Railroad matters corrected and answered by buff

To the Editor: Your page three story in the Feb. 15 issue of The Township Journal, “Lackawanna Cutoff Resolution Rolls Forward,” contains a photo of the “Hole in the Wall” tunnel which the caption says is “on the Lackawanna Cutoff.” Actually, this structure has nothing to do with the cutoff. It was built more than a half century before the cutoff and served to allow passage of the roadway between Andover and Whitehall beneath the tracks of the Sussex Branch of the Lackawanna Railroad, originally the Sussex Railroad. Today, the Sussex Branch Trail, which follows the right-of-way of the old Sussex Railroad, does pass above, as the caption states. The second photo is correctly identified as a steam train coming out of the Roseville Tunnel on the cutoff. It may be of interest to note, however, that the steam train shown is not a typical Lackawanna Railroad operation since passenger service over the cutoff was discontinued when the photo was taken in 1976. Rather, the train is the American Freedom Train which toured the United States in celebration of the country’s bicentennial anniversary. Robert Dennis