Erie Lackawanna Railway: Map, History, Logo
Last revised: September 19, 2026
By: Adam Burns
The Erie Lackawanna Railway was created in 1960, a marriage of the Erie Railroad and the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western meant to cut costs and streamline two overlapping Northeastern maps. It lasted only sixteen years. EL remains a greatly discussed subject anyway, admired by people who care about all aspects of railroading—the maroon diamond, the lash-ups, the high-and-wide Chicago main that Conrail did not need.
It was one of the earliest mega-mergers carried out to chase efficiency under stiff regulation and falling traffic. The new company enjoyed some savings. It was never a strong carrier. Problems sat both inside the house and outside it. After the 1968 Penn Central disaster, EL dealt with one blow after another, most notably Hurricane Agnes, which forced it into bankruptcy. It initially opted out of Conrail, then asked in. Large components of the network east of Ohio are still in use. West of Marion, Ohio, the Chicago main has gone back to farmers and property owners.
A handsome set of Erie Lackawanna covered wagons, led by F7A 6111, layover in Binghamton, New York, February 1966. An FB-1 is in the consist. American-Rails.com collection.
On this page: At a glance · Talks, 1954–60 · Logo · October 17, 1960 · William White · Dereco · Penn Central and Maybrook · Hurricane Agnes · Passenger trains · Chessie almost · Conrail · Postscript · What remains
At a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Railroad | Erie-Lackawanna Railroad from October 17, 1960; hyphen dropped 1963; Erie Lackawanna Railway from March 1, 1968. Mark EL. Slogan The Friendly Service Route |
| Headquarters | Cleveland, Ohio (Midland Building) |
| States | New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois |
| Dates | October 17, 1960–March 31, 1976. Into Conrail April 1, 1976 |
| ICC approval | September 13, 1960 |
| Route-miles | 3,031 at the start |
| Gauge | 4 ft 8½ in |
| Principal lines | Hoboken–Scranton–Binghamton (ex-DL&W); Jersey City/Hoboken–Port Jervis–Binghamton–Hornell–Marion–Chicago (ex-Erie); Binghamton–Buffalo; Binghamton–Utica / Syracuse–Oswego; Lackawanna Cutoff; Hornell–Youngstown–Cleveland |
| Predecessors | Erie · Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. D&H talked, then walked out April 13, 1959 |
| Successor | Conrail |
| Diesels | All-time roster |
Dates follow H. Roger Grant and the Interstate Commerce Commission file. Information compiled September 18, 2026.
Two roads, then a third that walked away
What became Erie Lackawanna can be traced to the 1950s, when two of the Northeast’s competing railroads looked at the map after the war boom and did not like what they saw. The historically successful Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, which had never dealt with bankruptcy after more than a century of service, lost nearly $1 million in 1955. The Erie tried industrial development along the property and launched trailer-on-flatcar service in July 1954. Informal talks between the two began that year.
The Erie was the fourth way to Chicago, competing with the New York Central, the Pennsylvania, and the Baltimore & Ohio via Binghamton, Salamanca, Marion, and Huntington. The routing was somewhat slower than its rivals. It was also a high-and-wide, double-tracked main with, arguably, the best-engineered line across Indiana. H. Roger Grant, in Erie Lackawanna: Death of an American Railroad, 1938–1992, quotes John W. Barriger III from the 1920s: “No other railroad into Chicago has as easy grades as the Erie route.” The Erie was also buried in debt—four bankruptcies, 1861, 1878, 1893, and 1938. The Lackawanna had the Scranton anthracite franchise, Hoboken, and a reputation for being better managed. The Erie had Chicago.
PA-1 856, still in Erie colors, at Port Jervis, New York, September 6, 1964. Robert Gayer photo.
They did not wait for a certificate to start acting like one railroad. On October 13, 1956, the Erie began using Lackawanna’s Hoboken Terminal for commuters and finished closing Pavonia Terminal in Jersey City on December 12, 1958. From 1957 they shared track between Binghamton and Gibson, New York, on the Erie main. Moves like that were nearly unheard of then, long before the modern merger movement.
On September 10, 1956, studies opened on a three-way merger of Erie, DL&W, and the Delaware & Hudson. The Bridge Line would have been a significant boon. For fiscal 1955 its net income was more than $9 million, greater than Erie and Lackawanna combined, on a fraction of the mileage. It would have opened northern New York and Montreal. On April 13, 1959, D&H dropped out. The other two forged ahead, in part because the recession was deepening. They had hired Wyer, Dick & Company to run the numbers. The consultant thought a union could generate $16.6 million in annual savings—if the new company spent capital on plant and power. Net income would rise from $2.8 million in year one to $24.1 million after five years. The D&H setback hurt in another way: the Bridge Line carried one outstanding bond. The Erie had seven. The once-vaunted Lackawanna had fifteen.
SW9 446 (ex-DL&W 551) and 443 (ex-DL&W 463) at the former Lackawanna shops and roundhouse in Scranton, Pennsylvania, early 1960s. American-Rails.com collection.
The logic still held. Erie supplied Chicago. East of Buffalo the two could merge shops, yards, and duplicate mains. Looking back, D&H might have helped save EL from later bankruptcy, or at least enabled a reorganization. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the union on September 13, 1960.
Truman Knight’s diamond
The Erie Lackawanna Railway logo. Author’s work.
The classic logo was a simple, creative design using both predecessors. Truman Knight, a former Erie fireman from Stow, Ohio, who worked the Kent Division, took the old Erie diamond, pulled “Erie” out of the center, and drew a stylized E whose top arms disconnect just enough to read as an L. He put it in Lackawanna maroon instead of Erie yellow and black. Management praised it. Employees liked it. It won a contest of close to 2,500 entries. Knight received twenty shares of common stock in the new EL. Historically, the diamond is one of the industry’s classic marks.
October 17, 1960
The Erie-Lackawanna Railroad began operations on October 17, 1960, with 3,031 miles. In 1963 the company dropped the hyphen and became the Erie Lackawanna Railroad. From the start it ran into trouble of its own making and trouble it did not cause.
The long-seated rivalry of the two predecessors showed when Lackawanna officers were largely ignored in favor of the Erie’s. The issue was not only favoritism. The DL&W had, historically, been the better-managed railroad. Erie Lackawanna could have used that expertise in the chair. Harry W. Von Willer, an Erie man, was given the first chairmanship as well as president and chief operating officer. His immediate second was Perry M. Shoemaker, Lackawanna’s last president. Shoemaker had even promoted putting an Erie man in first, hoping it would smooth people problems, and expecting Von Willer—near sixty-five, in declining health—not to stay long. Von Willer resigned in November 1960 for health. The Erie-dominated board did not give the job to Shoemaker. It tapped Milton G. McInnes, another career Erie official. Shoemaker became chairman of the board on August 31, 1961, still without day-to-day control. He later said so: “I was made chairman, but I certainly didn’t run the railroad.”
F3A 8411 leads a passenger special out of Hoboken Terminal, June 8, 1963. Photographer unknown. American-Rails.com collection.
The hoped-for savings and earnings vanished on contact. In 1961 the company lost more than $26.4 million, and $16.6 million the next year. Incoming officers did not work together. The merger had been rushed. As the Erie team dominated—similar to the Pennsylvania at Penn Central—Lackawanna managers left or found work elsewhere. By 1962 long-term debt stood at more than $322 million.
E8A 830 leads the Lackawanna Limited at Wharton, New Jersey, May 19, 1963. American-Rails.com collection.
The White revival
William “Bill” White was a highly respected executive who had started on the Erie and later headed the Virginian, the Lackawanna, and even the New York Central. He formally joined Erie Lackawanna on June 18, 1963, and set about streamlining the place: restructuring the debt; increasing borrowing power for capital (more than $59 million in loans for locomotives and cars); dropping aggressive but failed less-than-carload policies to concentrate on long-haul merchandise and TOFC; trying, unsuccessfully, to shed money-losing New York commuter operations; and bringing in more effective managers. Ironically, that last move put many former Lackawanna officers in place of Erie men. Grant later called it Lackawannization.
F7As await their next assignment at Deposit, New York, August 1969. By this date the F units had been relegated to helper service. Author’s collection.
White also looked for a merger partner. He believed that was the only true way EL would survive. Norfolk & Western eventually agreed to take the road—from a distance. To keep EL’s debt off N&W’s books, The Friendly Service Route went into a holding company, Dereco, Inc. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved the idea in December 1966. White died suddenly on April 6, 1967, in the Midland Building, two months past his seventieth birthday. Gregory Maxwell later recalled that he died in harness. The loss was a blow. White had turned the situation around and kept the company out of court. He could not kill the commuter trains. Long-distance varnish ended with the Phoebe Snow on November 27, 1966, and the Lake Cities on January 6, 1970. He accomplished a great deal in four years.
An interesting lash-up of Erie Lackawanna power on the former Erie at Binghamton, New York, February 1966. Author’s collection.
Railway, 1968
The Erie Lackawanna Railway was formed on March 1, 1968, under the N&W banner. John P. “Jack” Fishwick of the Norfolk & Western became chairman. Gregory W. Maxwell, an accomplished operating man, took the presidency. Dereco expanded on July 1, 1968, when it acquired the Delaware & Hudson as a second property. By the late 1960s EL had posted its first profits, from cost-cutting, downsizing, and marketing. Piggyback grew. A 1970 contract with United Parcel Service gave the railroad five new intermodal trains between New York and Chicago, traffic that lasted until Conrail. For years executives from Barriger in the 1920s to Fishwick himself recognized the Erie’s one vital asset: a high-and-wide Chicago main without clearance problems, stiff grades, or sharp curves.
System map (1969)
An official 1969 system map of the Erie Lackawanna Railway. Author’s collection.
SD45-2 3680 at Croxton Yard, Secaucus, New Jersey, circa 1975. American-Rails.com collection.
Penn Central cuts the eastern door
The colossal Penn Central merger, Pennsylvania and New York Central on February 1, 1968, began a quick succession of problems for EL just after it posted net income in 1968 and 1969. The conglomerate added the New Haven on January 1, 1969, and severely hurt The Friendly Service Route’s freight. The New Haven had long been an important interchange partner at Maybrook, New York, over the Poughkeepsie Bridge, tens of thousands of carloads a year. After the first year, 1969, those numbers dropped by more than a third. By 1970 they had been cut in half. Penn Central could haul the freight on its own rails. It had no reason to short-haul itself by giving cars to Erie Lackawanna. The decline cost EL more than $17 million a year. On May 8, 1974, the gateway closed for good when the bridge burned and Penn Central refused to repair it.
Erie Lackawanna FA-1 #7314 (built as Erie #731-D in February, 1948) lays over at the Normal and 51st Street engine terminal in Chicago during June, 1965. Also present is an F7B, F3A, and what appears to be an RS3. Roger Puta photo.
A pair of F7As layover at Penn Central’s Maybrook, New York, terminal, August 1972. Henry Butz photo.
1970 also brought Penn Central’s stunning bankruptcy and chaos across the Northeastern industry. Roads that had not already gone into court began lining up.
C425 2452, a GP9, and an SD45 with a long freight at Croxton Yard, Secaucus, New Jersey, August 1968. Photographer unknown. American-Rails.com collection.
F3A 6561 leads an eastbound freight through the PRR interlocking at Kouts, Indiana, November 1966. No rails remain in this small community today. Rick Burn photo.
Erie Lackawanna SD45 #3627, a rare SDP45 (#3654), and what appears to be an RS3 lead a westbound/northbound over the B&OCT at State Line Tower nearing Chicago in January, 1972. Roger Puta photo.
Erie Lackawanna E8A #810 leads a westbound freight over the Penn Central and past the North Judson Tower at North Judson, Indiana in the summer of 1975. Karl Miller photo.
June 26, 1972
EL avoided a similar fate until Hurricane Agnes tore through the region in June 1972: more than $11 million in damage and lost revenue. The railroad filed for reorganization on June 26, 1972. Not long after, N&W sold off its interest, on the order of $56 million. EL was independent again, in the court’s realm. Fishwick had gone back to the Norfolk & Western in 1970 and handed the railroad to Maxwell, who became the last president and chief executive. He guided it as best he could.
On January 2, 1974, Congress and President Nixon enacted the Regional Rail Reorganization Act—the 3R Act—to fund what became the quasi-public Consolidated Rail Corporation. EL had a choice: join or go it alone. It chose the latter in 1974. That spring the bankruptcy judge allowed a reorganization. For a moment it looked as if Erie Lackawanna would be Conrail’s competition to Chicago. After nearly a year of number-crunching, the trustees saw little hope of making it alone. In January 1975 they asked for inclusion in Conrail.
E8A 817 (ex-DL&W) on suburban train 1605, Hoboken–Spring Valley, arriving Hillsdale, New Jersey, August 1971. Henry Butz photo.
Day trains, then commuters
Through trains off the two predecessors did not last the decade. The Phoebe Snow, Lackawanna’s stainless day train Hoboken–Buffalo, died November 27, 1966. The Lake Cities, Hoboken–Chicago, made its last run January 6, 1970. What remained was New Jersey and New York suburban service out of Hoboken—Morris & Essex electrics, the Main Line, Boonton, Pascack, Port Jervis—money-losing, politically untouchable, and the work White could not finish. Those trains, not the freight mains, are why so much of the eastern map still has rails. NJ Transit and Metro-North inherited them. The named trains have their own pages. This page does not dump them.
Three Systems East, then two, then none
As planners carved the Northeast they wanted two competing systems, not one monopoly. Proposals put Erie Lackawanna against Conrail alone, or had N&W take EL while Chessie System took much of the Reading and Jersey Central to reach New York. Rush Loving, Jr., in The Men Who Loved Trains, calls the latter the “Three Systems East” plan, the brainchild of Jim McClellan and Gerald Davies: the two profitable Mid-Atlantic systems would acquire the bankrupts and give the port three railroads. Low-interest loans and even a free $500 million did not interest N&W, which thought the sum too small. Hays Watkins’s Chessie was more receptive. With N&W backpedaling, Chessie was offered the Erie Lackawanna in July 1975—the “Two Systems East” plan.
RS2 900 (ex-Erie 900) at the Normal & 51st Yard, Chicago, 1960s. American-Rails.com collection.
In October 1975 Chessie formally agreed to acquire all of Erie Lackawanna east of Sterling, Ohio, for $155 million. West of that point it would use the Baltimore & Ohio to Chicago; the rest of EL across western Ohio and Indiana would be sold or abandoned. The last hurdle was labor. EL contracts were lucrative. Unions would not take what was, in effect, a Chessie pay cut. Talks broke down. A deal was never closed. Time was running out. Congress had mandated Conrail in the first half of 1976.
RS3s 1042 and 1044 (ex-DL&W 904 and 906) at Clearing Yard, Chicago, September 1963. Rick Burn photo.
April 1, 1976
With no takers, EL went into Big Blue on April 1, 1976. What many had feared happened. The old Erie Lackawanna lines played only a small role. Conrail had no need for three mains to Chicago and mothballed EL west of Marion, Ohio, in September 1977. The Erie Western Railway was formed soon after to run the ex-EL from Wren, Ohio, into Chicago. The western Erie had never generated much on-line traffic; it lived on agriculture and overhead. Erie Western entered bankruptcy in June 1979. A startup named Chicago & Indiana took over and failed so quickly that operations ceased before year’s end.
RS3 1051 with a covered hopper and caboose, heading east on the westbound main, crossing the Baltimore & Ohio at Sterling, Ohio, December 27, 1975. The EL Chicago main and the tower are gone. The B&O remains busy under CSX. Gary Morris photo.
Postscript
Perhaps a private report prepared by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe during May of 1975 best illustrates Erie Lackawanna’s potential. The Santa Fe had been a longtime interchange partner with EL at Chicago and noted that “an extensive six-year rehabilitation plan would generate a net, after-tax income of $28 million annually” (in 2021 dollars, about $144 million).
This was the Erie Lackawanna, a high-and-wide pike ideal for intermodal service. It still witnessed nearly 25 trains a day before Conrail; after the start it fell largely silent, as seen here near Sterling, Ohio, December 1976. Gary Morris photo.
Santa Fe’s report went on: “The E-L is the only Eastern railroad which has the right-of-way suitable for high-speed, long-haul service without superfluous, congested and expensive urban terminals every hundred miles.” And: “The absence of clearance restrictions, an extensive double track main line, and interdivisional crew districts are indicative of the physical resources which are presently being utilized at a level far below capacity.”
In other words, the EL offered great potential and would certainly have blossomed during the intermodal revolution of the 1980s. A company other than Conrail—Chessie, N&W, Santa Fe itself—would very likely have kept that Chicago main as a corridor. The political environment of the time (which saw railroads as an archaic mode) and strict regulation, coupled with EL’s heavy debt, made an almost impossible situation. The government had the means to save the road by creating a second Conrail. Believing the Northeast already held far too much excess trackage (a notion quite true in many respects), it was not willing to do so. Conrail kept the Southern Tier and the New Jersey suburban plant. It did not keep Marion–Chicago. That is the part you cannot put back.
What remains
East of Ohio, much of the map still works. Norfolk Southern’s Southern Tier uses the former Erie Binghamton–Hornell and on toward Buffalo. NS also holds the old Lackawanna Binghamton–Scranton. The Central New York Railroad, operated with the New York, Susquehanna & Western, runs Binghamton–Port Jervis on NS’s former Erie, including Starrucca. Western New York & Pennsylvania took the Chicago main west from Hornell as far as it still exists in New York and western Pennsylvania. The Delaware-Lackawanna short line handles Scranton-area freight on ex-DL&W. NJ Transit’s Hoboken Division is the old EL suburban plant: Morris & Essex, Main Line, Bergen County, Montclair-Boonton, Pascack Valley, Gladstone, with Metro-North on Port Jervis. The Lackawanna Cutoff restoration is a passenger project, not a freight main. West of Marion the high-and-wide is gone. Sterling, Kouts, and the Indiana double track are local memory and farm ground. That is the corridor Santa Fe described in 1975, and the one Conrail did not keep.
Photo gallery
E8A 818 having its wheels trued at the Hornell, New York, shops, August 5, 1972. Doug Kroll photo.
SD45s led by 3628 in pool service on the joint Delaware & Hudson / Boston & Maine line at Ushers, New York, August 27, 1969. Carl Sturner photo.
C425 2452 leads a long freight into Hammond, Indiana, September 17, 1967. Roger Puta photo.
F3A 8454 and other power at the Normal and 51st Street Yard, Chicago, April 21, 1965. Rick Burn photo.
RS3 1006 at the railroad’s small engine terminal in Hammond, Indiana, summer 1961. Rick Burn photo.
PA-1 860 readies to depart Hoboken Terminal with The Twilight (Hoboken–Buffalo), September 3, 1965. Roger Puta photo.
U25Bs led by 2509, westbound near Akron, Ohio, February 28, 1965. Photographer unknown. American-Rails.com collection.
SD45 3622 at Sloan, New York, February 18, 1974. Photographer unknown. American-Rails.com collection.
Slug B66, rebuilt at Hornell from DRS-4-4-1500 1105, at Secaucus, New Jersey, circa 1969. Photographer unknown. American-Rails.com collection.
GP35 2569 appears tied down with its train west of Kent Yard, Kent, Ohio, May 1975. Jerry Custer photo.
Related reading on American-Rails.com
- EL diesel roster · Erie Railroad · Delaware, Lackawanna & Western
- Phoebe Snow · Lake Cities · Hoboken Terminal
- Delaware & Hudson · Conrail · Penn Central · Chessie System
- New Haven · Poughkeepsie Bridge · Norfolk & Western
- NJ Transit · Norfolk Southern · New York, Susquehanna & Western · Delaware-Lackawanna
Sources
- Grant, H. Roger. Erie Lackawanna: Death of an American Railroad, 1938–1992. Stanford University Press, 1994. Merger, Von Willer, Shoemaker, McInnes, White (April 6, 1967), Dereco, Agnes, Conrail
- Loving, Rush, Jr. The Men Who Loved Trains. Indiana University Press, 2006. Three Systems East / Two Systems East; Chessie–EL labor
- Schafer, Mike. Classic American Railroads. MBI, 1996
- Solomon, Brian, and Mike Schafer. New York Central Railroad and related Northeastern titles, Andover Junction / MBI
- Interstate Commerce Commission, Erie-Lackawanna merger approval, September 13, 1960; Regional Rail Reorganization Act, January 2, 1974
- Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe, private EL rehabilitation report, May 1975, as quoted in Grant and in the live American-Rails narrative
- American-Rails.com, Conrail (EL inclusion January 1975; operations April 1, 1976) and Poughkeepsie Bridge (fire May 8, 1974)
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Georgia Marks the Opening of the Gainesville Inland Port
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Norfolk Southern and Georgia Ports marked the Gainesville Inland Port on October 29, 2026. The terminal opened May 4 and can handle 200,000 containers a year at full build-out. -
BLET Members Ratify Five-Year Deal on the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern
Nov 01, 26 11:48 AM
Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen members have ratified a five-year agreement with CPKC covering Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern lines. Engineers' hourly pay rises 41.42 percent over the… -
Canada Lists Roberts Bank Terminal 2 as a Project of National Interest
Nov 01, 26 11:03 AM
On October 30, 2026, Canada listed the Roberts Bank Terminal 2 container project at the Port of Vancouver as a project of national interest. The listing includes a widened causeway for rail. -
Amtrak Finishes the First Street Tunnel Work South of Union Station
Nov 01, 26 09:59 AM
Amtrak on October 26, 2026 finished nine days of work at A Interlocking in the First Street Tunnel south of Washington Union Station. Trains south of the station are back. -
CPKC Asks the STB to End the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern Review
Nov 01, 26 12:23 AM
CPKC on October 30, 2026 asked the Surface Transportation Board to end its review of the Union Pacific-Norfolk Southern merger, citing remarks by the Union Pacific chief executive. -
U.S. Rail Traffic Rose 7.8 Percent in the Week Ending October 24
Nov 01, 26 12:13 AM
U.S. railroads moved 538,503 carloads and intermodal units in the week ending October 24, 2026, up 7.8 percent from a year earlier, the Association of American Railroads said. -
Schneider Will Shift Its Eastern Intermodal Freight to NS
Nov 01, 26 12:06 AM
Schneider said October 29, 2026 that Norfolk Southern will be its primary eastern railroad. The move from CSX begins next month, with official implementation on January 1. -
Union Pacific Dispatchers Will Vote on ATDA Representation
Nov 01, 26 12:00 AM
The National Mediation Board has authorized a representation election for Union Pacific train dispatchers. The American Train Dispatchers Association announced the decision on October 29, 2026. -
Wabash Diesel Roster (All-Time)
Oct 31, 26 12:35 AM
Wabash diesel locomotives, each frame once, through the lease at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964. -
Wabash Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)
Oct 31, 26 12:30 AM
Wabash steam locomotives built since 1900. Moguls, Mikados, Mountains, and the O-1 Northerns. -
Wabash Railroad: Map, Rosters, History, Logo
Oct 31, 26 12:28 AM
History of the Wabash Railroad, from the Northern Cross of 1838 to the Norfolk & Western lease at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964. Follow the Flag. Steam and diesel rosters are separate pages. -
Court Clears $257.7 Million in Notes for Brightline Florida
Oct 31, 26 12:18 AM
A New Jersey bankruptcy court on October 29, 2026 authorized $257.7 million in notes for Brightline Trains Florida. The operating company is not one of the 17 debtor holding companies. -
Brightline West Still Waiting on a $6 Billion Federal Loan
Oct 31, 26 12:11 AM
Brightline West said October 27, 2026 that it is still working through a $6 billion federal loan and still talks about opening in 2029. The Florida restructuring is a separate company. -
BNSF Reopens the Gallup Subdivision After New Mexico Flooding
Oct 31, 26 12:06 AM
BNSF said October 28, 2026 that both Gallup Subdivision main tracks are back after flooding near Laguna, New Mexico. The El Paso Subdivision was still out of service.
