The Capoolong Creek Trail

The Capoolong Creek Trail. Pittstown Branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. , The Capoolong Creek Trail is on the former Pittstown 3.9 mile trail branch of the Lehigh Valley Railroad. This rail line connected Pittstown to the Lehigh Valley main line located at Landsdown. During the 1890s, this important rail line service supported local peach harvesting; delivering peaches to markets throughout the New York metropolitan area. In 1895 an insect blight destroyed the Hunterdon peach industry killing millions of tress over a few years time, and the peach industry moved to Southern New Jersey. In the early 1900s, the Pittstown station was used by the newly formed Pittstown Milk Association shipping local products to New York area markets. By 1968 the Pittstown branch was abandoned; and in 1973 the state purchased the former rail line property and made it into a nature trail., The Pittstown rail line branch was completed with the man power of 100 men over 3 months in 1891. The Pittstown Station open in July of 1891. Peaches and peach basket production flourished here in Pittstown and throughout all of Hunterdon County. At the other end of this trail was the passenger station at Landsdown on the busy Lehigh Valley main line. Across from the Landsdown train station was the Lehigh Valley Railroad's Clinton branch, which was 1.5 mile long. In comparison to 4 daily trains on the Pittstown branch, the Clinton branch had 10 daily trains. After passenger service ended in 1936 on the Clinton branch, the station at Landsdown and Clinton were demolished. In order to continue to accommodate freight trains, the wood bridges over the Capoolong Creek and other waterways were replaced and upgraded with heavier steel girder bridges in the mid 1940s.