Ironton Railroad

Ironton Railroad

Map showing the Ironton Railroad, its connections, and mineral resources along the route.
Locale	Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1860–1976
Successor	Conrail
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Headquarters	Easton, Pennsylvania

The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

The railroad was originally incorporated on March 4, 1859 to run from Ballietsville to a connection with the Lehigh Valley Railroad or the Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad. The charter also allowed the railroad to own land along the right-of-way containing iron ore or limestone. Its charter was amended on May 16, 1861 to change the terminus from Ballietsville to Ironton, and was also given the power to buy connecting branch railroads and lay its own branches of up to 6 miles (9.7 km) to iron ore mines.

The principal reason for building the railroad was to haul iron ore from the mines at Ironton to iron furnaces along the Lehigh River. The rapid growth of the Lehigh Valley iron industry during the 1850s had resulted in a mining boom, but the heavy ore traffic was highly destructive to local roads. The Catasauqua and Fogelsville Railroad had already been built further to the south in the late 1850s to bring ore to furnaces of the Thomas Iron Company and the Crane Iron Company. Shortly after its incorporation, the railroad made a contract with Tinsley Jeter, who owned one of the large mines at Ironton, to construct the railroad. For a fixed payment, he agreed to build the railroad, which also purchased his iron mines. The railroad was leased to Jeter for three years from January 1, 1860.