MP 151.5
A pair of LV pushers from Lehighton, PA, and an
eastbound CNJ freight are in the hole waiting for a steam powered
rail enthusiast train to pass through the crossover switches at Rita, PA.
The crossover was in place to permit eastbound and westbound way freights access
to a busy siding. This photograph postdates the Joint Use of Facilities
agreement with the LV.
- northeast view, February 25, 1968 - A. W. Kovacs
MP 149.94
This skew, single span, reinforced concrete arch for two
tracks crossed
over Pennsylvania Route 437 at Tunnel, PA. It was built in 1946 and
identified by the railroad as bridge No. 149/94.
- northeast view, June 20, 1970 - A. W. Kovacs
MP 147.63
Left - Tunnel Station/UN
Interlocking Tower was
westward of White Haven Tunnel, on the north side of the mainline,
eastbound of where the double track and a passing siding off westbound No. 2
Track converged. Tower
operators on the CNJ were known as signalmen.
- northeast view, Circa 1935 - Clinton T. Andrews Right
-
MP 147.80 A westbound CNJ freight on No. 2 track overtakes a westbound
drag of empty coal hopper cars on the passing siding. The locomotive is one of
the CNJ's ten (Nos. 850-859) original United States Railroad
Administration heavy 2-8-2s. -
Northeast view, Circa 1935 - Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
A double track mainline ran between Penobscot
Station to a point west of the single track White Haven Tunnel. East
of the tunnel at Frazers, PA, the mainline returned to double track and
continued double across the Delaware River to Raritan, NJ, where it widened to
four tracks. Access through the tunnel was governed by UN Interlocking.
The 1,726-foot bore had been dug during the early 1840s. It was arch lined for 157 feet (sides
175 feet) at its west end.
- southeast views, August 27, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs
This early view of the
west portal of White Haven
Tunnel shows a less verdant and better maintained approach to the tunnel.
During the 1930s labor was cheap for railroads and in spite of a national
economic depression and its consequential slow business, right-of-ways had been
well maintained. The site of Tunnel Station/Interlocking Tower
was behind the photographer. - southeast view, Circa 1930 -
Pennsylvania Museum & Historical Commission
White Haven Tunnel was one of two mainline bores
on the Lehigh & Susquehanna Division. The other was at the Turnhole
in Glen Onoko, PA, and had been abandoned early in the twentieth century after
the mainline had been realigned around it. In this eastward view of the
mainline, the photographer has entered the tunnel to record the scene.
- southeast view, September 3, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs
Unlike the cut-stone west portal of White Haven Tunnel, the east
opening was hewed from rock. South Church Road
ran over the top of the tunnel and loosely paralleled the CNJ between Glen
Springs and White Haven.
- northwest views, September 3, 1966 - A. W. Kovacs
The CNJ mainline entered the Lehigh River valley
north of White Haven. The Lehigh Coal & Navigation Company erected
two dams on the upper Lehigh River near White Haven. One dam was north of
town and the other south at Bridgeport, PA (an area on the opposite bank of the
river from White Haven where the LV crossed the river). In this scene of
the north dam taken from the LV right-of-way, the double tracks of
the CNJ can be seen at lower elevation passing in front of the water
tank. - northeast view, Circa 1925 - Robert M. Kaufman
collection
MP 142.51
Turntable No. 4 at White Haven was installed during
1904 by the American Bridge Company and rebuilt with a new center in 1909. It
had a 70-foot, deck plate girder, hand operated bridge that was removed in July
1954. In this scene looking over the turntable toward the business center of
White Haven, the CNJ depot is visible in the distant center of the photograph.
The pile of rubble in the foreground is the demolished old Lehigh &
Susquehanna Railroad stone engine house.
- southward view, Circa 1925 - Robert M. Kaufman
collection
The CNJ freight yard was part of downtown White Haven.
The overhead truss bridge at the left carries Berwick Street across the Lehigh
River to East Side, PA. The LV river crossing at Bridgeport is the distant deck plate
girder bridge. By the time of this photograph,
navigation on the upper Lehigh River had become little more than a distant
memory.
- southeast view, Circa 1925 - Robert M. Kaufman
collection
MP 142.36
During the nineteenth century the LC&N had established their boat
building and repair shops at White Haven. The town was strategically situated
between the northern entrance
into the Lehigh Gorge and the demarcation of the upper Lehigh River. The LC&N's
original plan had been to continue their navigation along the Lehigh River
as far as Stoddartsville, PA, and then link to the North Branch Canal
(Pennsylvania State Canal System) on the Susquehanna River. The plan had proved
to be futile in that no practical water route over Blue Mountain, other than a
cumbersome portage, could be developed. This reality led to the creation of a
rail link (Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad) between the Lehigh River at
White Haven and the Susquehanna River at Wilkes-Barre. For a short period of
history, White Haven was both a railroad terminus and canal port. The CNJ's
large, ancient, passenger depot reflected White Haven's early prominence.
- northwest view, Circa 1950 - Robert M. Kaufman collection
MP 141.78
The LV mainline crossed the Lehigh River south of White Haven between
Upper Lehigh Junction and Bridgeport. Upper Lehigh Junction was a
CNJ location where the Upper Lehigh Branch to Upper Lehigh, PA,
diverted from the mainline. The mining Sandy Run Branch and Pond Creek
Branch (bridges and tracks removed during 1959) both had junctions along the
Upper Lehigh Branch. There is historical evidence that the branch
connection to the mainline once had both a west (LV emergency detour
route) and east leg . The west leg of the connection would have occurred prior to the turn of
the century. - northward view, March 28, 1988 - Robert F. Fischer/Warren C.
Gearrick
Left - The LV Bridgeport crossing was south of White
Haven near the LC&N dam. Although the navigation on the Upper Lehigh
River (identified as the Upper Section by the LC&N) had been
totally destroyed by the great flood of 1862, the LC&N continued to
maintained the two dams near White Haven to support water powered industrial
sites and mills on the river. In this view of the LV's fourth bridge to
occupy this location, the stonework (near the base of the bridge) are the
remains of an LC&N Upper Section lock that once had a lift
of 30 feet. It, too, had been destroyed in the flood of 1862.
- northeast view, circa 1925 - Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission
Center
Left - The first wooden 1867 bridge was replaced by deck trusses
in 1887 (view) and later replaced by plate deck girders in 1901 (destroyed the
following year).
- northeast view, Circa 1900 - Pennsylvania Historical & Museum
Commission
Center Right & Right - In these views the 1901 LV bridge across the Lehigh
River has been undermined by torrential rainfall occurring during 1902. It was
common practice to use loaded freight cars to add ballast to bridges threatened
by rising water. In this instance gondolas loaded with rail sections had been
rolled out onto the bridge. Pieces of the breached LC&N dam and lift
lock are visible. - southeast view, 1902,
Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission