Johnsonburg (DL&W station)

Johnsonburg Station (right) and creamery in 1911. Armstrong Cut, the site of a massive landslide that closed the Cut-Off for a month in 1941, can be seen in the distant background.

Johnsonburg Station is one of the three original stations on the Lackawanna Cut-Off in northwestern New Jersey. Built by contractor Hyde, McFarlan & Burke, the station opened in 1911. Located on the western end of Ramsey Fill in rural Frelinghuysen Township, the station generated only modest passenger and freight business for the railroad. As a result, it was closed in 1940. The station was temporarily reopened in 1941 to serve as a command post for the clearing of the landslide that took place within nearby Armstrong Cut. After the closing of the station building, Johnsonburg continued to be a flag stop on the Cut-Off until the 1960s. A creamery was built by the railroad at the station site and operated for a number of years. The station building was rehabilitated by Jerry Turco, the owner of the Cut-Off from 1985-2001 (after the line had been abandoned by Conrail), during the early 1990s. Being in an isolated location, the building was subject to vandalism and was eventually razed by the State of New Jersey in 2007.