Colorful Tobyhanna
Just another frame of this colorful scene that has been done countless times but just always works. This is the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad station at Tobyhanna, 107.6 miles from Hoboken Terminal and the east end of the mainline which once stretched from the Hudson River to Buffalo.
Built in 1908 it saw its last regularly scheduled train (by then operated by Erie-Lackawanna) call around 1965 and then was abandoned not long after. Like the railroad, the depot is owned by the Pennsylvania Northeast Railroad Authority but is leased to and maintained by the Pocono Rail Historical Society and operated as a museum. It was restored beginning in 1995 and again hosts trains when occasional excursions arrive from Steamtown in Scranton.
Framed up in the background is Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad train PO74 rolling slowly in to town where they will switch for a while before continuing to over Pocono Summit and then down to Cresco.
The short train is led by DL 3602, a MLW M636 blt. Apr. 1970 as CN 2302 and still wearing weathered orange and black from its years in remote northern Quebec hauling iron ore on the isolated Cartier Railway. Trailing is DL3000, another Canadian expat MLW M630 blt. Dec. 1970 as PGE 706.
As for the railroad this was a busy heavy haul double track freight route under the Lackawanna and after 1960 the Erie Lackawanna until 1976 when the latter, by then bankrupt, was folded into Conrail. The big new government carrier had little use for either of EL's mainlines instead favoring former NYC and PRR properties. Around 1980 Conrail ran its last thru freight east over the Poconos from Scranton and like so many other northeastern lines its fate seemed sealed. The mainline sat moribund for nearly a decade (excepting some excursions in the mid 1980s by the original private Steamtown Foundation) while big blue continued to serve industries in Scranton until finally spinning off the trackage to a DL predecessor in 1991 and in 1992 the mainline saw its first freight trains as far as Tobyhanna after the line had been saved from removal by both Lackawanna and Monroe Counties. The following year the DL was formed and they have been the operator ever since with the underlying property owned by the Pennsylvania Northeast Railroad Authority since 2006 when the two counties merged their two independent rail agencies.
Unincorporated Tobyhanna
Coolbaugh Township, Pennsylvania
Friday October 24, 2025
Colorful Tobyhanna
Just another frame of this colorful scene that has been done countless times but just always works. This is the former Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad station at Tobyhanna, 107.6 miles from Hoboken Terminal and the east end of the mainline which once stretched from the Hudson River to Buffalo.
Built in 1908 it saw its last regularly scheduled train (by then operated by Erie-Lackawanna) call around 1965 and then was abandoned not long after. Like the railroad, the depot is owned by the Pennsylvania Northeast Railroad Authority but is leased to and maintained by the Pocono Rail Historical Society and operated as a museum. It was restored beginning in 1995 and again hosts trains when occasional excursions arrive from Steamtown in Scranton.
Framed up in the background is Delaware-Lackawanna Railroad train PO74 rolling slowly in to town where they will switch for a while before continuing to over Pocono Summit and then down to Cresco.
The short train is led by DL 3602, a MLW M636 blt. Apr. 1970 as CN 2302 and still wearing weathered orange and black from its years in remote northern Quebec hauling iron ore on the isolated Cartier Railway. Trailing is DL3000, another Canadian expat MLW M630 blt. Dec. 1970 as PGE 706.
As for the railroad this was a busy heavy haul double track freight route under the Lackawanna and after 1960 the Erie Lackawanna until 1976 when the latter, by then bankrupt, was folded into Conrail. The big new government carrier had little use for either of EL's mainlines instead favoring former NYC and PRR properties. Around 1980 Conrail ran its last thru freight east over the Poconos from Scranton and like so many other northeastern lines its fate seemed sealed. The mainline sat moribund for nearly a decade (excepting some excursions in the mid 1980s by the original private Steamtown Foundation) while big blue continued to serve industries in Scranton until finally spinning off the trackage to a DL predecessor in 1991 and in 1992 the mainline saw its first freight trains as far as Tobyhanna after the line had been saved from removal by both Lackawanna and Monroe Counties. The following year the DL was formed and they have been the operator ever since with the underlying property owned by the Pennsylvania Northeast Railroad Authority since 2006 when the two counties merged their two independent rail agencies.
Unincorporated Tobyhanna
Coolbaugh Township, Pennsylvania
Friday October 24, 2025