The Story of the Utica and Richfield Springs branches of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad has largely been untold, shrouded in mystery, covered wit the dust of time and hidden away in the lost memories of generations of railroaders and those whose lives were impacted by it. The vision and goals of the founders were far different from the ones of those who conceived the neighboring New York & Oswego Midland or formed the mighty New York Central, a trunk line built to handle the commerce of a growing nation. Coal black diamonds, the energy source that would transform a nation, and in their vision so too, the city of Utica and the lower Sauquiot Valley, was the gritter vision of those incorporating the Utica, Chenango & Susquehanna Valley Railroad, and also their eventual parent the DL&W.
At last we have a historical look back at an almost forgotten line. This book is a historical reminiscence from the railroaders' perspective, an on-the-ground, in-the-cinders look from the track laborers to the offices of the top executives. The photos are largely those taken by railroaders themselves, those who worked on the line and others with railroad occupations that paid visits. The book records the life and times of those who were there, through their eyes. It is the intent of this book to go back in time and view the history of the line through the memories of those were there and link it all together - from the driving of spikes to activity and doings in the division and corporate offices. Memories that have now become part of the fabric of the past of this quaint ribbon of rail linking not only communities and geography, but people, time and imagination.
