Excerpt fromThe Roustabout Issue #40 Published by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad Historical Society, Inc. Winter 2021
This photo recently came up For Sale on eBay which I couldn’t resist purchasing at a decent price with no other bidders.
The following comment was written about the photo by Don Dorflinger and Chuck Walsh on the Facebook Lackawanna Cut-Off Historical Committee.
“This picture, taken by an unknown photographer in August, 1919, was probably when Main Street (today's Slateford Road) in Slateford, PA, was being paved for the first time. The view looks north from the Main Street bridge over the Lackawanna Cut-off with the Lackawanna Railroad's Slateford Jct. in the background. Stroudsburg, Water Gap & Portland Railroad trolleys began operating from Delaware Water Gap to Slateford late in the summer of 1911, and the line was finally completed to Portland that October. Unfortunately, the Lehigh & New England Railroad prevented the SWG&P from crossing their tracks with a diamond at the top of Delaware Avenue and, for the short fifteen years the trolley operated, passengers heading for Bangor and points south had to detrain (or is that ‘de-trolley’), walk across the tracks, and board a Bangor &Portland car on the other side.”
The tracks followed a right-of-way along the shoulder of Delaware Avenue into Portland and were not alongside the Lackawanna tracks as they were through Slateford. Delaware Avenue, Church Street and Slateford Road were one continuous road prior to the building of 611. That being the alignment of the trolley line, that would have brought the trolley line to be at grade with the L&NE, which--for those of you not familiar with Portland PA--crossed Delaware Avenue at grade just before entering onto the long bridge over the Delaware River into Columbia, NJ. The current alignment of 611 was not constructed until the 1930's after the SWG&P was abandoned. Between Slateford Road and the DL&W Portland depot, much of the highway is on the Old Road main line, which was moved closer to the river to accommodate the road construction.
You can see seven tracks in photo. Starting from the left they are three to the left are on the Cutoff, one of which was a siding that ends shortly behind the photographer. The next was a siding. The next was a lead to the turntable. The last two were the ‘Old Road’ main.
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