Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad

Overview
Headquarters	Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Reporting mark	DLW
Locale	Pennsylvania New York New Jersey
Dates of operation	1851–1960
Successor	Erie Lackawanna Railroad
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Previous gauge	6 ft (1,829 mm)
Length	998 miles (1,606 kilometers)

The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, also known as the DL&W or Lackawanna Railroad, was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, and by ferry with New York City, a distance of 395 miles (636 km). The railroad was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853, and created primarily to provide a means of transport of anthracite coal from the Coal Region in Northeast Pennsylvania to large coal markets in New York City. The railroad gradually expanded both east and west, and eventually linked Buffalo with New York City.

Like most coal-focused railroads in Northeastern Pennsylvania, including Lehigh Valley Railroad, New York, Ontario and Western Railroad, and the Lehigh & New England Railroad, the DL&W was profitable during the first half of the 20th century, but its margins were gradually hurt by declining Pennsylvania coal traffic, especially following the 1959 Knox Mine Disaster and competition from trucks following the expansion of the Interstate Highway System in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1960, the DL&W merged with rival Erie Railroad to form the Erie Lackawanna Railroad that would be taken over by Conrail in 1976.