(erielack) Bridge over Newton-Sparta Road

["MDelvec952_@_aol.com"]

In a message dated 5/29/99 9:43:02 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
"donsf1_@_sparta.csnet.net" writes:

> Does anyone have or
>  know where I might find a photo of the old Lackawanna bridge/trestle  that
>  crossed Newton Sparta Road east of Newton???

Hi Don,

	Glad you're on board.  That bridge over Newton-Sparta Road is one of 
the missing features of the line photographically.  I've been searching for 
more than a decade and so far haven't found a photo, and that includes trips 
to each of the local libraries up there looking for Sussex Branch stuff.  I 
have one lead on a guy who might, and will let you know.

	I found some Lackawanna references to that bridge, saying it was a 
33-foot steel gurder span, but it doesn't mention the approaches or how it 
was supported.  Locals have told me they recall at least one end of it being 
a wood-pyle trestle-like affair.

	When I moved to Newton in 1989, the road was still on a grading that 
resembled its original, and it was a hairpin turn then. Today it's been 
straightened out quite a bit.  

	The other mystery feature that hasn't turned up in photos yet is the 
small wood-pyle trestle in the Newton Meadows north of town.  Just about 
every other feature of the Sussex Branch has been photographed, and the corps 
of this trestle is still there.  Like you said that bridge over Newton-Sparta 
road is surprising, since it was so prominent, and since the trains on the 
branch were scheduled.  One theory is that most who shot in Newton came up 
from the south, and the road from the south at that time short cuts a dog-leg 
in the railroad, and that road terminates within sight of the yard and depot 
and water tank and turntable, etc., etc., etc., so no one left there. Since 
it was a girder, the sides of which would cover part of the driving wheels, 
the typical rail shoots of that era wouldn't have shot it anyway unless the 
foliage was clear on either side of it.  Local photos of the railroad are 
very rare, though I have collected a handful.   I even visited the J.R. Roof 
family and the Hart & Iliffs to inquire about photos of the railroad, since 
both were rail customers.  Nope.  Both had family pictures, and they showed 
them, but nothing showed the railroad well enough.

Wayne McCabe is a big Sussex County history collector and is well known by 
the local citizenry.  Try contacting him -- ask anybody up there how to reach 
him. I've met him a few times, we're supposed to get to together, but each 
time I tried he's been tied up.  I haven't tried in years, and he's likely 
forgotten me altogether.  He just printed to two sepia-toned postcard books 
with railroad depots in them.

Hope this helps.  How's your model railroad coming?

                         All the best,                       ....Mike Del 
Veccchio

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