The Roselle and South Plainfield Railway was a railroad built by the Lehigh Valley Railroad

Lehigh Valley Railroad

The Lehigh Valley Railroad was one of a number of railroads built in the northeastern United States primarily to haul anthracite coal.It was authorized April 21, 1846 in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and incorporated September 20, 1847 as the Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad...

 (LVRR) in 1888 to connect the LVRR's Easton and Amboy Railroad

Easton and Amboy Railroad

Easton and Amboy Railroad was a railroad built across central New Jersey by the Lehigh Valley Railroad in the 1870s. The line was built to connect the Lehigh Valley Railroad coal hauling operations in Pennsylvania to consumer markets in New York City....

 with the Central Railroad of New Jersey

Central Railroad of New Jersey

The Central Railroad of New Jersey , commonly known as the Jersey Central Lines or CNJ, was a Class I railroad with origins in the 1830s, lasting until 1976 when it was absorbed into Conrail with the other bankrupt railroads of the Northeastern United States...

 (CNJ), and provided access over the CNJ to the Hudson River

Hudson River

The Hudson is a river that flows from north to south through eastern New York. The highest official source is at Lake Tear of the Clouds, on the slopes of Mount Marcy in the Adirondack Mountains. The river itself officially begins in Henderson Lake in Newcomb, New York...

 waterfront in Jersey City

Jersey City, New Jersey

Jersey City is the seat of Hudson County, New Jersey, United States.Part of the New York metropolitan area, Jersey City lies between the Hudson River and Upper New York Bay across from Lower Manhattan and the Hackensack River and Newark Bay...

. The LVRR had built coal docks in Perth Amboy

Perth Amboy, New Jersey

Perth Amboy is a city in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The City of Perth Amboy is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was 50,814. Perth Amboy is known as the "City by the Bay", referring to Raritan Bay.-Name:The Lenape...

 when it built the Easton and Amboy in the 1870s , but it desired a terminal on the Hudson River close to New York City.

The LVRR strove throughout the 1880s to acquire a route to the Jersey City waterfront. The first leg of that project was the Roselle and South Plainfied. Initially, the LVRR contracted with the CNJ for rights from Roselle to Jersey City, but the LVRR eventually constructed its own route to its terminal in Jersey City over the Newark and Roselle Railway

Newark and Roselle Railway

The Newark and Roselle Railway was incorporated on Aug 28, 1889 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad to advance tracks from the terminus of the Roselle and South Plainfield Railway at Roselle, New Jersey to Pennsylvania Avenue in Newark...

, the Newark and Passaic Railway

Newark and Passaic Railway

The Newark and Passaic Railway was incorporated on Nov 22, 1889 by the Lehigh Valley Railroad . It was chartered as a short line in Newark, New Jersey from the Passaic River to a connection with the LVRR's Newark and Roselle Railway near Pennsylvania Avenue in Newark...

, the Jersey City, Newark, and Western Railway, and the Jersey City Terminal Railway.

In 1891, the LVRR consolidated the company into the Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway

Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway

The Lehigh Valley Terminal Railway was a Lehigh Valley Railroad company organized in 1891 through the consolidation of the companies that formed the Lehigh Valley's route from South Plainfield through Newark to Jersey City via its bridge across Newark Bay...

, along with the other companies which formed the route from South Plainfield to the Jersey City terminal.