{{Blairstown Railway Footbridge Park - April 20 2011 - IMG 1733

The Blairstown Railway (BRWY) opened in 1877 and ran between Blairstown and Delaware, New Jersey, a distance of approximately 12 miles (19 km). The single-track railroad was built under the direction of railroad magnate John I. Blair, one of the wealthiest persons in the United States at that time, who had previously built the

Warren Railroad The Warren Railroad was a railroad in Warren County, New Jersey, that served as part of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's mainline from 1856 to 1911. History The Warren Railroad was chartered on February 12, 1851, by special ac ...

, and for whom Blairstown is named.

History

The Blairstown Railway started at what is now Footbridge Park in Blairstown and ended at the

Lackawanna Railroad The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad) was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey (and by ferry with New York City), a distance of . Incorporated in ...

's station, which was located between Clinton and Clarence Streets in Delaware NJ. The BRWY itself never grew beyond its initial size. Legend has it that Blair built the BRWY so that his wife to be able to travel from their home in Blairstown to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and back in one day for shopping. Although such a tale is plausible, and serves to give Blair a more human side than he is often given credit for, it would have been completely out of character for the notoriously frugal Blair to have built what would have amounted to an extravagant toy for the occasional use of his seventy-five-year-old wife. Rather, it is far more likely that Blair was aware that there were railroads — specifically, the

New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad The New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (or New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad and also known as the Susie-Q or the Susquehanna) is a Class II American freight railway operating over 400 miles (645 km) of track in th ...

and the

Lehigh and New England Railroad The Lehigh & New England Railroad was a Class I railroad located in Northeastern United States that acted as a bridge line. It was the second notable U.S. railroad to file for abandonment in its entirety, the first being the New York, Ontario ...

— who were surveying routes through the Blairstown area into

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and who might want to use his BRWY as part of their route if he built it before they could. Indeed, given the topography of the Blairstown area, and Blair's penchant for being at least one step ahead of the competition (and ideally holding the

trump card ''Trump Card'' is an American syndicated game show that aired from September 10, 1990, to May 24, 1991, hosted by Jimmy Cefalo. Debi Massey served as hostess and Chuck Riley was the announcer. The show was produced by Telepictures Productions, ...

too), Blair's strategy was probably to build the BRWY, and wait. Blair would only have to wait four years (1881) before the

New Jersey Midland Railroad The New Jersey Midland Railway was a 19th-century predecessor to the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway (NYS&W) that operated in Northern New Jersey and Orange County, New York. Formation and construction The New Jersey Midland Railway ...

extended its tracks from

Sparta, New Jersey Sparta is a township in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 19,600, reflecting a decrease of 122 (−0.6%) from the 2010 United States Census, when the township's population was 19, ...

to connect to the BRWY, and through trains began plying the rails of the BRW. Later, the

(NYS&W), a corporate successor of the New Jersey Midland RR, and the

Lehigh & New England Railroad The Lehigh & New England Railroad was a Class I railroad located in Northeastern United States that acted as a bridge line. It was the second notable U.S. railroad to file for abandonment in its entirety, the first being the New York, Ontario ...

(L&NE), a competitor that also needed Blair's route (via

trackage rights Railway companies can interact with and control others in many ways. These relationships can be complicated by bankruptcies. Operating Often, when a railroad first opens, it is only a short spur of a main line. The owner of the spur line may con ...

), would turn Blair's bucolic branchline into a somewhat bustling mainline, albeit for two relatively small players in the railroad arena. Clearly, if it had Blair's intent that the entire BRWY would be used by another railroad to connect to the

at Delaware, he was mistaken. For the L&NE would use only about six miles of the BRWY (to Hainesburg Junction) and the NYS&W about nine miles (to a point called Columbia Junction, located about where

Interstate 80 Interstate 80 (I-80) is an east–west transcontinental freeway that crosses the United States from downtown San Francisco, California, to Teaneck, New Jersey, in the New York metropolitan area. The highway was designated in 1956 as one o ...

crosses Columbia Lake today), with the remainder of the route to Delaware being run as a vestigal

branchline A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industri ...

. But, perhaps this was Blair's plan all along. Blair would die in 1899 at the age of 97. A dozen years after Blair's death, in 1911, Blairstown would receive a second

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

, located about a mile or so up the hill from Blair's station. This one, however, would be located on the Lackawanna Cut-Off. As such, the Hainesburg-Delaware section south of Hainesburg Junction − the so-called Delaware Branch − would be abandoned in 1928. The L&NE went out of business in 1961, resulting in the tracks west of Hainesburg Junction being removed. In 1963, the NYS&W removed the tracks from Sparta Junction to Blairstown. And, in the late 1980s, the abandoned rail

right-of-way Right of way is the legal right, established by grant from a landowner or long usage (i.e. by prescription), to pass along a specific route through property belonging to another. A similar ''right of access'' also exists on land held by a gov ...

between Sparta Junction and

Knowlton Township, New Jersey Knowlton Township is a township in Warren County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 2,894, a decline of 161 over the previous decade.Paulinskill Valley Trail.

Remains

The

in Blairstown was located in what is now Footbridge Park. The

parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

for the park was originally a small

railyard A rail yard, railway yard, railroad yard (US) or simply yard, is a series of tracks in a rail network for storing, sorting, or loading and unloading rail vehicles and locomotives. Yards have many tracks in parallel for keeping rolling stock or ...

, complete with

passing siding A passing loop (UK usage) or passing siding (North America) (also called a crossing loop, crossing place, refuge loop or, colloquially, a hole) is a place on a single line railway or tramway, often located at or near a station, where trains or ...

s, a turntable and engine house, and a coaling dock that is still extant (for a while in later years, a

skate park A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, scootering, wheelchairs, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairsets, qua ...

was located under the old coaling dock). The

footbridge A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.''Oxford English Dictionary'' While the primary meaning for a bridge is a structure which links "two points at a ...

across the Paulinskill River was the second one at the site. The present footbridge was dedicated by Blair himself shortly before his death, and provided direct access between the town of Blairstown and the

, and later to Footbridge Park. Hainesburg Station - April 2011 - IMG 1818

Most of the route of the Blairstown Railway, from Blairstown southwest to Delaware, can still be traced today, although parts of the route have ceased to exist. Indeed, the

from Footbridge Park to

Blairstown Airport Blairstown Airport is a public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.7 km) southwest of the central business district of Blairstown, New Jersey, Blairstown, Warren County, New Jersey, Warren County, New Jersey, United States. It is privately ...

is still fully intact as the Paulinskill Valley Trail. However, the right-of-way has been severed by the airport, with signage pointing the direction to where the trail continues south of the airport. The trail runs another three miles from there, passing under the Paulins Kill Viaduct, continuing until it passes under

, in an unusual pipe tunnel, and then ends near the power dam on the Paulinskill River near

Columbia, New Jersey Columbia is an Local government in New Jersey#Unincorporated communities, unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Knowlton Township, New Jersey, Knowlton Township in Warren County, New Jersey, Warren County, Ne ...

. From there, the old right-of-way can no longer be followed, as it continues only a short distance, and then dead ends on

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property and personal property, which is owned by a state entity, and from collective or ...

. After that, the right-of-way has been mostly obliterated by the widening of

U.S. Route 46 U.S. Route 46 (US 46) is an east–west U.S. Highway completely within the state of New Jersey, running for , making it the shortest signed, non-spur U.S. Highway. The west end is at an interchange with Interstate 80 (I-80) and Route ...

, traveling along the eastern shore of the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock (village), New York, Hancock, New York, the river flows for along the borders of N ...

until the town of Delaware is reached. In Delaware, until 2012, a remaining vestige of the BRW was a short, deep cut high into the steep rock wall on the southern outskirts of town along US Route 46. The western wall of the cut was removed that year to provide a parking lot for Gary Gray Trucking. The rather odd position of the cut is explained by Blair's apparent desire to have his railroad end at, rather than across the tracks from, Delaware Station. Another vestige is the partially filled turntable pit of the BRW, located alongside Delaware Road, just northeast of the village. The

's railroad station in Delaware was torn down in 1968 and the tracks of the old

were removed from the location in 1970.

Sources

*''Susquehanna - New York, Susquehanna & Western RR, by John Krause and Ed Crist, Carstens Publications, 1980.'' *Interstate Commerce Commission Reports: Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States. Valuation reports, Volume 33 Interstate Commerce Commission, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931 Wikipedia:WikiProject Trains/ICC valuations/New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad Blairstown, New Jersey 1877 establishments in New Jersey Defunct New Jersey railroads Railway companies established in 1877 Railway companies disestablished in 1963 Predecessors of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway American companies established in 1877