Hampton Branch (New Jersey)

Hampton Branch

Remnants of the trestle in Changewater, New Jersey

Overview

Status

Abandoned

History

Opened

May 28, 1856 (1856-05-28)

Closed

July 11, 1958 (1958-07-11)

Technical

Line length

5.2 mi (8.4 km)

Track gauge

1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge

Old gauge

6 ft (1,829 mm)

Route map

Legend

				mi
					Lackawanna Old Road

				0.0	Washington
					Washington Secondary
				2.5	Changewater
					Musconetcong River
					Raritan Valley Line
				5.2	Hampton Junction

					Raritan Valley Line

This diagram:

The Hampton Branch was a railway line in the state of New Jersey. It ran 5.2 miles (8.4 km) from Hampton, New Jersey, to Washington, New Jersey, connecting the main line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey with the old main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (Lackawanna). It was built by the Warren Railroad in 1853–1856 and abandoned by the Lackawanna in 1958.

History

Main article: Warren Railroad

Interests behind the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, a Pennsylvania company, established the Warren Railroad in 1851 to construct a railway line from the Delaware Water Gap to Hampton, New Jersey. The line would connect the main line of the Lackawanna, then being extended south from Scranton, Pennsylvania, toward the Delaware Water Gap, with the main line of the Central Railroad of New Jersey at Hampton.

The full line opened on May 26, 1858, enabling through service between Scranton and Elizabethport, New Jersey. The Lackawanna leased the Warren Railroad on October 1, 1857. The Morris and Essex Railroad extended its main line west from Hackettstown to Phillipsburg in November 1865, crossing the Warren Railroad's line at Washington. The Lackawanna leased the Morris and Essex on December 31, 1868.

With the lease, the Morris and Essex's main line replaced the Central Railroad of New Jersey as the Lackawanna's outlet to New York, and the importance of the Warren Railroad's line between Washington and Hampton lessened. Lackawanna through traffic over the CNJ ended on April 1, 1875.

Passenger service between Washington and Hampton ended on September 18, 1926. The Interstate Commerce Commission granted the Lackawanna permission to abandon the line on July 11, 1958.

Notes

Taber (1977), p. 160.
Taber (1977), p. 52.
ICC (1932), p. 152.
Taber (1977), p. 67.
Taber (1977), p. 77.
Taber (1977), p. 78.
Taber (1977), p. 175.
Taber & Taber (1981), p. 741.
"Will drop branch". The Courier-News. July 12, 1958. p. 4. Retrieved April 13, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

References

Interstate Commerce Commission (1932). "Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Valuation reports". U.S. Government Printing Office.
Taber, Thomas Townsend (1977). The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the Nineteenth Century. Muncy, Pennsylvania: Privately printed. OCLC 9846964.
Taber, Thomas Townsend; Taber, Thomas Townsend III (1981). The Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in the Twentieth Century. Vol. 2. Muncy, PA: Privately printed. ISBN 0-9603398-3-3.

External links

[REDACTED] Media related to Hampton Branch (New Jersey) at Wikimedia Commons

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