About 8 of years ago we explored a little railroad history while enjoying some nice roads and scenery. The core of the event is following the Delaware and Lackawanna Railroad concrete structures that are part of the larger overall cutoff. They were competing with the other great railroads of the day for traffic between New York City and Chicago. The challenge was the contorted path they had been forced to use to get from NYC to PA added time to the trip because of the extra mileage and the many comparatively sharp turns. As a result they decided to address the problem by essentially bushwhacking across northern New Jersey and into Pennsylvania near the Delaware Water Gap. Consequently in the NJ and PA area they are known for the “Lackawanna Cutoff” a massive combination of bridges, tunnels, fills, and cuts that straightened out this critical part of the route.

On July 14 we will start at the McDonalds (10 Simpson Rd) at the truck stop in Columbia, NJ just off Rt 80 at Exit 4. One of the D&L’s trademark concrete structures is the viaduct across Rt 80 just west of our starting point. From there we will head north and within 2 miles start to weave back and forth along the cutoff including the famous one mile long Pequest fill. During the first half of the tour through the scenic Sussex and Hunterdon counties of NJ we will cross under, over or along the cutoff a dozen times.

After passing under the Sussex branch “hole in the wall” we will loop back towards the Delaware River cruising along the Allamuchy State Park and the old Waterloo Village Historic Park.  We will lunch at an old favorite, Hot Dog Johnny’s in Butzville NJ. This is a moderate run of about 60 miles that will gather at 9:30AM so we can depart at 10:00 sharp.  For questions please contact me at csprings52@gmail.com.