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The Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR) was the smallest of the six railroads that were merged into Conrail in 1976. It was a bridge line running northeast–southwest across northwestern New Jersey, connecting the line to the Poughkeepsie Bridge at Maybrook, New York with Easton, Pennsylvania, where it interchanged with various other companies.

The roots of the L&HR begin with the founding of the Warwick Valley Railroad. The Warwick Valley Railroad was organized March 8, 1860 by a group of local dairymen and business owners led by Grinnell Burt (1822 1901) as a means of connecting the mainline of the New York and Erie Rail Road at Greycourt, New York southwest to Warwick, New York. It opened in 1862 and was operated as a branch of the broad gauged Erie. The Pequest and Wallkill Railroad was chartered by 1870 to build an extension in New Jersey, running from Belvidere on the Delaware River and Belvidere Delaware Railroad northeast to the New York state line. The Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad was chartered later as a competitor, planning to build from Belvidere to McAfee, with the Wawayanda Railroad running the rest of the way to the state line and to a connection with the Warwick Valley Railroad. In April/May 1881, the three companies merged to form a new Lehigh and Hudson River Railroad and on April 1, 1882, the Warwick Valley Railroad joined, forming the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway (L&HR). Grinnell Burt would serve as the president of the newly consolidated line, as he had with the WVRR, up until his death in 1901 and would be instrumental in progressing the L&HR to become a "link in a great chain" of transportation in the northeast. In the meantime, the Sussex Railroad had built a branch from Hamburg to South Vernon (McAfee); the L&HR bought this around 1881. The Warwick Valley Railroad had built an extension southwest to McAfee in March 1880, and the full line opened August 14, 1882, connecting Belvidere, New Jersey to Greycourt, New York. For several years, the L&HR carried freight from its western connections to Greycourt where the Erie operated a branch to the car floats at Newburgh, New York. These car floats across the Hudson River served as a vital rail link to New England. However, by the 1880's this line was already being made obsolete by the planned construction of the Poughkeepsie Bridge and an all rail route across the Hudson. Sensing the opportunity, the Orange County Railroad was chartered as an L&HR line on November 28, 1888 and opened the following year, extending the line northeast from Greycourt to Burnside where Trackage rights were obtained over a short piece of the New York, Ontario and Western Railway from the junction at Burnside west to the major junction at Campbell Hall. Shortly thereafter, the line was extended further north to Maybrook. At Maybrook, the line junctioned with the Central New England Railway, who would build an enormous staging yard for trains continuing east via the Poughkeepsie Bridge over the Hudson River to New England. The South Easton and Phillipsburg Railroad of New Jersey, and the South Easton and Phillipsburg Railroad of Pennsylvania was organized on July 25, 1889 to build a bridge over the Delaware River between Easton, Pennsylvania and Phillipsburg, New Jersey. The former built 460' on the New Jersey side, while the latter built 850' on the Pennsylvania side. Bridge construction began on November 19, 1889, and concluded the following year on October 2. "The South Easton and Phillipsburg Railroad of New Jersey and South Easton and Phillipsburg of Pennsylvania were consolidated with the Lehigh and Hudson River Railway on April 2, 1912. Subsequently, the L&HR obtained trackage rights over 13 miles of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) Belvidere Delaware Railroad between Phillipsburg and Belvidere;once the bridge was completed, the L&HR had a continuous line from Maybrook to Easton. At Easton, an interchange could be made with the Central Railroad of New Jersey and Lehigh Valley Railroad, while interchange with the PRR was at Phillipsburg. In 1905, the L&HR eventually obtained trackage rights over the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad's (DL&W) Sussex Railroad from the junction at Andover south to Port Morris, where it interchanged with the main line of the DL&W. The Mine Hill Railroad was the only branch built. It ran south from a junction at Franklin, New Jersey to the mines of the New Jersey Zinc Company at Sterling Hill, New Jersey. From October 1912 until January 1916, the L&HR hosted the PRR's Federal Express passenger trains on the Poughkeepsie Bridge Route between Phillipsburg and Maybrook. With the completion of the Hell Gate Bridge in New York City on September 9, 1917, the Federal Express resumed service via Penn Station and the New Haven Line direct. http://www. northeast. railfan. net/lhr rstr. html

A profitable railroad for nearly its entire existence, The L&HR filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 19, 1972, owing partly to Penn Central's decision to operate over other routes in order to avoid the aging Poughkeepsie Bridge, along with not paying the L&HR certain due bills due to bankruptcy laws. Post bankruptcy, the L&HR continued to operate a nocturnal daily freight. During the mid 1970s, the L&HR became part of a proposal to run "Bunny Ski Trains" between Hoboken, New Jersey, and the Playboy Resort (Great Gorge) in Vernon, New Jersey. The proposed service, which would have run on weekends during the winter, would have retrieved passengers westbound along the Erie Lackawanna Railway's (EL) Morristown Line to Netcong, New Jersey, then run along a short section of the remaining Sussex Branch to Andover Junction in Andover, New Jersey, and then northbound along the L&HR to the Penn Central. The service would have utilized EL's new commuter consists, but was met with stiff opposition from EL management, which was anticipating a merger with other north eastern US railroads and did not want to enter into a venture that it viewed as a potential money loser. The Bunny Ski Train remained a viable proposal until the remaining vestige of the Sussex Branch was removed in July 1977, after it became clear that it was no longer needed as a connector to the L&HR. As such, in 1976 the L&HR was merged into Conrail. Subsequently, the section between Belvidere, New Jersey and Sparta, New Jersey (Sparta Junction) was abandoned. The tracks, however, remained in place until approximately 1988, when the right of way between these two points was acquired by land developer Jerry Turco from Conrail. Turco had also acquired most of the Lackawanna Cut Off as part of the same deal. Conrail removed the tracks south of Sparta Junction; however, the section north of that point was already being considered by the New York, Susquehanna & Western (NYS&W) as part of a combined regional freight route with Norfolk Southern Railway (NS). The line from Warwick to Campbell Hall, New York is currently leased to the Middletown and New Jersey Railroad.

Approximately 42 miles of the original 72 miles of the original L&HR built right of way is still in place from Limecrest in the township of Sparta, New Jersey to the "new" Hudson Junction within the town of Hamptonburgh, New York. In New Jersey, the NYS&W owns the L&HR line from Sparta Junction to Pelton Crossing, a point just 3 miles north of the NY state line and at the throat of the former yards in Warwick, New York. At Sparta Junction, where the original line of the NYS&W used to cross the L&HR on a diamond, a connection has been built to allow movement between the former lines. In addition, a daily local job works out of Sparta where numerous industries are serviced by rail including a transload sugar facility, a propane facility, and others. The NYS&W also operates a single road train four times a week between Binghamton and Ridgefield Park, New Jersey which traverses the entirety of the remaining L&HR and is the only regular rail traffic between Sparta and Warwick. From Pelton Crossing in Warwick to the "new" Hudson Junction in Hamptonburgh, the line is owned by NS which had acquired the line during the breakup of Conrail. The NS owned portion of the line is known as the "Hudson Secondary" and while owned by the NS, it is dispatched by the NYS&W. Since 2010, the Middletown and New Jersey Railroad (on a lease from the NS)currently operates and maintains the Hudson Secondary with a semi daily local from Campbell Hall to Warwick. In 1988, the NYS&W built a connecting track bypassing Maybrook by curving west onto the former Erie Graham Line (current Metro North Railroad) at a point just north of Sarah Wells Trail in the town of Hamptonburgh. This bypass eliminated pulling through trains north to Maybrook and running around the train before continuing west through Campbell Hall. As a result of this "new" Hudson Junction, the original three miles of L&HR right of way from HJ to Maybrook were abandoned. HJ or Hudson Junction is not to be confused with the original Hudson Junction where the Warwick Valley Railroad to Greycourt met the 1888 built Orange County Railroad (which leapt over the Erie Mainline at Greycourt north to Maybrook). South of Limecrest just south of Sparta Junction, the line is abandoned to Belvidere; however the former PRR owned Bel Del, L&HR owned Hudson Yard in Phillipsburg and the L&HR owned South Easton & Phillipsburg Bridge over the Delaware River are still in service on the Norfolk Southern. Although the line had always operated in a west to east orientation from Allentown to Maybrook, the NYS&W operates the line from Sparta to Warwick as east to west. The final stretch of the L&HR running west from Janes Chapel Road in Oxford, NJ to Belvidere has been preserved as a hiking trail, the Pequest Wildlife Management Area Trail. This trail crosses the Pequest river at 4 locations including the when it passes under the Pequest Viaduct carrying the Lackawanna "Old Road" across the Pequest River. The remains of old signal towers, rail ties, power lines, and mile markers can be found in the forest along this trail. Another section of the line running north from Kennedy Rd in Green Township, NJ has been preserved as the Lehigh & Hudson Rail Trail. Whistle markers can still be found along the trail between Whitehall Rd and Rt 603. The pass under the Lackawanna Cutoff Pequest fill, despite being state owned land, has been fenced off and is not passable. The trail terminates in Andover, NJ where it crosses the Sussex Branch Trail. A new section of hiking trail has been restored beginning just to the north in Andover along the south east corner of Gardners Pond. Entering Kittatinny Valley State Park the trail continues along the east coast of Lake Aeroflex 3.5 miles until terminating at Mulford Road in Andover Township, NJ. It is unclear if any other sections of the abandoned line have been preserves as hiking trails. A full description of the line along with all bridges and stations can be found here.