Andover, New Jersey

Andover is a planned New Jersey Transit passenger railroad station in Andover Township, in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States, providing service on its Lackawanna Cut-Off line. The line remains under construction. The station will be built at a site on Andover's Roseville Road, about 1.1 miles (1.8 km) from U.S. Route 206 and about 0.9 miles (1.4 km) from County Route 517. On the rail line, it will be located about 7.3 miles (11.7 km) west of Port Morris Junction.Anticipated construction at the site includes a station and platform between the track and Roseville Road with 65 parking spaces initially, with room to expand to 125 spaces. Preparation to restore trackage between Port Morris and Andover was originally to begin in 2010 but was delayed until early 2011 due to a dispute over the exact location of the Andover Station area. Another delay was caused while environmental permits were sought. In August 2017, an agreement with a local landowner appeared to have cleared the way for the necessary environmental permits. At the time, service was projected to start in 2020, though in March 2020 it was pushed back to 2025, and it has since been delayed to 2026.The Andover station will be the terminus of the line, but plans exist for extending the Lackawanna Cut-Off line west of Andover as far as Scranton.

Brighton is an unincorporated community located within Andover Township and Green Township in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Brighton is located approximately 1 mi (1.6 km) west of Andover Borough. In 1872, it was noted that Brighton had a small number of houses.

The Pequest Fill is a large railroad embankment on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwestern New Jersey, touted at its 1911 completion as the largest railroad fill in the world.Thought to have been the brainchild of Lackawanna Railroad president William Truesdale, the Pequest Fill was one of several remarkable features of the Lackawanna Cut-Off, a project that aimed to reduce the length, grades, and curvature of the railroad's main line over the hilly terrain between Port Morris, New Jersey, and the Delaware Water Gap. During planning, Truesdale rejected 13 prospective routes that skirted the Pequest Valley in favor of a bold, costly, yet operationally superior route across it. In order to maintain a more or less level grade across the valley, a fill of enormous proportions would be required to connect Andover and Green Township.Planning for the route continued through 1906; the final survey map for the line was completed on September 1, allowing the railroad to proceed with eminent domain and hire contractors. The 28.6-mile (46-km) Cut-Off project was divided among seven contractors. Whether by design or happenstance, the responsibility for building the Pequest Fill was divided roughly in half between David W. Flickwir to the east and Walter H. Gahagan to the west. Construction on the Cut-Off began August 1, 1908. The foundation for the three-mile (4.8 km) Pequest Fill was constructed of 6.625 million cubic yards of fill material, far more than could be provided by classic cut-and-fill techniques. (These require a relatively even balance between the amount of dirt and rock material that is removed from an area of the right-of-way to provide a cut through a hill and the needs of a nearby fill.) So the railroad bought 760 acres of farmland and dug it out to a depth of about 20 feet (6 m). Construction wrapped up in autumn 1911.The Pequest Fill crosses four roadways (US Route 206 and three county roads), two railroad rights-of-way (the Sussex Branch and the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway), and one river (the Pequest River). There are no overhead bridges or grade crossings. The east end of Greendell Siding continued onto the Pequest Fill for a short distance; otherwise, the railroad was two tracks wide on the fill. The Cut-Off saw rail service between 1911 (when the Lackawanna Cut-Off opened) to 1979 (when Conrail discontinued rail service). In between, the Lackawanna Railroad operated trains over the Pequest Fill for 49 years; the Erie Lackawanna Railroad for 16 years; and Conrail for three years. After discontinuing service, Conrail sought abandonment of the line and eventually removed the tracks in 1984. In 1985, the Cut-Off was sold to a land developer who proposed to use the entire Pequest Fill for the now-defunct Westway Project in New York City. That never occurred; by 2001, the entire Cut-Off had been acquired by the State of New Jersey. In 2011, NJ Transit received approval to re-lay track between Port Morris Junction and Andover; as of 2023, the line is slated to open for rail service in 2026 or 2027. This Lackawanna Cut-Off Restoration Project also envisions replacing track westward across the Pequest Fill, but no funding has been secured and no completion date projected.

Whitehall is an unincorporated community located within Andover Township in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.Whitehall is located approximately 1.5 mi (2.4 km) south of Andover. Panther Lake, and the Panther Lake Camping Resort, occupy the east side of the settlement. Located west of Whitehall is the northern tip of Allamuchy Mountain State Park.

Aeroflex–Andover Airport (FAA LID: 12N) is a public-use airport located two nautical miles (3.704 km) north of Andover within Kittatinny Valley State Park in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. The airport is publicly owned by the New Jersey Forest Fire Service and used as a base for aerial wildfire suppression.

Kittatinny Valley State Park is located in Andover Township and extends into Andover Borough, New Jersey. Features include Glacial lakes, limestone outcroppings, former railroads, and a small airport. Lake Aeroflex and Gardner's Pond form part of the headwaters of the Pequest River and are excellent for fishing and boating. The park is home to a variety of wildlife such as whitetail deer, wild turkeys, a variety of songbirds, beavers, muskrats, and squirrels. The park is operated and maintained by the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry.

Colby Cut (also known as Roseville Cut) is one of a number of cuts on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. Located between approximately mileposts 51.8 and 52.3 in Byram Township, the cut was constructed between 1908 and 1911 by contractor David W. Flickwir. (During construction, Lackawanna Railroad Chief Engineer, Lincoln Bush, would leave the railroad and join Flickwir's construction company to form the Flickwir & Bush construction company.) The cut, which was created by removing fill material obtained by blasting with dynamite or other methods, is 0.53 miles (0.85 km) long, has an average depth of 45 feet (14 m), and a maximum depth of 110 feet (34 m). The cut was the result of the removal of 462,342 cubic yards of fill material within this section. Colby Cut is named for F.G. Colby, from whom some of the land comprising the cut was acquired, west of what would be Roseville Tunnel. In March 1906, Colby, proposed to Lackawanna President William Truesdale for the railroad to locate a train station for the Cut-Off on his property near what was referred to as Roseville Lake (probably Wright's Pond, which is just east and north of the tunnel). Truesdale had Colby contact the chief engineer, Lincoln Bush, to investigate the idea, but the proposal appears to have gone no further. The cut-off's route was finalized on September 1, 1906. In the months prior, an alternate route was considered (Line "M") that would have proceeded north of where the tunnel would be located, avoiding the need for both the massive cut and the similarly massive Pequest Fill. Line M was rejected because its several-mile, curvaceous sweep to the south near Tranquility, NJ, would be operationally slower.Colby Cut is located on a tangent (straight) section of right-of-way, permitting 70 mph (110 km/h), and is just east of the Pequest Fill and just west of Roseville Tunnel. This section is scheduled to receive a single track as part of the reactivation of the line, which was abandoned in 1982 and the tracks removed in 1984. Colby Cut will be cleared as part of the Roseville Tunnel project by NJ Transit, whose rail service is projected to begin in 2026. The cut will have rockfall mitigation installed as well as improved drainage.

Roseville Tunnel is a 1,024-foot (312 m) two-track railroad tunnel on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in Byram Township, Sussex County, New Jersey. The tunnel is on a straight section of railroad between mileposts 51.6 and 51.8 (83 km), about 6 miles (9.7 km) north by northwest of Port Morris Junction. Operated for freight and passenger service from 1911 to 1979, it is undergoing work intended to return it to passenger service by 2026.

St Paul's Abbey, Newton, New Jersey, is a Benedictine simple priory of the Congregation of Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien. Originally established as a mission procure following World War I, over time the size of the community drastically decreased. In 2002, monks from Waegwan Abbey, South Korea, took charge of the monastery (Newton II). On January 25, 2004, Newton II was elevated to the status of a simple priory. The community's superior is Fr Prior Samuel Kim.

Byram Township is a township in Sussex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 8,028, a decrease of 322 (−3.9%) from the 2010 census count of 8,350, which in turn reflected an increase of 96 (+1.2%) from the 8,254 counted in the 2000 census.The municipality is known as the "Township of Lakes", as there are roughly two dozen lakes and ponds within its borders.

Wharton Fill is one of a number of fills (embankments) on the Lackawanna Cut-Off railroad line in northwest New Jersey. Located between mileposts 51.1 and 51.6 in Byram Township, the fill was constructed between 1908 and 1911 by contractor David W. Flickwir. The fill, which was created by placing fill material obtained by blasting with dynamite or other methods, is about 0.5 miles (0.64 km) long. Most of the material that was used to create Wharton Fill was excavated from the surrounding low-lying area through which Pumpkin Run runs; several of the borrow pits have since flooded and become ponds. Wharton Fill is located on a tangent (straight) section of right-of-way, permitting 80 mph (113 km/h), and is just west of Lubber Run Fill and just east of Roseville Tunnel. This section is scheduled to receive a single track as part of the reactivation of the line, which was abandoned in 1983. NJ Transit rail service is projected to begin no earlier than 2026. Wharton Fill is named for the Wharton Steel Company, from whom this section of right-of-way was acquired.

Trinca Airport (FAA LID: 13N) was a public use airport in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. The airport was owned by Green Township and located three nautical miles (6 km) southwest of the central business district of Andover. Purchased by the municipality of Green Township, Trinca was closed on September 30, 2020.