DL&W "Old Road" ROW Washington, NJ-Delaware River

[DonPevsner]

Is this old ROW passable by ATV's or similar, including through the Oxford Tunnel and one or both bores of the Manunka Chunk Tunnel?
Also, is the Delaware River Bridge still standing?

[pumpers]

I don't know about ATV's and tunnels myself, but there is info on the web out there about the Manunka Chunk tunnels.

The Delaware River bridge is still there --look on google maps or similar (e.g. Ramseyburg, NJ or Delaware, NJ). -- It is still used as a tail track for servicing the power plant on the PA side (assuming the power plant is still getting coal). JS

[NYS&W142Fan]

It is my understanding the Oxford Tunnel is some what open but plan on getting very wet trying to get through there. Then on the Oxford side, the RoW is mostly gone for about 3/4 of a mile or so. It's been a while since I have been up there. The bridge is still in-place over the L&HR and Pequest River. Then sporatic portions of the RoW until you get to Manunka Chunk. I was told that is also very wet/flooded and partially collapsed. Then the Row is mosly there to the bridge at Delaware. Yes the Power Plant still gets Coal and they do use the bridge as a tail track and NS does consider anyone on the bridge as tresspassers. This is the bridge people jump off and last I heard there was a case where a woman, (Santos) is looking to or is suing NS cause her husband was injured jumping off the bridge. She wants NS to remove the bridge. My suggestion is to use caution as there are a number of people who do not take kindly to 4 wheelers buzzing past their homes.

[R36 Combine Coach]

I believe reading that the DL&W's old main line remained in service as late as the 1950s, years after the Cutoff opened in 1911.

[NYS&W142Fan]

The last trains to operate over the old main from Washington to Delaware were circa 1968 or 1969. In 1970 the EL received permission to abandon the line and tore up the tracks from just North of Washington NJ to the town of Delaware NJ. I feel very fortunate to have seen trains run on that line. The last train I remember seeing was a Baby Trainmaster, around early 1968 pulling a couple of boxcars.

[DonPevsner]

I rode a passenger excursion in about 1959-60 over the DL&W "Old Road". It continued to Scranton, and returned to Hoboken via the DL&W New Jersey Cutoff.

[Greg]

The Oxford Tunnel usually has a few feet of water in it but it is fairly intact. I needed hip boots the last time I tried to walk it. The Mununka Chunk Tunnels will be much harder to get an ATV through as there are numerous cave-ins that partially block parts of the bore.

[philipmartin]

I guess you heard the story about the biker on an abandoned right of way who didn't know the bridge was out until he went through it.
Manunka Chunk interests me because I worked at nearby G tower, and before my time, they used to block trains with Manunka Chunk. Also, I posted UN tower with Tommy Sipple who had worked Manunka Chunk in 1935. I wish I had picked his brain about blocking trains with G. Pictures: http://urbanexplorations.net/manunka/index.html

[RussNelson]

The Oxford Tunnel usually has a few feet of water in it but it is fairly intact. I needed hip boots the last time I tried to walk it. The Mununka Chunk Tunnels will be much harder to get an ATV through as there are numerous cave-ins that partially block parts of the bore.

Yes, Oxford is largely intact except for a roof-fall about halfway through. It's wet on the west side, up to my crotch. That's like two and a half feet. Manunka Chunk north has substantial roof-fall, two pieces that you have to climb over. The south bore you can walk through. Only about a foot of water. Both are impassable with an ATV.