Delaware & Hudson Railway

Originally chartered on April 23, 1823, as “The President, Managers and Company of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company,” the Delaware & Hudson was one of the most historic transportation companies in North America. Originally conceived to bring coal from northeastern Pennsylvania to tidewater on the Hudson River, the D&H Canal became an important transportation link that contributed to the economic and population growth of the regions it served. Construction on the canal began in Beatysburg, New York (later renamed Summitville) on July 13, 1825, and the full route from Rondout (just south of Kingston, New York) to Honesdale, Pennsylvania was opened to navigation on October 16, 1828.

Realizing that the canal’s survival depended on a reliable way to funnel traffic to its ports, the D&H chartered the 4’3” gauge Delaware & Hudson Gravity Railroad to bring anthracite coal from the mines near Carbondale, Pennsylvania to the canal at Honesdale. Construction was authorized on April 8, 1826, and on the first stretch of track built west from Honesdale, the Stourbridge Lion made the first run of a locomotive on rails in the United States on August 8, 1829. From Carbondale, the railroad was built westward in stages, reaching Scranton in 1863. Meanwhile, through a series of acquisitions of smaller roads and new construction to connect them, the first D&H standard gauge railroad line reached north from Carbondale to Albany, New York and opened on October 28, 1870. Additional mergers, acquisitions, and construction brought the northern terminus of the standard gauge line to the Canadian border at Rouses Point, New York on November 29, 1875.

The completion of the largely parallel New York & Erie Railroad on May 14, 1851, made the D&H Canal an obsolete transportation method just 23 years after its opening. After several decades of decline, the last boat traversed the D&H Canal on November 5, 1898, making the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company exclusively an operator of railroads. The gravity railroad that once fed the canal was reduced to passenger service only and it subsequently closed on January 3, 1899. By January 22nd, the former gravity railroad from Carbondale to Scranton had been converted to standard gauge to be used along with the rest of the system, and the D&H’s acquisition of trackage rights on the Lehigh & Susquehanna Railroad brought the southern end of the line to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. This created a total main line route of 744 miles from Wilkes-Barre to Rouses Point, not including branches or secondary lines. On April 28, 1899, the company name was changed to the Delaware & Hudson Company to reflect the lack of any remaining canal-related operations.

The D&H purchased the 31-mile Greenwich & Johnsonville Railway in 1906 and the 29-mile Napierville Junction Railway on April 9, 1907. The latter line gave the D&H a direct connection from the Canadian border at Rouses Point to St. Constant Junction in Delson, Quebec. This made the D&H the shortest and fastest route from Albany to Montreal, bringing in a significant amount of international bridge traffic to the railroad. Additional bridge traffic was routed via the D&H from points west to reach the Boston & Maine at the D&H interchange in Mechanicville, New York. The Wilkes-Barre Connecting Railroad, jointly chartered in 1912 by the D&H and the Pennsylvania Railroad, opened on March 29, 1915, to provide a new connection between the two lines that provided even more bridge traffic via nearly the entire length of the D&H. By the late 1930s, the company began branding itself as “the Bridge Line to New England and Canada”, reflecting the D&H’s status in the North American railroad network.

Due to its location roughly at the midpoint of the line, Albany had been selected as a logical home for the company as early as 1890, when a large D&H office building was constructed on the corner of North Pearl and Steuben Streets (which is still extant today). As the railroad and its staff grew, the D&H’s new (and now iconic) headquarters building was constructed along State Street between 1914 and 1918. Prosperity followed; ninety-seven new businesses located along the D&H in the railroad’s centennial year (1923). The railroad’s success led the D&H to consolidate its rail operations, incorporating the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Corporation on December 1, 1928, and transferring all its rail property to the new wholly-owned subsidiary corporation on April 1, 1930. In addition to the railroad, the parent Delaware & Hudson Company continued to own the Greenwich & Johnsonville Railway, the Napierville Junction Railway, and a variety of other related holdings (such as the Hudson Coal Company).

The D&H’s last major route expansion occurred on January 1, 1955, with the purchase of the Erie Railroad’s 34.6-mile Jefferson Branch from Carbondale to Lanesboro, Pennsylvania. This line had been constructed jointly by the D&H and the Erie just after the Civil War and the D&H’s trackage rights on this branch had allowed it to connect its gravity railroad in Carbondale with its own line from Lanesboro to Albany in 1870. The D&H’s purchase of the former Erie line solidified the connection of the D&H’s existing routes from Wilkes-Barre to Carbondale and from Lanesboro to Nineveh Junction, all of which were combined to become the D&H’s famed Pennsylvania (Penn) Division.

By the 1940s, the reliability and cost savings of diesel-electric locomotives over steam engines were undeniable, and the first diesel locomotive arrived on the D&H roster in May of 1944. The last steam locomotives dropped their fires on July 22, 1953. The black and yellow paint scheme that was carried over from the steam era was replaced in January of 1961 with a striking gray-and-blue “lightning stripe” scheme that became a defining characteristic of the D&H’s motive power for the next thirty years.

Passenger rail services across the United States began to hemorrhage money in the 1960s due to the competition afforded by new airlines and the new interstate highway system. The federal government stepped in, forming Amtrak to take over interstate passenger rail services across the country. Amtrak declined to continue operations of the D&H’s daytime Laurentian and overnight Montreal Limited, and these trains were discontinued effective on May 1, 1971 - the first day of Amtrak operations.

The 1960s were a decade of mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. railroad scene, and the D&H was not immune. On July 1, 1968, the D&H was acquired by Dereco, a subsidiary of the Norfolk & Western Railway. All assets of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Corporation were transferred to a new Dereco subsidiary, the Delaware & Hudson Railway Company. Several D&H branch lines were abandoned or sold off in the late 1960s and early 1970s as they succumbed to truck competition and the relocation of manufacturing facilities. The year 1973 was marked by the railroad’s grand sesquicentennial celebration. A special train of historic displays was operated throughout the D&H system during April and May of that year, while excursions were operated for both employees and the public.