Lehigh Valley Railroad
| Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad | |
|---|---|
| Lehigh Valley
| |
| Reporting marks | LV |
| Locale | Delaware, New York, Pennsylvania |
| Years of operation | 1846 – 1976 |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) |
| Headquarters | |
- For the geographical area of the state of Pennsylvania, United States, see Lehigh Valley.
The Delaware, Lehigh, Schuylkill and Susquehanna Railroad Company (AAR reporting mark LV) was incorporated April 21 1846 in Pennsylvania. On January 7 1853, the name was changed to Lehigh Valley Railroad. It was sometimes known as the Route of the Black Diamond, named after the anthracite it transported.
The railroad was built for the primary purpose of hauling anthracite. At the time, anthracite was transported by boat down the Lehigh River. The railroad was meant to be a faster means of transportation.
By the 1890s, the Lehigh Valley Railroad stretched from New York Harbor to Tifft Terminal in Buffalo, New York, passing through the Lehigh River valley in Pennsylvania, and the Finger Lakes region of New York state.
Coal traffic, however, declined steadily after the 1940s and, by 1962, the Pennsylvania Railroad had acquired majority stock control of the railroad. On June 24, 1970, Lehigh Valley Railroad declared bankrupcty, just three days following the bankruptcy of the Pennsylvania Railroad's successor, Penn Central.
In 1976, the assets of the bankrupt Lehigh Valley Railroad were acquired by Conrail.
References
- Lamb, Tammy. (1998). Lehigh Valley Railroad. Retrieved July 26 2004.