Hello all,

I remember reading about (and seeing some photos of) D&H operations into Philadelphia. However, being unfamiliar with the road, and uncertain where to look, I’m confused about a few things and have some questions.

Firstly, when did operations start into Philadelphia? Was it the steam era? Are there any photos? Was there an engine change or did D&H power make it into Greenwich Yard?

Secondly, did any D&H passenger trains use this trackage to access Philadelphia?

Thanks!

It all came about as a result of the formation of Conrail.

After the EL+N&W thing fell through the USRA needed to give Conrail some semblance of competition so they gave the D&H (the last man standing) access to Philly, Oak Island and Potomac Yard just outside of DC.

So the D&H presence in Philly started on April 1 1976.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

D&H used trackage rights from the Wilkes-Barre area over ConRail to get to Oak Island, South Philadelphia or Potomac Yard. Sometimes trains ran over the LV to Allentown, then Reading to "ZOO" in Philadelphia and PRR to South Phila. Sometimes they ran PRR via Sunbury and Enola or Harrisburg.

If USRA had not done this ConRail would have had a monopoly on freight traffic to New England.

CP inherited the service when it took over D&H but eventually gave it up. NS can now get a train from Buffalo to Binghamton then D&H to Troy and Pan Am Southern into New England.

It was strange seeing CP power in Delaware Avenue.

Phil Mulligan

On this subject, my friend Rudy is working on what is going to be a pretty exhaustive treatise on this era of the D&H: https://www.garbelypublishing.com/delawarehudson

I've been helping him a tiny bit and from what I have seen it's going to be THE book on the subject and highly worth adding to your bookshelf if you're remotely interested in the D&H.

Don't forget the 2010 NHRS Convention fantrip from Scranton to suburban Sunbury (limits of "KASE" interlocking) with D&H-painted power.

Phil Mulligan

In which alternate universe did this happen?

NEPA is sometimes described as an alternate universe.

Spread rail in the wye under the trail unit. Steamtown's NKP GP-9 pulled the train back into Steamtown.

They had the GP38-2's rerailed and at Steamtown ready to go by 10.00, but people had gone places expecting a 12.00 departure.

They coupled to the opposite end and pushed toward Binghamton on the wye. Then they pulled to Sunbury and ran the trip with all the planned photo stops. A good time was had by all.

Shows what you can get when good people know what they're doing. Three different managements each did their jobs. Maybe that IS an alternate universe.

Phil Mulligan

They had an intermodal service to their own terminal, named Ameriport, which was three tracks and a straddle crane along Delaware Ave, south of Oregon Ave. I have some slides of Alco C424's going through Greenwich and at Ameriport. Any fueling was done by contract with local fuel companies.

Under CP, they also built a bulk transfer facility on Navy Yard property. I *think* Ameriport may have been defunct by then, and any intermodal was handled by CR or CSX.

That was one of the wildest operations to see.

I highly recommend giving this a watch to see it in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udFBeMRcMvM