now going to north again I'm. Going be coming up on the cutoff. Come, up on. Which, used to be open years ago I remember, being open the whole Wolf Lake road has been closed for. Quite. Some time as well but there. This. Is considered Wolf Lake here, it's, one, of the I guess the borrow pits. That fill them with water a lot of lily pads now. But. This was fed by. Pumpkin. Run rule. Was. Another run coming from the, direction which we're going right now. Leporem. Came, from the north. Pumpkin, run came. From sort of like the the. West here. When. I was surrounded on both sides we actually parked here you know for one. Of our trips along. The cutoff. I think, it was during the construction. Part. That we did. Okay, so this is our first. Underpass. On. Roseville. Road there are two underpasses, on one overpass, it's. The only Road on the cutoff which has, three. Crossings, so. Now. The cutoff is on our left. I'll, be coming up and a little bit on Wright pond which is really. Was. The. Source. Of. Pumpkin. Run pumpkin, run doesn't really exist per, se anymore, because, now they're their, ponds, that are. On, the opposite side right. Pond, is on the north side the their. Ponds. On the south. Side of the cutoff and, they're, also. They. They interact, and they all I guess eventually feed into Lake Lackawanna, as well. Did. See a bridge there so there's that that there okay. This this is an underpass, coming up this underpass is going to undergo some sort of. Restoration. Rehabilitation at. Some point no. Exactly, sure when that's going to take place but as, apparently. Is on this the, construction schedule, a, pond. Is off to our right. Just, slow, down here, and get a quick, view of it a lot of lily pads this, time of year. Yeah, there, we go. There's. A cottage that sits on it very pretty okay. We go under the underpass. More, ponds. With lovely Pat's Roseville. Road, this. Is Rosa Rosa, tunnel is just off to a right cannot. See it from here. Coming. Up on CEO Johnson, Park. And by room that's. Probably. The best way to access going. Above. The tunnel and you can get to the bottom, of the tunnel that way. Turn, here that would. Bring us to cranberry, lake if we were to go that. Way. That was a. A big, tourist destination, on the Sussex branch, course long gone but, just. FYI and, that. Okay, the park it would be coming up on our right and. The. Tunnel is basically, over. Yonder, you it's. And. Underneath. That I'll. Say that mountain, there. At. Least it even with it. Past, the park we actually recorded. Here I stopped. For Roseville tunnel. At. That points, back this couple of years ago now almost. This, bridge was out. This. Little. Over a year now it's been open so we're coming up on that a new bridge, cut. Off us to a right down. In the cut. They're probably just even or a little bit beyond the western. Portal, of the color that the Rose. Will tunnel right now. We go. Go. Over the bridge over, the cutoff. At, this point you when, they clear this out a lot of trees you're going to clear this out you'll be able to see Roseville, tunnel very easily I'm sure. And to our left is where the cutoff is and would be coming up on Andover station but first we're coming up on Hudson. Farm which is. There's. An issue that's been resolved, but there, for. Several years there was a, need to have, to get an agreement between Hudson farm in new jersey transit to replace a culvert. Pipe. We. Were over here in. Part. 16 as well. That's. Coming up on on the right and. That. Agreement was struck. Officially. On June 25th, and from. What we're being told by New Jersey Transit that they're moving ahead with. Their. Planning for the tunnel and the. Replacement, of the culvert as well I can't. Give you any schedules at this point but there they are moving ahead, and. You're the red barn not. Sure if the barn will stay or go but the pipe, comes very close if not underneath the barn. So. Here's the where. This is what's in farm. And, the. The, pipe is very beneath. This and. The. Department, of Environmental Protection, Dean. Didn't, insufficient. In case of a hundred year floods and and, this, is the. Stream beside. Us now and, over junction brook. Now. That culprit. Has to be replaced okay, on the left is Andover. Station stop the.

Planning For this is. Told. Is going to, be isn't, ongoing, and, we're. Fortunate. Enough we'll be seeing I don't. Expect to see anything tangible on, the up. To here this is the basically, end of the. The, what, will be the end over service, now phase one the, restoration, that got off but. This. We won't see any tangent anything tangible 2018-2019. Hopefully. Yes we'll, see okay. So. Roseville, Road now we're going to actually had you get an idea how. Close. Or relatively, speaking there are to the center of Andover, or. To route 206 which, is actually in some ways I guess even more important because that would be the main route. By. Which many. People if they're going to use on, the end over service. Would. Access this site. It's. Just. A tad, over a mile to route, 206. And. What we're going to do is when we get to the center of town and now we're just officially, entering, in Dover borough. What. We're going to do is make. A left and go under, route, 206. Under. The cutoff rather this, this. Is a, video. About the cutoff isn't it I will, be going under, the cutoff and then we'll have to do a a u-turn. Because it just. So. That were not more on during too far around the countryside, as much as it would be nice to to. Show you even more, they. I've. Tried. The plan there's such that we, would not. Wander too far from the cutoff and, extend. The. The. Video to. Extreme. Lengths. I understand. That probably some of you will be fast forwarding, for this I'm trying, to give you details. On little snippets. As we go along so hopefully, maybe that will discourage you from doing that and over, here's the center over then. Glad. To see we had, the traffic. Light cooperating, with us. It's. A small town. Finally. Beginning at rail station, that it. Did have a rail station on the Sussex branch which is going to be you. Know it's a Sussex branch trail now but it's going to be off to our almost. Immediate, right coming up here. They'll get very close, I can. Show you a photo of it being, very close to them the. Road weights. I think, it's all ready yet it's literally right next to us here you can see that it's a. Guardrail. And just, to the right so it's and. Then it goes, underneath the the, peak West fill or actually yeah is the peak, West Phyllis start it started just west of the. Andover. Station, stop here we go under, the underpass. Another. 1910. Underpass. And. What, we're going to do is. Make. A left here into Forest Lakes in this. Come, back around. So, that we can, continue. Back. In. The opposite direction. And. You'll get a view of the. 1910. Up. Under, paths in the opposite, direction. That. We're not gonna. Go. Too far, up here we're gonna make a. Left-hand. Turn. And I watch across the, what, was the Sussex branch. I go, on to West 6:06, only for brief. Distance. Karen. And. I've just crossed over the Sussex branch right there and. Then. We're going to. Go, through another underpass. This. Road which is. 5:17. Another. Complicated. Intersection. A five-way. Intersection. You can see the sign for Greendale we'll get the Greendale but not, yeah. Its we're, not. Too far actually. Okay, the P quest fill covered, with trees at this point but there's an underpass and, you, can see that the that. The. Height of the underpass is varied, to route, 206 of 14 feet this one's just, a, little bit under 11 feet, the. Soccer field, my. Videographer literacy. Used to play at from. Time to time. See, the. Agricultural. Type, of land, here in, a farmland. Let's, a semi-rural. I don't know, there there's still some civilization. Intermittently. And, over is a. It's. Not a large town but it's not a tiny. Thing. And. It is on an amazing highway. So there, are advantages to in. Terms of it being a station, stop. So, we're gonna head straight and actually, we'll. Be heading to Greendale. Eventually, we're getting there but not we, still have at least a. Couple. More things to look at before we get to the. Greendale. Cutoff, us to a right we're now going due West. Now, we're doing Southwest, so. As. I was talking about before that the roadways, here go and then I'll say a haphazard way because they were here. Long. Before the cutoff and probably in most cases. And. If you look at old railroad, maps of, New, Jersey, from, its. 1890. Or. Certainly. Anything after 1890, basically. The everything's fixed, and the towns are fixed or no new towns being created after that but the cutoff comes in 20. Years later after, that, so. It's being interposed. On a map that's already in many ways pretty much established. So. Its influence, on the, I, didn't, really it's. A change a lot. In terms of like creating new towns or. Maybe. To some extent. Might. Have helped augment, the size of a place like Blair's, town maybe. Okay. This I. Believe. That's we're. Just passing, NV, and capital. N ve pharmaceuticals. Which, I want, to say was originally, the site of the cement.

Plant On the Lehigh, and Hudson River, that. Was used the Lehi, Hudson River railway that. Was used to build. The cutoff it was a cement plant and, missus. EQuest. Road going back under, the cutoff going, north. We're gonna make a. My correctness. All that says this airport road this is peak West were coming up on, Sutton. Here but it becomes peak West now, we're gonna go, past. I'll. Call it historic site because I think it's fair to call it that the. Sight of. Us. Just applause here. Here. Is. The. What. Was old schoolhouse, at, Huntsville, that was built after the, one, that, I guess was made out of wood that the, one the original. Schoolhouse. That was, buried underneath the peak Westfeldt which is it Mediate left. And. We were here before but, gives. You an idea of its relationship to. The. Area but it was it, was only it was only used for a relatively short period of time. And. Then because as small as you could see that black one didn't spend a whole lot of money to build a large. Schoolhouse. Obviously. I, want. To say it was used, maybe. Until 1920, 1930, I'm. Off the top of my head. An, old. Graveyard. Coming, up, and. Now it officially it will become peak West Road. And. We'll be crossing over the peak West River. For. Which the peak. West fill is named. Here, is the peak West River. And that'll meander, off to, our left here, and we will. Approximately. Parallel, both. The, river and. The. Cutoff. The, river will dive, underneath the cut off before, we dive. Underneath, the cut off. But, there's no other, crossings. Except, for the last one coming up here that. Go, underneath the peak West Phil. So, when we go into the peak Westfield we're regularly at the the. Far end of the peak westphall and then. Basically. From there it's. About a mile or so if you were traveling on the the. Cutoff, maybe. Two miles maybe, tops to. Greendale. So. We'll have to zigzag around. To in order to get there. So. By now that peak, West rivers, gone, underneath, the cutoff I believe that's, a gas in this perspective. And we're going to go underneath it. Yeah right here. We go. Underneath we go. I couldn't, really read, that to be honest with you with what the date was it, can only be the 1908, 1909 10:00 or 11:00. Okay, so now the cutoff is or right. And we're, heading towards. Greendale. I mention. The wall that. Cutoff might have helped build up Blairstown, a little bit. It, may, have helped build up Greendale a little bit but Green that was not. Very big the begin with and even, when. The cutoff was I had. A station open, which is, really. Only up until maybe 1940. And there, was maybe one or two trains at that point that we're stopping so not, really much in the way of rail service. Greendale, had not really become. All that much bigger so. It's influenced. Green. Debt was never great Johnson, burg it's, same thing it.

The. Cut, off provided, some. Freight, out of the towns. And. Passenger. Service. But. It. Had. Never created, any kind of a housing. Boom certainly, not not anything like what, route. 80 did one it was built. Route, 80 open in, 1974. And that's to. The extent, that the. The. Population, of the area. Increase. That sets when it really occurred. Because, you look at the. Census. Figures for towns. In this area, they. They were pretty stable over the years not, not, a whole lot of girls. Which, one makes sense because it was mostly. A rural agricultural. Based type, of. Economy. So, you would expect that there would be large. Influxes. And people. But once the farming, started to, go. Away which, you know didn't did occur. In. Some, cases the farms are sold off subdivided. Or or, whatever but the. At. Some point there was definitely. An increase in the, population. But, because of where. This. Area is located it's, it's a little bit more difficult to get here even by a, car, to. Jobs. Let's say in Morris County Essex County or New, York City for that matter. If you don't work locally for what some people do of course with. Okay, in the numbers game or coming up on 611. 611, or, aka. Wolf's. Corner road we're. Going to take, a look at Greendale. Station. And. I should explain, that. This. Used, to be a, crossing, with, a bridge, and, that bridge was start, had already started at this point but. As you can see it's flat here and it's a great crossing or, that. Chain-link. Fences off to the right and you can see the station. This, is all beneath. This particular. Roadway. Which was on a overhead, bridge and, that bridge was removed around. I'm, gonna say around 2,000, or so I. Do. Is go up here and turn around. And head back because we're gonna make. Another. Swinging. At this. The, Lackawanna had originally, the engineers. And lack one have originally proposed, that this be a fill here and this would have been an underpass. And. President Truesdale this is going back to the nineteen. 1909. And 1910 somewhere, there and the. President Truesdale, rejected. The idea and. They, apparently they knew at that point that there might be a problem the reason why they didn't this that, bridge was taken out. Not. Only was getting old but it the, approaches. Were, steep. As. A result though. They. Couldn't be replaced by another bridge, as has, been the case with in other places where. That has happened. This. Is Henry Road just another it's. An overhead bridge they're going over the cutoff again. Of. Course it is beneath us at this point. But. The engineers did. They, wanted to increase. The the level or cutoff and anyone had to have been dropping off west of us here and, either. Because of costs, not really sure would have meant that maybe the Greendale, stationary. Would had to bend up on a fill. Don't. Know what. What, the rationale, was because, it in retrospect, it certainly made the sense since and the fact the engineers brought up they the, understood, that the. Building. A bridge like was there, would. Be problematic, they did it and it existed, for, 80. Some odd years but but it. Was. Not replaced because of the. Efficiency, in terms of the way the. Called. The geometry, or whatever but the the way the the, roadway, would. Be configured. It would be dangerous or. Let's put it this way there wouldn't be you, couldn't get funding to build it because who they. Would meet the wooden. Made the highway standards that now exist which. I guess did not exist, in the time. When the the. Kuddle was being built on the roadways. That. Were crossing. The cut off or being built. And. What they they may have existed but the roadways, are being reconfigured. In many places, where we're going through, these underpasses, and overpasses in many cases, the. Original. Alignment. Of the road was changed, in some ways in some cases not but in many cases they were. So. That the for whatever reason. And. In some cases like they actually moved the streams is. That to kill two birds in one stone they, actually, combined the two and. They. Reconfigure, the road and reconfigure, in some cases even the stream that. Would be much more difficult to do nowadays but in those days that, it. Was perhaps. Just a case of the engineers, figuring, out what made the most sense from their perspective, and did it it wasn't really. Subject. To environmental, review, as. It would be today. Okay. Go into 5:19, which is also known as dark moon Road. Dark, moon referring, to a tavern, that. Was located on, this, road at one time. As, the the. Book on the Lackawanna railroad. In northwestern, New Jersey. Points. Out it has rather lurid past, I think that was the word that was used. For. The Darkmoon Tavern so. That that name. Still. Exists but the. The, roadway still retains that name now we're going to actually pass into war encounter we've been in Sussex County since. Way. Back can Stanhope. That's, in Sussex.

Handy For now we've, entered Frelinghuysen. Township. Which. Is the town and which are the township, in which Johnson. Burger is located. And. Will pass by that station. Site in a little bit. I've got a pretty good idea of this is a pretty, pretty. Rural area, at least him and what we're going through right now. Probably, the Ducks in that pond outnumber, the people in the immediate area. And, the car office tour left and we will be going, under. It in a short bit. Here narrow, tunnel, ahead that's always a good, indicator. That you're probably coming up on the cutoff not. Too many narrow tunnels, otherwise in, this neck of the woods. Darkman, Road. 19:09. I wonder why would they different different, dates well it depends when they were building the fill, if. It's an underpass. If. The. I mean, where they were in the projects, um. Some, of the underpasses, had, to be built first well they had to be built first before we put a fill on top of them of course but, it. Would do. It very according, to where. In the project, the particular. Section was being done and. $99.99. Would be one the earlier. Underpasses. Because there were a lot that for 1910, 1911. Certain. That bridges are often 1911. Because they everything. Won't have been done by that time but they could, have been sooner. We're heading towards Johnson, burg we're not going to go into Johnson burg and. Like. For example I'm not going to go past cruises, general, store which we. We did the interview. Met with mr. Cruz. About, Johnson Berg in that episode. That's. Going to be straight ahead when we get to the stop sign coming up we're. Gonna make a right-hand turn. You. Can see that cut. A little bit for. Johnson. Burke. Little, town, Johnson Burke. Okay I'm going to go back and. Now go under the cutoff, once again. I think, that's called Ramsey road here but rolling on it for a very short period of time, going. Past Lackawanna, Drive the. New. Developments, even pick up the name okay, we're going to need to cut off. No no, date sign on that one interesting, enough tears. Corner, Road it, looks like kurz ke, RR. Apostrophe. S Corner Road. But. It's pronounced Kear's if, you look at old records. You, may even see it spelled with two E's Kier's but. I'll. Get in they'll talk about that in a moment but first of all we're gonna be passing johnson burke station you, can't see it but if when. It was there you can see it right, straight in front of us but it's there's. No station there any way that the station, building. Is gone but. With. All the trees you can't see it anyway not there's no stop that's planned here so. And, the same thing with Greendale so there's there's, no plan for future rail service Greendale however, would get a maintenance. Signal, maintenance facility. But Johnson, Berg nothing planned for here getting. Back to curious corner though. And. We'll go past that. Farm. That Rydell farm but I call the Rydell farm because was a old, former. Mayor of Johnson, burg Charlie Riedel was mayor, for 40. Years. Told. Me this story but he even referred to Kyra's, corner and see. Old documents, for the cutoff they spell, it both ways and maybe because I spelled it phonetically, they you, might have seen it keer.

S. Tears. But. It's actually spelled. With two R's no. Not to ease and but pronounced cures anyway long story that that's. But. At some point maybe that people, will forget and that would all, be calling, occurs you know but that's that's. Not the original. Pronunciation. Okay. Mill Road this is going to be. One. Place where. The stream. And the road occupy, the same. Right-of-way. Stream. Goes underneath here it's just off to the right but it goes underneath the right-of-way. Very. Low. I'll say. Underpass. Not. Much silver and almost no fill. So. It's very it's. Like different in that respect. See. If we can do we you we here. Come. Back and. Take. A look from. The other perspective. Of. A couple others where we have to do this same thing in this this area so that we're not. Wandering. Around. The whole countryside there's. Work that was actually done on the adjacent. Right-of-way, here I guess there were problems, like, my. Turf was run. Off or what but there, was actually there so there was some works unrelated. In the sense of the cut off project is. But. It was working, on the the right-of-way and, the bridge to some extent you can see the bridge still doesn't, look like it has a whole lot of work that's been funded many, times recently but. It. Was just having. To do with the fill for some reason. Okay, back on the here's, Corner. Road. We're still in Frelinghuysen, Township. I'm, going to point out a mention. Now because so, we don't forget that we're. Gonna some. Point go past a Rydell farm there. Actually was a great crossing. Not. Official. I guess he would consider a private, crossing but remember, going to see Charlie, Rydell, and, he pointed it out because he the, Rydell has had. Farmland. On both sides of the cut off and. They. Had no guests. A gentleman's, agreement with, the the Lackawanna, and Erie, Lackawanna I guess I'm. Not really clear and I didn't really query, him on that but that, there was that they would have access, across. The right-of-way they could cross it I guess. Obviously being very careful because. Instead. Of having a few hundred yards. Travel. Between the let's say their barn and the adjacent. Property across, the cut off they'd, have to go literally several, miles to, get. From. One. Side to the other, so. They were. Given that opportunity, to actually. Carefully. Across. The right-of-way, but that, wasn't it never. Advertised, in the sense that there was ever a great processing, and I don't think it had like the the. Cross bucks or any kind of. Official. Designation. That it was actually a great, crossing, but, that's. What he told me so I'm only repeating what he said. I'm. Assuming what he said was true. Okay, landing road. I'd, say a bridge. Here. And, when these humph call, it humpback I know that's an official name or not but it was where, you have a where, the the bridge is not really flat. I'm going to do another u-turn, here. Too. And get her way. Back. To. The way we want to go. Okay they're doing some work here I'm. So, I mentioned the great crossing, and the right now farm does it we, talked about crossings, they're good they're, actually a total, of four crossings. That are not accessible. To. Us. So we're not mention, them but. They're. There's. Going to be no way for us to cross, them so but what does say. That they exist. They, all relate to farms. So. Three. Of them would have been farm crossings, one of which would be the great crossing and then the fourth, one was a cattle crossing actually.

An Underpass, back. We've, already, passed it it's underneath the peak West Phil but that that. Was a crossing. Only, for for, cattle I guess, he could have driven through it I don't know but. The. Farmers, might have used it but. The. The. Primary purpose. For it was to move cattle back and forth, across. The ride away we're under in that case underneath, the right-of-way. I think, this is a. And, the right now farm is off to our left. And. That. That, house and. I, told the story I'm not going to tell the story now but that's. The. House that will almost could, have gone up in flames with the Rydell family, and in that the train stopped they happened to see the fire and they they, saved the family it was actually the the, toolshed apparently. That was next to the I thought I always thought with the barn was actually a toolshed that. Was next to the house that had gone on fire. And the. Freight. Train going westbound that the. Engineers saw the the. Fire stopped, the train ran. Into the. Got. Off the train ran into the the house and awakened. A family, and the. Farm was saved the farmhouse and the. Family too. Okay. Now this road I don't know sure if we can make it all the way to the. Bridge. Because that apparently. The bridge is under, reconstruction. Of some sort. If, it's being replaced or what but. So. We have signs for local. Traffic. Only and looks like we may not even be able to get as far as the bridge, it. Says bridge closed okay. We've, been here a few times so if we don't make it all the way to the bridge it's not the end of the world but we'll, see how close. We can get, just. Give you a. Sense. Here yeah that's about as far as we're gonna get so. That's. Fine so we'll, do. A u-turn, here, but. We. Are here for Blair's. Town episode we were here for, sightings. On. The cutoff. So. We've been here before we'll show you. Some. Of that and. That's. That's fine so. But. It's good to know that they're actually replacing, bridges. Or. At least don't work on them. Okay, so. Back weekend, we. Would go to. Let's, see what's next would, be. If, they could get to. Camp, was Siegen somehow. Khempo. Secant road. You. Say that detour. All right you're going to end up on around, 94. Which is a state road. Follow, the detour. And this brings us to camp one seeking road which is what we wanted to be on anyway. It. Originally was, hoping. To do it from the south side and. Wrap. Around and come out in this direction but, we'll. Need. To do it from the north side which is okay. So sister would you turn after we go underneath the underpass on, campus. See the road. To. Me an account that believe there's a total, of 37, crossings. By. Some. Sort of roadway up and that's also including, the. The crossings, for the farms. So, there's a number. Of crossings, the roadways, that cross, under. And over the cutoff. As, I mentioned in some cases they deal with multiple times such as Roseville, Road but. For the most part it's single Road only crosses, once. There. We go. 19:09. And we'll do a u-turn here. Back. Under the cutoff we go. You, can see the these underpass. Isn't, the. Overpasses, maybe this not. This big, of aggregation, length but the underpass is the. The length was really. Poor. Tional to the the size of the philip of them. So. Like for 206 or, the. 517. Crossings, up underneath the peak west Phil it, feels pretty large and as a result the. The. Under passes are fairly, lengthy, there'll. Be some others on as, we go along that, are. Also pretty lengthy as well and for the same reason, or. In one. Case it's actually because the road. Is going on a diagonal, to. The. Cutoff, to that, lengthens. The or. Increases, the length of the underpass. I think. We're. Not. Sure if officially. Were stolen Frelinghuysen. If we're crossing. Over into Blairstown. We certainly will be in Blair's, den if we are not already. Shortly. And. Today. Is or this weekend, is actually, a. Weekend. That they have garage sales throughout the town and Knowlton, Township, as well and, so. It could be, a. Little. Busy in terms of the number of. Cars. And people that we see, which may be a little bit. Not. Necessarily, normal. For. What. You would expect on maybe a different weekend. Okay, we're crossing over into Blair's down he's had the sign for.

Blair's Town so. We really were right pretty much on the border there. What, we will do now is, we're, going to go up past the, Blairstown station. But, we're taking. Around 94, round, 94 actually. Interestingly. Enough pretty much parallels, the. Applause. Cool River but also the New York Susquehanna, and Western line that was here at one time which is just off to a right down below us it's, now a trail the pollens go Valley trail but. If. You're connecting, the dots. The, cutoff. Came in here sort of an oblique, angle but the. 94. And. The. The. Old Susquehanna, kind of parallel, each other very much so between Newton, and, the. The Water Gap. It will make a left up here this, is. County. Road, 521. But, Kel brewery. Have. A, microbrewery. Here and popular. Spot restaurant, used, to be the forge remember. When I was first coming up here to the cutoff meetings. That it was. Called. The forge different, restaurant, that have been renovated and. Different, a number of ways but. Who occupies, the same location. Route, 521, is also called Hope Road or I guess it could say Blairstown Hope Road because. It starts. Well, doesn't start here goes all the way up and well, into. Top. The Sussex County but at, least from. Back. Before in the day before that, became a county road it, was the road between hope and Blair's, town. And the station will be coming up on her right. We'd be able to see it too well but, it's, now, a fitness, center I believe it was been a recycling. Center for a while we're, back in the day it was before. Came. Any of that it was here's, the. The sign for players. Town station. It. Was a radio station and, of. Course before that it was a train station. Two. Bridges here there's an original and then there's a new bridge. And we're just going to go here and we're going to turn around but. He. The. One. One. Of the. Bridges. Was added. This. Is kind of a long story so I'm knocking, but, basically, what. Happened was. The. One. Bridge. Was as you can see they're both narrow. That. Believe. The one on the left is original this is the ad on the second bridge it was added but, the.

Original. Bridge was a one lane bridge on a sharp, curve and was insufficient. And had to be replaced but. The agreement was struck along we just add another bridge and we can keep these the same original. Bridge and there and then you, know historically not have to tear it down. But, more importantly, not. Affect. The integrity of the right-of-way below in other words not remove. The bridge and put a fill in other it's a bunch of fill, with it. Black, top on top of a. Roadway. And. So. That's the way that was preserved, the. Integrity of the writer is preserved that way. But. It was kind of an interesting solution. To the problem, that instead, of having, to tear down the old bridge, which, I could have done and put a two-lane. Bridge in this case they put into, one. Lane bridges although the second bridge is a little bit wider, than the original. Okay. Heller Hill. This. Is. This. Bridge of man we're heading obviously, towards the cutoff which is above us. But, just kind of unique, on the cutoff and that is it's. The bridge is a. Pure. Straightaway but it's it's. Kind. Of perfectly. Positioned. So. That it almost notice, that it's a bridge. As, opposed to where you like. Think. There's like landing, road for example where you have that humpback bridge. They, only get here it's. Of it. Of all the bridges is kind of the nicest, in terms of if you're a roadway engineer. Like I say it's just. Nice. From flat, and. That's that. So. Once. Again we're gonna turn around cuz we, would be going, well. Our way if we were to continue. So. Back. Over the cutoff we go. And I. Failed to mention but I will mention it now. Just. East of the the. Two bridges were crossed on. Rather, than 521, there's. A one of those cattle. Crossing. Farm, crossing, bridges overhead, bridges. I'll. Show you a photo of that not, visible. Not. Accessible, but it. It. It still exists. And there's, actually another farm. Crossing bridge is coming up once. Again we won't be able to see that either but. That's that's. West of us here. Karin, seen her like road where we're gonna have to. I can, turn off of this because there this, this does go underneath the cutoff but there's. One more road in between which goes underneath the cutoff. Called. Belcher Road. You, can see some one of the. Garage. Sales although the cortical. Garage has been moved to the roadside. Our, letter carrier, or mailman, talked. To him this morning, and, he said there are a couple places he couldn't deliver because. This. Morning because they. Were cars parked in front of the mailbox. And. I. Never knew this but. The. The. They. Are not allowed to exit, their vehicle, for any reason and. As. A result he couldn't deliver the mail. I'm not allowed to exit their vehicle. On the road. Of course when they're making deliver it like he had a few things that couldn't fit into our mailbox. He had. Go, up our driveway that's a different story but. It on the road he could not get out of if I understand, what he was telling me correctly. What's, interesting about Cedar. Lake Road, and. We actually. It's. Named for the Cedar Lake but. We. We. Did. The, segment. On the sightings on the cutoff we. Actually went to that. Foundation. Where there was a water tower, well. That water tower. Drew. Water. Out of Cedar Lake and we're just starting the past now Cedar Lake the, cutoff is not very far from us it's off to our left, sort, of like get a 45. Degree angle. But. It, that. Water. Tower would, had, a. Pumping. System, which went up from the lake and. Filled. Up the water tower for. The siding where there would be what's a steam engines that would be stopping. There for water. Presumably, going, mostly. I think eastbound, up the grade, stole. Next. To. Cedar. Lake it's a. Little. Bit of it here it's kind, of pretty. But the cutoff is up just, up the hill throw left it's. And some were buried down in the. And through, the woods is that the, remains of that waterline. And. That would be maybe another archaeological expedition. We could do it at some point but. That. From. What I'm told there's, still some remnants that exist in that. So. We're going to be coming up the. Lares Town Airport will be off tour right. Lake Susquehanna, which. Was named after the railroad, they'll, be coming up on our right. It will be Belcher Road which be on our left. And we're gonna make a turn. On the Belcher. Sounds. Kind of like susquehanna. Here. On arrived. Belcher. Road. And this is an area where the cutoff is well above the surrounding train, at least the surrounding, train below. You. See the underpass. Coming up here, now. I'm gonna do another. You, turn. After. This. 19:09. I believe. If memory, serves the, Blairstown, siding, is just. Would. Have just ended or was just. At this point I'm not sure it was very close to ending at this point. East. Of us here. So. West of us would been two tracks instead of three.

Three. Tracks for the with. The extra track, for the signing. See this underpass actually, was lighting not all of them have lighting. A few, years ago I remember going. To a party, and talking to. One. Of the workers who they. Guess. Working for, Warren. County and they've, been assigned at times to patch. Up or, do work on the. Underpasses. In. Some case I guess because of leakage. We're. Getting water, coming through and. And. That that is a. Bit. Of a concern. Because. Of the age of the. The. Other passes, I mean that the bridges as well I mean, they're concrete, but they. They. Do. Eventually. Age and, as a result, and. The weather. Does take its toll. Okay, so now we're heading this is Cedar Lake Road we're going to go under its I, call. This a tiny underpass, because it's sort. Like Oh a little bit of a bridge there few of them out here that are like that and, this. Is one of them it's it's, so. Narrow underpass, but it's, not. Really, much to write home about. The whole thing. This one's 1910. I'm, gonna ask that my videographer, is doing because I know she's holding up this camera for not, she's gonna mean okay so right. That's good. Because, I all I have to do is drive she has to hold the camera and keep. It going. So, we're gonna do is we'll go up and wrap around and then we're gonna kind of come, back under. Over. By, what. Was called molasses, Junction, we talked about that and the. The. Episode, of the. Building of the cutoff. Where, he met with Marion and Jim. Jim. Who was cutting, his lawn and, Larissa. And I were just happened to be. Taping, across, the way and. Honeywell. Referenced you to that particular, episode, but. In, order to get to that location you have to I mean they're a couple ways of doing it actually two ways of doing that we're doing one. But, this brings us out in the forward direction. Another, County Road 655. This. Is mount hermon road. And Mount Hermon is behind. Us but so. We're gonna go under a fairly. Long tunnel. Certainly, one the longest, let's. Say. We. Call them underpasses but now that you could say their tunnels either, way I think would be accurate. To describe them and in some cases I'm, not sure if this one says that some of them are referred to as underpasses on the signs. Sometimes. Tunnels, I think in this case it would the, sign will say tunnel. Clarence, of 11:6. It's, more than enough for school buses but. Some. Tractor. Trailers, would be restricted, from going through here. Yep, narrow tunnel, that says, it's. A nice photo I can, show you of, people. That lived in this area this is you know hundred year over 100 years ago standing, right in front of this here a stream. Goes underneath, they the. Roadway, and both. The the roadway, and the stream. Continue. Underneath here. Off, to the right ears were, married. In gym, with. Going. The poke full road here. It's now the cutoff was off to our left. We're or, less parallel to cut off on this road here. Molasses. Junction was named for, a, man, who was, basically. Sold a bill of goods that, having. To do with a recipe for molasses, using, rhubarb, and that didn't, turn out too well but at. Least for in, terms. Of the history of the area the name stock at least it was. Known. As such at the time of when the cutoff, was being built, but. That building, we passed there, there. Was actually a couple buildings that were associated with the. The, construction. At the time was actually a hotel that was, their. Walk. Gone but it, was right there I can, show you a photo of that. -, Adela Water Gap straight, ahead of us that's our ultimate. Destination. Okay. So we're, now going to come. Three-way. Intersection. I'm going to go up here and then we're going to. Do, it other u-turn. Coming. Up on another, call. Another mini underpass. It's it. It's, interesting that this is more of a square, type of underpass. As opposed to ones. Which are more of a. Roundish. Type of. Construction. Apparently. Is a structure. That was associated with that was had. A foundation. Or some sort of wall. Here and that, was. What. If a building that was has been since taken, down many, years ago I think that it wasn't around when I was here and, I've been in the area for over about. A quarter. Century. Maybe. I'd rather think of it as twenty five years right in the quarter century but. The. I've. Heard. People mention had something to do with a farm that might have been here I don't know.

I've. Have, to admit I've forgotten. Exactly what the what. I was told but you can see off to the left here where that truck, is now passing by it. There was something here that, looks. Like it would have been built out of the same concrete, so it was a structure that was in some way I don't. If it was related to the cutoff where it was out of an agreement for whatever they were doing what the cutoff that they they built the concrete. Wall. There. Everyone, go down here and, make. A left on the kill road, which. Will bring us down to, the pollens, go viaduct. And. The. Pollens go Viaduct, they. Talk. About the susquehanna, which. Almost, had the the. Track it's rights from the Lehi in New England railway. Ran. Just ahead, of us here we're going to parallel, it. We'll be on our immediate right, here. Literally. Tour right here uh now. 10. Feet if. That tour. Right is that, Paul. That, Li trail now but it was the New York Susquehanna, and Western Railway, and with. Trackage rights a nuclei New England's, railway. And, that. Will cross. Under the pawns go viaduct, but we're gonna wrap, around and, get to the viaduct. Shortly. We. Have a an, underpass. For. The cutoff. As you can see they're doing some work on this bridge here. Farm. I was, on my bicycle on this road years, ago and. It's. Behind, us now near the grape or the farm building was and, in. The distance I'm going. Pretty fast and, in, the distance I can see what appears to be a snake that's across the road and. I'm, going too fast to stop because if I stop they're probably going to stop right over the snake so it doesn't you know as well just keep going and hope for the best all, this I ran, over it but I. Had. To because this thing was so long and I wasn't. Sure if there would be a car coming in opposite direction and. Fortunately. The snake was dead but it was. It. Was large enough they said I didn't did not want to have a like wrap around my. Tires. I'm a hyah doesn't want to think about it what could have happened but it was not an issue but, but. That I always that's the one thing I remember that particular farm right they are because of that. Snake okay, here's kill road this. Is a longer fill because that we're going diagonal, to the Phil remember I mentioned that.

And, Now we're going to go down into the. By. The Poland, school River. But, the right away is gonna stay up in the air and it's going to go across on the bridge, called the Poland's go viaduct, which. We've been to, several. Times in the past. At. This point now it becomes Station, Road what's. The station here it was called, keansburg, goes, on the Susquehanna. Which will, pass. Under here. Done, some graffiti painting. Over I'm sure that but the graffiti unfortunately. Is returned you can, see the viaduct. Here. We. Pass. Under it. It's. 115. Feet tall, 1,100. Feet long. We're, literally. On the right-of-way where it would have crossed the, Susquehanna, is right here, the. Station. And underneath the viaduct, and. The. It's. Not the pollens Coal River as I mentioned our very very very first episode. It's, the pollen skill that's simply, that one word. And. Kill. Road would refer to the pollen skill. Lucas. Came off on. And there are few, one lane bridges, that are pass. Over the pollen school and this is one of them that's it's two of them because they're two, branches, one one, branch of the river, doesn't really run that much, except, when you get some heavy. Runoff. But. This the second, one here runs. On runs, all the time. And, the town of Haines burgers, tour right I wouldn't call a town a hamlet, or whatever you want to call it, it's. Off to her. And. We're gonna make an hour left. We're, actually going to make. Which may be a surprise to some of you we're actually going to make right. Into. Tunnel, filled. Because, we're going to go through. An underpass, which was included, in our. In. Our segment about. Rails. Under, and over the cutoff. I was. In a right. Of way there's never used, for. A railroad. So. But it was still relevant for a. Railroad. Because you can see this off to the right here we're going under one but there's another one off to the right here we're gonna go underneath that when it can just go in and turn around but the. It's. It's. Now officially. A roadway, because, it's a connector, between. Different. Sections of tunnel. Field. It's, a Knowlton, Township facility, which as. Soccer field baseball fields. Basketballs. Court. But, this was to be used as a railroad right-of-way it was never used the. Lehi new england railway. Opted. That this can continue.

To Exercise. Trackage. Rights over, the Susquehanna okay. It, goes over just for right underneath the viaduct, if the viaduct, is. Not. Quite a half a mile from where we are to. What right now east of us third. Of a mile maybe. And this is, tunnel. Filled. A quick, u-turn here. And. Continuum. Back, out. So this is a, right. Of way or a underpass. That was repurposed. There, really would be no other way to possibly use this. Both. Sides of the, right-of-way. As. A. Well. Has one facility who have been impossible well, you could have I guess via. 94. But, it. Would have been inconvenient, to say the least and dangerous or as this this way it allows you to stay off of the main highway. So. That's it's really a. Nice. Thing. Speaking. Lehigh New England rally if we're going to come, across their their old crossing. Here. There's. A bridge what you can't see it's coming off at it. Was. At oblique angle at 30 degree, angle off. From the left and. Right. Where that car would just cross that's were crossed, right here on a great, crossing and. Go it would go off into the. Bushes. Here right at that here, just. With. This crossed. And, that went straight as a normal, straight as an arrow towards, Pennsylvania and, wool. Cross, under, it but. I'll, see we going to Columbia just briefly and I can point out where it went through but they. Crossed on the bridge and went into Pennsylvania and, the Portland, that's it I am. But, the susquehanna. Continue, off to our left and went into. Columbia. By a different direction and I pointed. This out so I'm not going to go into any great detail, here but I pointed out in the, episode on rails. Under and over the cutoff how. These different rights-of-way, went. And don't, want to miss dark road. This is the brook, Hollow winery. That's here that's when I, come. Up with in the last five to ten years it's, really blossomed, and quite a nice facility. You can do weddings course it is a winery so you can, white. Wine, test here, he's. Test wine. A cut-off, isn't quite a deep, cut at this point so we're gonna cross it on a bridge. Can't. See I can show you a photograph, of, what it looked like. A bridge. It's down below us. I think, - not. At this point very far from the delle Water Gap aren't, you getting pretty close. You can say there's somehow residential. Housing. Here it's. There. You. Get like. Smattering. Of ruralness and, a little bit of. Suburbia. To some extent. We're. Very close to exit. For. At. Least when Brook hollow certainly, is very close to, moving. Away in the opposite direction but very. Close to Ralph except for in. New Jersey on route 80. So. From that perspective it's, convenient. From. Highway. Access. Haydn's pick a river road now. Or I come up on the. I'm not going into the Delaware to gap yet, but. So we're going to. To a little bit of. Zig, zagging here as. We've been doing. In order to have done the, the twenty eight and a half miles. And. We're not not. Yet to the end of the twenty eight and a half miles but in order to do was gotten. To where we are right now we've gone over forty eight miles on. On. Roadways. Coming, up on simpson, road but simpson, road. It's. Also the right-of-way of the new york Susquehanna, and Western. Or. At least part of it was it's. The, exact alignment. Here. Is unclear. But, certainly. As we get to the cutoff which is right. Over here. Be. Pretty clear where. The right-of-way was because it goes right on through the underpass, and. There's. Simpson. Road and also, was. The right away than your accessible and western which. Once, again, kind. Of meandered, through the. Town of Columbia, which we'll hit in a couple. Minutes and, then. Ended. Up here went out its, into the Water Gap and then finally. Would have crossed over into the. Pennsylvania. Unfortunately. They don't let us. Make. A. All right hand turn here. Don't. I have a stop sign. Really sure. Okay, what, I'll do here that. Turn, okay. Okay. Now, actually kind of no. Trip. In this area is complete without at least a short jaunt on route 80 so we get onto Interstate 80. We're. Gonna go underneath the Delaware River viaduct. Mr., crosses from. Over, from the state of New Jersey into. Pennsylvania. See, that. This, bridge, the, over it bridge the, viaduct. Restricts. The. They, width of the highway. In, that section but. The. Highway. Is really restricte

2018-09-27 18:55

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Comments:

Magic, thanks for all this detail, means so much more to us who support you from abroad!

Fall road trip for sure. Thinking about the route for an epic bike ride as I am typing these words. That footpath over the Delaware will come in handy. Thanks Chuck!

Nice illegal left turn at the 8:24mark Chuck.

8:20 might want to edit that out.

Beautiful area. I can see why so many people want to live out there.

I really enjoyed the ride. And even more so once I thought to cross refferance your video with Google maps airal photograph as your video progressed. Big thank you both Mr. Walsh and Videographer Gir for the interesting ride thru our corner of Mother Earth and it's History..............

Chuck, is there anything we DON'T know about the Lackawanna Cut-off ????? ! ! ! ! ! ! I'm sitting here giggling.... this has been great !!!!! And I have to say..... you read my mind. This is just what I wanted !!! I'm gonna' be in Somerville on the 30th, and in the afternoon --- you can take a good guess what will be on in my car, and I will be following while driving. Big shout-out to Larissa -- Nice Job !!!! Watched this twice last night while at work..... can't wait to see all this for myself. Allready did my own tiny, tiny video - going under the Cut-Off on rt. 206. It's one thing to READ about history, but it's another to SEE IT in person. Now the only thing left to do -- is to walk it -- just as you and Larissa did. Your ''labor of love'' has been such a treat. I said it before, and I will say it again - all of us, or, any of us, can't thank you enough. 2019 and the opening in Andover can't come soon enough !!!! Bring it on, NJT -- Bring it on !!!

Wow me and every person i know have been pronouncing Kerrs Corner wrong this whole time. Cant wait to finally say it right and see the look on their face!

Being a reltivly new widower I was wide awake at 5am. So I booted up the puter n ende up needing to do some back tracking of what I watched last night when I realized this morning I obviously dosed off n inadvertently missed 20 or so min last night. However this time I thought to pull up Googl Maps airal photograph of this area on a tab and would easily toggled back and forth both your lovely naarated field trip thru the lovely Garden State's country side visiting what is visible of the "Cut Off" from the existing countgry roads of NJ. Than viewing the "Cut Off" via the nice vantage point Google's aireal photographs allow. I am now have watched every second up to 1:22 and will stop now at 6:44am to feed my late wife's cats since one of then just started howling for his breakfast. Again a Big Thank You Mr. Chuck. I am retired now and have have the time to enjoying your entier series so far. And by adding in the airal photo tab this morning, alllowing me to toggleing back and forth adds an even higher enjoyment factor of your program it seems.

I made it to 1:16 tonnight, wil finsih tom night I am sure. I watch every second..... Thank You Mr. Chuck.....

Another great production. Thanks!

You mentions “Lackawanna Archeology” around 1:19:00 or so. That’d be a great episode in my estimation. You’ve done a lot of investigation stations, tunnels, bridges and culverts. However, smaller remnant details would be interesting as well. Things like phone boxes, bumper blocks, significant milepost markers, water tower bases, section building foundations etc. Per chance? Would your intrepid & trusty videographer agree to do it?

You might find this interesting. here In SW Ohio we have a few former Lackawanna passenger cars that were acquired from NJ Transit in the late 80's. https://lebanonrr.com/equipment/ They can be seen in action last May (2018) here https://youtu.be/ps5WxjJOUWQ

Another great job by you and Larissa

I have a mental inventory of the most significant artifacts out there, some of which we've looked for or shown already. But is there enough for a full episode where there's a story to be told? Not sure. I'll think about it.

John, I was hoping that this might tempt some folks like yourself to do a fall foliage trip.

I'm very sorry to hear about death of your wife. I can't imagine. But I am glad to hear that you enjoyed this episode.

+Chuck Walsh Yes it was built between 1904-1908. Also, the contractor Smith, McCormick built a concrete viaduct on the Graham Line which was interesting to find.

Interesting. The Graham Line predates the Cut-Off by a couple of years, doesn't it?

Which country?

We have a Koeck Road near me, and the proper pronunciation is KECK, even though it looks like it should be CO-ECK.

Thank You Mr Chuck

Mr. Walsh, I wonder if it would be possible to program a drone to over fly the Cut-Off at 200 feet or so during the winter months in a few segments, than edit them together? Suspect that footage would also make an interesting future part to your series too.

At 8:20 you make an illegal left onto Lakeside! You are supposed to go straight which leads to a ramp that merges onto Lakeside. I've gotten pulled over making the same mistake, so just wanted to give a warning.

At 56.3 on pequest road the reason you couldn't read that date and the reason why the tunnel portal looks so much different from the old photo was it this is the one that they redid the portal several feet back as the cut was overflowing over it. If you get out and walk up those wings you can actually stand on the old Trestle of the tunnel and see the old date behind the current one I think it's 1909 and 1913

Single track with passing sidings in NJ. In PA, probably the same, but hasn’t been determined yet.

When you folks rebuild the line. Is it going to be single track or double track??

At many of the underpasses, the wingwalls are more or less perpendicular to the direction of travel. It seems as though the roads are such that approach speeds are usually low. I'm wondering if the have been deaths at those locations due to inattention/speed of cars using the underpass. An underpass near Annalomink PA has been responsible for several deaths.

Robert Davenport, not aware of any.

At minute 57 you mention a gentleman's agreement (Gt Ag) for a crossing. This may have typical for some railroads but not for others. I know that the Central of Georgia (CGA)had many of these. If a railroad were "folks" friendly they would shakes hands and go forward. I doubt if the PRR ever had any of these. In the times we live in I don't think any railroad has "gentleman's agreements." I know that Norfolk Southern actively pursed written agreements for CGA Gt Ag's.

I watched the whole video all at one time and enjoyed every minute of it made me wish I could have ride along with you.....you know what they say....nothing like the real thing...but I do live about 5 hours away in WV.

My videographer is my daughter, Larissa.  I'll pass that along to her.  Thank you!

+Chuck Walsh if I may ask who was your videographer they did a wonderful job keeping the camera still while the car was moving....I watch videos so jumpy it was hard to watch the video

Sam, I'm surprised my voice held out during the two hours.

It would be theoretically possible.  But depending on the range of the drone, and wind speeds, it might take us all winter, and then some, to do it.  Drones typically have to return to their base and, therefore, have to double back.  You'd have to recharge batteries in the field, otherwise you'd be lucky to get a half-mile per flight in.  And given the limited parallel roads, you'd probably have to walk the entire Cut-Off with the drone over dozens of individual flights.  It would be a nightmare.  A military grade drone might be able to do the whole 28.5 miles, if you can get access to one, without its missiles, lol.

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