The "The trackman" cache along the Sussex Branch Trail showcases one of the premier rail trails in the Skylands regions of NJ. Formerly the Sussex Branch of the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western railroad, this line is steeped in history as well as remarkable scenery. With only a few short interruptions, it is possible to trace this abandonment over twenty miles between the towns of Netcong and Branchville. This section of the Sussex Branch Trail follows the route through Sussex County from Byram Township in the south to Branchville Borough.
This section of the Sussex Branch Trail also got its start providing service in 1848 as the narrow-gauge, mule-drawn Sussex Mine Railroad, whose primary purpose was hauling iron ore from the mines in Andover to Waterloo Village on the Morris Canal. The railroad was eventually upgraded and expanded before being merged into the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad in the mid-1940s. Though the railroad was out of service several decades later, the state of New Jersey—which owns much of the area parkland—preserved the right-of-way for trail use.
"The trackman"
The trackman’s job is a workman who lays and maintains railway tracks, construct new and maintain the condition of existing tracks, which is a tedious one because of many reasons.
In December of 1876, a mile and a half of new steel rails were laid along the Sussex Railroad, near the Cranberry Lake Reservoir, , making this section a great improvement over the balance of the line. The company received new steel rails sufficient to complete half of the distance between Newton and Waterloo. Five car loads of steel rails arrived in January 1877 and trackmen began laying the new track between Franklin and Sparta Station.
As mining and manufacturing interests began to revive in the summer of 1879, over fifty furnaces that had been out of blast for a long time returned to work in May 1879. Franklin Furnace was put in blast on July 5, 1879, after five years’ suspension. By the end of the month, it was producing 350 tons weekly. By October 1879, the daily wage of miners at Franklin and Ogdensburg and of laborers at the Windsor Lime Quarries in Hamburg increased from $1.00 to $1.25