Conrail Lehigh Line, Part 1

The Conrail Lehigh Line consists of the former Lehigh Valley and CNJ joint trackage from Oak Island Yard in Newark, NJ to Sayre, PA and connection with the Southern Tier line in NY State. The line traverses a wide variety of terrain and interesting locations from industrial districts to tough scenic mountain grades.

This line was inherited by Conrail on April 1st, 1976 when Conrail took over the bankrupt Anthracite railroads in the northeast. Under Conrail, the Delaware & Hudson was granted trackage rights on the Lehigh Line from a connection at Dupont, PA to access Oak Island and Philadelphia via Allentown on former Lehigh Valley and Reading lines.

In Volume 1, we’ll view Conrail and D&H trains on the Lehigh Line from New Jersey to the Southern Tier between 1979 and 1986 through the films of Jonathan Reck.