A few 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. Their decision to be faster was to essentially bushwhack 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.

We will start at the McDonalds (10 Simpson Rd) near the truck stop in Columbia, NJ just off I-80. 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.