The Erie Lackawanna Railway, "The Friendly Service Route"

The Erie Railroad, the first component of the Erie Lackawanna, has its beginnings dating all of the way back to 1832, just five years after the Baltimore & Ohio, chartered that year by the Governor of New York, De Witt Clinton as the New York & Erie Railroad to build a rail line in the southern part of the state linking Piermont, New York with Dunkirk on Lake Erie. This it finally was able to accomplish by 1851.

Over the years it acquired, leased, or built new lines and by the late 19th century it had reached points such as Buffalo, Rochester, Chicago, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Having said that, gaining these new markets was a very labor intensive and difficult task because of two reorganizations (as the Erie Railway in 1859 and Erie Railroad in 1895) and a proxy fight by Cornelius Vanderbilt (of New York Central fame) to take over the Erie in the mid 1860s (which ultimately failed and the Commodore lost all of his holdings in the railroad).

By the turn of the 20th century things began to look up for the Erie Railroad although it did suffer one final reorganization (in 1941). Under the guidance of Frederick Underwood the railroad carved out a living in the hotly contested New York-Chicago market and after the Van Sweringen brothers (of C&O, Erie and Rio Grande fame to name a few) gained ownership of the Erie in the mid-1920s the railroad was propelled to even further heights. Unfortunately the brothers passed away in the 1930s so it is hard to tell just what the Northeast rail map would have looked like had they lived and been allowed to foresee whatever plans they had for the many properties under their control (they were excellent railroad managers).

The second component of the Erie Lackawanna was the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (which seems to have been the predominant railroad in the merger) and it has its beginnings in 1851 when on October 20th of that year the Lackawanna & Western operated its first scheduled train between Scranton and Great Bend, Pennsylvania (originally the L&W was known as the Liggetts Gap Railroad until it changed its name in 1851). The DL&W gained its name in March of 1853 when it merged with the Delaware & Cobbs Gap Railroad (which constructed a line south of Scranton, PA) to form the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad.

Although the DL&W would have a number of smaller railroads making up its system the final pieces of the railroad were the Morris & Essex (which built a line between Newark and Morristown, New Jersey) and New York, Lackawanna & Western (which built a line between Binghamton and Buffalo, New York). With the ownership of these lines the Lackawanna’s main line was basically complete and in all stretched from Buffalo, New York to Hoboken, New Jersey just across the Hudson River from downtown New York City (Manhattan).

Along with its renowned Hoboken Terminal the Lackawanna is best known for its two cutoffs and the impressive viaducts that were found along both. Although each cutoff featured several viaducts including Martins Creek Viaduct and Paulins Kill Viaduct (Paulins Kill and Slateford Viaduct are located along the now-defunct New Jersey Cutoff), the Tunkhannock Viaduct dwarfs them all (named for the small creek which runs below it). Topping out at 240 feet above the valley floor and roughly a half-mile long at 2,375 feet the structure is a striking sight (made all the more impressive by [b]Lackawanna R.R.[/b] located across the center arch).

The Lackawanna was also an extremely well managed company; beginning with president Samuel Sloan who led the company from 1867 to 1899 the railroad would never fall into receivership during its entire lifetime. Part of this success was due to the railroad having a diverse traffic base and tapped the once lucrative anthracite coal found in the region.

Aside from the devastation wrought by Agnes the Erie Lackawanna missed a chance to join the Chessie System when negotiations broke down with labor unions. Even prior to this the Erie Lackawanna was part of the N&W-controlled Dereco Corporation but because the N&W never actually owned the EL outright the railroad was still left to its own devices after falling into bankruptcy in 1972. After being unable to right itself from bankruptcy and a missed chance to join the Chessie System the railroad opted for inclusion in Conrail in 1976.

For more reading on the EL the two books below may be of interest to you. The Erie Lackawanna: The Death of an American Railroad gives you a very detailed look at the railroad from a business standpoint and how the EL became part of the Conrail system (a very fascinating book for you business gurus or those interested in not only the EL from a business operations standpoint but also business operations in general). For most railfans, however, Erie Lackawanna in Color Volume 6 may be of more interest as the book is filled with the colorful photography of William Brennan ranging from the railroad's commuter operations to its main line freights.

Conrail, which already was being formed to pick up the pieces of several other bankrupt lines in the region, most notably the disastrous Penn Central Corporation, was not kind to the EL system.

Sadly, after the EL folded into the Conrail system most of the Erie Railroad through Ohio and points west were outright abandoned in favor of PRR and NYC routes and today few traces of the railroad in these areas can be found. Today, this wide, double-track, main line would have been a perfect fit for the intermodal traffic that is now a major staple of Class I freight profits.