Lehigh Valley Railroad

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Course of the Lehigh Valley Railroad

The Lehigh Valley Railroad (LV) was an American railroad company in the northeastern United States. The company was based in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania) . The approximately 2000 km long route network was in the states of New Jersey , Pennsylvania and New York . The most important cargo was anthracite coal from the Appalachian Mountains .

Route network

The route network consisted roughly of a connection from Buffalo via Geneva , Ithaca , Sayre , Wilkes-Barre , Jim Thorpe (formerly Mauch Chunk), Allentown to Jersey City and Perth Amboy . There were also a few branch lines to Fair Haven on Lake Ontario, Camden (New York) and Pottsville, among others .

history

Map of the Lehigh Valley Railroad 1870
1884 map of the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania Railroad, and Reading Company routes
Lehigh Valley Railroad Company's $ 1000 Gold Bond dated November 22, 1922

In 1846, the "Delware, Lehigh, Schuylkill & Susquehanna Railroad" was founded in order not to have to rely solely on the removal of the anthracite coal from Mauch Chunk via a canal built in the 1820s. Construction began in 1851, but only after Asa Packer joined the company as financier and organizer, significant progress was made in the construction. In 1855, the Easton - Mauch Chunk line was opened, the railway company in the Lehigh River valley, known as the "Lehigh Valley Railroad" since January 7, 1853 . In the years that followed, the company began to develop rapidly. In addition to the construction of new routes, existing companies were also taken over. In 1867 the railway connection to Wilkes-Barre was completed. Two years earlier, Asa Packer had acquired the bed of an old canal (North Branch Canal), in which a railway line to Waverly was built until 1869 as "Pennsylvania & New York Canal & Railroad" (P&NY) . There was a connection to the route network of the New York and Erie Railroad . Since the Erie Railroad used a broad gauge of 6 feet (1828.8 mm), a third rail was built into the track between Waverly and Buffalo to avoid reloading the goods. In Buffalo, the LV built its own train station and put a shipping line into operation. From 1888 the P&NY was rented by LV, later the company was completely taken over.

After the subsequent railroad lines in Easton were acquired by the competing companies Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and Central Railroad of New Jersey , the company bought the Morris Canal through New Jersey to get its own access to Jersey City. In 1875 the line to Perth Amboy and 1899 to Jersey City was completed. In 1876 the Lehigh Valley acquired the "Geneva, Ithaca & Sayre Railroad" and from 1890 to 1892 built its own line from Geneva to Buffalo. This ended the operation on the tracks of the Erie Railroad.

In 1892/1893, the owner of the Philadelphia and Reading Archibald A. McLeod sought an alliance with the Lehigh Valley and other companies. However, when the financiers of Reading JP Morgan and Anthony Drexel gave up their support, Reading had to file for bankruptcy and the leasing of LV to Reading had to be resolved again. JP Morgan subsequently began to support the Lehigh Valley. With his measures to reinvest the profits instead of paying out dividends, he came into conflict with the rest of the shareholders. In 1902 he therefore had to give up control of the company again. In the following period, large shares were bought up by neighboring railroad companies (New York Central; Reading Company; Erie Railroad; Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad; Central Railroad of New Jersey). Shortly thereafter, the line briefly belonged to the railway system of William H. Moore .

There were several events that had an impact on society in the 1910s. So it came in 1916 to the Black Tom explosion and in 1917 to the legally prescribed sale of the shipping lines on the Great Lakes and the holdings in anthracite mines. In addition, the demand for anthracite decreased. Following the plans of the Interstate Commerce Commission to form larger railroad companies in the 1920s, the President of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Leonor F. Loree began buying larger blocks of shares. However, since he did not get a controlling majority, he later sold the shares back to the Pennsylvania Railroad , which now owned 31% of the company. However, she did not influence the business policy of the Lehigh Valley.

The route network was in good condition and the debt was low, so the railway company survived the Great Depression of the 1930s relatively well. However, tax claims and bond repayments resulted in $ 8 million in debt to the state. The emerging competition from the construction of highways also led to a decline in passenger and freight traffic in the Lehigh Valley. The company responded by closing down unprofitable branch lines.

In order to create new accents in passenger transport, at the end of the 1930s, locomotives and cars were given streamlined cladding according to plans by designer Otto Kuhler . The Second World War brought increased transport volumes again, but could not stop the long-term development. In 1956 the company was in the black for the last time. In 1959 all passenger traffic was stopped except for two trains. The remaining two followed in 1961. However, these measures did not improve the economic situation. The parent company, Pennsylvania Railroad, bought all of the remaining shares in order to preserve their previous investment. Other savings measures in addition to line closures were the dismantling of two main tracks and the merging of the line with the Central Railroad of New Jersey between Wilkes-Barre and Easton. In 1972 LV took over the operation of the CNJ routes in Pennsylvania.

As part of the merger to Penn Central it was planned that the Lehigh Valley should be acquired by the Norfolk and Western Railway and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway . However, they were not interested. After Penn Central had to file for bankruptcy in 1970, LV also went into bankruptcy proceedings on June 24, 1970. On April 1, 1976, most of the route network was taken over by Conrail .

Today much of the network taken over by the Conrail is operated by the Norfolk Southern Railway .

Presidents of the Lehigh Valley Railroad

  • James M. Porter (October 21, 1847 - January 1856)
  • William Longstreth (January - May 1856)
  • J. Gillingham Fell (May-August 1862)
  • Asa Packer (August 1862 - July 1864)
  • William Longstreth (July 25, 1864–1868)
  • Asa Packer (1868 - May 17, 1879)
  • Charles Hartshorne (1879-1882)
  • Harry E. Packer (1882 - January 1884)
  • Elisha Packer Wilbur (January 1884 - July 1897)
  • W. Alfred Walter (July 1897 - December 1902)
  • B. Thomas (December 1902–1917)
  • Edward E. Loomis (February 21, 1917 to May 5, 1937)
  • Duncan J. Kerr (May 1937 - April 1939)
  • RW Barrett (May - August 1939)
  • Albert N. Williams (August 1939 - July 1941)
  • Revelle Brown (July 9, 1941 - June 1944)
  • Felix R. Gerard (June 28, 1944 to April 25, 1947)
  • Cedric A. Major (April 1947 to April 28, 1960)
  • CW Baker (April 1960 - June 1960)
  • Colby M. Chester (June 1960 - May 1962)
  • Allen J. Greenough (May 23, 1962 - October 1965)
  • John F. Nash (October 28, 1965 - December 1974), trustee from August 12, 1970
  • Robert Halderman (August 12, 1970 - April 1, 1976) as Trustee

vehicles

Steam locomotives

Since the lines of the Lehigh Valley only had gradients of up to a maximum of 1.81 percent, the locomotives did not have to be designed to be as powerful as other companies.

The LV became known through the introduction of new types of locomotives. In 1866, the chief technician of the "Lehigh & Mahanoy Railroad", which was taken over in the same year, designed a 1'D freight locomotive and named it " Consolidation ". The standard name for locomotives with this type of construction was born. Later locomotives of the types 2'D and 1'E were added.

After the turn of the century, the railway company purchased locomotives with additional trailing axles. Since Camelback locomotives were still being procured at that time because of the anthracite firing , Lehigh Valley was the only company to have such locomotives with the axle sequences 1'C1 '( Prairie ), 1'D1' ( Mikado ) and 2'C1 '( Pacific ) in stock. From 1910 the camelback construction method was abandoned and locomotives were procured according to the intended use: 1'D1 'for heavy freight trains, 2'C1' for passenger and light freight trains, 2'C for secondary lines and D for shunting work.

On September 14, 1951, a Mikado of the N-4 series drove its last regular steam service.

Diesel locomotives

The first diesel locomotives were procured for shunting service in 1929. In 1937 further locomotives were procured. In 1945 the first EMD FT series locomotives were ordered.

In addition to locomotives from EMD of the series F3A / B, F7A / B, SW1 and SW8, diesel locomotives from ALCO from the series RS2 , C420 , FA / FB , PA and C628 as well as Baldwin-Lima (BLW) S-12 were also used .

literature

  • George H. Drury: The Historical Guide to North American Railroads . 2nd Edition. Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2000, ISBN 0-89024-356-5 .
  • George H. Drury: The Guide to North American Steam Locomotives . Kalmbach Publishing Co., Waukesha, WI 2004, ISBN 0-89024-206-2 .
  • HA McBride: Asa Packer's railroad . In: Trains . Kalmbach Publishing Co., December 1950, ISSN  0041-0934 , p. 18-25 .

Web links

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