The Boonton Branch refers to the railroad line in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

that was completed in 1870 and ran 34 miles (54.8 km) from

Hoboken Hoboken ( ; Unami: ') is a city in Hudson County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 60,417. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 58,69 ...

to East Dover Junction as part of the

Morris & Essex Railroad The Morris and Essex Railroad was a railroad across northern New Jersey, later part of the main line of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. History The M&E was incorporated January 29, 1835, to build a line from Newark in Essex Co ...

(M&E). Although the branch hosted commuter trains (and to a lesser extent, passenger trains), the line was primarily built as a freight bypass line. The term "branch", therefore, is somewhat of a misnomer since the Boonton Branch was built to higher mainline standards than the

Morristown Line The Morristown Line is an NJ Transit commuter rail line connecting Morris and Essex counties to New York City, via either New York Penn Station or Hoboken Terminal. Out of 60 inbound and 58 outbound daily weekday trains, 28 inbound and 26 outbou ...

, the line that it bypassed. As a result, the Boonton Branch better meets the definition of a "cut-off" rather than a branch. Some of the towns that the Boonton Branch passed through included Lyndhurst,

Passaic Passaic ( or ) is a city in Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city had a total population of 70,537, ranking as the 16th largest municipality in New Jersey and an increase of 656 from the 69,7 ...

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

, Paterson, Wayne, Lincoln Park,

Mountain Lakes A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher ...

, and its namesake,

Boonton Boonton is a town in Morris County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the town's population was 8,815, an increase of 468 (+5.6%) from the 2010 census count of 8,347, which in turn reflected a decline of 149 (− ...

History and construction

By the end of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

in 1865, the management of the

had recognized that the

was inadequate as a freight line. The line was circuitous and had to climb the steep 1.5% westbound grade to Summit, New Jersey. Although not yet the issue it would become in the 20th Century, the Morristown Line also passed through numerous small towns that were served by passenger trains. (The term "commuter" was just coming into vogue at that time.) Rather than attempting to rebuild an existing line, 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 ...

, which controlled the M&E, decided to build a completely new line. The new line would leave the Morristown Line just west of the Bergen Tunnels at West End (which became a junction) and then would rejoin the Morristown line at East Dover Jct., a total of 34 miles. (In 1903, Denville Jct. would be created at its present location and East Dover Jct. would be downgraded.) The Boonton Branch was built between 1869 and 1870. Reportedly, very few construction problems were encountered. The line more or less paralleled the

Morris Canal The Morris Canal (1829–1924) was a common carrier anthracite coal canal across northern New Jersey that connected the two industrial canals at Easton, Pennsylvania across the Delaware River from its western terminus at Phillipsburg, New Jers ...

for its entire length. This was hardly a coincidence for competitive and topographical reasons. From a competitive point of view, the canal still carried a significant amount of coal traffic at the time the Boonton Branch was built. Anthracite coal played a major role in creating a need for the Boonton Branch. As the Road of Anthracite, the Lackawanna Railroad tapped the anthracite-rich hills of the

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

, Valley to supply the suburbs of New Jersey. That situation would rapidly change as the railroad's delivery schedule was counted in hours—not days (as was the case of the canal)—and the railroad didn't freeze over for four months out of the year, at the time when its more profitable commodity was in greatest demand. From a topographical point of view, the Boonton Branch's alignment allowed for fast freight service over a line that was relatively uncongested by commuter and passenger traffic. Westbound, trains had to overcome a

ruling grade The term ruling grade is usually used as a synonym for "steepest climb" between two points on a railroad. More simply, the steepest grade to be climbed dictates how powerful the motive power (or how light the train) must be in order for the run ...

of 1%, which often required

pusher engine A bank engine (United Kingdom/Australia) (colloquially a banker), banking engine, helper engine or pusher engine (North America) is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grad ...

s and

helper engine A bank engine (United Kingdom/Australia) (colloquially a banker), banking engine, helper engine or pusher engine (North America) is a railway locomotive that temporarily assists a train that requires additional power or traction to climb a grad ...

s. Even so, the Boonton Branch's grade profile was a decided improvement over the Morristown Line's. When the section of the branch through the

Hackensack Meadowlands New Jersey Meadowlands, also known as the Hackensack Meadowlands after the primary river flowing through it, is a general name for the large ecosystem of wetlands in northeastern New Jersey in the United States, a few miles to the west of N ...

was destroyed in 1917 by the Kingsland explosion (caused by German sabotage of an ammunition plant in Lyndhurst),D., L., & W. TORN UP FOR TWO MILES
/ref> it was quickly rebuilt.

Growth and severing

The Lackawanna's freight business grew consistently from the time of the opening of the Boonton Branch until the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. During the 1920s, it continued to grow, necessitating additional tracks being laid on the Boonton Branch. The Great Depression substantially the Lackawanna's traffic (similar to most other American railroads), and although traffic saw a large upswing during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, by the 1950s the financial outlook was bleak. In an attempt to forestall an almost certain bankruptcy, the DL&W merged with its rival the Erie Railroad in 1960. The combined railroad,

Erie Lackawanna Railroad The Erie Lackawanna Railway , known as the Erie Lackawanna Railroad until 1968, was formed from the 1960 merger of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. The official motto of the line was "The Friendly Service Route" ...

(EL), although full of promise, performed poorly for its first few years, losing millions of dollars. During this time, EL management looked for ways to stave off receivership. In a move that was extremely controversial, the New Jersey Highway Department (now

NJDOT The New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) is the agency responsible for transportation issues and policy in New Jersey, including maintaining and operating the state's highway and public road system, planning and developing transportat ...

) moved to buy the

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 ...

of the Boonton Branch between Paterson and

Totowa, New Jersey Totowa (pronounced "TO-tuh-wuh" ) is a borough in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 10,844,Interstate 80 . The highway department's offer was $2 million for the entire width of the right-of-way (which would completely sever the double-track route). The EL, in desperate need of cash, expressed interest, but asked if at least a single track could be retained along the edge of the highway. The highway department agreed it was feasible, but quoted a cost of $2 million to rebuild a single track—an offer that was of no interest to the EL as this would not result in any cash. Public hearings were held where rail advocates criticized the idea of severing the line, but to no avail. Faced with the inevitability of the highway, the EL decided to accept the offered $2 million, rather than risk getting less from an eminent domain seizure. Since most of the railroad's freight had been shifted off of the former Boonton Branch at Mountain View, with the Erie's Greenwood Lake Branch to be used as the new eastern connection to Hoboken (via a junction between the Boonton Branch and the Greenwood Lake Branch in Secaucus), creating the new Boonton ''Line'' for commuter purposes, the impact of the severing of the line initially seemed to be minimal. On paper, the severing of the line only affected the City of Paterson with the closing of the former Lackawanna passenger station located on a hill above the city. Paterson was already served by the former Erie mainline station in downtown Paterson and did not protest the closure. What was lost, and what would eventually come back to haunt the EL, was the previous high-speed freight route. Indeed, in a decade's time after the severing of the line at Garret Mountain, all long-haul freights would be brought back to the "Lackawanna side". The aforementioned Greenwood Lake Branch had a grade profile similar to that of the Morristown Line—a line which the Morris & Essex Railroad's management had decided to bypass a century earlier. The use of the Greenwood Lake Branch would prove to be an operational headache. And after the EL became part of Conrail in 1976, Conrail specifically would point to the severing of the Garret Mountain section of the Boonton Branch as a key reason in its decision to abandon the Lackawanna Cutoff. With the opening of the

Montclair Connection The Montclair Connection is a short section of double-track railroad on the NJ Transit Rail Operations system in New Jersey, United States, connecting the former end of the Montclair Branch at Bay Street station to the old Boonton Line southeast ...

in 2002, trains over the Boonton Line were rerouted at Montclair over the

Montclair Branch The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations in the United States. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R ...

, resulting in the renaming of the line to the

Montclair-Boonton Line The Montclair-Boonton Line is a commuter rail line of New Jersey Transit Rail Operations in the United States. It is part of the Hoboken Division. The line is a consolidation of three individual lines: the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R ...

. The

Dover and Delaware River Railroad The Dover and Delaware River Railroad is a short-line railroad operating along of track in the northern part of the U.S. state of New Jersey between Phillipsburg and Newark. It was created in 2019 to take over local freight operations from Nor ...

currently operates a short industrial track through Wayne and Totowa to serve several industries in the area

it is known as the Totowa Industrial Branch.

Station list

''All mileposts are from

Hoboken Terminal Hoboken Terminal is a commuter-oriented intermodal passenger station in Hoboken, Hudson County, New Jersey. One of the New York metropolitan area's major transportation hubs, it is served by nine NJ Transit (NJT) commuter rail lines, one Metr ...

.''

Notes

References

* * {{Taber-DLW-20th-2 Rail transportation in New Jersey Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Railroad cutoffs Railway lines opened in 1870 Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad lines

History and construction

Growth and severing

Station list

See also

Notes

References