In March 2007, Pat Yough and I made a visit to the abandoned former Lackawanna Paulins Kill Viaduct in western New Jersey.
I was researching a book on railroad bridges, and needed to fill some gaps in my photographic coverage.
This was one of several massive concrete bridges built by the Lackawanna in the early 20th century. It has been disused since Conrail abandoned the Lackawanna Cutoff in the early 1980s.
Since that time the line has been repeatedly studied for reopening.
Previously on Tracking the Light in Jan 2014 I featured color photos of the bridge exposed the same day as these B&W images.
I made these photos on Fuji Neopan 400 black & white film using my Contax G2 rangefinder with 28mm Zeiss Biogon lens. I processed the film in Rodinal Special mixed 1-32 with water at 68F for three minutes and 15 seconds.
In its heyday, the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western was a super railroad. Visionary management rebuilt and modernized the line in the early years of the 20th century, spending vast amounts of private capital on massive line relocations characterized by massive concrete viaducts.
I can only imagine what the railroad would have been like with its multiple track mainline, numerous signal towers, and a steady flow of freight and passenger trains.
On the afternoon of October 17th, Pat Yough and I revisited the DL&W line over Pocono Summit, and explored the area around Slateford Junction and Portland, Pennsylvania.
Radiant foliage along the old DL&W mainline at Henryville, PA. FujiFilm X-T1 digital photo.
East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania looking west on the DL&W. FujiFilm X-T1 digital photo.
Restored East Stroudsburg tower.
Abandoned former DL&W open spandrel concrete Slateford Viaduct over the Delaware River at Slateford Junction. FujiFilm X-T1 digital photo.
Former DL&W open spandrel concrete Slateford Viaduct over the Delaware River at Slateford Junction. FujiFilm X-T1 digital photo.
Slateford Junction.
Old DL&W station at Portland, PA.
DL&W relay box Portland, PA.
I made these views of the old Lackawanna infrastructure. While the old ‘Lackawanna Cut-off’ built in 1908 was abandoned by Conrail in the 1980s, other portions of the DL&W in the area remain active, although it’s a shadow compared to the intensively traveled mainline of a century ago.
Yet, the decayed vestiges of this once super railroad remain a fascinating testimony to the earlier era. A time when coal was the railroad’s life blood, and the dull roar of interstate highways and jet aero planes was still far in the future.
Coming soon: the DL&W Lives on with Norfolk Southern and Delaware-Lackawanna freights.
