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The Black River and Western Railroad is a short-line railroad operating in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, between Flemington and Ringoes. The railroad operates vintage steam and diesel powered locomotives: it maintains a regular limited freight service,〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Belvidere & Delaware River )〕 but is operated primarily as a heritage railway.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Black River and Western Railroad )〕 ==History== The Black River & Western Railroad was started by William Whitehead in Oldwick, New Jersey, in the late 1950s. A portion of the defunct Rockaway Valley Railroad went through his back yard. He and his sons started collecting rolling stock and an engine (Lackawanna #565). They started laying tracks but then the expansion of I-78 halted their dream of building a railroad at that location. They moved their equipment to the Chester Hill Branch of the Central Railroad of New Jersey with the hope of starting a railroad there. The section of railroad they were scouting soon became landlocked by the construction of I-80. The Black River & Western Railroad (BR&W) was incorporated in 1961. The railroad's name is derived from the Black River, a river in Chester, and the direction that the river flows. The cars were moved to Flemington, New Jersey and the search for a place to start their tourist train was continued. A leasing arrangement was created the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) that allowed a tourist train to operate from Flemington to Lambertville on the original Belvidere-Delaware Railroad (PRR Belvidere Division) Flemington Branch (originally the Flemington Railroad & Transportation Company). BR&W paid $5,000 a year and rehabilitated the railroad (the PRR operated freight service on the line during this period). Steam engine #60 pulled the first trip out of Flemington on May 16, 1965. Weekend and holiday schedules were devised. On March 16, 1970, the Black River & Western Railroad took over the ownership and operations of the entire Flemington Branch from the CNJ connection in Flemington to Flemington Branch Junction in Lambertville purchasing it from the Penn Central. With the acquisition of the railroad right of way and its freight operations, on top of the existing tourist passenger service, a true shortline railroad was born. Their base of operations was, and still is, out of Ringoes NJ. Freight interchange after the 1970 purchase was made with Penn Central at Lambertville and the CNJ in Flemington. Not long after the purchase, Penn Central filed for bankruptcy on June 21, 1970. At the time it was the biggest corporation in the United States to file for bankruptcy. Penn Central continued to operate its freight trains under bankruptcy protection until April 1, 1976 when Conrail took over operations (the last PC freight train to operate on the Belvidere Division was on March 28, 1976). The BR&W purchased three miles of trackage in the Lambertville area that was part of the Belvidere Division mainline on March 31st 1976 before Conrail took over. BR&W also purchased the Flemington-Three Bridges portion of the CNJ Flemington Branch from Somerville on this date. Although the major freight trains that hauled coal, iron ore and general freight were rerouted to other lines such as Reading Lines' North Penn Branch, CR continued operating smaller interchange freight trains to Lambertville. Since April of 1976 a new interchange was being planned at Three Bridges, NJ and construction started in January of 1977. The interchange officially opened in March of that year. CR and BR&W hosted a train trip on the Flemington Branch, Belvidere Division and former Lehigh Valley Railroad mainline in late March after the interchange in Three Bridges was opened. CR put the Belvidere Division out of service south of Milford after the event though operated a service maintenance train on November 12, 1978 between Milford and Lambertville to check the line of washouts and fallen trees. That would indeed be the last train to operate on that section of the Belvidere Division and sadly trackage was soon removed north and south of Lambertville to Milford and Trenton between 1979 and 1982. The right of way today is the Delaware & Raritan Canal State Park Rail-Trail. BR&W continued serving customers such as Traprock Industries Quarry, Nieces Lumber, Finkels Hardware and Belmont Packaging in Lambertville throughout the 1980s and 1990s. As time carried on the freight customers slowly dwindled. By 1995 there was almost no freight service left in Lambertville. Passenger train service from Ringoes, south (RR west) to Lambertville, ceased in 1998 due to several factors. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) demoted the poor trackage to "excepted", which prohibited the operation of passenger trains over the line. There was talk that the Traprock Industries Quarry, which stopped getting rail service around 1993, would renew its contract with BR&W. A frenzy of track repairs occurred between 1997 and 1999 on the Ringoes-Lambertville segment. The quarry then decided not to renew its contract thus making it pointless to continue the track repairs. The line was put out of service shortly after and the last train operated in June of 2003 to pick up some remaining rolling stock in Lambertville (several hopper cars from the quarry operation, two NYC baggage cars, a snow plow car, a caboose and an EMD F7 were taken back to Ringoes). Currently, Freight and Passenger service continues on the line from Ringoes, North (RR East) to Flemington. In 2014 the line from Flemington to Three Bridges was deemed excepted thus ending passenger service on that part of the line. In 2001, a separate non-profit entity known as the Black River Railroad Historic Trust, was formed to take over the tourist trains on the line. The BRRHT does not own (most of) the passenger cars and until 2011, fees had to be payed to the BR&W for their use. The BRRHT owns one diesel locomotive switcher, an SW9 numbered 438, although this diesel is currently under repairs. The Trust currently leases the coaches from the railroad and has use of its locomotives. At the end of 2014, the BR&W announced that it is working on reactivating excursion service along what is now called the Alexauken Division of the BR&W, along the Alexauken Creek. The first two miles of service, from Ringoes to a point south at what is called Bowne Station (at Bowne Station Road), is slated to start sometime in 2016. Track work is still in progress. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Black River and Western Railroad」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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