Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad


The Delaware–Lackawanna Railroad is a shortline railroad operating in Northeastern Pennsylvania, especially the Scranton area.
DL began service in August 1993 and is the designated operator for of trackage in Lackawanna, Wayne, Northampton, and Monroe Counties. It is a subsidiary of holding company Genesee Valley Transportation Company, Inc.. It was founded by Jeffrey Baxter, Charles Riedmiller, John Herbrand, Michael Thomas and David Monte Verde who continue to make up its corporate ownership.

Overview

GVT began in 1985 in upstate New York marketing rail-related services to both private and public industry throughout the northeast.
Through a competitive bid process, the Lackawanna County Rail Authority selected GVT to operate its owned rail lines within Lackawanna and Monroe counties from Scranton northeast to the city of Carbondale on the former Delaware & Hudson Railway's Penn Division mainline, from Scranton southeast to Slateford Junction in Monroe County on the former Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad's Southern Division mainline, and from Scranton southwest to Montage Mountain, Moosic on lines of the former Lackawanna & Wyoming Valley Railroad electric interurban streetcar line.
These are the lines hosting the seasonal passenger trains of both the Steamtown National Historic Site, the Electric City Trolley Museum, and the Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society. The Pocono Mainline has hosted a number of excursions out of Steamtown, including excursions of the Nickel Plate 765.
In 2015 the authority extended DL's lease for five years.

Poconos expansion

The DL interchanges with Norfolk Southern Railway in Taylor, PA and via Slateford Junction near Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania and the Reading Blue Mountain & Northern Railroad via Duryea Yard outside Pittston, Pennsylvania, thus connecting to the Great Lakes via Sayre Yard and New Jersey and New York City via former Central Railroad of New Jersey assets.
Since the summer of 1998, the DL, under a haulage agreement with Canadian Pacific Railway, has operated unit Canadian grain trains between Taylor, PA and the Ardent Mills Grain Mill at Pocono Summit, Pennsylvania. Operated by DL crews, these trains average approximately 52 cars.
The DL is renowned as a bastion for both rebuilding and operating 50+ year-old ALCO diesels on a daily basis. It is the only railroad operating four ALCO RS-3s and the owner of the only ALCO C636 in existence.
A new unified color scheme of gray and white with red and yellow stripes was to be applied to GVT system units beginning in 2006 as they exit the South Scranton shops; the most recent being rebuilt ALCO C425 No. 2457 in the summer of 2016. No. 3000 appeared in September 2016

Recent activity