LEHIGH VALLEY RAILROAD

 

Welcome to the main page for the Lehigh Valley Railroad.  This page is a new entrance page for the LV.  There are now four separate pages covering different geographical areas of the railroad. 

                                                                                  

  Newark, NJ to Bethlehem, PA

 

  The Bethlehem-Allentown, PA Terminal area.

 

  Allentown to Mountaintop, PA

 

  Wilkes-Barre, PA to Buffalo, NY.

On April 1, 1976, Conrail was born with the US government sponsored takeover of seven bankrupt railroads in the northeast US.  The LV ceased to exist on that day and the following years have not been kind to much of the system.  The busiest portion of the former LV still in use today is from Oak Island Yard in Newark, NJ west to Manville, NJ.  This mainline is used by both CSX and Norfolk Southern and can see as many as 50 freights per day.  Traffic the LV never could have dreamed about.  West of Manville the main is owned by the NS as far as Allentown.  From the junction point with the old Reading at 'BURN' the LV is only used locally by the R.J. Corman, Co.  From Allentown through to Lehighton the railroad has been removed completely.  NS owns from the Allentown yard on the old CNJ side, through Lehighton and the Lehigh Gorge to Wilkes-Barre.  The Reading & Northern also operates over the LV ( and some old CNJ ) between Packerton and Coxton.  The R & N alos runs from Coxton up to Mehoopany and NS from Mehoopany to Sayre.  A paper plant at Mehoopany keeps this part of the mainline still open.  The NS runs coal trains from Sayre north to Van Etten Jct and then over through Ithaca.  Beyond Van Etten Jct very little remains.  A few pieces of former LV branches are used by some local shortlines and that's about it.

lv414winslow.jpg (83166 bytes)  Still in service after almost 40 years in her original colors is 414.  Based in very off line Winslow Jct., New Jersey, but nevertheless still with us.  The Arkansas & Missouri has a few others and one more C420 works up in upstate New York.   For more details on the whereabouts of former LV engines and equipment, I recommend a visit to Scot Lawrence's LV Survivors Page.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~scottychaos/

 

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