 | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Scranton, Pennsylvania |
| Reporting mark | LWV |
| Locale | Northeastern Pennsylvania |
| Dates of operation | 1903–1976 |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad, more commonly known as the Laurel Line, was a Pennsylvania third rail electric interurban streetcar line which operated commuter train service from 1903 to 1952, and freight service until 1976. Its main line ran from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre.
The line was originally owned and built by Westinghouse, Church, Kerr & Company, a subsidiary of The Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. The Westinghouse group also owned the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven & Muskegon Railway, which was under construction in the same time period. Westinghouse interests controlled the railroad until 1914.
Electrification was decommissioned in 1953, as diesel operations began. It was purchased by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad in 1957, but operated as an independent subsidiary under it and the Erie Lackawanna until its inclusion in Conrail in 1976.
Sections of the line operate today for both freight and tourists under local county ownership, with talk of future commuter expansion.
The railroad's main line ran from Scranton to Wilkes-Barre. Other cities served included Dunmore and Pittston.
At its peak, the line carried as many as 4.2 million passengers a year, but following World War II use declined dramatically. In 1964, the Central Scranton Expressway was built over a portion of L&WV right-of-way along Roaring Brook in Scranton. [1] Interstate 81 construction paralleled the north-south route in the 1960s and today the four-lane highway is overtaxed with heavy trucks and cars, local traffic between Wilkes-Barre and Scranton and a deteriorating structure, leaving county planners wishing the L&WV system was retained in its entirety. [2]
Original sections of the line out of Scranton to Montage Mountain, Moosic, have been purchased by Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, and placed back in service with overhead electrified wiring and designated-operator Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad overseeing both freight operations and the county's tourist trolley runs, the Electric City Trolley Museum.
The Laurel Line Tunnel (also known as the Crown Avenue Tunnel) in South Scranton, constructed in 1904, remains one of the longest interurban streetcar tunnels ever built, at 4,750-feet. It was recently rehabilitated at a cost of over $3 million.
The cost to restore much of the original line today would be less than expanding Interstate 81, according to Larry Malski, president of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority. "I think it's very feasible." [2]
| County | Station | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lackawanna | Scranton | Station | Connections to the Lackawanna Railroad and the Dunmore Branch |
| South Scranton | Shelter | ||
| Connell Junction | Flag | ||
| Virginia | Flag | Connections to the Minooka Branch. | |
| Rocky Glen Park | Shelter | ||
| Moosic | Shelter | ||
| Luzerne | Avoca | Station | |
| South Avoca | Shelter | ||
| Heidelberg | Flag | ||
| Dupont | Shelter | ||
| North Pittston | Shelter | ||
| Pittston | Station | Connections to the Erie Railroad | |
| South Pittston | Shelter | ||
| Ewen | Shelter | ||
| Inkerman | Shelter | ||
| Number 14 | Shelter | ||
| Hillsdale | Shelter | ||
| North Plains | Shelter | ||
| Plains | Station | ||
| Midvale | Shelter | ||
| River Street | Shelter | ||
| Wilkes-Barre | Station | Connections to the Lehigh Valley Railroad |
| County | Station | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lackawanna | Maple Street | Shelter | |
| Waldorf | Shelter | ||
| Nay Aug | Shelter | ||
| Myrtle Street | Shelter | ||
| Petersburg | Shelter |
For 2006, a new, 2,000-foot extension connects the county's trolley line from the Steamtown National Historic Site, Scranton, to a new station and trolley restoration facility, immediately adjacent to the PNC Field stadium off Montage Mountain Road, Moosic and home of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
The new tracks and trolley barn are part of a $2 million project financed by capital funds from the county and the state. The barn has space for up to nine trolleys, allowing the county museum to spend more time working to bring defunct cars back to running order. It has a gallery where visitors can observe the process.
Moosic is a borough in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, 6 miles (10 km) south of downtown Scranton and 13 miles (21 km) northeast of downtown Wilkes-Barre, on the Lackawanna River.
Scranton is the sixth-largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is the county seat and largest city of Lackawanna County in Northeastern Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley and hosts a federal court building for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. With an estimated population in 2019 of 76,653, it is the largest city in northeastern Pennsylvania and the Scranton–Wilkes-Barre–Hazleton, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a population of about 570,000. The city is conventionally divided into nine districts: North Scranton, Southside, Westside, the Hill Section, Central City, Minooka, East Mountain, Providence, and Green Ridge, though these areas do not have legal status.
The Interurban is a type of electric railway, with streetcar-like electric self-propelled rail cars which run within and between cities or towns. They were very prevalent in North America between 1900 and 1925 and were used primarily for passenger travel between cities and their surrounding suburban and rural communities. The concept spread to countries such as Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland. Interurban as a term encompassed the companies, their infrastructure, their cars that ran on the rails, and their service. In the United States, the early 1900s interurban was a valuable economic institution. Most roads between towns and many town streets were unpaved. Transportation and haulage was by horse-drawn carriages and carts. The interurban provided reliable transportation, particularly in winter weather, between the town and countryside. In 1915, 15,500 miles (24,900 km) of interurban railways were operating in the United States and, for a few years, interurban railways, including the numerous manufacturers of cars and equipment, were the fifth-largest industry in the country. By 1930, most interurbans in North America were gone with a few surviving into the 1950s.
The Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad was a U.S. Class 1 railroad that connected Buffalo, New York, and Hoboken, New Jersey, a distance of about 400 miles (640 km). Incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1853 primarily for the purpose of providing a connection between the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania's Coal Region and the large markets for coal in New York City, the railroad gradually expanded both East and West, eventually linking Buffalo with New York City. Like most coal-focused railroads in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the DL&W was profitable during the first half of the twentieth 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.
The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania, once famous for fueling the industrial revolution in the United States with its many anthracite coal mines. As a metropolitan area, it is known as the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area, after its principal cities, Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, and is the 101st-largest metropolitan area in the United States and the 4th largest in Pennsylvania. It makes up its own unique physiographic province, the Anthracite Valley, in the geology of Pennsylvania. Greater Pittston makes up the center of the valley. Scranton is the most populated city in the metropolitan area with a population of 77,114. The city of Scranton has grown in population after the 2015 mid term census while Wilkes-Barre has declined in population. Wilkes-Barre is still the second most populated city in the metropolitan area while Hazleton is the third most populated city in the metropolitan area.
The Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad is a shortline railroad operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the Scranton area.
Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a geographic region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Carbondale. A portion of this region constitutes a part of the New York City metropolitan area.
Railroad electrification in the United States began at the turn of the 20th century and comprised many different systems in many different geographical areas, few of which were connected. Despite this situation, these systems shared a small number of common reasons for electrification.
The Central Scranton Expressway is a short freeway southeast of downtown Scranton in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It runs east-southeast from U.S. Route 11 (US 11) and Pennsylvania Route 307 (PA 307) near downtown to Interstate 81 (I-81).
The Electric City Trolley Museum is a transport museum located in downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, next to the Steamtown National Historic Site. The museum displays and operates restored trolleys and interurbans on former lines of the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad, which are now owned by the government of Lackawanna County and operated by the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad.
The Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Railroad Authority (PNRRA) is a bi-county creation of both Lackawanna and Monroe counties to oversee the use of common rail freight lines in Northeastern Pennsylvania. The designated freight operator of the Pennsylvania Northeast Regional Rail Authority lines is the Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad and tourism operator is Steamtown National Historic Site.
The Shoppes at Montage is a shopping center in Moosic, Pennsylvania. It opened on March 29, 2007. It is the first lifestyle shopping center in the area. Unlike other local shopping centers, it focuses on mid to high-end retailers and seeks to attract patrons from an area much larger than the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area.
The Sunbury Line is a rail line that is owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railway which in turn is owned by the Norfolk Southern Corporation. The line travels from Sunbury, Pennsylvania, to Binghamton, New York, connecting with Norfolk Southern's Southern Tier Line at Binghamton and Norfolk Southern's Buffalo Line at Sunbury.
The Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and Muskegon Railway was an electric interurban railway that operated in west Michigan from 1902 until 1928.
Harrison Avenue Bridge was a concrete deck arch bridge carrying Harrison Avenue in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. Its three spans included an open-spandrel ribbed arch over Roaring Brook, flanked by two closed-spandrel arches. The southwestern closed-spandrel arch spanned the former Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Railroad, converted to highway use in 1964 as the Central Scranton Expressway. The northeastern closed-spandrel arch spans the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, now a heritage railroad operated by Steamtown National Historic Site.
The Scranton Railway Company built and operated electric trolleys in and around Scranton, Pennsylvania, from 1896 until 1954.
Baldwin, the locomotive manufacturer, and Westinghouse, the promoter of AC electrification, joined forces in 1895 to develop AC railway electrification. Soon after the turn of the century, they marketed a single-phase high-voltage system to railroads. From 1904 to 1905 they supplied locomotives carrying a joint builder's plate to a number of American railroads, particularly for the New Haven line from New York to New Haven, and other New Haven lines.
The Scranton, Montrose and Binghamton Railroad Company was an interurban railway, commonly referred to as the Northern Electric railway, which ran between downtown Scranton, Pennsylvania, and its suburbs to the northwest, including Clarks Summit, Dalton, Factoryville and Montrose.
Gravel Place is a location within Arlington Heights, Pennsylvania, about three miles (4.8 km) northeast of East Stroudsburg. It is neither incorporated nor a census-designated place, but has a name recognized by the USGS. From the 1880s to about 1950, it was a railroad yard of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (DL&W) on its mainline from Hoboken Terminal in New Jersey, which served New York City by ferry, to Scranton, Pennsylvania, continuing northwest into New York State with its western terminus in Buffalo, New York. It is just north of present Mill Creek Road.
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