Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

Company type	Railroad
Industry	Rail transport
Predecessor	Lackawanna and Western Railroad, Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad
Founded	1853 in Pennsylvania, United States
Defunct	1960
Fate	Merged with Erie Railroad to form Erie Lackawanna Railroad
Headquarters	Scranton , United States
Area served	Northeastern United States (Buffalo, New York City, Pennsylvania, New Jersey)
Key people	Perry Shoemaker (president)
Products	Freight (notably anthracite coal), passenger rail services

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) was a significant U.S. Class 1 railroad that linked Buffalo, New York to Hoboken, New Jersey, providing ferry connections to New York City and covering a distance of . Established in Pennsylvania in 1853, its main function was transporting anthracite coal from the Coal Region of Northeast Pennsylvania to markets in New York City. Over time, the railroad extended its route east to west, ultimately connecting Buffalo with New York City.

DL&W’s core business revolved around coal transportation, which sustained its profitability well into the early 1900s. Nonetheless, coal demand declined sharply—especially following the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster—and increasing competition from trucking due to the growth of the Interstate Highway System diminished its profit margins by the 1960s. In 1960, DL&W merged with the Erie Railroad, creating the Erie Lackawanna Railroad, which was later incorporated into Conrail in 1976.

Before DL&W (1832–1853)

Initially incorporated as Leggett's Gap Railroad on April 7, 1832, the company remained dormant for several years. It was rechartered in 1849 and organized in 1850. On April 14, 1851, it was renamed Lackawanna and Western Railroad and inaugurated its line on December 20, 1851, running northward from Scranton to Great Bend near the New York state border. From this point, it obtained trackage rights over the New York and Erie Rail Road to Owego, New York, and by April 21, 1855, leased the Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad, extending service to Ithaca.

The C&S had been reorganized from the Ithaca and Owego Railroad (which opened in 1834) and reconstructed to broad gauge (6 ft) compatible with the New York and Erie system. The Delaware and Cobb's Gap Railroad was chartered in December 1850 to construct an eastward line from Scranton to the Delaware River. Prior to commencing operations, it merged with Lackawanna and Western under the new name "Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad" on March 11, 1853. On the New Jersey side of the river, the Warren Railroad was chartered in February 1851 to extend southeast from the Delaware River bridge to Hampton on the Central Railroad of New Jersey route.

Growth and profitability (1853–1940)

The Southern Division commenced operations on May 27, 1856, incorporating the Warren Railroad in New Jersey. A third rail was installed on the standard gauge Central Railroad of New Jersey east of Hampton to facilitate travel eastward to Elizabeth through trackage rights; by 1864 this line extended to Jersey City.

On December 10, 1868, DL&W acquired the Morris and Essex Railroad, fully integrating it by 1945. This acquisition provided an independent route across northern New Jersey directly into Jersey City without relying on CNJ tracks. The M&E tunnel beneath Bergen Hill opened in 1876, removing dependence on the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railway tunnel. Included were branches like the Boonton Line, which began service in 1870 as a freight bypass around Newark.

Expansion into New York involved acquiring the Syracuse, Binghamton and New York Railroad and leasing the Oswego and Syracuse Railroad in 1869. This extended DL&W’s reach from Binghamton through Syracuse to Oswego on Lake Ontario. Additional leased lines included the Greene Railroad (1870) and Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley Railway (1870), expanding service toward Utica and Richfield Springs.

The "Valley Railroad," organized in 1869 and opened in 1871, connected Great Bend, Pennsylvania with Binghamton to avoid reliance on Erie Railroad routes. By 1873 control extended over the Lackawanna and Bloomsburg Railroad, linking Scranton southwestward to Northumberland with trackage rights reaching Sunbury. The entire system standardized its gauge on March 15, 1876. The New York, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was chartered in 1880 and began operations in 1882 to extend service westward from Binghamton to Buffalo via an international bridge connecting Ontario. Branch lines served Hornellsville (now Hornell) and central Buffalo.

By early twentieth century operations expanded further with control over lines such as Erie and Central New York Railroad (from Cortland Junction to Cincinnatus) and Bangor and Portland Railway (branching from Portland to Nazareth with a spur at Martins Creek). The Delaware Valley Railway (1901–1937) sought to connect north toward Erie Railroad at Port Jervis but only operated between East Stroudsburg and Bushkill before being abandoned.

Important facilities included locomotive and car shops located in Scranton; these were modernized in 1910 with a $2 million investment featuring a large machine shop. To meet increasing freight demands, new car shops were established at Keyser Valley near Scranton in 1904 along with a passenger car shop at Kingsland, New Jersey—just nine miles from New York City—in 1906.

New terminals and route improvements

Significant infrastructure projects were undertaken by the company, including the construction of a Beaux-Arts style terminal in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1907 and a comparable passenger station in Scranton completed in 1908, which presently functions as a Radisson hotel. Additionally, a waterfront terminal was established in Buffalo in 1917.

Incorporated in 1908, the "Lackawanna Railroad of New Jersey" was responsible for building the Lackawanna Cut-Off, which commenced operations in 1911. This line offered a gentle gradient and high-speed passage through northwestern New Jersey. It featured major engineering feats such as the Delaware River Viaduct and Paulinskill Viaduct, along with concrete towers positioned at key junctions. Between 1912 and 1915, the Summit-Hallstead Cutoff modernized a difficult stretch between Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania and Hallstead, Pennsylvania, incorporating the enormous Tunkhannock Viaduct and Martins Creek Viaduct. These cutoffs removed level crossings, thereby improving speed and operational efficiency.

Passenger services

The railroad's network extended from its Hoboken Terminal—serving as its primary access point to New York City—to major stops including Scranton, Binghamton, Syracuse, Oswego, Buffalo, and Utica. Notable passenger trains operated included:

• Nos. 2 Pocono Express / 5 Twilight (route from Hoboken to Buffalo with Chicago connections via New York Central)
• Nos. 3 / 6 Phoebe Snow, also known as Lackawanna Limited (Hoboken-Buffalo)
• Nos. 7 Westerner / 8 New Yorker (Hoboken-Buffalo with Chicago connections through Nickel Plate)
• Nos. 10 New York Mail / 15 Owl (Hoboken-Buffalo)
• Nos. 1301 / 1306 Interstate Express (Philadelphia-Syracuse)
• Nos. 1702 Keystone Express / 1705 Pittsburgh Express (Scranton-Pittsburgh)

Commuter rail linked northern New Jersey suburbs to Hoboken via the Boonton, Gladstone, Montclair, and Morristown Lines. Early promotional campaigns highlighted "Phoebe Snow," representing clean anthracite coal-powered locomotives that kept passengers’ attire free from soot—an innovative branding approach that emphasized market distinction.

Decline (1940–1960)

Anthracite coal represented the Lackawanna Railroad’s most lucrative freight commodity, constituting over 14% of Pennsylvania’s output between 1890 and 1940. Other significant freight categories included dairy products, livestock, lumber, cement, steel, and grain. The Pocono Mountains region, popular especially among New Yorkers for vacationing, generated substantial passenger volumes that supported expanding the mainline to three or four tracks.

Following World War II, economic transformations adversely affected the railroad’s operations. Industrial growth bypassed Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, and adjacent counties as fuel oil and natural gas supplanted coal usage. The textile sector declined due to relocation of jobs to southern states or overseas. Advances in mechanical refrigeration diminished ice shipments from the Poconos, while evolving dairy distribution methods reduced milk transport revenues.

Natural calamities further strained Lackawanna’s financial health. In August 1955, Hurricane Diane inflicted $8.1 million in damages (adjusted for inflation), destroying approximately 60 miles of track and halting service for nearly a month. The Old River line was abandoned following irreparable destruction. Recovery efforts were slow and partial.

The 1959 Knox Mine Disaster devastated anthracite mining along the Susquehanna River corridor, effectively terminating the area’s coal industry and eliminating a vital revenue stream for the railroad.

These difficulties mirrored wider industry patterns as railroads lost ground to trucking and automotive competition after World War II. Declining freight volumes contributed to bankruptcies among regional rivals such as the New York, Ontario and Western Railroad (1957) and Lehigh & New England Railroad (1961). Over subsequent decades, most major railroads in the Northeast encountered severe financial crises.

Erie Lackawanna

Following the devastation caused by Hurricane Diane in 1955, the DL&W encountered significant financial hardships, worsened by elevated property taxes in New Jersey that placed additional pressure on its operations. To restore stability, DL&W president Perry Shoemaker pursued a merger with the Nickel Plate Road, envisioning a railroad network exceeding 1,100 miles connecting St. Louis and Chicago to New York City. Although prior analyses had favored this consolidation, Nickel Plate declined the offer and subsequently merged with the Norfolk and Western Railroad.

Shoemaker then explored potential mergers or cooperative arrangements with the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Delaware and Hudson Railway but was unable to reach agreements. Eventually, he achieved a merger with long-standing competitor Erie Railroad, resulting in the establishment of the Erie Lackawanna Railroad (EL) on October 17, 1960. This decision attracted criticism, and after being marginalized by Erie’s leadership, Shoemaker resigned and later assumed the presidency of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.

Before finalizing the merger, redundant mainline tracks between Binghamton and Buffalo were streamlined: DL&W discontinued its line west of Binghamton in favor of joint operations with Erie, while Erie relinquished its Buffalo-to-Livonia route in favor of DL&W’s mainline. Passenger services were centralized at DL&W’s Hoboken Terminal. Certain facilities were sold off for highway development projects, including segments of the Boonton Branch.

Following the merger, management concentrated most freight traffic onto former Erie lines for over ten years, heavily relying on interchange with the New Haven Railroad at Maybrook. However, after the 1969 merger between New Haven and Penn Central and the 1974 fire on the Poughkeepsie Bridge, this vital connection was severed. Consequently, EL was compelled to redirect freight back onto former DL&W routes, which presented operational difficulties due to their inadequate design for heavy freight loads.

In 1972, when Central Railroad of New Jersey withdrew from Pennsylvania freight operations, EL experienced an increase in through freight traffic until Conrail’s inception in 1976 terminated this arrangement.

EL expanded its freight portfolio by obtaining contracts with Lehigh Valley suppliers and Chrysler for transporting automotive parts from Mount Pocono. It was an early adopter of intermodal freight transport but could not counterbalance declining coal shipments amid escalating labor expenses and tax burdens. The introduction of Interstates 80, 380, and 81 during the early 1970s further shifted traffic toward trucking, accelerating EL’s decline.

By 1976, facing insolvency, Erie Lackawanna filed to join Conrail—a regional railroad created from seven bankrupt northeastern railroads—signaling the conclusion of its independent existence.

Conrail

On April 1, 1976, EL’s rail assets were transferred to Conrail. Initial labor agreements restricted alterations to freight schedules; however, by early 1979 Conrail discontinued through freight service on the Lackawanna division. Freight operations were removed from the Hoboken-Binghamton mainline and rerouted due to EL’s prior dismantling of the Boonton Branch near Paterson, New Jersey and challenging terrain through Pocono Mountains.

The Morristown Line remains the sole multi-track section within the 900-mile Lackawanna network, preserving its triple-track layout established nearly a century earlier.

The Lackawanna Cut-Off was abandoned in 1979 with rails dismantled by 1984. The segment between Slateford Junction and Scranton remained unresolved legally until purchased with a single track left intact. In 2001, New Jersey acquired the Cut-Off corridor following a $40 million bond approved in 1989 and ultimately paid $21 million to previous owners. NJ Transit estimates that restoring service to Scranton would require $551 million, including investment in new trainsets. A 7.3-mile stretch between Port Morris and Andover, New Jersey encountered environmental delays but is planned for reopening for passenger service by 2025.

Delaware and Hudson (subsequently Canadian Pacific)

In 1979, Conrail divested the majority of the DL&W lines located in Pennsylvania. The section extending from Scranton to Binghamton, which includes the Nicholson Cutoff, was obtained by the Delaware and Hudson Railway. Later, in 1991, Canadian Pacific Railway acquired Delaware and Hudson and managed this route until it sold the line to Norfolk Southern in 2014.

New York, Susquehanna, and Western

The Syracuse and Utica branches north of Binghamton were sold by Conrail to Delaware Otsego Corp., which operates these lines as the northern division of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railway.

Norfolk Southern

Conrail accepted a joint acquisition proposal from CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern Railway in 1997. On June 1, 1999, Norfolk Southern took control of numerous Conrail routes in New Jersey, including most former DL&W tracks and the Bangor & Portland branch in Pennsylvania. Norfolk Southern continues to provide local freight service on these lines. In 2014, the company expanded its holdings by purchasing the former DL&W main line segment from Taylor, Pennsylvania to Binghamton, New York from Canadian Pacific Railway, maintaining operational control.

NJ Transit

Since 1983, NJ Transit Rail Operations has operated passenger rail services subsidized by the state of New Jersey. It runs over former DL&W tracks along much of the Morris & Essex Lines reaching Gladstone and Hackettstown. In 2002, NJ Transit consolidated the Montclair Branch with the Boonton Line to form the Montclair-Boonton Line, operating on the southern portion of the original Boonton Line (Main Line). Hoboken Terminal serves as its central hub.

The inauguration of the Kearny Connection in 1996 facilitated direct service from the Morristown Line to New York’s Pennsylvania Station via Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. This development enhanced NJ Transit's Midtown Direct service by increasing through-track capacity on former Lackawanna routes.

Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority

Following Conrail’s dissolution in 1999, ownership of the former DL&W main line between Scranton and Slateford transferred to the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA). Freight and tourist operations on this Pocono Mainline are conducted by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad under a haulage agreement with Norfolk Southern. Freight shipments include Canadian grain delivered to Harvest States Grain Mill in Pocono Summit and wood transported to Bestway Enterprises in Cresco; Keystone Propane is also a customer.

Tourist trains operate between Steamtown National Historic Site and destinations such as Moscow and Tobyhanna, occasionally extending service to East Stroudsburg or Delaware Water Gap. Additionally, Delaware-Lackawanna manages Lackawanna County’s tourist trolley services utilizing electrified overhead wires on historic Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad tracks and runs trains on a surviving DL&W Diamond branch segment within Scranton.

In 2006, Monroe and Lackawanna County Railroad Authorities collaborated to establish PNRRA with the goal of reinstating passenger rail service connecting New York City and Scranton.

New York

The majority of the main line west of Binghamton has been abandoned in favor of the Erie Railroad’s Buffalo route via Hornell. The longest extant main line section is between Painted Post and Wayland, served by shortline operator B&H Railroad, which also services Bath and Hammondsport. This operation is part of a network including divisions such as Livonia, Avon, and Lakeville Railroad. Other smaller surviving segments include Groveland-Greigsville (operated by Genesee & Wyoming) and Lancaster-Depew (managed by Depew, Lancaster & Western). The Richfield Springs branch was dismantled in 1998; its right-of-way was acquired in 2009 by Utica, Chenango and Susquehanna Valley LLC, which now runs the narrow-gauge tourist Richfield Springs Scenic Railway alongside a recreational trail. The Cortland-Cincinnatus Branch was abandoned in 1960 but partially reconstructed around 1999 for use as an industrial spur.

Pennsylvania

By 2018, the Reading Blue Mountain and Northern had taken over operations of the former Keyser Valley branch stretching from Scranton to Taylor, as well as the former Bloomsburg branch running between Taylor and Coxton Yard in Duryea. The segment of the Bloomsburg branch from Duryea to Kingston is under the management of the Luzerne and Susquehanna Railway, whereas the portion from Northumberland to Hicks Ferry is operated by the North Shore Railroad (Pennsylvania).

See also

• Abraham Burton Cohen
• Boonton Branch
• Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad
• Sussex Railroad
• Greigsville & Pearl Creek Railroad
• Syracuse & Baldwinsville Railroad
• DL&W 1151 class

Further reading

• * Digitized editions of Erie, Lackawanna, and Erie-Lackawanna publications

External links

• DL&W information at Western NY Railroad Archive (archived)
• DL&W via the Railroad Historical Society
• DL&W resources from Erie Lackawanna Historical Society (archived)
• DL&W Booklet – History of the New Jersey Cutoff (archived)
• Erie Lackawanna route maps
• Rail services on Genesee Valley Transportation Company site
• Timeline of Pennsylvania Railroad Company (archived)
• History of the DL&W Sussex Branch (archived)
• DL&W photographic collection at Library of Congress