Lehigh and New England Railroad: Map, Rosters, History

Last revised: September 21, 2026

The Lehigh & New England was the anthracite road that quit while it was still paying dividends. Reporting mark LNE. Headquarters Philadelphia, 1421 Chestnut Street, in the Lehigh Coal & Navigation house. Shops and the operating headquarters sat at Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania. George H. Drury put it parallel to the Lehigh & Hudson River: eastern Pennsylvania coal and cement to the New Haven at Campbell Hall and the Poughkeepsie Bridge. It never reached Boston or Harrisburg, the towns on the 1873 charter. It ran about 200 miles of jumble—Tamaqua, Bath, Bethlehem, Pen Argyl, Campbell Hall—and it was still a going company on October 31, 1961, the day the board shut it down.

Lehigh and New England Alco FA-1s layover at the Pen Argyl Pennsylvania engine house and shops May 1961

Lehigh & New England FA-1s at the engine house and shops in Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, May 1961. American-Rails.com collection. Five months from the last day.

On this page: At a glance · South Mountain & Boston · April 2, 1895 · System map, 1940 · Coal, cement, Maybrook · Last Camelbacks and four Decapods · Whitcomb 601 and thirty-two Alcos · October 31, 1961 · The CNJ Railway · What remains

At a glance

Item	Detail
Railroad	Lehigh & New England Railroad. Mark LNE. Controlled by Lehigh Coal & Navigation
Headquarters	Philadelphia (1421 Chestnut Street). Operating headquarters and shops: Pen Argyl, Pa.
Genesis	South Mountain & Boston Railroad, chartered March 13, 1873
Named	April 2, 1895, after the Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie & Boston receivership
Dates	April 2, 1895–October 31, 1961. Ancestors from 1873
States	Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York
Route-miles	219 (1930). 177 (1950)
Gauge	4 ft 8½ in
Principal lines	Campbell Hall, N.Y.–Pen Argyl–Tamaqua–Nesquehoning, Pa. Benders Junction–Allentown/Bethlehem. Clyde–Catasauqua. Bath–Martins Creek. Lansford–Summit Hill. Glenwood Junction–Empire Quarries, N.Y.
Last passenger	1938. Most of the railroad never listed passenger service in the Official Guide
Dieselized	Complete by the end of 1949. Whitcomb 601 in 1947; 32 Alcos
Ended	Voluntary shutdown October 31, 1961, still profitable. Dividends from 1913
After	CNJ Lehigh & New England Railway (~34 miles, $10 million). Lehigh Valley from January 1975. Conrail April 1, 1976

Steam classes follow Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, p. 196. Diesel serials follow Extra 2200 South / The Diesel Shop. Information compiled September 21, 2026.

Boston, Harrisburg, and the Panic of 1873

If the first map had been built, three companies would have run Boston to Harrisburg by way of Poughkeepsie and the north tip of New Jersey. The piece that became the L&NE was the South Mountain & Boston, chartered March 13, 1873, Portland, Pennsylvania, on the Delaware to Boston Corners, New York, near the southwest corner of Massachusetts. South Mountain Railroad would have taken Harrisburg. Massachusetts Central would have taken Boston. Grading started. The Panic of 1873 stopped it. That was as close as the Boston–Harrisburg idea ever came.

What followed was a name chain and not much track: Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie & New England (1879); Pennsylvania & New England (1880); Delaware & Slatington (1881); Pennsylvania, Slatington & New England (1882–87); Pennsylvania, Poughkeepsie & Boston (1887–95). The Poughkeepsie Bridge opened January 1, 1889, on the Central New England, later the New Haven. The bridge made a New England door for small Pennsylvania roads. The company that finally used it under this name was organized April 2, 1895, out of the PP&B receivership.

Slatington to Pine Island, then 200 miles

At birth the L&NE ran Slatington, Pennsylvania, to Pine Island, New York. No Boston. No Harrisburg. Allentown and Bethlehem were the large towns. Anthracite in the Panther Creek and Nesquehoning country paid the bills. Lehigh Coal & Navigation owned the railroad and sat it in Philadelphia. On June 4, 1926, the Reading tried to lease it. Other roads objected. The ICC said no, and preferred a New Haven lease that never happened. The L&NE stayed LC&N’s.

At its peak the map was a little over 200 miles: Tamaqua and the Reading at the west; Benders Junction south into Allentown, Bethlehem, Bath, and Martins Creek; northeast to Campbell Hall and Maybrook. Campbell Hall was the New York, Ontario & Western. The Erie was at Goshen and Pine Island. Other doors: NYS&W at Hainesburg and Swartswood; Pennsylvania at Martins Creek; Lehigh Valley at Stockertown, Catasauqua, and Lizard Creek Junction; Lackawanna at Portland and Bath Junction; Jersey Central at Bethlehem and Hauto/Nesquehoning; Chestnut Ridge at Palmerton. The “main line” was a set of branches with freight aimed at Bethlehem/Allentown, Tamaqua, and Maybrook.

System map, 1940

Official 1940 system map of the Lehigh and New England Railroad Tamaqua to Campbell Hall

An official 1940 system map of the Lehigh & New England Railroad. Author’s collection. Tamaqua at the west, Pen Argyl in the middle, Campbell Hall at the northeast.

Forty-eight percent coal

Unlike the L&HR, the L&NE had mines and mills on the railroad. J. W. Swanberg, writing about Maybrook in 1953, put anthracite at 48 percent of annual carloads, cement at 28 percent, general freight 25 percent. That year about 31,000 cars went through Maybrook. Cement came off the Bath branches. Slate and stone sat in the Pen Argyl country. A 2.74 percent grade between Bath and Summit, Pennsylvania, is why the railroad bought four of the heaviest 2-10-0s in the country.

Passenger service was never the point. Drury: as early as 1930 it was local trains on ten miles at the Pennsylvania end and a single train in New York. The Official Guide said of most of the line, “Passenger service not established.” Three short runs survived into the gas-electric era: Tamaqua–Summit Hill–Hauto, Swartswood–Sussex–Goshen, Bethlehem–Pen Argyl. Two Brill cars, 90–91, came in 1927–30. All passenger service ended in 1938.

The Lehigh & New England Railroad logo. Author’s work.

Last Camelbacks in the United States

Early power was anthracite practice: Wootten fireboxes, Camelbacks, hard coal. The latter-day steam roster, Drury, was two 0-6-0s and nineteen 0-8-0s, thirteen of those Camelbacks. Three of the Camelbacks—0-8-0s 120–122, Baldwin 1927—were the last Camelbacks built in the United States. Conventional-cab 0-8-0s 131–136, Baldwin 1927 and 1931, kept the Wootten boxes and added trailing trucks large enough to justify the extra axle. The two 0-6-0s were late. Number 206, 1931, still had slide valves. Number 207 was odd enough for the 1938 Locomotive Cyclopedia.

Road freight was Camelback 2-8-0s, then Alco Schenectady 2-8-0s 301–307 of 1922: 61-inch drivers, 27-by-32-inch cylinders, 233,000 pounds, fireboxes as wide as the Wootten boxes on the older engines. The statement engines were Decapods 401–404, Baldwin 1927–31: about 400,000 pounds, tender booster, 106,200 pounds tractive effort—more than a USRA 2-8-2 working compound—61-inch drivers, 30-by-32 cylinders. Drury called them the most powerful 2-10-0s built. During World War II the railroad bought four Pennsylvania L1 2-8-2s, Juniata 1915, and numbered them 501–504. Last steam was 2-8-2 503, ex-PRR 1719. Dieselization was complete by the end of 1949.

Type	Class	Numbers	Qty	Builder	Built	Retired	Notes
0-6-0	B-4	206	1	Baldwin	1931		Slide valves
0-6-0	B-5	207	1	Baldwin	1926		Locomotive Cyclopedia 1938
0-8-0	I-1	101	1	Baldwin	1913		Camelback
0-8-0	I-2	111–115	5	Baldwin	1913		Camelback
0-8-0	I-3	116–119	4	Baldwin	1915		Camelback
0-8-0	I-4	120–122	3	Baldwin	1927		Last Camelbacks built in the U.S.
0-8-0	I-5	131–136	6	Baldwin	1927, 1931		Wootten; large trailing trucks
2-8-0	E-8	25, 27	2	Baldwin	1906	1927–1931	Camelback
2-8-0	E-9	29	1	Baldwin	1909		Camelback
2-8-0	E-12	151, 152	2	Baldwin	1911		Camelback
2-8-0	E-13	153, 154	2	Baldwin	1915		Camelback
2-8-0	E-14	301–307	7	Schenectady	1922		61-inch drivers; 233,000 lb
2-8-2	G-1	501–504	4	Juniata	1915		Ex-PRR L1. 503 last steam
2-10-0	F-1	401–404	4	Baldwin	1927–1931		Most powerful 2-10-0s; Bath–Summit grade

George H. Drury, Guide to North American Steam Locomotives, revised edition, p. 196. I-1 date follows builder records (January 1913). Dieselization complete by the end of 1949. Switchers 120–122, H. L. Broadbelt collection in Drury, were the last Camelbacks Baldwin built for service in North America.

A Whitcomb, then nothing but Alco

Lehigh and New England FA-1 709 leaving the engine house at Pen Argyl Pennsylvania August 22 1953 Joe Stark

Lehigh & New England FA-1 #709 leaving the engine house at Pen Argyl, Pennsylvania, August 22, 1953. Joe Stark photo. Black with white pinstriping.

The first diesel was a war-surplus Whitcomb, 601, a 65DE19a, serial 60458, built June 1944 as U.S. Army 8452, Military Railway Service 1362, on the property in 1947. Then Alco filled the railroad: six S-2s 611–616, thirteen RS-2s 651–663, ten FA-1s 701–710, three FB-1s 751–753. Thirty-two Alcos by the end of 1949. Classic Trains put the predicted annual saving at $850,000. The paint was black with white pinstriping, later a slightly simplified stripe on repaints. After the shutdown, Louisville & Nashville took most of the FAs, FBs, S-2s, and several RS-2s. Raymond International took other RS-2s overseas.

S-2 611, serial 76174, September 1948, is the last L&NE diesel. It switched Ford, then a grain elevator in Emporia, Indiana. The Lehigh & New England group bought it in 2015–16 and moved it to Topton, Pennsylvania. As of 2025 the Railroad & Industrial Preservation Society is restoring it, traction motors out in October 2025, with the Allentown & Auburn at Kutztown the intended operating home. It is not in L&NE paint yet.

Number	Model	Serial	Order	Built	Notes
601	Whitcomb 65DE19a	60458		6/1944	Ex-MRS 1362, nee USA 8452. On L&NE 1947. Panther Valley Coal
611	S-2	76174	20226	9/1948	Ford 10013; TLE&W; Emporia Grain; ADM. Last survivor. RIPS restoration
612	S-2	76612		3/1949	L&N 2370; Naparano
613	S-2	76613		3/1949	L&N 2371; Precision National
614	S-2	77127		9/1949	L&N 2372; EMD trade-in 4/1971
615	S-2	77128		9/1949	L&N 2373; Chrome Crankshaft
616	S-2	77129		9/1949	L&N 2374; GE trade-in
651	RS-2	76647		4/1949	Raymond International 1501, 9/1961; scrapped
652	RS-2	77536	20269	10/1949	L&N 265 (1st), 1963; GE trade-in
653	RS-2	77537	20269	10/1949	Raymond 1502; Altos Hornos de Mexico 128
654	RS-2	77556		11/1949	L&N 266; GE trade-in
655	RS-2	77557		11/1949	L&N 267; GE trade-in
656	RS-2	77857		11/1949	L&N 268; GE trade-in
657	RS-2	77858		11/1949	Raymond 1503; scrapped
658	RS-2	77867		12/1949	L&N 269; GE trade-in
659	RS-2	77868	20445	12/1949	Raymond 1504; scrapped
660	RS-2	77873	20445	12/1949	Raymond 1505; Bauxite & Northern 14; Point Comfort & Northern 9
661	RS-2	77874	20445	12/1949	L&N 270; GE trade-in
662	RS-2	77875	20445	12/1949	L&N 271; GE trade-in
663	RS-2	77876	20445	12/1949	Raymond 1506; Altos Hornos de Mexico 129
701	FA-1	75739	20225	4/1948	L&N 332; Alco trade-in
702	FA-1	75740	20225	4/1948	L&N 333 (1st); EMD trade-in
703	FA-1	75983		6/1948	L&N 334; EMD trade-in
704	FA-1	75984		6/1948	L&N 335; Alco trade-in
705	FA-1	75985	20225	6/1948	L&N 336; Alco trade-in
706	FA-1	75986		6/1948	L&N 337; GE trade-in
707	FA-1	76258	20284	10/1948	L&N 338; Alco trade-in
708	FA-1	76259	20284	10/1948	L&N 339; Alco trade-in
709	FA-1	76260	20284	10/1948	L&N 340; GE trade-in. Photo: Pen Argyl, Aug. 22, 1953
710	FA-1	76840		4/1949	L&N 341
751	FB-1	76285		10/1948	L&N with the FA fleet
752	FB-1	76286		10/1948	L&N with the FA fleet
753	FB-1	76873		4/1949	L&N with the FA fleet

Serials and dates follow The Diesel Shop (John Komanesky; Extra 2200 South) and the Alco FA-1/FB-1 production roster. Order numbers from railroad picture archives where listed. Thirty-three new units: one Whitcomb, thirty-two Alcos. A second Whitcomb, 602, was not an original L&NE engine.

Lehigh and New England FA-1s and an FB-1 with hoppers on the bridge at Lehigh Gap Pennsylvania 1961

A pair of Lehigh & New England FA-1s and an FB-1 with hoppers on the bridge at Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania, 1961. The bridge is gone.

Still paying, then gone

Dividends had run since 1913. After the war, on-line agriculture, LCL, some quarry traffic, and much of the anthracite fell away. By 1961 the main saw about one coal train a week, often Thursday. The board looked at a region already thick with railroads, a fuel that was dying, and a Maybrook gateway the New Haven still owned—and voted to stop. The ICC let a profitable railroad abandon. Last trains ran in October. Track came up the next year. The Delaware and Lehigh River bridges were down by 1969. As Classic Trains notes, the last crews were still working for a going company.

It looked shrewd a decade later. Penn Central took the New Haven in 1969 and starved Maybrook. The Poughkeepsie Bridge burned May 8, 1974.

Thirty-four miles for the Jersey Central

CNJ, with an ICC-guaranteed loan, paid about $10 million for the pieces that still had cement and a Tamaqua connection: Tadmor Yard at Bath, the Bethlehem Branch, the Martins Creek Branch, Catasauqua, and the former Panther Creek Railroad to Tamaqua so Greenwood Breaker could still reach the Reading. Walter Kraus, in the Allentown Morning Call of August 24, 1989, dates the sale to the October 31 shutdown. CNJ formed the Lehigh & New England Railway to run it. Erie Lackawanna took a bit of track near Pen Argyl. CNJ put GP7s, RS-3s, and an RSD-4 on the cement district. Those engines are the Jersey Central diesel page, not this roster.

The Railway lasted into January 1975, then the Lehigh Valley ran it until Conrail on April 1, 1976. Conrail had no use for a second Lehigh Valley. Most of what CNJ had saved went out with the Jersey Central.

What remains

Norfolk Southern still works cement country that was L&NE around Bath and the Lehigh Valley. The rest is grade, a missing bridge at Lehigh Gap, and S-2 611 in a shop at Topton. The railroad of April 2, 1895, ended October 31, 1961, on purpose. The Camelbacks of 1927 were already the last ones Baldwin built. The Alcos went to Kentucky and Liberia. The name on a CNJ subsidiary was a courtesy to the cement mills, not a second life.

Sources

Drury, George H. Guide to North American Steam Locomotives. Revised ed. Waukesha: Kalmbach, p. 196. Post-1900 class table; last Camelbacks 120–122; I-5 Wootten 0-8-0s; E-14 Schenectady 2-8-0s; PRR L1 2-8-2s; Decapods 401–404; passenger 1938; dieselization 1949. Anthracite Railroads Historical Society; Railroad magazine March 1933 p. 94, November 1946 p. 114
Classic Trains. Lehigh & New England feature, June 2009. Dividends from 1913; Whitcomb 1947; 32 Alcos by end of 1949; $850,000 saving; last steam 503; CNJ 34 miles and covered hoppers; EL near Pen Argyl; last trains October 1961
Swanberg, J. W. “Maybrook, New York: One Yard, Six Railroads, Cars By The Thousands.” 1953 traffic: coal 48 percent, cement 28, general 25; ~31,000 Maybrook carloads
Kraus, Walter. “Real Demise Of Rail Line Trailed Coal’s Decline.” The Morning Call (Allentown), August 24, 1989. CNJ $10 million; Tadmor, Bethlehem, Martins Creek, Catasauqua, Panther Creek
The Diesel Shop. John Komanesky, Lehigh & New England all-time roster. Extra 2200 South. Whitcomb 601; S-2 611–616; RS-2 651–663; FA-1/FB-1 serials as in the Alco FA-1 production roster (710 is 76840, April 1949; FB 751–752 76285–76286, 753 76873)
Railroad & Industrial Preservation Society, riptrack.org. S-2 611 restoration, Topton / Kutztown, traction motors October 31, 2025
Live American-Rails Lehigh & Hudson River, Poughkeepsie Bridge, New Haven, Jersey Central, Lehigh Valley, Reading, Erie, Lackawanna, Conrail, Camelback, and Alco FA / RS-2 / S-2 pages as linked above

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