Mercer and Somerset Railway

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 Reading Railroad's National Railway line from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to New York City.

The railroad ran from Somerset Junction on the Belvidere Delaware Railroad via Pennington and Hopewell to Millstone, with a connection to the Millstone Railroad for a through route to New Brunswick. Hopewell was the site of a frog war with the Reading Railroad.

A plan existed at one time to extend the line across the Delaware River into the Philadelphia and Newtown Railroad.

History

The railroad was chartered in March 1870. In 1873, 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 Railroad. 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 Reading Railroad's National Railway line from Philadelphia to New York. Others were another PRR branch 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 Reading 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 as a delay for the Reading.

References

• Railroad History Database
• State Legislatures, New York Times March 16, 1870 page 5
• New-York and Suburban News, New York Times April 10, 1873 page 8
• Railroad Matters in New-Jersey, New York Times February 9, 1874 page 8
• Railroads (display ad), New York Times July 11, 1875 page 8
• Railway War in New-Jersey, New York Times January 7, 1876 page 1
• Railroad Affairs, New York Times January 8, 1876 page 2
• The Excursion to Philadelphia, New York Times April 28, 1876 page 7
• Notes from Different Roads, New York Times November 29, 1879 page 2