Slateford Junction

History of Slateford Junction

Slateford Junction is the terminus of the Lackawanna Cut-Off and located in Slateford, Pennsylvania. Slateford Junction is located alongside the Delaware River and is the junction of the Lackawanna Cut-Off and the Lackawanna Old Road.

Slateford Junction features a tower, and at one point a turntable. The turntable pit would be removed in the 1930s, however. Slateford Tower would continue to be used up until January of 1951, which the switches were converted to hand-thrown. 

In 1976, Conrail was formed which later tore up the Lackawanna Cut-Off in 1984. After Conrail took over the former DL&W Pocono Main Line, the Lackawanna County Rail Authority with the Monroe County Rail Authority (later merged as the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority) saved the line and leased the trackage out to the Genesee Valley Transportation Company in 1993. GVT Rail now operates the line under the shortline "Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad", which occasionally runs trains down to Slateford Jct. and still utilizes it to this day.

Amtrak trains would run through Slateford Jct. in the event Amtrak restores service to the Cut-Off, which would operate up the Pocono Main into Scranton, Pennsylvania. 



Port Morris Junction on October 28, 1912 as a train passes by. (Bunnell Photo)
Port Morris Tower as it looked in 1950, featuring a tower sign aswell.  (Edward H. Weber Photo, Vito Filomeno Collection)
An eastbound Pocono Express begins its trip on the Lackawanna Cutoff in November of 1944.(W.R. Osborne Photo, Peter Bellisario Collection)
A Steamtown Excursion train from Scranton is at Slateford Jct on August 7, 2022 (Austin O'Connor Photo)