the Branchville line, pressure was increasing to bring rail to the ever-increasing mining industries of Franklin, including the New Jersey Zinc Company. Work finally began on this ) extension in 1868, after a very heated debate and political power plays that could have routed traffic around Newton entirely. But residents of Newton rejected any plan to leave their town off the main line of traffic and insisted that the extension to Franklin be built north of Newton. The Franklin line opened to regular service in mid-September 1869. Additionally, an unconnected spur known as the South Vernon extension, which ran from Hamburg to McAfee, was completed in 1871 and allowed access to an iron ore mine at the base of the Pochuck mountain range via trackage rights on the New Jersey Midland Railway. This represented the height of track building on the Sussex Railroad. In the 1870s, depots at Franklin, McAfee, Lafayette were completed and a new depot at Newton was constructed. Some other platforms used for local agricultural industries were also completed at Sparta Junction and Monroe. The 1870s also saw another supplement to the charter allowing the railroad to extend rail to Stanhope for an easier connection with the M&E tracks, though the track wasn't laid until 1901. Notably, in 1879, steel tracks replaced iron for the first time on the Sussex Railroad. This was to be the height of the Sussex Railroad. A little over a decade after the extensions had all been completed, the South Vernon extension was sold off to the Lehigh & Hudson River Railway (L&HR) on July 6, 1881, and the McAfee station was closed in May 1881. L&HR was also trying to buy a controlling interest in the Sussex Railroad Company, but the DL&W, which had already leased the M&E line that connected to the Sussex Railroad, bought the controlling interest on July 27, 1881. The Sussex Railroad was the last independently operated New Jersey railroad to be acquired by DL&W. DL&W (1881–1945) The Sussex Railroad, operating under the DL&W as the Sussex Branch, began its slow, early decline in the late 19th century, owing to the discovery of better ore elsewhere in the country. Many industries and mines began to close in Sussex County, including the blast furnace in Franklin that shut down in 1900. Still, there was some expansion: A new station was added at Cranberry Lake, which became a country