This is the first of two volumes dedicated to the D&H’s Second Subdivision, formerly known as the Susquehanna Division and, before acquisition by the D&H Canal Company, as the Albany & Susquehanna Railroad. While the A&S only built between Albany and the Erie at Binghamton, D&H eventually built westward (railroad direction southward) from a connection to B&M’s predecessor at Mechanicville via Schenectady to the Susquehanna Division main at Delanson to create a route to the gateway to northern New England, Mechanicville, which hosted parallel D&H and B&M yards.
Another railroad taken over by the D&H, the Rensselaer & Saratoga, provided a route north from Albany, a river port with access to the Atlantic Ocean, through what became a heavily industrialized area to Mechanicville and northward to Canada. The segment between Kenwood Yard in Albany and Mechanicville became part of the Saratoga-Champlain Division (Third Subdivision) and is covered in the companion volume as is the Susquehanna Division main line east of Oneonta.
Volume I begins with an extensive review of the D&H in the 1960’s, right up to its acquisition by Guilford Transportation Industries on January 5, 1984, which examines operations, management, ownership, connecting and competing carriers and federal agencies as the once profitable anthracite carrier evolved into a profitable bridge line and then financially dissolved, a victim of forces beyond its control. These included de-industrialization of its territory; frequent turnover in the executive office; loss of its all-important bridge traffic due to the merger movement among the larger eastern carriers; power generation utilities converting from coal to oi and Chessie’s last minute withdrawal from its role as Conrail’s competition and the subsequent hasty and ill-fated expansion of D&H which was dependent on federal agencies wedded to Conrail’s success.
This was not a predictable quarter-century as presidents, such as Frederick Dumaine and Bruce Sterzing, bucked the industry’s national trend. Passenger service was revived with the acquisition of a fleet of iconic Alco PA’s and second-hand passenger equipment. The freight motive power fleet gained national notoriety as well with the purchase of a pair of Baldwin Sharks. Observance of the Nation’s Bicentennial and the D&H’s Sesquicentennial further brightened the mid-1970’s.
Add in a one-time all-Alco roster of RS3’s, RS11’s, RS36’s and C628’s augmented by GE U23B’s, U30C’s and U33C’s contending fore and aft on heavy freights grinding up to Belden Hill Tunnel or the summit of Richmondville Hill and the D&H was a worthy subject of interest. And then the colors of LV and RDG arrived in the form of C420’s, GP38-2’s and GP39-2’s. EL and N&W GE’s, Alco’s and EMD’s, from E8’s and GP9’s to C424’s to SD45 variants, added even more variety to the motive power scene.
The second section of volume I constitutes a tour of the main eastward (railroad direction northward) from Binghamton to Oneonta. Virtually every location, with or without photo coverage, is described with historical text emphasizing rail customers. Photographic coverage includes the Sayre Turn with the Sharks, Liberty Street and Bevier Street yards in Binghamton, Nowlan Road/Hillcrest, Port Dickinson, Sanitaria Springs, Dyes, both sides of Belden Hill Tunnel, Harpursville Trestle, Nineveh Jct., Afton, Bainbridge and Oneonta.
Contributing photographers include; Curt Carlough, Gene Collora, Jerry Dziedzic, Mike Galesi, Jim Gerosky, Bob Pennisi, Rich Pennisi, Rich Taylor and the author (Pete Brill).
168 pages, indexed, 131 color images, 17 black and white images, 7 maps/diagrams, 12 illustrations and 25 examples of railroad paper
