Rockaway Valley Railroad
| Rockaway Valley Railroad | |
|---|---|
The Mendham, New Jersey station site looking north along the right-of-way towards Watnong. The station was located about where the small building is in this June 1994 photo. The last freight car on the railroad was delivered here on June 10, 1914.
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| Overview | |
| Status | Abandoned (1917) |
| Locale | New Jersey |
| Termini | White House Watnong |
| Operation | |
| Opened | 1888 |
| Closed | 1917 |
| Character | Surface |
| Technical | |
| Line length | 25 mi (40.2 km) |
| Number of tracks | 1 |
| Track gauge | 1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) |
| Operating speed | unknown |
The Rockaway Valley Railroad, also known as the Rock-A-Bye Baby, was an American short line. Built from a connection with the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) mainline in White House Station, New Jersey the railroad traveled north to Watnong, New Jersey (about 2 miles from the center of Morristown, New Jersey), a total distance of approximately 25 miles (about 40 km). The railroad was constructed between 1888 and 1892, predominantly to ship peaches from orchards that were abundant along the southern part of the line, but it also carried passengers and other freight along the entire route. The Rockaway Valley Railroad (RVRR) ceased operation in 1913 and was abandoned in 1917. Much of the old railbed is now part of a rail-trail.
During the railroad building craze of the late 19th century a number of railroads of various sizes were built in the United States that probably should never have been built. The RVRR was one of these railroads. Indeed, from the beginning the RVRR suffered from a number of problems that sooner or later would seal its doom: namely, it was poorly financed; it served no large cities, and only ran to the outskirts of one medium-sized town; it had no significant industry located along its route; it relied heavily on a seasonal and unpredictable crop for revenue; it interchanged with only one railroad, which held it "captive"; it was built as cheaply as possible; and it was poorly maintained.
It should be noted that the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad investigated building a line from Morristown, New Jersey to Mendham, New Jersey (basically the northern half of the RVRR as built), estimating that it would cost $27,000 a mile or more to build, but declined to do so, not so much because of the cost but because it thought that the extension would never be profitable. The chief engineer of the RVRR, John E.V. Melick, on the other hand, stated that the line could be built for $15,000 or less a mile and would be immensely profitable. Ultimately, in their own ways, both Melick and the Lackawanna would be proven right: Melick, in that he could build the RVRR for $15,000 per mile; and the Lackawanna, in that the extra $12,000 per mile was justified, and, most importantly, that the line would never be profitable. (As chief engineer, Melick would also go on to build one more railroad, the Morristown and Erie Railway (built as the Whippany River Railroad), a line that the RVRR had hoped one day to link up with in Morristown. The M&E's original line was so poorly engineered by Melick that the entire line had to be relocated and rebuilt three years later. The M&E continues to operate until this day.) The RVRR, whose engineering problems bore a striking resemblance to those of the M&E's, wouldn't be as fortunate.
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