You’re a celebrity Chuck! Brilliant leaving the conversation at the beginning. Really brings the adventure home. The motorcyclist was right: “Very very educational”.
Thank you. I appreciate hearing that. I really wasn't sure how to handle the sequence--leave it in, or edit it. The creation of the closed captioning was a bit challenging since their part of the dialogue wasn't detected. I always tweak the CC anyway, because the TH-cam generated version is always terrible.
Hi Chuck, In 1969 me and my brother-in-law opened Byram Shell Right across from the Byram diner and at the corner of rt 206 and Waterloo Road. I would see the large fills back in Lackawanna Lake and rt 206 N . I never thought much about it then probably like a lot of other people. It wasn't until I moved to Blairstown in 1984 that I became fascinated with history and the rail roads. It's funny you become interested after something is gone. The big story then ( in 1969 ) was the building of Rt 80 and we were right into it by accident because of our business location. First were the surveyors, then the tree clearing, then the blasting crew, finally the excavators. Westchester Rock was the blasting crew, and they would stay at the Red Wing inn across Rt 206 all week and have their morning coffee, safety and tailgate meeting in our garage every morning. they became our customers and good friends. I still remember their names and faces. Trap Rock would come after the blasting, and they were the excavators. "Bob" the superintendent would come to my Shell station and pick me up to take me to the area they were drilling all day so I could watch them set off the charges. Opportunities galore. Bob wanted me to join his team as an compressor "oiler" Shell wanted me to take over Landing Shell. I had a business with my brother-in-law.
At least it is good to know Jason and his friend are helping to keep the right of way clear, in this "missing" segment of the cutoff.... If there were trees down, its guys like this that will help open it up for bikers, runners and ATVs. One of more interesting spontaneous moments of this historical series.
Thanks Chuck. I really enjoyed this video and I'm looking forward to watching the next few. In 2005 or 2006 I did ride the three miles on a four-wheeler from Andover, west, over the pequest fill. Just as you did today but I didn't quite make it to Greendale. The GoPro does make it look a little narrower, I remember it being slightly wider. I also remember the railroad ties on the left going west. Also, back then, it seemed as if there was much more brush and I was constantly ducking as small branches were often hitting my helmet. Thanks again. This brought back a lot of memories. I would like to do it again someday. The vibration from the bicycle was not a problem at all. I was thrilled to watch the entire video. I appreciate all the comments, pictures and history. I'm so glad you're SO into this! THANKS!! Kevin
Very impressive Chuck, as you sure got your workout for the day! I enjoy watching your entire series of videos on the NJ Cut-Off. I liked you using the Go Pro camera on your bicycle helmet, as it captured what the former ROW looks like now-days and it was if I was riding along with you. Also, including the various pictures of both the “Then” and “Now” along your journey informed the viewer of where you were at. Keep up the excellent work and thank you again for a very enjoyable segment in this series.
I remember the bridge at Greendell. I went over it once when I was a young kid with my dad (mid 1990's). I remember seeing the signal bridge right next to the road bridge. Years went by and I was not able to remember exactly where it was and not able to find it in the general area I thought it could be. I thought I may have imagined it. Then while doing research on the cutoff, I came across pictures of Greendell with the road bridge and signal bridge and determined that had to be the place I remembered!
Love what you're doing Chuck. Only thing is I was thinking of getting an E-bike so I could ride the cutoff. But I may have to get a ticket and ride the train on the cutoff. Would be so interesting if when they finish, they could have scenic rides from Hoboken to Scranton or Nickelson on weekends when commuter is slow. Just a though.
Hi Chuck, No mention of crossing over the Sussex Mine Railroad right-of-way, which would have been just east of Route 206 -- roughly MP 53.5? Was that line still in operation when the Pequest Fill was being dumped? If so, did they have to build a tunnel for that r-o-w? Thanks, Norm in Branchville.
Well, the Sussex Branch itself had replaced the mine railroad long before the Cut-Off. So, the ROW of the Sussex Branch is the only one that goes under the Cut-Off there.
Having grown up and lived near the old school house 30 years ago it was sure nice to take the ride with you, just wish you would have taken some time to pan left and right to show more of the surrounding areas. Used to sleigh ride down the coal shoot right across Sutton road from the old school house, still bare the scar on my right thigh from the dumped spent coal. Did our share of ice skating on turtle pond and tubing down the peaquest. What a blast we had as kids, great place to grow up. Thanks for the ride and may I suggest a chest harness for your go pro next time, it should smooth out the video.
Check out Part 4 (Pequest Fill) where we are at ground level with the schoolhouse. I'll look into the harness, although then turning will be a problem.
Nice video. I recommend an electric assist bike for these type of adventures. You can either buy one ready made or modify your existing bike with an after-market kit. I frequently use my electric assist bike on rail beds and rail trails.
I'm OK without it. Once I'm done with the mini-series (Part 21) I won't need it. Besides, the work-out is good. It's only frustrating when I run into the sections that are not negotiable on two wheels.
Hi Chuck. Great video as usual. I learn something new in every episode. Looking forward to the next installment. Where exactly did you jump onto the cut-off in Andover? I want to retrace your rides on my gravel bike. Hope to ride the Pequest Fill before the views are blocked by the trees.
John Hollister, you can get in the ROW easily from Roseville Road, which parallels the Cut-Off at the station site. That’s at the top of the first hill on Roseville Road coming in from Route 206.
My friend and I discovered the cutoff in the 90s. We were on the Sussex branch trail riding our bikes when we discovered it. The cutoff at the time had large gravel rocks which made it very difficult to ride on it and we mostly walked our bikes and discovered the roseville tunnel. Weeks later we were on the trail going from Sparta to Columbia and saw the large bridge overhead which was the cutoff again. We then rode our bikes again on heavily graveled road to the Delaware bridge. It was a great discovery.
Yes, the loose ballast. A mountain bike would be ideal. I once took a racing bike up there (my present bike is a hybrid) and it was awful. Years of dirt bikers and ATVers, I'm afraid.
It really is unbelievable what they did in just 3 years. The engineering is amassing but the amount of work done is really amassing too. I mean it's 1910. No diesels or gas engines. Everything was either by steam or manual labor. And it was all hard rock. During the winter, not only snow and ice covering everything, but steam engines have problems with freezing. Water condition means a lot and they must have had a crew just to keep fires burning in the steam powered equipment all night. If the worked at night, there was no light anywhere back then because there was no electricity. Probably no telephone and only way to get to work was walking or by horse. Then they had the same problem with food and staying warm at night with keeping fires burning. To do 21 miles with all those huge cuts and fills is impossible to imagine. then all the concrete structures that were built so well they still look good today. Looks like they had to grind up a lot or rock, but a lot of the cuts and fills were solid rock. I only saw them building RT 80 fill through Pinebrook and Fairfield in the late 1960's. but that was dirt, not rock and they had modern equipment. i think it took the longer to do RT 80 and it was less work. The amount of work done in three years and the fact that it was all hard rock is truly unbelievable using steam with all the other difficulties.
Yes, the Lackawanna Cut-Off is a monument to the ingenuity of American engineering, particularly in the early 20th century. But they had thousands of workers to do that work, and the true length of the project was closer to TEN years when you consider the planning, engineering, false starts, and so forth.
I have a question about the Pequest fill. When the cutoff was new, and before the trees matured, was wind ever an issue to trains going across the fill? Did a derailment ever occur that was wind related? BTW, as always, great job Chuck. Another interesting an informative video!
John Losito, there was only one derailment that I’m aware of that ever happened on the Cut-Off itself and that was at Greendell. So, no, wind has never been an issue on the Pequest Fill.
There are two schools of thought on the use of the Jordan Spreader in Feb 1983, neither of which makes a whole lot of sense. The first school of thought is that they were keeping the line open as a bypass route in case of snow closing down the Lehigh Valley, for example. I find that very unlikely, given that spike removal had already been done, making it risky to run any freight on the line...and the need to run over the Poconos and then via NJ Transit. The second school of thought was that Conrail was trying to accelerate the removal of the rail, which would take another 19 months to complete. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense either, as the snow would most likely be gone in a month or so anyway. They were in that much of a rush? Somebody gave the order to do it. Presumably it came up via P'Burg and went out by the wye to the Water Gap. Your guess is as good as mine.
Great video. Enjoyed it very much. You'd think someone could come along with an ATV, Trailer and two or three chainsaws and cut back some of those low hanging branches and other hazards to arm and eye to at least enhance safety along the trail.
Question about the "missing" 21 miles, it sounded from your intro that NJ Transit is not planning on going past Andover. What is the story with this section?
You’re a celebrity Chuck!
Brilliant leaving the conversation at the beginning. Really brings the adventure home. The motorcyclist was right: “Very very educational”.
Thank you. I appreciate hearing that. I really wasn't sure how to handle the sequence--leave it in, or edit it. The creation of the closed captioning was a bit challenging since their part of the dialogue wasn't detected. I always tweak the CC anyway, because the TH-cam generated version is always terrible.
Hi Chuck,
In 1969 me and my brother-in-law opened Byram Shell Right across from the Byram diner and at the corner of rt 206 and Waterloo Road. I would see the large fills back in Lackawanna Lake and rt 206 N . I never thought much about it then probably like a lot of other people. It wasn't until I moved to Blairstown in 1984 that I became fascinated with history and the rail roads. It's funny you become interested after something is gone.
The big story then ( in 1969 ) was the building of Rt 80 and we were right into it by accident because of our business location. First were the surveyors, then the tree clearing, then the blasting crew, finally the excavators. Westchester Rock was the blasting crew, and they would stay at the Red Wing inn across Rt 206 all week and have their morning coffee, safety and tailgate meeting in our garage every morning. they became our customers and good friends. I still remember their names and faces. Trap Rock would come after the blasting, and they were the excavators. "Bob" the superintendent would come to my Shell station and pick me up to take me to the area they were drilling all day so I could watch them set off the charges. Opportunities galore. Bob wanted me to join his team as an compressor "oiler" Shell wanted me to take over Landing Shell. I had a business with my brother-in-law.
Thanks for sharing your memories - those were interesting times in that area.
At least it is good to know Jason and his friend are helping to keep the right of way clear, in this "missing" segment of the cutoff.... If there were trees down, its guys like this that will help open it up for bikers, runners and ATVs. One of more interesting spontaneous moments of this historical series.
Jason is a regular out there as Larissa got to talk to him while waiting for me to arrive in a future segment.
I get the notification, and it says the video has been uploaded 38 seconds ago and it already has 38 views. You’re going viral, Chuck!
Yes, of course. The line was all double track. And about 20% of it was three tracks wide. At both ends it was four tracks wide.
LOVE the videos...keep them coming!!! Maybe some day I'll be able to take a train from Scranton to NYC...
Thanks Chuck. I really enjoyed this video and I'm looking forward to watching the next few.
In 2005 or 2006 I did ride the three miles on a four-wheeler from Andover, west, over the pequest fill. Just as you did today but I didn't quite make it to Greendale. The GoPro does make it look a little narrower, I remember it being slightly wider. I also remember the railroad ties on the left going west. Also, back then, it seemed as if there was much more brush and I was constantly ducking as small branches were often hitting my helmet.
Thanks again. This brought back a lot of memories. I would like to do it again someday. The vibration from the bicycle was not a problem at all. I was thrilled to watch the entire video. I appreciate all the comments, pictures and history.
I'm so glad you're SO into this! THANKS!! Kevin
I imagine it was a much quicker trip, lol.
Very impressive Chuck, as you sure got your workout for the day! I enjoy watching your entire series of videos on the NJ Cut-Off. I liked you using the Go Pro camera on your bicycle helmet, as it captured what the former ROW looks like now-days and it was if I was riding along with you. Also, including the various pictures of both the “Then” and “Now” along your journey informed the viewer of where you were at. Keep up the excellent work and thank you again for a very enjoyable segment in this series.
I remember the bridge at Greendell. I went over it once when I was a young kid with my dad (mid 1990's). I remember seeing the signal bridge right next to the road bridge. Years went by and I was not able to remember exactly where it was and not able to find it in the general area I thought it could be. I thought I may have imagined it. Then while doing research on the cutoff, I came across pictures of Greendell with the road bridge and signal bridge and determined that had to be the place I remembered!
That was Wolf's Corner Road.
Love what you're doing Chuck. Only thing is I was thinking of getting an E-bike so I could ride the cutoff. But I may have to get a ticket and ride the train on the cutoff. Would be so interesting if when they finish, they could have scenic rides from Hoboken to Scranton or Nickelson on weekends when commuter is slow. Just a though.
As long as the trains would comply with Amtrak/NJT standards, those could be run. We've got a ways to go, however, before we get to that point.
Would love to have done a ride along on this series to see the sights and have a person that really knew what places were and answers...
Hi Chuck, No mention of crossing over the Sussex Mine Railroad right-of-way, which would have been just east of Route 206 -- roughly MP 53.5? Was that line still in operation when the Pequest Fill was being dumped? If so, did they have to build a tunnel for that r-o-w? Thanks, Norm in Branchville.
Well, the Sussex Branch itself had replaced the mine railroad long before the Cut-Off. So, the ROW of the Sussex Branch is the only one that goes under the Cut-Off there.
Having grown up and lived near the old school house 30 years ago it was sure nice to take the ride with you, just wish you would have taken some time to pan left and right to show more of the surrounding areas. Used to sleigh ride down the coal shoot right across Sutton road from the old school house, still bare the scar on my right thigh from the dumped spent coal. Did our share of ice skating on turtle pond and tubing down the peaquest. What a blast we had as kids, great place to grow up. Thanks for the ride and may I suggest a chest harness for your go pro next time, it should smooth out the video.
Check out Part 4 (Pequest Fill) where we are at ground level with the schoolhouse. I'll look into the harness, although then turning will be a problem.
Nice video. I recommend an electric assist bike for these type of adventures. You can either buy one ready made or modify your existing bike with an after-market kit. I frequently use my electric assist bike on rail beds and rail trails.
I'm OK without it. Once I'm done with the mini-series (Part 21) I won't need it. Besides, the work-out is good. It's only frustrating when I run into the sections that are not negotiable on two wheels.
Hi Chuck. Great video as usual. I learn something new in every episode. Looking forward to the next installment. Where exactly did you jump onto the cut-off in Andover? I want to retrace your rides on my gravel bike. Hope to ride the Pequest Fill before the views are blocked by the trees.
John Hollister, you can get in the ROW easily from Roseville Road, which parallels the Cut-Off at the station site. That’s at the top of the first hill on Roseville Road coming in from Route 206.
Chuck is a real Trooper going 3 miles on a bicycle in that kind of fill. Jerry
My friend and I discovered the cutoff in the 90s. We were on the Sussex branch trail riding our bikes when we discovered it. The cutoff at the time had large gravel rocks which made it very difficult to ride on it and we mostly walked our bikes and discovered the roseville tunnel. Weeks later we were on the trail going from Sparta to Columbia and saw the large bridge overhead which was the cutoff again. We then rode our bikes again on heavily graveled road to the Delaware bridge. It was a great discovery.
Yes, the loose ballast. A mountain bike would be ideal. I once took a racing bike up there (my present bike is a hybrid) and it was awful. Years of dirt bikers and ATVers, I'm afraid.
It really is unbelievable what they did in just 3 years. The engineering is amassing but the amount of work done is really amassing too. I mean it's 1910. No diesels or gas engines. Everything was either by steam or manual labor. And it was all hard rock. During the winter, not only snow and ice covering everything, but steam engines have problems with freezing. Water condition means a lot and they must have had a crew just to keep fires burning in the steam powered equipment all night. If the worked at night, there was no light anywhere back then because there was no electricity. Probably no telephone and only way to get to work was walking or by horse. Then they had the same problem with food and staying warm at night with keeping fires burning. To do 21 miles with all those huge cuts and fills is impossible to imagine. then all the concrete structures that were built so well they still look good today. Looks like they had to grind up a lot or rock, but a lot of the cuts and fills were solid rock. I only saw them building RT 80 fill through Pinebrook and Fairfield in the late 1960's. but that was dirt, not rock and they had modern equipment. i think it took the longer to do RT 80 and it was less work. The amount of work done in three years and the fact that it was all hard rock is truly unbelievable using steam with all the other difficulties.
Yes, the Lackawanna Cut-Off is a monument to the ingenuity of American engineering, particularly in the early 20th century. But they had thousands of workers to do that work, and the true length of the project was closer to TEN years when you consider the planning, engineering, false starts, and so forth.
Great! Bouncing does NOT adversely affect the "experience."
Nice ride sir. As a heads up, there is a good rough spot between the Paulinskill and the Delaware. You might have to walk the bike.
Thank you. I expect that there will be those kind of spots. Just east of the Paulinskill Viaduct--and the bridge itself--is not good either
I have a question about the Pequest fill. When the cutoff was new, and before the trees matured, was wind ever an issue to trains going across the fill? Did a derailment ever occur that was wind related? BTW, as always, great job Chuck. Another interesting an informative video!
John Losito, there was only one derailment that I’m aware of that ever happened on the Cut-Off itself and that was at Greendell. So, no, wind has never been an issue on the Pequest Fill.
@@LackawannaCutOff Thanks Chuck! Just wondering.
Wiki says the cutoff closed in 1979,but they bothered running a Jordan Spreader up the line in 1983?
There are two schools of thought on the use of the Jordan Spreader in Feb 1983, neither of which makes a whole lot of sense. The first school of thought is that they were keeping the line open as a bypass route in case of snow closing down the Lehigh Valley, for example. I find that very unlikely, given that spike removal had already been done, making it risky to run any freight on the line...and the need to run over the Poconos and then via NJ Transit. The second school of thought was that Conrail was trying to accelerate the removal of the rail, which would take another 19 months to complete. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense either, as the snow would most likely be gone in a month or so anyway. They were in that much of a rush? Somebody gave the order to do it. Presumably it came up via P'Burg and went out by the wye to the Water Gap. Your guess is as good as mine.
You see, that's NWNJ. Everyone is friendly on the trails.
52:20 I can verify that no matter how bad the ballast side was, the tie side would have been worse.
Great video. Enjoyed it very much. You'd think someone could come along with an ATV, Trailer and two or three chainsaws and cut back some of those low hanging branches and other hazards to arm and eye to at least enhance safety along the trail.
Must have been rough on the tires.
Long story...it loosened my rear wheel, which came off while I was riding around my neighborhood. Ouch!
I keep thinking what a heck of a ride over that embankment for a derailed locomotive! Did they have have an accident like that?
No, not on the Pequest Fill.
Question about the "missing" 21 miles, it sounded from your intro that NJ Transit is not planning on going past Andover. What is the story with this section?
Ron Bach, NJ Transit is not going west of Andover without funding.
@@LackawannaCutOff Are they intending to apply? Or is PA going to build this?
Chuck, if you still these videos, I am asking , are they going to be sidings at greendel , and Hainesburg as well as Blairstown?
Probably one siding somewhere on the Cut-Off.
They gonna clear the trees on the sides too or just the top only?
I think they will clear trees off of the railroad's property. Beyond that they won't touch them.
@LackawannaCutOff that's cool you when they will have passenger rail service or freight service back running again?
So you're saying it's 21 miles from Andover to the Delaware River ?
Actually it's about 20 miles to the Delaware River Viaduct, 21 miles to Slateford Jct.
nice bike
About five years ago I finally turned in my old racing bike that was over 30 years old. It was about time.
Rebuild the line.
White a workout+