Index>Station Info>Waterloo

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Waterloo, New Jersey

MP 51.19 (DL&W) 0 (SRR)

Telegraph Call: W

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Waterloo's wood frame station was built in 1854, when the connection was made with the Morris & Essex. At this time the Sussex Railroad built a bridge over Inclined Plane #4 West at Waterloo when the railroad was first built in 1854. This bridge was replaced in 1877. The railroad bridge across the roadway (Taylor Road) was replaced in 1878-79.

According to Kevin Wright, a local historian, the cut stone from the abutments for this roadway bridge, standing near the water outlet from the canal power house, was used to repair the tumbling vent in the Lock Pond dam at Waterloo in 1980.

A large new water tank was built at Waterloo in 1881.

On September 1, 1890, the boiler of a Delaware, Lackawanna & Western locomotive named the Morris exploded at 2:05 P. M. while standing on the upper track at Waterloo, waiting for the Sussex Railroad passengers on the 1:30 mail train from Newton to board. Though many people were standing on the platform, no one was seriously injured, despite the heavy rain of shrapnel. The 400-pound cast-iron sand box on top of the boiler shot high into the air and came down through the slate roof of the depot, crashing through one floor to lodge in the ceiling above Whitfield N. Gray's ticket office. Some pieces thrown into the air weighed a half ton apiece.

Martin F. Wintermute, of Townley's Photo Gallery in Newton, happened to be on the Sussex train and had his camera with him. He got seven or eight excellent views of the wreck.

The bypass from Netcong to the Sussex Branch several miles up the Branch from Waterloo was built in 1901. The turntable (50 footer) was removed soon after 1902, after the 'Stanhope Cutoff' was inaugurated and the Waterloo leg began to be disused as a connection. About half of the track remained in place however, extending from the branch north of Waterloo road, to serve the Mountain Ice Company siding.

The last agent at Waterloo, Clarence Lance, was discontinued in 1922 and the station was later replaced by a smaller shelter.

[Note: According to Henry Charlton Beck [See "Frenche's 'Castle' and Waterloo," Tales and Towns of Northern New Jersey, (Rutgers University Press: New Brunswick, 1964), p. 99], Willis Montonya moved the old Waterloo depot to a place near the Netcong Circle in 1939, converting it to a bungalow. He kept the old station clock and signboard as souvenirs.]

From the 1940s Waterloo was the only regular station stop on the Lackawanna which did not have a building or shelter roof. The rude shelter which replaced the station burned down in 1946.

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Pictures

• This picture, looking west, shows the square water tank, the Interlocking tower, the retaining wall (which still exists) and a yard full of freight cars in front of the station.
• Here is a view of the Morris & Essex boiler explosion that occurred at Waterloo in 1890
• This is another view of the 1890 M&E explosion.
• Here is view of the Waterloo depot after a snow storm.
• This is a view of the interlocking tower looking east.
• Here is the crossover track between the east and west mains.
• Engine #3, John I. Blair at Waterloo station.
• Waterloo station as viewed from the Eastbound platform.
• Here is a view of the shack that replaced the depot.
• Here is a view of the shack after being converted into a house on Rt. 206 south of the Netcong circle.
• Rock Cut south of Cranberry Lake. Unless I'm WAAAAAY off, this is the south side of the rock cut about a mile south of Cranberry Lake. The cars on the left occupy a siding which existed for a nearby quarry.

 

• Waterloo Track map
• Station Agents List
• Modeling the Waterloo Station

 

Things I'd like to know about Waterloo Station:

• Date built
• Date relocated
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