The Belvidere-Delaware Railroad was chartered on March 2, 1836. Its genesis was driven mainly by officials from the Camden & Amboy Railroad. The construction was delayed for several years until Ashbel Welch, the Lambertville resident who had managed building the Delaware & Raritan feeder canal in the early 1830s, became the lead civil engineer of the railroad’s construction.

Image courtesy of Shane Blische

Progressing northward from Trenton, it opened in six phases: Lambertville, February 6, 1851; Tumble Falls, April 4, 1852; Milford, February 4, 1853; Riegelsville, December 5, 1853; Phillipsburg, June 6, 1854; Belvidere, November 5, 1855; and another 3 miles was added to Manunka Chunk in 1864.

When the railroad arrived in Lambertville in 1851, Ashbel Welch made his old home on Bridge Street the railroad station. The home-turned-station served its purpose until the late 1860s, when Lambertville residents began complaining of its aesthetics and functionality. It was torn down in the early 1870s. This is the original Belvidere Delaware Rail Road Station around 1860.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische (JB Kline collection)

The Pennsylvania Railroad Depot, now called Lambertville Station, opened in February 1874 and was designed in “a 19th century eclectic” style by renowned architect Thomas Ustick Walter, whose credits include the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische (JB Kline collection)

It served as the Pennsylvania Railroad Belvidere Division headquarters for many years. The stone freight house was knocked down in the 1950s—today a box car and caboose occupy the area behind the restaurant. During the mid 1900s, Lambertville station started to decline. The offices upstairs were closed and the executives relocated to Philadelphia and New York City in the beginning of the 1930s.

As seen in the photo below, the railyard was a busy place with many shops for heavy overhauls, rebuilds, and repairs. Part of the roundhouse and the turntable are visible on the left. About 15 steam powered locomotives were built here from 1864 to 1872, by which point the Pennsylvania Railroad was in control of the Bel-Del and moved all locomotive building to Altoona, Pennsylvania.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische (Steven Cohen collection)

Steam engine overhauls continued and freight and passenger rail cars were built here into the 1910s. Over the years, many personnel were transferred to newer shops in Morrisville and Trenton. A devastating fire destroyed some of the shop and yard buildings in 1915. Around 1929 the Pennsylvania Railroad ceased most of the maintenance activity and many of the buildings were subsequently knocked down. Some tracks remain. The postcard below is where the Lambertville sewer treatment plant is now.

Postcard courtesy of Shane Blische

In the photo below from around 1895, we are approaching the station from the south. The water tower at left is where the Lambertville Station Inn is situated today. The Swan Creek spillway is visible at the right.

Lambertville Historical Society Collection, circa 1895

Below is a picture—one of my favorites—of the Belvidere–Delaware Railroad employees in 1885 at the roundhouse. You can recognize the significance of the railroad as an employer in Lambertville.

Lambertville Historical Society Collection

We move on to the doodlebug, a self-propelled railcar. The Pennsylvania Railroad began testing doodlebugs on the Bel-Del and branch line to Flemington in 1915. By 1923, all passenger trains to Flemington were replaced by the doodlebug (passenger service on the Flemington Branch was ceased on April 30, 1931) and by 1951 all passenger trains on the Bel-Del to Phillipsburg and points north were doodlebugs. The doodlebug operated one southbound train in the morning from Phillipsburg to Trenton stopping at Lambertville at 6:11am, and a return northbound trip to Phillipsburg in the evening, stopping at Lambertville at 4:51pm according to a timetable from 1952. The doodlebug’s final run occurred on October 26, 1960, when all passenger service was eliminated from the Bel-Del.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische (Charles Houser Sr. photo, 1957)

The postcard below from the early 1920s shows an earlier doodlebug model at Lambertville station, with the attached stone freight house on the left.

Postcard courtesy of Shane Blische

The trolley began as the New Jersey-Pennsylvania Traction Company in 1905 and operated until 1924. It ran out of Lambertville across the bridge into New Hope and then south to Washington Crossing, Yardley and Morrisville, and over the Calhoun Street Bridge into Trenton where it connected with other trolley lines. The postcard below shows the trolley where Lambert Lane meets Bridge Street. The tracks ended to the right of the frame because the Pennsylvania Railroad did not permit the trolley to cross its north-south tracks.

Postcard courtesy of Shane Blische

The 1902 photo below, a personal favorite, shows a Trenton‑bound passenger train just south of the wing dam. The covered bridge is in the distance. Note the railroad spur crossing the canal; this was the spur to the Goat Hill stone quarry, which received rail service from the 1890s to 1930. Remnants of the bridge are still existent at this location.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische (JB Kline collection)

Here is a 2015 photo of the Goat Hill railroad bridge ruins.

Shane Blische photo

Below is a beautiful early Kodachrome picture of a Pennsylvania Railroad steam train at Lambertville Station in 1951. Traffic was high: there were about 20 freight trains a day, some with well over 100 cars. They transported coal, iron ore, and quarried stone among other commodities.

Lambertville Station in 1951, photo courtesy of Shane Blische

Below is a negative of a northbound freight train at Swan Creek, parked and waiting for another train to pass. The man fishing is the engineer. The signalman, who worked inside Lambertville Station, would coordinate “meets” at the sidings, either the lower siding at Swan Creek or the upper siding north of Coryell Street. As time went on, train meets in Lambertville were coordinated remotely from a signalman in Trenton. Sometimes the engineers would have to wait for hours, so fishing was a reasonable way to pass the time. Note the propane truck to the right of the train–it belonged to the Northern Propane Company, which was rail served at that location from the 1940s to about 1976.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische (Martin Zak photo, 1972)

On February 1, 1968, the Pennsylvania Railroad, out of financial necessity, merged with the New York Central Railroad to form Penn Central. The combined entity fell into bankruptcy in 1970 and limped along until being absorbed into Conrail on April 1, 1976. The photo below shows a Penn Central freight train passing the now closed and boarded up Lambertville station in March 1976.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische, 1976

Significant freight traffic continued throughout the 1970s. The image below shows the north end of Union Street. Switching freight occurred on the Arnett Spur or North Union Spur, which accessed Lambertville Pottery, Standard Oil, Diamond Silver, Lambertville Spokes and Niece Lumber, to name a few rail shippers. Niece Lumber was the last railroad customer which stopped using rail in 1993. Today some of the sidings run through backyards on North Union Street.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische (Nelson Tower photo, Joe Monaco collection, 1970)

Remnants of the Niece Lumber siding are visible today.

Shane Blische photo

Below we see switching at the Finkle’s Hardware track north of Coryell Street. One engine was for a local train from Phillipsburg. The other one is on the siding, probably awaiting repair. The two crossover switches are visible—they were across from the old River Horse Brewery, back then the Original Trenton Cracker bakery. Finkle’s took in sheet metal, large spools of wire cable, and miscellaneous hardware material. Finkle’s stopped using rail around 1984 and the siding was torn up in the early nineties. At the right, there is a signal box. Behind it is a concrete telephone hut, which was used by conductors from the 1910s through the 1960s before they used radios to communicate to the nearest signalmen to request access to a siding and report location and movement.

Photo courtesy of Shane Blische, 1976

A telephone hut stands near the former River Horse Brewery. Two others exist south of Lambertville Station.

Shane Blische photo

Below we see a Black River & Western three-car excursion train crossing Bridge Street in 1993, headed to Ringoes. Passenger service stopped in December 1998 due to poor track conditions. The Black River & Western Railroad began running tourist excursions on the Flemington line between Flemington and Ringoes in May 1965, and started offering trips to and from Holcombe-Jimison Farm in 1973, extending to Lambertville station in 1976.

Image courtesy of Shane Blische (Bill Madden photo)

Shane Blische has lived in the New Hope-Lambertville area his entire life and became intrigued by Lambertville’s railroad history very early on, which led to decades of research and collecting railroad materials related to Lambertville and other nearby river towns. He is currently focusing his time and energy writing a comprehensive book on the Belvidere-Delaware Railroad, his so-called passion project that he’s been working on for several years and hopes to publish it in the next year or two. He had worked and volunteered at the nearby Black River & Western Railroad in Ringoes for over ten years; one of their projects was to restore the line to Lambertville, which Shane was heavily involved in. He also helped manage their museum in Ringoes.

Several railroad enthusiasts and current and former Black River personnel were present at Shane’s January presentation for LHS and thoroughly enjoyed it. Many tourist excursion railroads such as the Black River & Western and New Hope & Ivyland across the river are staffed by those enthusiastic about railroading and help to keep operations alive in various capacities, from advertising and marketing, to repairing rail cars, track work, locomotive maintenance, staffing and coordinating events, managing gift shop inventories and much more. Restoration efforts to Lambertville were done entirely by a volunteer crew and supported by train ride ticket sales, gift shop sales and generous donations. Currently, reaching Lambertville is in dormancy due to catastrophic flood damage along the Alexauken Creek. 

If you have images or information about Lambertville’s railroading history, Shane would welcome a conversation. Email him to set up a call.