| Mercer And Somerset Railway |
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| CATEGORIES ABOUT MERCER AND SOMERSET RAILWAY | |
| companies affiliated with the pennsylvania railroad | |
| defunct new jersey railroads | |
| somerset county, new jersey | |
| mercer county, new jersey | |
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The Mercer and Somerset Railway was a short-lived line of the Pennsylvania Railroad in western New Jersey , built to delay completion of the Delaware And Bound Brook Railroad , part of the National Railway line (later owned by the Philadelphia And Reading Railway ) from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to New York City . The railroad ran from Somerset Junction on the Belvidere Delaware Rail Road via Pennington and Hopewell to Millstone , with a connection to the Millstone And New Brunswick Railroad for a through route to New Brunswick . Hopewell was the site of a Frog War with the National Railway. A plan existed at one time to extend the Philadelphia, Newtown And New York Railroad , another railroad being built to block the National Railway, to cross the Delaware River and connect with the M&S. HISTORY The railroad was chartered on , the M&S had plans to straighten out the line as part of a new through railroad operated by the PRR. No straightening was done, but it did become PRR-operated. The railroad was formally opened on February 6 , 1874 , with an Excursion Train from Millstone to Trenton . At the beginning, it was leased by the United New Jersey Railroad And Canal Company and operated by the Belvidere Delaware Rail Road . By mid- 1875 , the railroad was being operated by the PRR as their Mercer and Somerset Branch, part of a through route from New York. The M&S served as one of several legal challenges to the National Railway line from Philadelphia to New York. Others were the Philadelphia, Newtown And New York Railroad in Pennsylvania and a fight over whether they had the right to cross the Delaware River . The New Jersey-side one resulted in a Frog War at Hopewell in early 1876 . The National Railway won the battle, and the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad formally opened on April 27 , 1876 . The M&S was sold under Bankruptcy to the Pennsylvania Railroad on November 28 , 1879 . It was soon dismantled, since it no longer served its purpose to block the National Railway. The abandoned grade of the west end of the line became Jacobs Creek Road. REFERENCES
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