Lehigh and Hudson River Railway

The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway ( LHR, L & HR) was an American railway company in the states of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. The firm was based Warwick (New York).

Route network

The track had a length of around 150 km and ranged from Belvidere ( NJ ) according to Maybrook (New York). From Belvidere up to Phillip (Pennsylvania ), the Company had track usage rights. Secondary roads there were none.

Through the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and the Norfolk Southern, the section between Sparta Junction and Junction Hudson is traversed today only.

History

1860, the Warwick Valley Railroad was founded to build a route from Warwick to Grey Court (New York), where a connection to the New York and Erie Railroad (Erie Railroad later) existed. The track was ( foot 6) with the broad gauge of 1,829 mm as the Erie Railroad built and was completed in 1862. By 1880 the line was converted to standard gauge, used the railroad locomotives and cars of the Erie Railroad.

In order to develop iron mines in the southwest, the route as Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad until after Belvidere (New Jersey) was renewed on the Delaware River.

1882 merged the two companies to the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway.

After the Poughkeepsie Bridge was built across the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, the route was extended after 1890 to Maybrook. At the other end of the line of the Delaware River was also overcome by a bridge. The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR ) and the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway agreed mutual distance usage rights. Thus, the (PRR ) received rights on the L & HR to use the Pougkeepsie Bridge and the L & HR received rights between Belvidere and Phillipsburg.

First, agricultural products were the most important cargo, but soon larger volume of transport of coal were added. Most important customer at the track was a mine and a grinder to the New Jersey Zinc Co. near Franklin (New Jersey).

With the acquisition of the Central New England Railway in 1904 by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (NH), the L & HR became a " bridge line ". At the initiative of the NH L & HR was purchased by several of the great railway companies, to ensure the connection of the NH with these routes. The only major change in the ownership of 1929-1975 was 1950, the sale of the 20 percent share of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company ( owner of the Lehigh and New England Railroad ) to the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the PRR. The ownership was in 1975 before the takeover by the Conrail as follows:

The merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in 1960, the through traffic shifted to New Haven on the former route of the Erie Railroad. As in 1968, the Penn Central emerged, further traffic from the New England states to the now common routes of the former New York Central Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR ) was relocated. The utilization of the L & HR decreased significantly, on 18 April 1972, she had to file for bankruptcy as a result. The few traffic that still existed, found by the burning of the Poughkeepsie Bridge in 1974 to an end. Ownership of L & HR was transferred to the Conrail on April 1, 1976.