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With the advent of the
construction of the Poughkeepsie Bridge and the extension of the Central New
England and Western Railroad westward to Maybrook, the Lehigh and Hudson
River interests organized the Orange County Railroad Company, in 1888, to
construct a line from Greycourt to Maybrook, 10.7 miles, passing through
Burnside where a connection was also made with the New York, Ontario and
Western Railway.
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In 1889, the Company entered
into an agreement with the Pennsylvania Railroad for trackage rights over
their Belvidere-Delaware Division between Belvidere, N. J. and Phillipsburg,
N. J., 13.3 miles, for a period of ninety-nine years. In the same year, the
South Easton and Phillipsburg Railroad Company of New Jersey and the South
Easton and Phillipsburg Railroad of Pennsylvania were organized to build a
bridge across the Delaware River between the cities of Phillipsburg, N. J.
and Easton, Pa., where connections could be made with the Central Railroad
Company of New Jersey and the Lehigh Valley Railroad. The bridge was opened
in January, 1890, and leased to the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway. In 1912,
the S.E.& P. Companies were consolidated with the L&H. In September,
1890, through trains began operating between Easton, Pa. and Maybrook, N. Y.,
thus, the dream of the first Board of Directors of the Warwick Valley
Railroad became a reality, with a through route established from the coal
fields of Pennsylvania to New England territory.
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