From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. ft.), Susquehanna Coal Company / Leases, 1883-1939. From the beginning, the LVRR's New York City passengers had used the Pennsylvania Railroad's terminal and ferry at Jersey City, but in 1913 the PRR terminated that agreement, so the LVRR contracted with the CNJ for use of its terminal and ferry, which was expanded to handle the increased number of passengers. Conversely, the other railroads' obligations to pay those fees to the Penn Central were not waived. A final attempt to establish a coal cartel took place in 1904 with the formation of the Temple Iron Company. A pair of ALCO FA-2 FB-2 car body diesel-electric locomotives were also purchased to augment the PAs when necessary. [1][19][bettersourceneeded][20]. Engineering Drawings, [ca.1886-1940 (bulk: 1915-1930)]{#311m.284} will be of interest. The Anthracite Railroads Historical Society maintains this website in the memory of Ed Schaller, a kind man with a wonderful personality, who served many years as treasurer on the Board of Directors. Most of the traffic along the line consists of intermodal and general merchandise trains going to yards such as Oak Island Yard in Newark, New Jersey, and Croxton Yard in Jersey City. (.01 cu. Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. Condition: Used. ft.), which was maintained by the Secretary's office. Original file (SVG file, nominally 800 600 pixels, file size: 447 KB). The Lehigh Valley Railroad (reporting mark LV) was a railroad built in the Northeastern United States to haul anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Pennsylvania. (1.34 cu. (1.25 cu. In order to document their corporate valuations to the ICC, American railroad companies had to submit detailed maps of their real estate holdings. In the early part of October 1855, a contract was made with Howard & Co. of Philadelphia to do the freighting business of the railroad (except coal, iron, and iron ore). The line's being downsized three times created two new rail lines: the Lehigh Secondary and the Lehigh Division, which was later sold to the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad (RBMN) in 1996; the RBMN would later cut back the Lehigh Division from Mehoopany to Dupont, Pennsylvania. (11.9 cu. The line gave the LVRR a route into Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and the Schuylkill Valley coal fields.[32]. It was located along the Hamilton Street Bridge in Allentown. So, its motto, Route Of The Black Diamond, was quite befitting and led directly to both its rise in prosperity and downfall into bankruptcy. The two most popular reasons for wishing to consult railroad-related land records are property ownership investigations and historical research. Most of the rail equipment went to Conrail as well, but 24 locomotives (units GP38-2 314-325 and C420 404415) went to the Delaware & Hudson instead. The 16 mile mountain cut-of, a rail segment of the line that extended from Fairview, Pennsylvania, to the outskirts of Pittston, Pennsylvania, was completed in November 1888. (11 cu. The United States Railroad Administration controlled the railroad from 1918 to 1920, at which time control was transferred back to the private companies. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / General Correspondence Files and Coal Mine Reports, 1930-1938. Ousting President Elisha P. Wilbur and several directors in 1897, the Morgan company installed W. Alfred Walter as president and seated its own directors. w/ Val. permission to lay track, run trains and do needed maintenance along a long, narrow swath. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Abstract and Opinion of the Acts of the Legislature and Casesin reference to the Title of the North Branch Division of the Penna. ft.), PRR / VP of Eastern Region / Locality Files, 1918-1936. Finally in 1887 the two railroads reached a settlement, and construction of the LVRR's Jersey City freight yard began. ft.), Manor Real Estate and Trust Company / Journals, 1903-1925. The LVRR, which had built coal docks in Perth Amboy when it built the Easton and Amboy in the 1870s, desired a terminal on the Hudson River close to New York City. (1 cu. The "T" intersection is also visible on the map where the trains would turn into the depot at the village of Hemlock. Ad vertisement from shop plaindealing. While the records are primarily legal documents rather than maps, information provided includes the effective date, purpose, names of interacting parties, terms, financial arrangements, and description of principle right or property conveyed. (17.5 cu. ft.), Mifflin and Centre County Railroad / Monthly Construction Accounts, 1862-1869. ft.), Kensington and Tacony Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. [2][13] By 1893, the LVRR owned or controlled 53,000 acres (210km2) of coal lands. The railroad also published a monthly magazine promoting travel on the train called the "Black Diamond Express Monthly". Coal, steel, passengers, and various other freight could be carried via the Lehigh Valley Railroad to either the Great Lakes or . (.1 cu. F. A . (29 cu. ft.), Enola Realty Company / Journals, 1905-1932. ft.), PRR / VP of Law / Riot Docket and Ejectment Suits, 1877-1895. Additional passenger trains ran from Philadelphia to Scranton and westward. By December 31, 1925, the railroad controlled 1,363.7 miles of road and 3,533.3 miles of track. Order #20 of ICC, 1916-1921. In 1895, the LVRR constructed the Greenville and Hudson Railway parallel with the national docks in order to relieve congestion and have a wholly-owned route into Jersey City. In 1870, the Lehigh Valley Railroad acquired trackage rights to Auburn, New York, on the Southern Central Railroad.[1]. (.1 cu. (.2 cu. While researchers are welcome to come in and browse through the hundreds of boxes of rolled maps and drawings, Archives staff is not able to do research for non-visiting patrons in this series. However, the route required a 4,893-foot (1,491m) tunnel through/under Musconetcong Mountain near Pattenburg, New Jersey (about twelve miles east of Phillipsburg),[21] and that proved troublesome, delaying the opening of the line until May 1875,[22] when a coal train first passed over the line. ft.), Chambersburg Land and Improvement Company / Minute Book, 1890-1905. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Record of Expenditures Under Authority of Forms 1416, ca 1917-1926. By controlling supply, the coal combination attempted to keep prices and profits high. Names Alter, R. H. Pennsylvania Railroad. [1], The port on Lake Erie at Buffalo was critical to the LVRR's shipments of coal to western markets and for receipt of grain sent by the West to eastern markets. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Printed Abstracts of Title, 1869, 1875. It also continued to grow and develop its routes in Pennsylvania. Due to declining passenger patronage, the Lehigh Valley successfully petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to terminate all passenger service. Prior to that time, the Temple Iron Company was a small concern that happened to have a broad charter allowing it to act as a holding company. 1860-1878] (1 volume) {#286m.1525} which shows track layouts and property ownership along the tracks for what later became part of the Conemaugh Division of the PRR in northwestern Pennsylvania. Two final blows fell in the 1950s: the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1956, better known as the Interstate Highway Act, and the opening of the Saint Lawrence Seaway in 1959. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / Annual Statement of Charges and Credits to the Investment Account for Property (BV 589), 1917-1930. Bridging Newark Bay proved difficult. The banking giant J. P. Morgan stepped in to refinance the LVRR debt and obtained control of the railroad in the process. Winning bid: US $15.00. Conrail abandoned most of the route in New York State to Buffalo after 1976, considerably shortening the line. Although the heavy wartime traffic had left the railroad's plant and equipment in need of repair, the damage was partly offset by new equipment that had been purchased by the government. ft.), Nescopec Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. (bridge still exists today. The Lehigh Line still exists and still serves as a major freight railroad line that operates in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. (.1 cu. ft.). Lehigh Valley Railroad Company records, 1870-1962. Records vary as to scope and nature, including pipe and wire, trackage and crossing rights, real estate, physical facilities, financial obligations, operations with affiliated companies, governmental authorizations, purchases, and so forth. The Lehigh Valley Railroad began providing service to Hemlock lake in 1895. The LVRR had built coal docks in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, when it built the Easton and Amboy in the 1870s, but desired a terminal on the Hudson River close to New York City. Regional Rail Reorganization Act of 1973, Pub.L. The company controlled 30,000 acres (120km2) of coal-producing lands and was expanding rapidly into New York and New Jersey. Small party privacy and fantastic views! Conrail maintained the line as a main line into the New York City area. of Law / Miscellaneous Interstate Commerce Commission Case Files, 1927-1935. Size of this PNG preview of this SVG file: Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents. [30] As a result of its leases and acquisitions, the Lehigh Valley gained a near-monopoly on traffic in the Finger Lakes region. [13] With these acquisitions, the LVRR obtained the right to mine coal as well as transport it. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Annual Reports and Data, 1920-1933. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Imprint File, 1904-1968. . (.1 cu. VDOMDHTMLtml> Map of the Pennsylvania, Reading, and Lehigh Valley Railroads, and their connections. This took effect on February 4, 1961. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Corporate Histories Prepared in Accord. ft.), Leechburg Company / Minute Books, 1937-1954. This microfilm, such as it is, is our best and most comprehensive source of PRR maps at this time. The 23 miles between Mauch Chunk and White Haven through the Lehigh Gorge, now the D&L Trail, was opened in 1864. The railroad ended operations in 1976 and merged into Conrail along with several northeastern railroads that same year. In pursuit of that strategy, the 1868 purchases of the Hazleton Railroad and the Lehigh Luzerne Railroad brought 1,800 acres (7.3km2) of coal land to the LVRR, and additional lands were acquired along branches of the LVRR. It was followed by the "Catasauqua" 4-4-0 and "Lehigh" 4-6-0, which were also Norris & Sons engines. (.25 cu. At the time, anthracite was transported by boat down the Lehigh River. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / General Correspondence Files of the St. Lawrence Power Project, 1948-1954. The LVRR was approved for such a restructuring in 1940 when several large mortgage loans were due. [6] To accommodate the 4ft 10in (1,473mm) gauge of the Belvidere, the cars were furnished with wheels having wide treads that operated on both roads.[7]. The interstate highways helped the trucking industry offer door-to-door service, and the St. Lawrence Seaway allowed grain shipments to bypass the railways and go directly to overseas markets. I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: (SVG file, nominally 800 600 pixels, file size: 447 KB), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0, http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:JimIrwin, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Lehigh_Valley_Railroad_System_Map.svg&oldid=460606778, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. During the majority of its ownership under the Lehigh Valley Railroad, the line was known as the Lehigh Valley Mainline, starting in the 1930s. (1.25 cu. Finally, in 1889, the LVRR gained control of the Geneva, Ithaca, and Sayre Railroad and completed its line of rail through New York. ft.), Philadelphia and Erie Railroad / Report to the Superintendant of the Tenth Census, 1880. All structured data from the file namespace is available under the. | Library of Congress Outline map of the middle Atlantic states showing the three major lines in different colors. Pennsylvania. Lehigh Valley Railroad 4-6-2 K-6B steam locomotive 2097 decorated for the railroad's centennial and leading the second section of train 9, the "Black Diamond," with ten cars past the interlocking tower at Treichler, a railroad location in North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania, on April 20, 1946. Map showing the Lehigh Valley Railroad system in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania Names Von Rosenberg, Leo (Creator) Lehigh Valley Railroad Company (Publisher) Collection. In 1875, the LVRR financed the addition of a third rail to the Erie Railroad main line so that cars could roll directly from colliery to the port at Buffalo. (.15 cu. Conrail integrated former CNJ main line leased trackage into the line and kept the line in continuous operation (since 1855); however, it downsized the line in the northwest from the Buffalo area of New York State: first to Sayre Yard in Sayre, Pennsylvania; then to Mehoopany, Pennsylvania; and finally to Penn Haven Junction in Lehigh Township, Carbon County, Pennsylvania. ft.), PRR / VP of Eastern Region / Press Copy Plan Book, 1899-1907. 1948: ALCO PA passenger diesels replace steam on all passenger runs. File usage on Commons. LVRR Map 1 2016-08-10T14:17:31 . ft.), PRR / Secretary / Notes for Centennial History of PRR Company, ca 1946-1949. (.11 cu. 1906 Antique Lehigh Valley Railroad Map Vintage Lehigh Valley Railway Map Birthday Gift for Dad Anniversary 527 ad vertisement by plaindealing. Free shipping for many products! (.1 cu. (.2 cu. Morgan. (.1 cu. ft.), Williamsport and Elmira Railroad / Annual Reports, 1856-1858. Joy and Lancaster Railroad / Minute Book of the Committee on Real Estate and the Road, 1850-1855. [citation needed]. Lehigh Valley Railroad System Map.svg. On June 21, 1970, the Penn Central declared bankruptcy and sought bankruptcy protection. [25] While the third rail on the Erie Railroad main line between Waverly and Buffalo gave the LVRR an unbroken connection to Buffalo, the road's management desired its own line into Buffalo. He was also an enthusiastic member of the Society's modeling committee . In 1856, the "E. A. Packer" 4-4-0 was purchased from William Mason of Taunton, Massachusetts. railroad archivist. The series is currently being processed, and an item-level Excel spreadsheet detailing drawings that have been catalogued thus far is available in the Archives search room, and can be obtained as an email attachment from the [31], In Pennsylvania, the Lehigh scored a coup by obtaining the charter formerly held by the Schuykill Haven and Lehigh River Railroad in 1886. (9 cu. (.15 cu. (.4 cu. ft.), PRR / President / Presidential Correspondence of A.J. ft.), Western New York and Pennsylvania Railroad / Contract Books, 1864-1891. The Valuable Papers are arranged numerically by file number, and are indexed by 27 rolls of 16 mm microfilm (roll #s RRV 1073-1099) in a variety of ways: alphabetically by personal or corporate name of parties, alphabeticaly by name of geographical location, and numerically by file number. Since 1896 the LVRR had run an important and prestigious express train named the "Black Diamond" which carried passengers to the Finger Lakes and Buffalo. of Purchases / General Correspondence and Confidential Files of C.D. It leased the CNJ and the LVRR, purchased the railroads' coal companies and arranged for the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad to cooperate with the combination, thereby controlling 70% of the trade. By 1859 it had 600 coal cars and 19 engines. The remainder of the assets were disposed of by the estate until it was folded into the non-railroad Penn Central Corporation in the early 1980s. The Reading, now out of receivership, purchased the company and brought the other coal railroads into the partnership, with the Reading owning 30%, the LVRR 23%, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western 20%, CNJ 17%, Erie 6%, and New York, Susquehanna and Western 4 percent. He served as chairman of the board while the presidency was vacant until PRR takeover. The two roads had entered a shared trackage agreement in this area in 1965 to reduce costs, as both had parallel routes from Wilkes-Barre virtually all the way to metropolitan New York, often on adjoining grades through Pennsylvania. (1.3 cu. [44] In 1957, the LVRR again stopped dividends. In 1891, the LVRR consolidated the Roselle and South Plainfield Railway into the Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway, along with the other companies which formed the route from South Plainfield to the Jersey City terminal. In 1920, the LVRR sold its lake line company, the Lehigh Valley Transportation Line, to private interests due to new federal legislation which stopped the practice of railroads owning lake lines. ft.), Coxe Brothers and Company, Inc. / Appendix to Estimates of Coal on Properties Owned or Controlled, 1925. ft.), PRR / President / Clement / Eastern Region Coordinating Committee Files, 1933-1936. ft.), Bustleton Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. The 46-mile-long (74km) LVRR connected at Mauch Chunk with the Beaver Meadow Railroad. . [46] It managed to acquire more than 85% of all outstanding shares, and from that time the LVRR was little more than a division of the PRR. In 1928, he attempted to seat a new president and board. [50] The "3R Act," as it was called, provided interim funding to the bankrupt railroads and defined a new "Consolidated Rail Corporation" under the AAR's plan. (2 cu. This route became important to Conrail as an alternate route to avoid Amtrak's former PRR/PC Northeast Corridor electrified route. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Minute Books of the Road Committee, 1847-1948. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Post Office Files, 1923-1933. ft.), Ridgeway and Clearfield Railroad / Minute Book, 1882-1911. This was the second step toward establishment of a direct route from Waverly to Buffalo, the first being the acquisition of the Geneva, Ithaca & Athens Railroad. [1], The length of the line from Mauch Chunk to Easton was 46 miles of single track. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Merger Testimony and Exhibits, 1962-1967. The majority of the Lehigh Line is now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and retains much of its original route in eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey, although it no longer goes into New York City. The Beaver Meadow Railroad had been built in 1836, and it transported anthracite coal from Jeansville in Pennsylvania's Middle Coal Field to the Lehigh Canal at Mauch Chunk. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Histories of Various Companies, ca 1934-1965. The Lehigh Valley Railroad remained in operation during the 1970 bankruptcy, as was the common practice of the time. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Library /Publicity Photographs, ca 1830-1960. Young, 1929-1943. plaindealing From shop plaindealing. This map looks West, so the Lehigh Valley main line enters at the bottom of the page and heads up into Buffalo, while the Niagara Falls branch line runs off to the right toward Tonawanda (no airport yet! The LVRR decided to expand more to the Northeastern New Jersey in order to reach its freight yards without using the CNJ main line. Top of page Skip to main content [34] The LVRR obtained a 5-year agreement to use the CNJ line to access the terminal, which opened in 1889. In 1875, the holdings were consolidated into the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, which was wholly owned by the LVRR. {#31.18}, MG-416 Aero Service Corporation Photographs, MG-425 Ebasco Environmental Company Aerial Photographs, Baldwin Locomotive Works, Other Record Holders, PHMC Collections Management Policy Standards, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Access Policy, Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Bangor & Portland Division, including Martins Creek Branch, Limestone Spur, Wind Gap Branch, Atlantic BranchandBangor Branch, Valuation orders and related records, 1914-1934. ft.), PRR / VP of Operation / Chief of Motive Power / Condition of Frt. [18] For most of its length, it ran parallel to the LVRR. (.1 cu. ft.), Finley Company / Minute Books, 1945-1959. (.16 cu. Countries. (1 cu. ft.), Philadelphia and Erie Railroad / Minute Book of the Road Committee, Finance Comm. The Depression had been difficult for all the railroads, and Congress recognized that bankruptcy laws needed revision. A long series of antitrust investigations and lawsuits resulted, culminating in a 1911 Supreme Court decision that forced the LVRR to divest itself of the coal companies it had held since 1868. (.03 cu. The Easton and Amboy was used as a connection to the New York metropolitan area, with a terminus in Jersey City, New Jersey. In some cases (yards, stations, repair facilities, etc.) Ended: Mar 02, 2023. ft.), Ridgeway and Clearfield Railroad / Annual Reports to the Auditor General of Pennsylvania, 1895-1896. In 1866, the LVRR purchased acquired the Lehigh and Mahanoy Railroad (originally the Quakake Railroad) and the North Branch Canal along the Susquehanna River, renaming it the Pennsylvania and New York Canal & Railroad Company (P&NY). File history. (.25 cu. (.01 cu. Lehigh Valley Railroad. In 1916, a horrendous explosion occurred at the facility, destroying ships and buildings, and breaking windows in Manhattan. [53] The only daylight New York-Buffalo train, the "Black Diamond", was discontinued in 1959. Then the CNJ opposed the LVRR's attempt to cross its line at Caven Point. The LVRR found that the route of the Morris Canal was impractical for use as a railroad line, so in 1872 the LVRR purchased the dormant charter of the Perth Amboy and Bound Brook Railroad which had access to the Perth Amboy, New Jersey, harbor, and added to it a new charter, the Bound Brook and Easton Railroad. ft.), Manor Real Estate and Trust Company / Property Ledger, 1886-1916. ft.), PRR / Comptroller / Cash Books for the Trust Created for Purchase of Securities, 1878-1939. (59 cu. ft.), PRR / President / Subject Index to Presidential Corr. These engineering drawings consist primarily of maps and structure drawings, although other subjects such as bridges, grade crossings and equipments are also documented. (5.6 cu. (2 cu. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / General Correspondence Files, 1972-1976. In order to handle the additional new ocean traffic, the LVRR created a large new pier at Constable Hook, which opened in 1915, and a new terminal at Claremont which opened in 1923. (.2 cu. The LVRR, wanting to capitalize on the tourist appeal of the cataract and to extend its anthracite coal business to the Midwestern United States, entered an agreement with the New York Central to use . That southern field held the largest reserves of anthracite in Pennsylvania and accounted for a large percentage of the total production. This series primarily represents agreements that the PRR entered into with individuals, companies, and local governments. Maps of North America. ft.), Pioneer Real Estate Company / Minute Book, 1946-1947. Packer brought additional financing to the railroad, installed Robert H. Sayre as chief engineer, and renamed the company the "Lehigh Valley Railroad." (.1 cu. Map of the Pennsylvania Schuylkill Valley Railroad, the predecessor to the Schuylkill Branch The abandoned Schuylkill Branch bridge over the Schuylkill River at Lower Pottsgrove, photographed in 2011 The Schuylkill Branch was a rail line owned and operated by the former Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania Railroad Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh This 5-railroad network will remain essentially unchanged for the first half of the 20th Century. At Phillipsburg, New Jersey, the Belvidere Delaware Railroad connected to Trenton, New Jersey. The original line retains its original route when it was first constructed and is served by Norfolk Southern Railway. The Easton and Amboy Railroad was a railroad built across central New Jersey by the Lehigh Valley Railroad to run from Phillipsburg, New Jersey, to Bound Brook, New Jersey, and it was built to connect the Lehigh Valley Railroad coal-hauling operations in Pennsylvania and the Port of New York and New Jersey to serve consumer markets in the New York metropolitan area, eliminating the Phillipsburg connection with the CNJ that had previously been the only outlet to the New York tidewater; until it was built, the terminus of the LVRR had been at Phillipsburg on the Delaware River opposite Easton, Pennsylvania. (.1 cu. [14], The 1870s witnessed commencement of extension of the LVRR in a new direction. (.1 cu. Other good sources of detailed real estate depictions are the, The "Transportation" section of the State Archives', #544, U.S. Geological Survey Topographic Maps, 1942-1973, #567, T.M. East of the junction with the Reading Line in Allentown and in Bethlehem, the line serves as Norfolk Southern's main corridor in and out of the Port of New York and New Jersey, and the New York Metro Area at large, as Norfolk Southern doesn't currently use the eastern half of its Southern Tier Line, which follows the Delaware River from Port Jervis north to Binghamton, New York, and which is now (2022) operated by the Central New York Railroad. [47][note 1]. It fronted the Morris Canal Basin with a series of 600-foot (180m) piers angling out from the shoreline but was too narrow for a yard, so the LVRR built a separate yard at Oak Island in Newark to sort and prepare trains. ft.), West Lane Garage Company / Minute Book, 1934-1943. You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. (.4 cu. ft.), Bedford and Hollidaysburg Railroad / Minute Book, 1902-1911. This company became an important factor in the movement of anthracite, grain and package freight between Buffalo, Chicago, Milwaukee, Duluth, Superior and other midwestern cities. ft.), PRR / Secretary / Board Files: Green Sheet Leases, 1926-1957. ft.), PRR / VP of Real Estate / Contract Book of George B. Roberts, 1869-1884. Also, in 1914 the Panama Canal was completed, and the LVRR gained an important new market with ores shipped from South America to the Bethlehem Steel company. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. The new line is also served by Norfolk Southern Railway, but it is served together with CSX Transportation in a joint ownership company called Conrail Shared Assets Operations. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Penn Central Merger Files, 1963-1965. ft.), PRR / VP of Special Services / Merger Studies, 1950-1970. Finally in 1900, the LVRR purchased the National Docks Railway outright. During the early years, the line served as the body of the Lehigh Valley Railroad until the railroad either built, acquired, or merged other railroads into its system. Throughout that decade, expansions continued into New York by taking over smaller lines and building new railroad. of F. Thomson and A.J. ft.), Lehigh Valley Railroad / List of Roadway Completion Reports (BV 586), 1919-1927. ft.), Pennsylvania and North Western Railroad / Annual Reports, 1890-1901. For 25 years the Lehigh Canal had enjoyed a monopoly on downstream transportation and was charging independent producers high fees. (12 cu. (.1 cu. File usage on other wikis. The majority of passenger equipment is believed to have been scrapped some time after February 1961. [14] A year later, Harry Packer died of illness, and Asa's 51-year-old nephew Elisha Packer Wilbur was elected president, a position he held for 13 years.[27]. Subsequently, the LVRR favored engines from Baldwin Locomotive Works and William Mason, but tried many other designs as it experimented with motive power that could handle the line's heavy grades.[7]. Initially, the LVRR contracted with the CNJ for rights from Roselle to Jersey City, but the LVRR eventually finished construction to its terminal in Jersey City over the Newark and Roselle Railway, the Newark and Passaic Railway, the Jersey City, Newark, and Western Railway, and the Jersey City Terminal Railway.