Delaware, NJ: Lost/DL&W Depot

(Satellite)

Metrotrails posted two photos with the comment:

Metrotrails Then and Now Series: Historic postcard image of the railroad station in Delaware, New Jersey, compared to the same scene on our 2023 visit, now a gas service station.

The Warren Railroad was first built through Delaware in 1856, a sparsely populated little community with few others besides the Albertson family who had lived here and operated the ferry over the Delaware since colonial days.

John I. Blair purchased land here for the railroad from Henry Albertson on his deathbed.

The community proved to be more important than was originally expected. Blair's original plan was to run his railroad north through the Delaware Water Gap on the New Jersey side, but a competitor purchased land needed by Blair for this, and Blair had the route re-surveyed to cross the Delaware just north of the station.

By 1876, the community was home to the junction with the Blairstown Railroad (later New York, Susquehanna, and Western).

The town remained an important point on the main line until the Lackawanna Cutoff bypassed it to the north in 1911. Still, community saw regular service until the mid 1900s when the NYS&W cut traffic to Delaware, and the Pennsylvania Railroad eliminated its junction some three miles to the south due to damage from the Flood of 1955.

The Lackawanna abandoned its trackage from Delaware to Washington in 1970.

The sleepy little community remains a charming place with beautiful homes and buildings, tucked away on side streets parallel with busy Rt 46.

Metrotrails shared with the comment: "The old Lackawanna railroad station in Delaware New Jersey."

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The topo maps did not help find the location of the depot.

But because of the white line by the black rectangle, it was easy to find the depot on this aerial. The white line would have been the platform. Judging by the shadow, there was a grain elevator about a block south and on the other side of the tracks.

Jul 7, 1957 @ 60,000; ARA550530040040

The bridge and the tracks on the Pennsylvania side are extant, but the tracks are gone on the New Jersey side.

Satellite