Contraction and Expansion
When the Susquehanna lost its western connection Lehigh & New England in 1961, the road suffered a forced retrenchment from Hainesburg, New Jersey to the connection with the Lehigh and Hudson River at Sparta Junction. The L&HR and the NYS&W never conducted a high-volume interchange, so the Susquehanna essentially became a switching road with virtually no through traffic. Nonetheless, the NYS&W’s fleet of S2’s and RS1’s were tired, and the road turned to EMD for three GP18’s to become its primary power. Two decades later, with the acquisition of former DL&W branches out of Binghamton, New York, NYS&W now faced the possibility of once again becoming a line-haul railroad with haulage trains between its two divisions, and later, stack trains. Readily available were five ex-Conrail C430’s for the Susquehanna’s needs, and they were quickly overhauled, repainted and placed in service. Here examples of the power acquired for the conrtraction and the expansion of the NYS&W stand together in Binghamton.
Contraction and Expansion
When the Susquehanna lost its western connection Lehigh & New England in 1961, the road suffered a forced retrenchment from Hainesburg, New Jersey to the connection with the Lehigh and Hudson River at Sparta Junction. The L&HR and the NYS&W never conducted a high-volume interchange, so the Susquehanna essentially became a switching road with virtually no through traffic. Nonetheless, the NYS&W’s fleet of S2’s and RS1’s were tired, and the road turned to EMD for three GP18’s to become its primary power. Two decades later, with the acquisition of former DL&W branches out of Binghamton, New York, NYS&W now faced the possibility of once again becoming a line-haul railroad with haulage trains between its two divisions, and later, stack trains. Readily available were five ex-Conrail C430’s for the Susquehanna’s needs, and they were quickly overhauled, repainted and placed in service. Here examples of the power acquired for the conrtraction and the expansion of the NYS&W stand together in Binghamton.