Friday went small mouth bass fishing on the upper delaware about five miles below the water gap. Of course it rained hard all day. In the distance there is an old railroad bridge.


There is a coal fired power station on the Pennsylvania side. Coal drags pull onto this bridge to clear a switch. It may be an old Lakawanna RR bridge?
anyone know for sure?

Yikes, how do you navigate those rocks?

quote:

Originally posted by wb47:
Yikes, how do you navigate those rocks?

I suspect that the best answer to that question would be: Very Carefully !!!

Charlie,
you in my wheelhouse now!

what you're seeing is the DL&W bridge that is part of the 'old road' route. It meet with the PRR's Bel-Del division father down the NJ side in Manunka Chunk. From there the DL&W route went east through the Van Gass tunnels, while the Bel-Del split south on to Belvidere and ultimately Coalport in Trenton. The PRR had trackage rights up the DL&W through the Gap and on to Gravel Place in Stroudsburg.

When the DL&W built the 'cutoff' route, with the beautiful multi-arch concrete bridge across the Delaware, the old road became a secondary line, but the Bel-Del continued to use the truss span to reach Stroudsburg.

I'm surprised you had enough depth in the river at that point not to hit bottom.

Thank you Chris
I did find this website
and thought the bridge was the DL&W. You could see the hill from the river.
The channel is on the far left of the picture. I was anchored in slow water casting out to the drop off. The jet boat only requires 3 inch of water when on plane. Haven't torn out the bottom but have opened a few welds.

quote:

Originally posted by wb47:
Yikes, how do you navigate those rocks?

Are you old enough to recall Henry Fonda as Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond? Some days you do, some days you don't.



What, me worry?

Charlie,
an excellent book on the subject is Down along the Old Bel-Del by Warren Lee. there are numerous photos from along the ROW from Trenton to Stroudsburg, and an excellent history of the line and traffic patterns.

I'll bring it along next time we're in the same place... Wind Gap?

If you follow Rt 46 going West from Oxford to RT 80, you will see many abandoned RR right of ways. I believe that an old route runs high on an embankment on the other side of RT 46 as it runs along the Delaware river and there is a bridge that crosses over Rt 46 and into PA about 5 miles South of the Lackawanna cutoff. Abandoned rail lines are everywhere in this NW part of NJ. One can only hope that one day the cutoff will at least be restored as planned.

Most of what you see there Dennis is the former DL&W/Bel-Del ROW. Where it is located high over the east side of Rt. 46 is near where the now closed Van Gass tunnels are located. You can hike up there to see them.

Also if you look down sharply to the right at the junction of Rt 31 and 46 at Butzville, you will see some evidence of two rail line right of ways there. One seemed to go under Rt 31 the other over. I recall back in the 80's that the line going under Rt 31 was still operational. The line ran along part of Rt 46 at street level going East and under Rt 31 and South of Rt 46 going west on the other side of the river to Belvidere. I believe that this railroad was a small short line and had a unique name like Belvidere and something. Sad to see that few rail lines are left in this part of NJ.

I heard the use of the firehouse bld at Wind Gap will be discontinued in the near future. Think they have cut way back on the number of available tables.

A friend told me the railroad used to run a train thru Delaware NJ once every so often to hold rights to the right away.
When that was stopped, he wrote a letter to the railroad requesting the right to plant blueberries on their property. Two years latter, the railroad offered to sell him the land, but he turned it down because of a liability issue with a large coal dumping structure on the land.

Dave Richter has stated the upcoming Wind Gap meet will be the last,
at least at Plainfield Fire Hall.

today, the section of the Bel-Del ROW in Phillipsburg and south hosts a successful operation of the NYS&W society's steam excursion train, complemented by attractions like a corn maze and panning for precious metals. I think they are near Carpentersville with usable track and are moving forward at a good pace to reach Milford in the near term, a couple years?
the BR&W also operates limited switching in the area under their Delaware Belvidere RR subsidiary, that connects with NS/CSX.