Nostalgia & History > NYS&W in 3-D and a trackage rights what if

The 3-D map shown here was used by Walter Kidde, trustee of the bankrupt New York Susquehanna & Western in 1946 to show two important changes made under his trusteeship. First, in the bottom center of the map is Susquehanna Transfer. This station was opened with a dedicated bus connection to Times Square in New York City. This, along with the re-establishment of passenger service on the mile long Paterson City Branch allowed for the "Susquehanna Speedliner" service, cutting 45 minutes off the travel time to Midtown and making the NYS&W passenger service profitable. This service was covered by one and two car ACF Motor-railers and later, Budd RDCs.

The second change ended up being merely a what-if. The NYS&W was built as an anthracite coal hauling railroad, with its Wilkes Barre & Eastern and Susquehanna Connecting lines reaching the coal in the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys of northeastern PA. With the NYS&W's bankruptcy it disavowed the lease of the WB&E, leading to its abandonment in 1939. All NYS&W track west of its interchange with the Lehigh & New England was abandoned in 1941. This left the Susquehanna Connecting Railroad and a number of isolated NYS&W branches still serving a number of coal mines and breakers. The solution was to obtain trackage rights over the tiny Middletown & Unionville from the NJ/NY state line to Middletown, NY (a line once leased by the NYS&W) and then over the New York Ontario & Western to reach the coal fields. Alas, the anthracite coal market was collapsing faster than anyone could image and except for one trail run hinted at, it appears no NYS&W trains ever used these trackage rights. The trackage in PA was leased to the Erie, then EL and finally Conrail to operate. Some of it lasted into the 1980's! The trackage rights remained in effect until the NYO&W quit in 1957. There had even been some talks about merging the NYS&W and NYO&W together around this time frame. Luckily for the NYS&W that did not happen. Amazingly enough the NYS&W would once again reach its namesake Susquehanna River (and beyond) with expansion in the 1980's and today reaches as far as Syracuse, NY. Not bad as the last survivor among the Anthracite Roads.

Tim

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That's a great map, thanks for posting it.

RRTom Wrote:
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> That's a great map, thanks for posting it.

I second that. The NYS&W is a road that always intrigued me. Still does.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/14 09:30 by NYC_L4a.

Interesting old school marketing twist, that map makes the roundabout NYSW-NYOW to Scranton route look equal to if not better that the DLW route. Since its a what if and not that the Squeak was ever in financial position to do so, but what if the NYSW had acquired the LNE in '61. Maintain the west connection with the Reading at Catty, tap the anthracite fields and the still profitable cement business. If nothing its a good modeling idea and expand from there. Thanks for posting as a NYSW fan I never knew about the NYOW trackage rights.

As a Geology Instructor once commented on a map I prepared, "this resembles a 12th Century map of the world in its grasp of reality". But fun to see, nonetheless.

Tom Y

pal77 Wrote:
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>but what if
> the NYSW had acquired the LNE in '61. Maintain
> the west connection with the Reading at Catty, tap
> the anthracite fields and the still profitable
> cement business.

The NYS&W did look at buying the L&NE from Hainesburg Jct, west to ??? (I have never determined where they were going to connect). Apparently they could not arrange the financing, plus the CNJ's purchase was more attractive than whatever the NYS&W was able to do.

Tim