Lehigh Valley Railroad
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the geographic region in eastern Pennsylvania, see Lehigh Valley.
| Lehigh Valley Railroad | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Reporting marks | LV |
| Locale | New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania |
| Dates of operation | 1846 – 1976 |
| Successor line | Conrail |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Headquarters | Bethlehem, Pennsylvania |
The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company (AAR reporting marks LV) was a railroad built for the primary purpose of hauling anthracite coal.
It was incorporated April 21, 1846 in Pennsylvania. On January 7, 1853, the name was changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was sometimes known as the Route of the Black Diamond, named after the anthracite it transported. At the time, anthracite was transported by boat down the Lehigh River. The railroad was meant to be a faster means of transportation.
Contents |
[edit] History
1867: The LV subsidiary, the Pennsylvania & New York Railroad, reached Waverly, New York to interchange coal with the Broad Gauge Erie railroad. LV coal was then transferred to Erie trains at Waverly, and the coal continued to Buffalo, New York, via Lake Erie.
1870: The LV financed a third rail to be laid along the Broad Gauge Erie, so that LV coal trains could run all the way to Buffalo without being transferred to Erie cars at Waverly.
1870: the Southern Central reaches Waverly to interchange with the LV and Erie. This railroad would later become the LV's Auburn division, and was mainly used to transport coal to Lake Ontario ships at Fair Haven, New York.
1895: The LV completed its own mainline between Waverly and Buffalo, transfer to the Erie at Waverly was no longer needed.
1901: The huge erecting shops are completed at Sayre, Pennsylvania. Sayre becomes the heart of the LV.
1945: The first mainline diesels arrive, in the form of EMD FT locomotives.
1948: Alco PA passenger diesels replace steam on all passenger runs.
1951: September 14 - Last day of Steam on the LV, Mikado 432 drops her fire in Delano, Pennsylvania.
By the 1890s, the Lehigh Valley Railroad stretched from New York Harbor to Tifft Terminal in Buffalo, passing through the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania, and the Finger Lakes region of New York state.
In 1916, land owned by the Lehigh Valley Railroad in New York Harbor was the site of the Black Tom explosion.
Coal traffic, however, declined steadily after the 1940s and, by 1962, the Pennsylvania Railroad had acquired majority stock control of the railroad.
On June 24, 1970, the Lehigh Valley Railroad declared bankruptcy, just three days following the bankruptcy of the Pennsylvania Railroad's successor, Penn Central. Penn Central's bankruptcy relieved the PC from paying fees to various Northeastern railroads, the Lehigh Valley included, for the use of their railcars and other operations. The non-payment of these fees was fatal to the Lehigh Valley's finances.
The Lehigh Valley remained in operation during the 1970 bankruptcy, as was the common practice of the time. In 1972, the Lehigh Valley assumed the remaining Pennsylvania trackage of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, a competing anthracite railroad which had entered bankruptcy as well.
In 1976, the assets of the bankrupt Lehigh Valley Railroad were acquired by Conrail.
[edit] Passenger Operations
The LVRR operated several named trains in the post-World War II era. Among them:
- No. 4/11 The Star
- No. 7/8 The Maple Leaf
- No. 9/10 The Black Diamond
- No. 23/24 The Lehighton Express
- No. 25/26 The Asa Packer, named for the first LVRR secretary and treasurer
- No. 28/29 The John Wilkes
The primary passenger motive power for the LVRR in the diesel era was the ALCO PA-1 car body diesel-electric locomotive, of which the LVRR had fourteen.
Due to declining passenger patronage, the Lehigh Valley successfully petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to terminate all passenger service. This took effect on February 4, 1961. Budd Rail Diesel Car service would continue on a branch line for an additional four days.
[edit] References
- Lamb, Tammy. (1998). Lehigh Valley Railroad. Retrieved July 26, 2004.
- Mancuso, James. Lehigh Valley Railroad. Retrieved December 21, 2005.
- Schaller, Ed. Lehigh Valley Railroad Modeler. Retrieved December 22, 2005.
- Lawrence, Scot. Lehigh Valley Railroad Survivors. Retrieved September 8, 2006.
[edit] External Links
- Lehigh Valley Railroad Historical Society
- Luzerne County PAGenWeb (One Hundred Years of The Lehigh Valley)
- LVRR on the Internet
| Current (operating) Class I railroads of North America |
|---|
| United States: AMTK, BNSF, CSXT, GTW, KCS, NS, SOO, UP - Canada: CN, CP, VIA - Mexico: FXE, TFM, KCSM See also: List of USA/Canada/Mexico Class I Railroads, List of USA/Canadian Class II Railroads, Class III railroad, Class 2 Railroads in Canada, Short-line railroad, List of United States railroads, List of Canadian railroads, list of Mexican railroads |
