Re: (erielack) Erie - Jefferson Division - D&H

[Gordon Davids <g.davids_@_verizon.net>]

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Date: Mon, 31 Oct 2005 22:25:37 -0500
From: "Schuyler Larrabee" <schuyler.larrabee_@_verizon.net>
Subject: (erielack) Erie - Jefferson Division - D&H

Gordon, a very interesting post.  The only question I have (now) is where do you have the
information that the Jeff was built with D&H financial support?  And when was the D&H line from
Nineveh to Jeff Junction put in?

SGL 

Schuyler  -

It comes from "A Century of Progress - The History of the Delaware and Hudson Company," page 203.

>>  On September 2, 1868, the Managers (of the D&H Canal Co.) entered into a contract with the Erie Railway Company of far-reaching importance.  By this agreement the Erie engaged to construct a railroad from Carbondale northward to its main line at Susquehanna, by which easy transportation would be furnished over the Erie tracks to Binghamton, a short distance to the northwest.  Under the terms of the agreement favorable provision was made for carrying the company's anthracite to Rochester and Buffalo, upon the completion of the proposed road, and for rail carriage of its coal, during the winter months, from Honesdale to Weehawken.  To finance the proposed construction, it was agreed that the company should buy from the Erie $1,500,000 of bonds of the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad Company at ninety per cent of par.  As these bonds had a somewhat doubtful value, the Erie agreed to guarantee them in consideration of their purchase and that the proceeds of the bonds should be made available from time to time as fast only as an equivalent amount was expended in actual building.<<

The Jefferson Railroad was opened on October 28, 1870 and D&H coal moved via Binghamton to the A&S at that time.  The Nineveh Branch, built by the D&H Canal Co. as the Lackawanna and Susquehanna Railroad, was opened for service between Nineveh and Jefferson Jct. on June 17, 1872.

The Jefferson Branch was double-tracked in 1888.  It was originally six-foot gauge, and the book does not tell whether a third rail was added to handle D&H traffic.  The A&S was also six-foot gauge between Albany and Binghamton, but it had a third rail added between Albany and Nineveh, completed on December 14, 1871, before the Nineveh Branch was opened.  It would seem that the third rail was first intended to permit standard gauge cars to run north from Nineveh, because the date of completion of the third rail to Nineveh is noted in the book.  The would follow that the Nineveh Branch was built to standard gauge. 

I never saw a notation on the valuation maps for the Nineveh Branch that the track centerline had been moved as would occur with a change in gauge.  I have a fairly detailed sheet from the Erie Lackawanna New York Division showing the relationship of the centerline of the property to the centerline of the track, based on whether one track had been removed from a formerly double-track railroad, and which rail had been moved when it was standard gauged.  But, I never saw a notation like that on the A&S valuation sheets, either.  They were drawn in the several years around 1920, long after the gauge was changed and the second track added.

By the way, I don't have a reference on it, but I believe that the first purpose of the Jefferson Railroad was to build on a different alignment from Lackawaxen west into Pennsylvania, then north to connect back up with the Erie around Susquehanna and form a straighter line with grades easier than Gulf Summit.  That never happened, and the charter was used later for the Jeff we are discussing.  The Erie was bound tightly to New York State by terms of its charter, so they needed a subsidiary road to build through Pennsylania and bypass that part of New York State.

Gordon Davids




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