New York, Ontario and Western Railway

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New York, Ontario and Western Railway

Reporting marks	OW
Locale	North Jersey, Upstate New York and Northeastern Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1884–1957
Track gauge	4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters	Middletown, New York

The New York, Ontario and Western Railway, more commonly known as the O&W or NYO&W, was a regional railroad with origins in 1868, lasting until March 29, 1957 when it was ordered liquidated by a US bankruptcy judge.

The railroad began life as the New York and Oswego Midland Railroad, organized by Dewitt C. Littlejohn in 1868.

The railroad's mainline ran from Weehawken, New Jersey in the greater New York City area to Oswego, New York, a port city on Lake Ontario. It had branch lines to Scranton, Pennsylvania, Kingston, New York, Port Jervis, New York, Utica, New York and Rome, New York. The part south of Cornwall, New York was operated over the New York Central Railroad's West Shore Railroad via trackage rights.

[edit] History

In 1880 O&W inherited the Oswego - New York corridor as well as the branches to Ellenville, Delhi and New Berlin, NY from the New York & Oswego Midland, which had constructed the lines. O&W improved the line by providing a new entrance to Gotham from Middletown, NY which ran to Cornwall on the Hudson river and then to Weehawken, NJ. This development was made possible by negotiating rights of way from the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railway, later New York Central.

In 1886 the O&W acquired the operations of both the Utica, Clinton & Binghamton and the Rome & Clinton railroads from the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company. By acquisition of these assets and construction of a new line to Sylvan Beach on the east shore of Oneida, O&W extended its operations into new market areas, and the Sylvan Beach Loop became a seasonally-significant corridor by providing transportation to central New York's recreational resort area. By 1889, the O&W added two new branches, New Berlin to Edmeston, and Port Jervis to Monticello, connecting to the main line at Summitville, NY.

The most significant addition came in 1890, when the O&W constructed a 54- mile branch from Cadosia, NY to Scranton, PA through the rich anthracite coal reserves in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna Valley. Revenues from this Scranton division strengthened O&W's revenues and provided the means for future improvements to the railroad.

During the ill-fated "Morganization" of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, the New Haven acquired control of the O&W and installed New Haven president Charles Sanger Mellen as president for a year. Regulatory difficulties frustrated Mellen's plans to barter the O&W to the New York Central for concessions elsewhere.

Improved highways put an end to the O&W's pioneering passenger access to the lower Catskill Mountains and lightly-populated portions of upstate New York, and it operated as a virtual 19th-century "time warp" (then known to locals as the "Old & Weary" or "Old Woman") until final liquidation in 1957. The end of coal as a heating fuel for other than major power plants removed its primary freight business, as did the end of rail transport of high-priority dairy products from upstate New York to the Metro New York City area. By virtue of its superb online scenery and anachronistic operations, the O&W retains "cult status" among railroad and history buffs more than 50 years after its abandonment, with periodic bus tours of remaining railroad artifacts.