Conrail’s coming consolidated D&H’s friendly connections into a huge competitor. Chessie’s last minute
refusal to enter the Northeast as Conrail’s competitor left USRA with no choice but to greatly expand D&H to
fill the void, mostly with ex-LV/RDG motive power and trackage rights over its rival.
D&H’s Penn Division freights still battled their way up both sides of Mount Ararat on a main line built well
over a century earlier. And then, the former DL&W main between Minooka Jct. and East Binghamton, actually
BD interlocking in Binghamton, became available as Conrail preferred other routes. “Superbly engineered” is a
term often applied to the Nicholson Cut-Off which opened in 1915 as a major segment of this former DL&W
main. The Cut-Off featured monstrous concrete viaducts and a rather level line once the steep grade from
Scranton to Clarks Summit was conquered, often with pushers. Of course, D&H trains bound to New England
and Canada would often need pushers out of Binghamton up to Belden Hill Tunnel.
So, the D&H acquired the former DL&W main and gradually transferred Penn Division operations to the
route between Taylor and East Binghamton yards, both of which, in addition to the main, required investment to
bring them up to operating condition. This is when our story begins.
It was probably assumed by most people, that D&H was now set for many years to come, operating over its
new Penn Division while coping with the usual stream of important but not “life-threatening” changes to come.
Such would not prove to be the case. Yes, symbol freights would come and go. The “Steel Train”, instigated by
Bethlehem Steel, ended after a few years with the closing of its Lackawanna works. The high priority Lehigh
Valley Oak Island trains, the Apollo’s and Mercury’s, would not last long. Emphasis shifted from north/south
traffic to east/west as East Binghamton Yard became the focus of traffic to and from Buffalo via the former
Erie/EL route and on to New England.
Moreover D&H itself was threatened by its inability to compete with Conrail and the continued decline of
the Northeast’s industrial base. Complicating matters, a new entity had entered the scene as a wealthy
Pittsburgh investor sought to assemble a system of New England railroads and apparently had visions of
building a Conrail-sized system. Tim Mellon’s Guilford Transportation Industries bought Maine Central. Then
it bought Boston & Maine. Finally it bought D&H, just four years after operations commenced over the former
DL&W main.
GTI transferred D&H’s GP39-2 fleet to B&M but at least they still operated over the D&H. The U23B’s
were transferred to the MEC and went up to Maine. A few MEC U25B’s and GP38’s operated over the Penn
Division. D&H’s C424m’s were transferred to GTI’s Springfield Terminal subsidiary. GTI gradually embraced
an all-EMD motive power policy and within a few years all Alco’s and GE’s were off the roster but the GE fleet
on MEC and the C424m’s.
But GTI was no savior. Traffic on the new Penn Division main line declined. GTI sought expansion to St.
Louis and Chicago via a deal with NS depending on its purchase of CR. It was rumored to be bidding for
Southern Pacific. Its battle with the entrenched unions on MEC/B&M to reduce labor costs by transferring
operations to its Springfield Terminal subsidiary, offering a much lower pay scale, led to a strike. A fatal
accident led to another strike and mass intervention by FRA. Federal arbitrators ruled in favor of labor before
GTI could transfer much of D&H to Springfield Terminal.
Immediately, GTI cast off the D&H into bankruptcy on June 20, 1988 and ceased its operation. New York
State, with a major investment in the D&H, appealed to the ICC for the designation of an operator and in three
days, NYS&W began what turned out to be a three year period of operations which brought the D&H back from
the brink and made it an attractive purchase for Canadian Pacific.
Our story ends with the NYS&W assuming D&H’s operations. This book only covers about eight years on
D&H’s new Penn Division line between Taylor and East Binghamton yards but it was a tumultuous period in
the long history of the D&H and marked the end of the D&H as an independent entity.
