The New Jersey & New York Railroad traces its origins to the Hackensack and New York Railroad, which was chartered in 1856 and eventually operated between Rutherford, New Jersey, and Hackensack, New Jersey. In 1866, the company rechartered as the Hackensack and New York Extension Railroad and later reorganized as the New Jersey and New York Railroad. It extended its line north of Hackensack, reaching the village of Haverstraw by 1887. The Erie Railroad leased the railroad for 99 years starting in 1896, and it remained an Erie subsidiary until 1960 when the Erie merged to create the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, which subsequently merged in 1976 to form Conrail. Today, the line between Hackensack and Spring Valley, New York, is part of N.J. Transit’s Pascack Valley Line.
The Norfolk and Western Railway was a United States Class I railroad headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia, and established through over 200 mergers between 1838 and 1982.
For most of its history, its motto was "Precision Transportation," and it was known by several nicknames, such as "King Coal" and "British Railway of America." In 1986, the N&W merged with the Southern Railway to form what is now the Norfolk Southern Railway.
The N&W gained recognition for manufacturing its own steam locomotives and hopper cars at the Roanoke Shops. After 1960, it was the last major Class I railroad to operate steam locomotives, with the final Y class 2-8-8-2s retired in 1961.
In December 1959, the N&W merged with the Virginian Railway, a longstanding competitor in the Pocahontas coal region. By 1970, additional mergers with the Nickel Plate Road and Wabash created a network operating 7,595 miles of road and 14,881 miles of track, spanning from North Carolina to New York and from Virginia to Iowa.
In 1980, the N&W combined its business operations with those of the Southern Railway, another profitable carrier, to establish the Norfolk Southern Corporation as a holding company. Both the N&W and Southern Railway continued to function as separate railroads under this unified corporate structure.
In 1982, the Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway, and the holding company transferred control of the N&W to this newly renamed entity.